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This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.
Funding from the Watson-Brown Foundation, Inc., supported the encoding of this finding aid and microfilming of this collection.
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Collection Overview
| Size | 4.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 2,400 items) |
| Abstract | Samuel Henry Lockett (1837-1891) was an engineering officer in the United States, Confederate, and Egyptian armies, and a professor at Louisiana State University and University of Tennessee at Knoxville. He married Cornelia C. Clark in 1859 and with her had six children. The collection documents Samuel Henry Lockett's family life and his careers as a military officer, engineer, and teacher. Correspondence, chiefly with Cornelia Clark Lockett, documents their marriage, household matters, and family life, as well as the nature of the work that kept Lockett away from his family. There is some correspondence with their children, other Lockett and Clark family members, and with military and professional associates. Other materials, including writings, reports, notebooks, photographs, and maps, relate chiefly to Lockett's professional careers: he served as a colonel in the Confederate Army and chief engineer for the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana, preparing Confederate defenses at Vicksburg, Miss., Mobile, Ala., Pensacola, Fla., and other points along the Mississippi River and Gulf Coast; he served as colonel of engineers in the Egyptian Army (1875-1877) in Egypt and Abyssinia; he taught at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge (1867-1873), University of Tennessee at Knoxville, and at private schools in Alabama (1877-1873); and he was involved in construction work on the Statue of Liberty, New York City (1883-1884), waterworks projects in Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, and Kansas (1883-1889), and railroad engineering projects in Chile and Colombia (1883-1891). Also included are materials relating to the odograph, a survey instrument invented by Lockett; extensive notes for a topographical survey of Louisiana; several volumes documenting family travel and life abroad, including Cornelia Clark Lockett's journal in Egypt and a partial newspaper copy of an article based on the journal she kept while she was in Colombia in 1890; lectures and writings on scientific and mathematical subjects as well as education and the arts, Egypt, Panama, Peru, Chile, and Colombia; a retrospective account of the defense of Vicksburg; a book of poetry; and a recipe book. Some items are in Spanish. |
| Creator | Lockett, Samuel Henry, 1837-1891. |
| Language | English |
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Information For Users
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Subject Headings
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.
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Biographical Information
Samuel Henry Lockett was born 6 July 1837 in Mecklenburg County, Va., to Napoleon Bonaparte Lockett (1813-1867) and Mary Clay Lockett (1814-1885). Soon after his birth his family moved to Marion, Ala. He graduated from Howard College in Alabama and in 1854 was appointed to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated in 1859 as a second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers. He then served briefly as an assistant professor at the Academy. On 21 December 1859 he and Cornelia C. Clark (1841-1912), daughter of William H. Clark and Jane Emslie Clark of West Point, N.Y., were married in the Academy Chapel.
In 1860 Lockett became assistant to Colonel W. H. C. Whiting and returned south to do engineering work in the Eighth Lighthouse District. He was in charge of constructing a fort near Pensacola, Fla., when the South seceded. He then joined the Confederate Army and eventually became colonel and chief engineer for the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana.
After the war, Lockett taught mathematics, engineering, and related subjects first at Judson Institute in Marion, Ala., and then at Louisiana State Seminary (later Louisiana State University). He went to Louisiana State in 1867, when the campus was still located at Alexandria. In 1869, when the Alexandria campus burned and the University moved to Baton Rouge, he moved also, remaining on the faculty until 1873. During the summers of 1869, 1870, and 1872 he traveled throughout Louisiana gathering data for a topographical survey of the state. Later he was in charge of two private schools, Calhoun College in Jacksonville, Ala. (1873-1874) and Hamner Hall in Montgomery, Ala. (1874-1875). He left Montgomery in mid 1875 to accept a post as colonel of engineers in the Egyptian Army. He served in Egypt and Abyssinia until mid 1877, when he returned to the United States to teach at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.
Lockett left the University of Tennessee in 1883 to work with various engineering contractors constructing waterworks in various cities, including Belleville, Ill.; Shelbyville, Ill.; Circleville, Ohio; Paducah, Ky.; and Lawrence, Kan. By 1885 he was chief engineer for the firm of Comegys and Lewis, Contractors, New York City, N.Y. From 1888 until his death he was involved with other firms and businessmen in work on engineering projects in Chile and Colombia. In 1888 he and two associates went to Santiago, Chile, to negotiate details of a contract for building a railroad. The following year he went to Cartagena, Colombia, to advance another railroad project and also to assist in improvements on the Dique Canal. In 1890 he returned to Colombia to examine coal deposits near Rio Hacha. In 1891 he went to Bogota, Colombia, to construct waterworks. He died there on 12 October 1891.
Lockett had six children: Cornelia Lockett, who died young; Jean (1862-1951), who married Eugene F. Fuller; Edith (fl. 1865-1940), who married Joseph E. Lopez; Henry Watkins (fl. 1868-1950), who married May Keeler; Samuel Hobart (1870-1915), who married Addie McMichael; and Ettie Boyd (1873-1920), who married George Morgan.
