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Collection Number: 02053

Collection Title: University of North Carolina Department of Botany Historical Collections, 1810-1930s.

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.

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Size 3.0 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 2,400 items)
Abstract William Chambers Coker was hired as the first Professor of Botany at the University of North Carolina in 1902. Thereafter Botany became a separate department and remained so until 1982, when it merged with the Department of Zoology to form the Department of Biology. The collection includes papers of, by, and about botanists, assembled circa 1902-1953 by Professor William Chambers Coker (1872-1953) and others of the Botany Department of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Materials include correspondence and writings of Henry Williams Ravenel; letters from Asa Gray, Stephen T. Olney, Moses A. Curtis, and others; copies of botanical correspondence from various sources; biographical and bibliographical materials and some correspondence concerning 135 botanists, mainly 19th century Americans; and scrapbooks and portfolios containing Hannah Whitson's writings and pictures for popular presentation of botanical subjects in the 1930s.
Creator University of North Carolina (1793-1962). Dept. of Botany.
Curatorial Unit University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.
Language English
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Restrictions to Access
No restrictions. Open for research.
Restrictions to Use
No usage restrictions.
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 University of North Carolina Department of Botany Historical Collections, #2053, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Acquisitions Information
Transferred from the University of North Carolina Botany Department, October 1959, March 1966. Additional material transferred from the H. R. Totten Papers, #3843, December 1975.
Additional Descriptive Resources
A copy of the original finding aid for this collection is filed in folder 1a.
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.
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Processed by: SHC Staff

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

Updated by: Kate Stratton and Jodi Berkowitz, January 2010

Finding aid updated by Kathryn Michaelis, March 2011

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.

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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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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Historical Information

William Chambers Coker was hired as the first Professor of Botany at the University of North Carolina in 1902. Thereafter Botany became a separate department and remained so until 1982, when it merged with the Department of Zoology to form the Department of Biology.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Scope and Content

The collection includes papers of, by, and about botanists, assembled circa 1902-1953 by Professor William Chambers Coker and others of the Botany Department of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Materials include correspondence and writings of Henry Williams Ravenel; letters from Asa Gray, Stephen T. Olney, Moses A. Curtis, and others; copies of botanical correspondence from various sources; biographical and bibliographical materials and some correspondence concerning 135 botanists, mainly 19th century Americans; and scrapbooks and portfolios containing Hannah Whitson's writings and pictures for popular presentation of botanical subjects in the 1930s.

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Contents list

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 1. Chronological Series, 1810-1930s and undated.

A large portion of the chronological series is the correspondence of Henry William Ravenel of Aiken, S.C., and of Moses Ashley Curtis of Society Hill, S.C. There are also some writings and scientific addresses of Ravenel, clippings, notes, and other items.

Folder 1a

Original finding aid

Folder 1

1810-1844

Folder 2

1845-1848

Folder 3-4

Folder 3

Folder 4

1849

Folder 5

1850

Folder 6

1851

Folder 7

1852

Folder 8

1853

Folder 9

1854-1855

Folder 10

1856-1857

Folder 11

1858-1859

Folder 12

1860-1861

Folder 13

1866-1867

Folder 14

1868

Folder 15

1869

Folder 16

1870

Folder 17

1871

Folder 18-19

Folder 18

Folder 19

1872

Folder 20

1873-1874

Folder 21

1875-1879

Folder 22

1880

Folder 23

1881-1885

Folder 24

1886-1900

Folder 25

1909-1946

Folder 26

Undated

Folder 27

"The Eatable Mushrooms of North America," by M. A. Curtis, undated typescript

Folder 28

Biographical sketch of M. J. Berkeley

Folder 29

Biographical sketch of H. W. Ravenel

Folder 30a

Writings of H. W. Ravenel, 1846-1887 and undated

Folder 30b

Writings of H. W. Ravenel, 1846-1855

Folder 30c

Writings of H. W. Ravenel: Address at Aiken, 21 July 1859

Folder 30d

Writings of H. W. Ravenel, 1867-1875

Folder 30e

Writings of H. W. Ravenel: "Recollections of Southern Plantation Life," 1876

Folder 30f

Writings of H. W. Ravenel, 1883; 1887

Folder 31a

Mellichamp-Engelmann Correspondence, 1871-1883

Folder 31b

Mellichamp-Engelmann Correspondence, 13 November 1873-20 November 1876

Folder 32a

Mellichamp-Engelmann Correspondence, 2 December 1876-1 May 1879

Folder 32b

Mellichamp-Engelmann Correspondence, 30 December 1878-27 November 1883

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 2. Alphabetical Series

Series includes photographs, biographical data, some correspondence, and reprints of articles related to various botanists.

Folder 33

Academies of Science

Folder 34

Agassiz, Louis

Folder 35

Aiken Press

Folder 36

Arthur, J.C.

Folder 37

Amici, Giovanni Battista

Folder 38

Atkinson, George Francis

Folder 39

Bannister, John

Folder 40

Bartholomew, Elam

Folder 41

Bartram, John

Folder 42

Bartram, William

Folder 43

Battle, Kemp

Includes a list of plants in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Folder 44

Beers, Alma Holland

Folder 45

Bessey, Charles Edwin

Folder 46

Botanical Gardens

Folder 47

Bresadola, Giacomo

Folder 48

Brickell, J.

Folder 49

Brimley, C. S.

Folder 50

Brown, Robert

Folder 51

Bubak, Franz

Folder 52

Buffon

Folder 53

Burnett, W.I.

Folder 54

Burrill, T. J.

Folder 55

Calkins, W. W.

Folder 56

Catesby, Mark

Folder 57

Cell theory

Folder 58

Chamberlain, Charles J.

