]
]
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.
Expand/collapse
Collection Overview
| Size | 1.0 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 500 items) |
| Abstract | George Erwin Gullett Stephens, a native of Summerfield, Guilford County, N.C., and resident of Charlotte and Asheville, N.C., was a journalist and real estate broker. He married Sophie Convere Myers Stephens. Their children were Sophie Myers Stephens (Martin) and George Myers Stephens. The collection consists of personal and professional papers of George Erwin Gullett Stephens. Included are letters, 1906, to Stephens about the work of Isaac Erwin Avery, a fellow journalist; a photograph of and correspondence with Kemp P. Battle and author Zane Grey; and letters and other papers, 1915-1946, concerning the construction of the Blue Ridge Parkway, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and general political and economic developments in western North Carolina. The addition of 2005 is chiefly correspondence of Sophie Myers Stephens that documents family life, health concerns, and social activities of the Stephens and Martin families, especially while she was at school, traveling in Europe, and during her marriage to Edward Watts Martin. Sophie Myers Stephens's correspondents include her parents; her brother and his wife Eleanor Stephens; and her husband and his mother Lena Penington Martin. There is some miscellaneous correspondence. Also included are a few photographs and other materials relating to the Myers family of Charlotte, N.C., and to the crowning of Sophie Myers Stephens as queen of the 1935 Rhododendron Festival of Asheville, N.C. |
| Creator | Stephens, George Erwin Gullett, 1873-1946. |
| Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
| Language | English |
Expand/collapse
Information For Users
Expand/collapse
Processing Information
Processed by: F. Gamel and Tim Pyatt, November 1979 and November 1995
Encoded by: Nancy Kaiser, April 2006
Updated by: Nancy Kaiser, January 2021
Back to Top
Expand/collapse
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.
Expand/collapse
Biographical Information
George Erwin Gullett Stephens was born 8 April 1873 in Summerfield, N.C., to Addison H. and Lydia Lambeth Stephens. He attended the University of North Carolina and was graduated in 1896. He was a noted athlete and is credited with throwing the first forward pass in collegiate football history (UNC vs. Georgia, 26 October 1895). Stephens married Sophie Convere Myers on 9 December 1902. The couple had two children, George Myers Stephens and Sophie Myers Stephens (Martin).
Stephens served as president and joint publisher of the Charlotte Observer; organizer and president of the American Trust Company, 1901-1918; and joint owner and publisher of the Asheville Citizen. He also served as trustee for the University of North Carolina, 1900-1946. Stephens was involved in the development of the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Smoky Mountains National Park, and western North Carolina in general.
Sophie Myers Stephens attended Ashley Hall in Charleston, Va., and Sweet Briar College in Sweet Briar, Va. She was elected queen of the 1935 Rhododendron Festival in Asheville, N.C. The following year she married Edward Watts Martin. In 1957, she earned a masters degree from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
Back to Top
Expand/collapse
Scope and Content
The collection consists of personal and professional papers of journalist and real estate broker George Erwin Gullett Stephens, a native of Summerfield, Guilford County, N.C., and resident of Charlotte, N.C., and Asheville, N.C. Included are letters, 1906, to Stephens about the work of Isaac Erwin Avery, a fellow journalist; a photograph of and correspondence with Kemp P. Battle and author Zane Grey; and letters and other papers, 1915-1946, concerning the construction of the Blue Ridge Parkway, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and general political and economic developments in western North Carolina.
The addition of 2005 is chiefly correspondence of Sophie Myers Stephens, the daughter of George Erwin Gullett Stephens and Sophie Convere Myers Stephens, documenting family life, health concerns, and social activities of the Stephens and Martin families, especially while she was at school, traveling in Europe, and during her marriage to Edward Watts Martin. Sophie Myers Stephens's correspondents include her parents; her brother George Myers Stephens and his wife Eleanor Stephens; and her husband and his mother Lena Penington Martin. There is some miscellaneous correspondence. Also included are a few photographs and other materials relating relating to the Myers family of Charlotte, N.C., and to the crowning of Sophie Myers Stephens as queen of the 1935 Rhododendron Festival of Asheville, N.C.
Back to Top
Expand/collapse
Series Quick Links
Expand/collapse
Series 1. Papers, 1906-1968.
The collection consists of personal and professional papers of journalist and real estate broker George Erwin Gullett Stephens, a native of Summerfield, Guilford County, N.C., and resident of Charlotte and Asheville, N.C. Included are letters, 1906, to Stephens about the work of Isaac Erwin Avery, a fellow journalist; a photograph of and correspondence with author Zane Grey; and letters and other papers, 1915-1946, concerning the construction of the Blue Ridge Parkway, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and general political and economic developments in western North Carolina.
| Folder 1 |
Correspondence, 1906Letters received in appreciation of Isaac Erwin Avery's "Idle Comments," a compilation of Avery's Charlotte Observer newspaper columns. |
| Folder 2 |
Correspondence, 1915-1946Includes letters from Kemp P. Battle, thanking Stephens for helping him publish the History of the University of North Carolina; correspondence with Zane Grey, a childhood friend; and an 1884 letter from William Sydney Porter (O. Henry). |
| Folder 3 |
Blue Ridge Parkway and Smokey Mountain National Park materials, 1926, 1934-1935, 1968Includes a 1968 account by George Myers Stephens about his father's involvement in the development of the Blue Ridge Parkway. |
| Folder 4 |
Blue Ridge Parkway Correspondence, 1931-1934 |
| Folder 5 |
Blue Ridge Parkway Correspondence, 1935-1938 |
| Folder 6 |
Blue Ridge Parkway, Smoky Mountains National Park Commission Correspondence, 1940-1942 |
Expand/collapse
Addition of 2005, 1899-1988.
Chiefly correspondence of Sophie Myers Stephens documenting family life, health concerns, and social activities of the Stephens and Martin families, especially while she was at school at Ashley Hall in Charleston, S.C., and Sweet Briar College in Sweet Briar, Va., and later at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, N.C.; traveling with her mother in Europe; and during her marriage to Edward Watts Martin. Sophie Myers Stephens's correspondents include her parents, George Erwin Gullett Stephens and Sophie Convere Myers Stephens; her brother, George Myers Stephens, and his wife Eleanor Stephens; and her husband and his mother, Lena Penington Martin. There is some miscellaneous correspondence. Also included are a few photographs and other materials relating to the crowning of Sophie Myers Stephens as queen of the 1935 Rhododendron Festival of Asheville, N.C.
Expand/collapse
Items Separated