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Scope and Content
The collection documents Samuel Henry Lockett's family life and his careers as a military officer, engineer, and teacher. Correspondence, chiefly with his wife, Cornelia Clark Lockett, documents their marriage, household matters, and family life, as well as the nature of the work that kept Lockett away from his family. There is some correspondence with their children, other Lockett and Clark family members, and with military and professional associates. Other materials, including writings, reports, notebooks, photographs, and maps, relate chiefly to Lockett's professional careers: he served in the Confederate Army as a colonel and chief engineer for the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana, where he prepared Confederate defenses at Vicksburg, Miss., Mobile, Ala., Pensacola, Fla., and other points along the Mississippi River and Gulf Coast; he was colonel of engineers in the Egyptian Army in Egypt and Abyssinia (1875-1877); he taught at Louisiana State University (1867-1873) in Alexandria and Baton Rouge, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville (1877-1883), and at private schools in Alabama (1877-1878); and he worked as an engineer on the construction of the Statue of Liberty, New York City, N.Y. (1883-1884), on waterworks projects in Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, and Kansas (1883-1889), and on railroad projects in Chile and Colombia (1883-1891). Also included are materials relating to the odograph, a survey instrument invented by Lockett; extensive notes for a topographical survey of Louisiana; several volumes documenting family travel and life abroad, including Cornelia Clark Lockett's journal in Egypt and a partial newspaper copy of an article based on the journal she kept while she was in Colombia in 1890; lectures and writings on scientific and mathematical subjects as well as education and the arts, Egypt, Panama, Peru, Chile, and Colombia; and a retrospective account of the defense of Vicksburg. Other materials include miscellaneous legal and business papers, newspaper clippings, a book of poetry, and a recipe book. Some items are in Spanish.
This collection originally was arranged and described in two series, A and B. Series A contained the original deposit and additions of 1971 and March 1975. Series B was created to accommodate a large addition made in June 1975. Subsequent additions were made to both series: additions of March and December 1976, and April 1977, were integrated into Series A; an addition of February 1976 was integrated, and additions of October 1980, April 1983, March 1984, and October 1998 were maintained separately, all in Series B. Though this arrangement results in considerable overlap of subject and date in the two series, the arrangement has been maintained in order to preserve the usefulness of extensive and in some cases item level description provided in earlier finding aids (now filed in folder 1). Series titles, however, have changed and subseries have been created to reflect the provenance of the collection. Series A is now Series 1. Original Deposit and Additions of 1971, March 1975, March and December 1976, and April 1977. Series B is now Series 2. Separately Maintained Additions after 1974, with the additions of June 1975-February 1976, October 1980, April 1983, March 1984, and October 1998 constituting the five subseries.
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Series Quick Links
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Series 1. Original Deposit and Additions of 1971, March 1975, March and December 1976, and
April 1977, 1820-1972.
Arrangement: chronological.
This series, formerly "Series A," includes the original deposit and the additions of 1971, March 1975, March and December 1976, and April 1977, all of which have been integrated. The original finding aid with extensive and in some cases item level description is filed in folder 1.
This series documents Samuel Henry Lockett's family life and his careers as a military officer, engineer, and teacher. Correspondence, chiefly with his wife, Cornelia Clark Lockett, documents their marriage, household matters, and family life, as well as the nature of the work that kept Lockett away from his family. There is some correspondence with their children, other Lockett and Clark family members, and with military and professional associates. Other materials, including writings, reports, notebooks, photographs, and maps, relate chiefly to Lockett's professional careers: he served in the Confederate Army as a colonel and chief engineer for the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana, where he prepared Confederate defenses at Vicksburg, Miss., Mobile, Ala., Pensacola, Fla., and other points along the Mississippi River and Gulf Coast; he was colonel of engineers in the Egyptian Army in Egypt and Abyssinia; he taught at Louisiana State University at Alexandria and Baton Rouge (1867-1873), the University of Tennessee at Knoxville (1877-1883), and at private schools in Alabama (1877-1878); and he worked as an engineer on construction of the Statue of Liberty, New York City, N.Y. (1883-1884), on waterworks projects in Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, and Kansas (1883-1889), and on railroad projects in Chile and Colombia (1883-1891). Also included are materials relating to the odograph, a survey instrument invented by Lockett; extensive notes for a topographical survey of Louisiana; several volumes documenting family travel and life abroad, including Cornelia Clark Lockett's journal in Egypt and a partial newspaper copy of an article based on the journal she kept while she was in Colombia in 1890; and lectures and writings on scientific and mathematical subjects as well as education and the arts, Egypt, Panama, Peru, Chile, and Colombia; a retrospective account of the defense of Vicksburg; miscellaneous legal and business papers; newspaper clippings; a book of poetry; and a recipe book.
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Series 2. Separately maintained additions after 1974, 1862-1950.
Arrangement: chronological.
