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 Sallie Southall Cotten Papers #2613, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Bruce Cotten of Baltimore, Md., and Sallie Cotten Wiggin of Winchester, Mass., in 1942.

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.

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.

• American poetry--Women authors.
• Autobiographies--North Carolina.
• Autobiography--Women authors.
• Cotten, Bruce, 1873-1954.
• Cotten, Sallie Southall.
• Cotten, Sallie Southall.--White doe.
• Dromgoole family.
• Families--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• National Congress of Mothers (U.S.)
• North Carolina Federation of Women's Clubs.
• North Carolina--Politics and government.
• Simms family.
• Southall family.
• Stephenson, William, 1930-
• Walton family.
• Women in politics--North Carolina--History.
• Women's rights--United States--History--20th century.
• Women--North Carolina--Biography.
• Women--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Women--North Carolina--Societies and clubs--History.
• World's Columbian Exposition (1893 : Chicago, Ill.)

• Elizabeth H. Cotten Papers (#1650)
• Matt Ranson Papers (#2615)
• Cotten Family Papers (#3589)

Sallie Swepson Sims Southall Cotten (1846-1929) of Pitt County, N.C., was a writer and campaigner for women's issues. Cotten was a leader in both the North Carolina Federation of Women's Clubs and the National Congress of Mothers, through which she worked to advance the legal and educational status of women. She also published articles and poetry, most notably The White Doe (1901), a verse history of the Lost Colony.

The collection primarily consists of letters from Sallie Southall Cotten to her son, Bruce Cotten, concerning family news; current events; and women's issues, including her work in various women's organizations and her lobbying activities in the North Carolina legislature. Also included is genealogical information on the Sims, Dromgoole, Walton, and Southall families; Sallie Southall Cotten's scrapbooks, 1885-1928, containing clippings, poems, pictures, and other memorabilia relating to her work with women's organizations, and to the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, 1893; four notebooks of reminiscences, 1913-1916; and a copy of The White Doe.

• Oversize volumes (SV-2613/3, 4, 11)
• Extra-oversize paper (XOP-2613/1)