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 Isidor Rayner Papers, #2823, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Jean Rayner (Mrs. David L.) Johnson of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, June 1952.

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.

Processed by: SHC Staff

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

Updated by: Kate Stratton and Jodi Berkowitz, July 2010; Nancy Kaiser, January 2021

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.

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.

• Courts-martial and courts of inquiry--United States--History--20th century.
• Democratic Party (Md.)--History.
• Democratic Party (U.S.)--History.
• Lawyers--Maryland--History.
• Maryland--Politics and government--1865-1950.
• Maryland--Trials, litigation, etc.--History.
• Rayner, Isidor, 1850-1912.
• Rayner, William B., b. 1872.
• Schley, Winfield Scott, 1839-1911.
• United States. Congress. House--History--19th century.
• United States. Congress. Senate--History--20th century.

Isidor Rayner (1850-1912) of Baltimore, Md., was a lawyer and politician. Rayner was educated at the University of Virginia and studied law in Baltimore. He served as a Maryland states legislator in the General Assembly, 1878-1884, and senate, 1884-1886, and as a United States congressman as a representative, 1887-1889 and 1891-1895, and senator, 1905-1912. He also served as attorney general of Maryland, 1899-1903, and as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, 1912. In 1901, he defended Admiral Winfield Scott Schley before the court of inquiry at Washington, D.C.

His wife was Frances Jane Bevan Rayner. Their son, William B. Rayner (born 1872), was also a prominent lawyer and Maryland politician.

The collection includes scattered letters and speeches and 11 scrapbooks regarding the political and legal career of Isidor Rayner. The scrapbooks contain clippings and other records of celebrated legal cases conducted by Rayner and his son William B. Rayner, including their defense of Admiral Winfield Scott Schley at a court of inquiry in 1901, and of their activities in state and national Democratic politics.

• Oversize volumes (SV-2823/9,10)
• Photographs (PF-2823/1-2)