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.
This collection was rehoused and a summary created with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities; this finding aid was created with support from NC ECHO.
Size | 0.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 151 items) |
Abstract | James Ryder Randall was a poet and newspaper editor of Baltimore, Md., and Augusta, Ga. The collection includes letters, 1863-1864, from Randall to Katherine Hammond of South Carolina, whom he later married, while he was engaged in the shipping business and briefly associated with the Confederate Navy at Wilmington, N.C. There are also letters and poems to Mary Girvin (later Peters) of Baltimore, Md., in the 1850s, copies of Randall's love poems to her, and a diary, 1855, kept by Randall while a student at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., and on holidays in Baltimore. Later items are primarily news clippings concerning Randall's death and the publication of his poems. |
Creator | Randall, James Ryder, 1839-1908. |
Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
Language | English |
Processed by: SHC Staff
Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007
Updated by: Kate Stratton and Jodi Berkowitz, January 2009
This collection was rehoused and a summary created with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
This finding aid was created with support from NC ECHO.
Diacritics and other special characters have been omitted from this finding aid to facilitate keyword searching in web browsers.
Back to TopThe 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.
James Ryder Randall (1839-1908) was a poet and newspaper editor of Baltimore, Md., and Augusta, Ga. He is known for writing the poem "Maryland, My Maryland," 1861, which became a war hymn of the Confederacy and later the state song of Maryland. Randall entered Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., when he was about ten years old and left school in his graduating year for health reasons to take a voyage to Rio de Janeiro. After his voyage he returned to Baltimore, then moved to Florida, then to Louisiana, where he taught English literature and Classics at Poydras College, Pointe Coupee. He served for a time in the Confederate Army but left the service for health reasons. He subsequently worked as a writer for the Augusta Chronicle for twenty years, as secretary for Congressmen Fleming and O'Brien of Georgia, and as an editorial writer in Baltimore. He married Katherine S. Hammond of South Carolina in 1865.
Back to TopThe collection includes letters, 1863-1864, from James Ryder Randall to Katherine Hammond of South Carolina, whom he later married, while he was engaged in the shipping business and briefly associated with the Confederate Navy at Wilmington, N.C. There are also letters and poems to Mary Girvin (later Peters) of Baltimore, Md., in the 1850s and early 1860s, copies of Randall's love poems to her, and a diary, 1855, kept by Randall while a student at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., and on holidays in Baltimore. Later items are primarily news clippings concerning Randall's death and the publication of his poems. There is also one letter, 1905, from Randall to a Mr. Cleveland with some comments on his poetry.
Back to TopLetters from James Ryder Randall while he was engaged in the shipping business and briefly associated with the Confederate Navy at Wilmington, N.C., to his fiancee, Katherine S. Hammond of South Carolina.
Folder 1a |
Original finding aid |
Folder 1 |
1863 |
Folder 2-4
Folder 2Folder 3Folder 4 |
1864 |
The addition includes letters and poems from James Ryder Randall to Mary E. Girvin, circa 1855-1863; a diary, 1855, kept by Randall while a student at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., and on holidays in Baltimore, Md.; and clippings of concerning Randall's death and the publication of his poems.
Folder 5 |
1855-1863, 1908-1912 |
The addition includes a letter from James Ryder Randall to a Mr. Cleveland with some comments on his poetry.
Folder 6 |
1905 |