Folder 59

Chapman, Alvin Wentworth

Folder 60

Clayton, John

Folder 61

Clinton, G. P.

Folder 62

Coulter, John Merle

Folder 63

Corda, August Joseph

Folder 64

Croom, Hardy B.

Folder 65

Dietel, P.

Folder 66

Douglas, David

Folder 67

DeBary, Anton

Folder 68

Durand, Elias J.

Folder 69

Elliott, Stephen

Folder 70

Ellis, Job B.

Folder 71

Engler, Adolf

Folder 72

Farlow, William Gilson

Folder 73

Feary, William T.

Folder 74

Fraser, John

Folder 75

French Botanists and Friends

Folder 76

Fries, Elias

Folder 77

Garden, Alexander

Folder 78

Gerard, John

Folder 79

Gibbes, Lewis R.

Folder 80

Gray, Asa

Folder 81

Gregory, Emily L.

Folder 82

Harbison, Thomas G.

Folder 83

Harden, John McPherson Berrien

Folder 84

Hariot, Thomas

Folder 85

Hawks, Francis Lister

Folder 86

Hennings, P.

Folder 87

Hentz, Nicholas M.

Folder 88

History of the Botany of the Genevans

Folder 89

Hofmeister, William

Folder 90

Holbrook, John Edwards

Folder 91

Hollos, L.

Folder 92

Holmes, John Simcox

Holmes, Joseph Austin

Folder 93

Holway, E. W.

Folder 94

Hooke, Robert

Folder 95-96

Folder 95

Folder 96

Hooker, William Jackson

Folder 97

Humboldt, Alexander Von

Folder 98

Jervey, Ida M.

Folder 99

Jennison

Folder 100

Johnson, Duncan S.

Folder 101

Kalmia Garden

Folder 102

Kellerman, W. A.

Folder 103

Kelly, Howard A.

Folder 104

Kaempfer, Englebert

Folder 105

Lanneau, John Francis

Folder 106

LeConte, John

LeConte, Louis

Folder 107

Leeds, Arthur Newlin

Folder 108

Leitgeb, Hubert

Folder 109

Lindau, Gustav

Folder 110

Linneaus, Carl

Folder 111

Lloyd, Curtis Gates

Folder 112

MacBride, James

Folder 113

McCarthy, Gerald

Folder 114

Massee, George

Folder 115

Matruchat, L.

Folder 116

Mellichamp, Joseph Hinson

Folder 117

Memminger, E. R.

Folder 118

Michaux, Andre

Folder 119-120

Folder 119

Folder 120

Elisha Mitchell Journal

Folder 121

Morse, E. E.

Folder 122

Morton, William Thomas Green

Folder 123

Murrill, William A.

Folder 124

Newberry, J. S.

Folder 125

Nuttall, Thomas

Folder 126

Olney, Stephen T.

Folder 127

Oudemans, C. A. J. A.

Folder 128

Peck, Charles A.

Folder 129

Physiology of plants

Folder 130

Porter, Thomas C.

Folder 131

Prentiss, A. N.

Folder 132

Pringsheim, Nathanael

Folder 133

Raynal, Charles Edward

Folder 134

Rea, Carleton

Folder 135

Redoule, Pierre Joseph

Folder 136

Riel, Philbert

Folder 137

Romell, Lars

Folder 138

Rusby, Henry Hurd

Folder 139

Saccardo, P. A.

Folder 140

Salmon, E. S.

Folder 141

Sargent, C. S.

Folder 142

Schaeffer

Folder 143

Schweinitz, Lewis David von

Folder 144

Short, Charles Wilken

Folder 145

Simonds, F. W.

Folder 146

Society Hill, S.C.

Folder 147

South Carolina botanists

Folder 148

Seymour, A. B.

Folder 149

Torrey, John

Folder 150

Thurber, George

Folder 151

Thermal belts

Folder 152

Stiles, Charles W.

Folder 153

Tracy, S. M.

Folder 154

Tree moving

Folder 155

Thurmen, F. Baron

Folder 156-157

Folder 156

Folder 157

Totten, H. R.

Folder 158

Tulasne, L. R.

Folder 159

Underwood, L. M.

Folder 160

Van Tieghem, Philippe, Edouard Leon

Folder 161

Waksman, Selman A.

Folder 162

Walter, Thomas

Folder 163

Wand's Natural Science Establishment

Folder 164

West, William Harvey

Folder 165

Weston

Folder 166

Whetzel

Folder 167

University of North Carolina

Includes a description of campus grounds and a history of the Department of Zoology.

Folder 168

Wicker

Folder 169

Woehler, Friedrich

Folder 170

Wolfe, J. J.

Folder 171

Wood, Alfonso

Folder 172

Wood, H. C.

Image Folder PF-2053/1-12

PF-2053/1

PF-2053/2

PF-2053/3

PF-2053/4

PF-2053/5

PF-2053/6

PF-2053/7

PF-2053/8

PF-2053/9

PF-2053/10

PF-2053/11

PF-2053/12

Portraits of UNC botanists

Image Folder PF-2053/13

Illustrations for Hannah Whitson's tree writings

Image Folder PF-2053/14

Miscellaneous landscapes

Folder 173-175

Folder 173

Folder 174

Folder 175

Whitson, Hannah

Includes poems and short creative writings, chiefly on botanical and personal topics. See also Oversize Volume SV-2053/5.

Photograph Album PA-2053/2

Scrapbook compiled by Hannah Whitson

Oversize Volume SV-2053/3

Scrapbook compiled by Hannah Whitson

Photograph Album PA-2053/4

Scrapbook compiled by Hannah Whitson

Oversize Volume SV-2053/5

Scrapbook compiled by Hannah Whitson

Photograph Album PA-2053/6

Scrapbook compiled by Hannah Whitson

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