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Collection Number: 03220

Collection Title: William Chambers Coker Papers, 1884-1956 (bulk 1914-1950).

This collection has access restrictions. For details, please see the restrictions.

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.


expand/collapse Expand/collapse Collection Overview

Size 36.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 29,000 items)
Abstract William Chambers Coker was a botanist, teacher, writer, who taught at the University of North Carolina, 1902-1945, serving as chair of the Department of Botany and editor of the journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society. The collection includes correspondence and other personal and professional records of William Chambers Coker, chiefly 1914-1950. Coker's papers concern family and personal business matters; his research, writing, and international correspondence as a botanist; his activities at the University of North Carolina as a professor and as chair of the Botany Department for 36 years; the journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society, of which he was editor, 1904-1945; and numerous civic interests. Also included are Coker's notebooks titled "Plants of Chapel Hill"; files of Alma Holland of the Botany Department as editor of the yearbook of the Garden Club of North Carolina, 1940-1941; files of the Highlands Museum and Biological Laboratory, 1930-1950; and files of the Division of Design and Improvement of School Grounds, University of North Carolina Extension Bureau. Also included are Coker's research notes on his studies of mycology; notes and drawings on various fungi; photographs, field notes, and drawings of plants; blueprints related to what became the Coker Arboretum at the University of North Carolina; and correspondence with Coker's family and friends.
Creator Coker, William Chambers, 1872-1953.
Curatorial Unit University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.
Language English
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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Information For Users

Restrictions to Access
This collection contains additional materials that are not available for immediate or same day access. Please contact Research and Instructional Service staff at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu to discuss options for consulting these materials.
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 William Chambers Coker Papers, #3220, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Acquisitions Information
Gifts, 1956-1983; Lydia Sargent Macauley in April 2006 (Acc. 100367); Preston W. Fox in December 2008 (Acc. 101033)
Additional Descriptive Resources
The original finding aid 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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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Processing Information

Processed by: SHC Staff

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

Revisions: Finding aid updated in November 2008 and January 2009 by Benjamin Bromley.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Subject Headings

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 Biographical Information

William Chambers Coker was a botanist, teacher, writer, who taught at the University of North Carolina, 1902-1945, serving as chair of the Department of Botany and editor of the journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Scope and Content

The collection includes correspondence and other personal and professional records of William Chambers Coker, chiefly 1914-1950. Coker's papers concern family and personal business matters; his research, writing, and international correspondence as a botanist; his activities at the University of North Carolina as a professor and as chair of the Botany Department for 36 years; the journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society, of which he was editor, 1904-1945; and numerous civic interests. Also included are Coker's notebooks titled "Plants of Chapel Hill"; files of Alma Holland of the Botany Department as editor of the yearbook of the Garden Club of North Carolina, 1940-1941; files of the Highlands Museum and Biological Laboratory, 1930-1950; and files of the Division of Design and Improvement of School Grounds, University of North Carolina Extension Bureau. Also included are Coker's research notes on his studies of mycology; notes and drawings on various fungi; photographs, field notes, and drawings of plants; blueprints related to what became the Coker Arboretum at the University of North Carolina; and correspondence with Coker's family and friends.

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Contents list

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series Quick Links

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 1. Correspondence, 1891-1955.

About 9000 items.

Arrangement: chronological.

Contains primarily correspondence to and from William Chambers Coker, including carbon copies of his letters and letters from many botanists around the world. Topics include botanical questions, exchange of specimens, the University of North Carolina, and personal matters, among others.

Box 1

1891-October 1917

Box 2

November 1917-November 1920

Box 3

December 1920-July 1923

Box 4

August 1923-August 1926

Box 5

September 1926-December 1929

Box 6

1930-1932

Box 7

1933-June 1936

Box 8

July 1936-1939

Box 9

1940-July 1943

Box 10

August 1943-October 1948

Box 11

November 1948-1955

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 2. Notebooks, 1884-1912.

4 items.

Notebooks kept by William Chambers Coker, labelled "Plants of Chapel Hill."

Box 11

Plants of Chapel Hill

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 3. Bureau of Design, 1920-1925.

About 400 items.

Arrangement: chronological.

Materials relating to the Bureau of Design and Improvement of School Grounds of the Extension Division of the University of North Carolina, 1920-1925. Included are many diagrams and pictures, with accompanying lists of plantings for individual schools, public and private. Also included is correspondence about the financial and administrative aspects of the Bureau, among other topics.

Box 12

Bureau of Design

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 4. Garden Club Year Book, 1939-1941.

About 200 items.

Arrangement: chronological.

Files of Alma Holland of the Botany Department Office relating to her work as editor of the 1940-1941 yearbook of the Garden Club of North Carolina. Included is Holland's correspondence with Garden Club officers, names, addresses, committee reports, messages, and minutes.

Box 12

Garden Club Year Book

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 5. Highlands Museum and Biological Laboratory, 1930-1950.

About 200 items.

Arrangement: chronological.

Correspondence, reports, minutes of trustees, and mimeographed informational papers.

Box 12

Highlands Museum and Biological Laboratory

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 6. Mycology Notes.

About 2400 items.

Typed drafts; manuscript notes; and illustrations, both photographs and drawings, organized generally in units by genus and species.

Box 13

Units 1-6

Box 14

Units 7-11

Box 15

Units 11-13

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 7. Fungal Notes and Drawings.

About 2400 items.

Botanical subject files arranged by species, topic, or location.

Box 16

A-C

Box 17

D-O

Box 18

P-Z

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 8. Photographs, Notes, and Blueprints.

About 1600 items.

Research notes, photographs, drawings, and field notes, as well as blueprints of what became the Coker Arboretum at the University of North Carolina.

Box 19

A-O

Box 20

P-Z

Image Box IB-3220/1-3

IB-3220/1

IB-3220/2

IB-3220/3

Prints of trees, plants, gardens, fields, and other botanical subjects

Special Format Image SF-P-3220/1-5

SF-P-3220/1

SF-P-3220/2

SF-P-3220/3

SF-P-3220/4

SF-P-3220/5

Glass negatives of botanical subjects

Extra Oversize Paper Folder XOPF-3220/1

Blueprints of what became the Coker Arboretum on the campus of the University of North Carolina

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Additions.

About 2400 items.

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Addition of June 1979.

About 800 items.

Typed notes and pictures of various types of fungus, notebooks containing William Chambers Coker's field notes, and interspersed other items.

Box 21

Typed Notes

Box 22

Notebooks

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Addition of November 1983.

About 800 items.

Professional correspondence, 1902-1916, between Coker and botanists in the United States and elsewhere. Most of the letters concern botanical specimens.

Box 23-24

Box 23

Box 24

Correspondence, 1902-1916

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Addition of April 2006.

4 items.

Cards with poems written inside that William Chambers Coker sent to Lydia Sargent Macauley.

Box 27

Cards

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Addition of December 2008.

About 1000 items.

Arrangement: chronological.

Letters, 1897-1914, to William Chambers Coker from family and friends.

Box 25

1897-1904

Box 26

1905-1908

Box 27

1908-1914, undated

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Items Separated

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