This series, formerly "Series B," includes separately maintained additions of June 1975-February 1976, October 1980, April 1983, March 1984, and October 1998. The original finding aid with extensive and in some cases item level description is filed in folder 1.
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Subseries 2.1. Additions of June 1975 and February 1976, 1875-1950.
Arrangement: chronological.
Correspondence, journals, reports, maps, and other materials related to Samuel Henry Lockett's family life and his work as an engineer in the Egyptian Army in Egypt and Abyssinia and as a contract engineer in Colombia and Chile. Family life is documented in correspondence between Samuel Henry Lockett and Cornelia Clark Lockett, their children, and extended families, and in several volumes describing family travel and life in Egypt. Other materials relating to Lockett's years in Egypt include some correspondence with former officers of the Egyptian Army, a volume of observations on Egyptian society, and printed material. Lockett's other writings include speeches and articles published in The Nation and the Evening Post. There is considerable material relating to engineering ventures, including construction of waterworks, railroads, and an electric and steam plant in Colombia. Also included is a description of the odograph, a survey instrument invented by Samuel Henry Lockett. Some items are in Spanish.
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Subseries 2.2. Addition of October 1980 (Acc. 80144), 1862-1929.
Arrangement: chronological.
Chiefly family correspondence of the extended Lockett family. Included are many letters of Samuel Henry Lockett; his wife, Cornelia Clark Lockett; and their children. Other family letters are of Edith Lockett Lopez; her husband, Joseph Lopez; her father-in-law, Jose C. Lopez. There are a few letters to Joseph Lopez from David Hunt Ludlow, apparently a professor of engineering at the University of Virginia. There are letters from friends, Charles P. Stone and Jeannie Stone, to the Locketts. The remainder are business or professional letters of Samuel Henry Lockett, 1866-1885. A few of these latter items relate to Lockett's tenure at Louisiana State University, and his connection with a school at Jacksonville, Ala., 1866-1873; the bulk relate to affairs in Egypt, 1874-1880, and were written by friends or officials in Egypt. Also included are a map of Musawwah Harbour, a travel journal (Egypt, 1876), pictures, clippings, pamphlets and other printed material related to the Lockett family.
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Subseries 2.3. Addition of April 1983 (Acc. 83072), 1876-1892, 1927.
Arrangement: chronological
Chiefly letters from Samuel H. Lockett and his wife, Cornelia Clark Lockett, to their daughter, Jean Lockett Fuller (m. Robert F. Fuller). Letters concern Jean's education; household matters in Knoxville, Tenn., and Cartagena, Colombia; Lockett's death in October 1891; and arrangements for Cornelia to return to the United States. Also included is a copy of A National Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina (1927), by J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton.
| Folder 120 |
1876-1892, 1927 #00432, Subseries: "2.3. Addition of April 1983 (Acc. 83072), 1876-1892, 1927." Folder 120 |
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Subseries 2.4. Additions of 1984 (Acc. 84030, 84039), 1870s-1880s.
Photographs include portraits and scenes from Egypt, where Samuel Henry Lockett served as colonel of engineers in the Egyptian army from 1875 to 1877, and in Colombia and Belize, where he worked as an engineering contractor during the 1880s.
| Image Folder PF-432/10 |
Portraits and scenes, 1880s #00432, Subseries: "2.4. Additions of 1984 (Acc. 84030, 84039), 1870s-1880s." PF-432/10Chiefly albumen prints from Colombia and Belize (British Honduras). |
| Image Folder PF-432/11 |
Portraits, 1870s-1880s #00432, Subseries: "2.4. Additions of 1984 (Acc. 84030, 84039), 1870s-1880s." PF-432/11Chiefly albumen prints from Egypt; included are portraits of Samuel Henry Lockett, officers in the Egyptian army, and others. |
Image Folder PF-432/12-13
PF-432/12PF-432/13 |
Scenes of Egypt, 1870s #00432, Subseries: "2.4. Additions of 1984 (Acc. 84030, 84039), 1870s-1880s." PF-432/12-13Albumen prints. |
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Subseries 2.5. Addition of 1998 (Acc. 98206), 1900.
Partial newspaper copy of an article published in the Newark Evening News, 28 July 1900, based on the journal kept by Cornelia Clark Lockett of East Orange, N.J., while she was in Colombia in 1890. Also included is a typescript of the article.
| Folder 144 |
Newspaper clipping and typescript #00432, Subseries: "2.5. Addition of 1998 (Acc. 98206), 1900." Folder 144 |
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Items Separated
Processed by: Susan Ballinger, Roslyn Holdzkom, Linda Sellars, and other SHC staff, 1976-1999
This collection was rehoused under the sponsorship of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Office of Preservation, Washington, D.C., 1990-1993.
Encoded by: Nancy Kaiser, February 2005
Funding from the Watson-Brown Foundation, Inc., supported the encoding of this finding aid and microfilming of this collection.
Diacritics and other special characters have been omitted from this finding aid to facilitate keyword searching in web browsers.
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