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 James Wistar Metcalfe Papers #2318-z, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Alternate Form of Material

All or part of this collection is available on microfilm from University Publications of America as part of the Records of ante-bellum southern plantations from the Revolution through the Civil War, Series J.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Belle Barrow of St. Francisville, Louisiana, on 18 February 1941.

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: Shonra Newman, February 1991

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

This inventory is an edited version of an inventory previously compiled by a member of the Southern Historical Collection processing staff.

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.

• Bloomington (Ind.)--Social life and customs.
• Bourbon Plantation (Natchez, Miss.)
• College students--Indiana--Social life and customs.
• Diaries (Blank-books)
• Indiana University--Students--Social life and customs.
• Metcalfe, James Wistar, fl. 1841-1852.
• Montrose Plantation (Natchez, Miss.)
• Natchez (Miss.)--Social life and customs.
• Plantation life--Mississippi.
• Plantations--Mississippi--Natchez.
• Venice (Italy)--Description and travel.

This collection chiefly consists of a diary kept by James Wistar Metcalfe of Montrose Plantation, near Natchez, Mississippi. The first part of the volume contains a diary he kept while attending Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, between September 1841 and September 1842. He wrote about college routine, his studies in chemistry and other subjects, books and lectures, attending trials at the Court House, the weather, and his social life. The second part of the volume contains a diary he kept while at Bourbon Plantation, near Montrose, between January and August 1843. Metcalfe was apparently managing a farm or plantation for his father. In it, he kept a record of his field work, hunting and fishing, the weather, building ditches, the corn crop, fodder, etc.

Also included in this collection are the following four items:

29 May 1845 Handwritten original and typed transcription of a letter from John Metcalfe to his brother James W. Metcalfe, describing Venice.

23 Oct 1850 Letter from James W. Metcalfe to his sister-in-law, Maggie Young, at Rose Hill.

16 Oct 1851 Letter from James W. Metcalfe in Trinity, Louisiana, about plantation and family matters to his wife at Fort Adams, Mississippi.

9 July 1852 Letter from James W. Metcalfe to his wife at Natchez while he was away from home and involved in a trial.