Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Maude Davis Bunn Papers #5121, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Alternate Form of Material

PDF version of scrapbook (SV-5121/1) available.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Julian W. Bunn Jr. of Raleigh, N.C., in March 2003 (Acc. 99453), May 2003 (Acc. 99495), and November 2008 (Acc. 101072).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Jaime L. Margalotti, October 2003

Encoded by: Jaime L. Margalotti, October 2003

Revised March 2007 for addition of scrapbook pdf.

Updated because of addition in December 2018.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Automobile travel--United States--History--20th century.
• Bunn family.
• Bunn, J. Wilbur (Julian Wilbur), 1883-1969.
• Bunn, Maude Davis, 1888-1977.
• Davis family.
• Diaries.
• Family--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Marion family.
• Meredith College (Raleigh, N.C.)--Alumni and alumnae.
• North Carolina Federation of Women's Clubs.
• North Carolina--Politics and government.
• Olla Podrida Book Club (Raleigh, N.C.)
• Raleigh (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
• Scrapbooks.
• Stuart family.
• Women civic leaders--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• Women journalists--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• Women travelers--Diaries--History--20th century.
• Women travelers--History--20th century.
• Women travelers--United States--History--20th century.
• Women--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Women--North Carolina--Societies and clubs--History--20th century.
• Wray family.
• Yadkin County (N.C.)--Social life and customs.

Annie Maude Davis was born on 9 June 1888 into the Davis and Marion families of Yadkin County, N.C. She left farm life to attend Raleigh's Meredith College, where she majored in English. She then met J. Wilbur Bunn, a graduate of Wake Forest Law School, who was starting a law practice in the area. They married on 17 September 1913 and eventually had five children: Julian Wilbur Bunn Jr., Thomas Davis (Buck) Bunn, Donald Floyd Bunn, Nancy Elizabeth Bunn Wray, and Dorothy Marion Bunn Stuart.

Maude Davis Bunn won the North Carolina State Mother of the Year Award in 1964. She was active in organizing family reunions and in researching and recording family history and genealogy.

She was also active in community and civic organizations. At Meredith College, she was a member of the Alumnae Association and the Board of Trustees. She also was president of the North Carolina Federation of Women's Clubs, the Raleigh Woman's Club, the Raleigh Garden Club, and the local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. She was a member of the Olla Podrida Book Club, the American Mothers Committee, the Hayes Barton Baptist Church, and the United Church Women. She was also interested in politics, giving radio addresses to support local candidates and alerting them to issues that concerned her.

Bunn traveled extensively to destinations within the United States and abroad. In the summer of 1939, she and her children traveled by automobile from North Carolina to California and back. In the 1960s, she wrote a column for the Raleigh Times called "Maude Bunn's Scrapbook" about her travels and other activities.

J. Wilbur Bunn died on 11 January 1969. Maude Davis Bunn was hit by a car on Whitaker Mill Road near Hayes Barton Baptist Church in Raleigh and died on 14 December 1977.

The collection includes items produced and collected by Maude Davis Bunn of Raleigh, N.C. Included are materials relating to her family, community, and political involvements. In addition to letters, there are invitations to and programs from community and family events; writings and speeches; calendars; Bunn, Marion, Davis, Stuart, and Wray  family history materials; financial materials; and "Thoughts, Letters, and Collectibles," a collection of letters, poems, quotes, prayers, and articles from which she drew her "Maude Bunn's Scrapbook" columns for the Raleigh Times. Also included are items relating to Meredith College, the North Carolina Federation of Women's Clubs, the Olla Podrida Book Club, and other organizations with which she was involved; printed items, travel diaries, and other items from the many domestic and foreign trips she took; and photographs of family and friends, both in albums and individual prints. Among the travel materials is an extensive annotated scrapbook from the 1939 automobile trip she made with her children from North Carolina to California and back.

• Scrapbook (SV-5121/1
• Oversized papers (OP-5121, XOPF-5121/1)
• Photographs (P-5121)
• Photograph albums (PA-5121/1-2)