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.
Size | 11.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 8,000 items) |
Abstract | Louis Graves (1883-1965) was a white writer, journalist, and founder of the Chapel Hill (N.C.) Weekly, and married his wife, Mildred Moses Graves (1892-1976), in 1921. The collection comprises personal and professional papers of Louis Graves. Family correspondence includes letters to Louis Graves's mother, Julia Charlotte Hooper Graves (1856-1944); his sister, Mary Graves Rees (1886-1953); and his brothers, Ralph Graves (1878-1939) and Ernest Graves (1880-1953); as well as letters to and from Mildred Graves's father, Edward Pearson Moses (1857-1948); her brother, Herbert Moses; her nephew, Edward Kidder Graham Junior (1911-1976); and her niece, Allen Claywell Irvine. Included in the professional correspondence are letters to and from writers; newspaper editors; publishers; academic figures, chiefly at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill; North Carolina political figures; and readers of the Chapel Hill Weekly. Also included are manuscript writings, clippings, photographs, and a paper-cut silhouette, 1814, of University of North Carolina buildings. Volumes include memo books, account books, photograph albums, scrapbooks, engagement calendars, address books, and travel diaries. |
Creator | Graves, Louis, 1883-1965. |
Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
Language | English |
Processed by: SHC Staff
Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007
Updated by: Kate Stratton and Jodi Berkowitz, March 2010; Amy Morgan and Jodi Berkowitz, February 2019; Rebecca Stubbs and Laura Smith, February 2023
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.
Since August 2017, we have added ethnic identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine ethnic identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual’s preference for ethnicity to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@email.unc.edu.
Back to TopThe 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.
Louis Graves (1883-1965) of Chapel Hill, N.C., was a white writer, journalist, and founder of the Chapel Hill (N.C.) Weekly. Graves was born in Chapel Hill, N.C. to Ralph Henry Graves (died 1889), a professor of mathematics at the University of North Carolina, and Julia Charlotte Hooper Graves (1856-1944). He was educated in Chapel Hill at the schools of Miss Loula Herndon and J. W. Canada and attended the Bingham School in Asheville, N.C., 1898-1899. He entered the University of North Carolina in 1899 and graduated in 1902.
In December 1902, Louis Graves moved to New York. In March 1903, he beame a reporter for the New York Times, where he remained until August 1906. From 1906 to 1913, he worked for the publicity firm of Ivy L. Lee, which served a number of railroad companies. From 1913 to 1917 he worked for the New York City government, briefly as secretary to the President of the Borough of Manhattan, George McAneny (1869-1953), and then as secretary to the President of the Board of Aldermen, when McAneny was elected to that position in 1913. During his residence in New York, Graves was engaged in freelance writing, and beginning in 1908, he had numerous short stories and articles published in magazines and newspapers, including the Atlantic Monthly, Harpers, the Saturday Evening Post, and New York Times Magazine.
In the spring of 1917, when the United States entered World War I, Graves was commissioned a captain in the army; after training at Camp Jackson, S.C., he went with the 81st Division of the American Expeditionary Force to France. After the Armistice, he remained in Europe for one year with the Press Section, General Headquarters and the Army of Occupation in Coblenz on the Rhine. He was discharged in July 1919 and returned to the United States in December 1919. In 1920 and 1921, Graves was with Asia magazine where he published a biography of Willard Straight in serial form.
In 1921 Graves returned to Chapel Hill, where he married Mildred Moses (1892-1976), the daughter of Edward Pearson Moses (1857-1948) and Caroline Dosser Moses (1855-1901). The Graveses had no children of their own, though they helped to raise Mrs. Graves' nephew, Edward Kidder Graham Junior (1911-1976), who was orphaned in 1918, and her niece Allen Claywell Irvine, who was placed under her guardianship in 1937.
In the fall of 1921, Louis Graves became a professor of journalism at the University of North Carolina, a position he held until 1924. In March 1923, he established the Chapel Hill Weekly and served as its editor and owner until 1954, when he sold the paper to the Chapel Hill Publishing Company. Orville Campbell succeeded Graves as editor, but Graves himself was contributing editor from 1954 to 1960. After 1960, he wrote only occasionally for the Chapel Hill Weekly and other papers.
Back to TopThe collection includes personal and professional papers of Louis Graves and of his wife, Mildred Moses Graves. Family correspondence includes letters to Louis Graves's mother, Julia Charlotte Hooper Graves; his sister, Mary Graves Rees (1886-1953); and his brothers, Ralph Graves (1878-1939) and Ernest Graves (1880-1953); as well as letters to and from Mildred Graves's father, Edward Pearson Moses; her brother, Herbert Moses; her nephew, Edward Kidder Graham Junior; and her niece, Allen Claywell Irvine. Included in the professional correspondence are letters to and from writers; newspaper editors; publishers; academic figures, chiefly at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill; North Carolina political figures; and readers of the Chapel Hill Weekly. Also included are manuscript writings, clippings, photographs, and a paper-cut silhouette, 1814, of University of North Carolina buildings. Volumes include memo books, account books, photograph albums, scrapbooks, engagement calendars, address books, and travel diaries.
The Addition of June 2016 consists of Graves and Moses family photographs; a Graves family scrapbook containing photographs of friends, family, and Chapel Hill, including African American residents of Chapel Hill and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill staff; Moses family genealogy, clippings, and other papers, including family obituaries.
Back to TopArrangement: chronological
Correspondence, 1880-1919, chiefly pertains to Louis Graves's family and to his early career as a freelance writer in New York, N.Y. The first major group of letters from Louis Graves begins in 1917. These relate primarily to his military career, 1917-1919, at Chattanooga, Tenn., Camp Jackson, S.C.; and in the American Expeditionary Force in France during World War I. There is very little correspondence related to Graves career at the New York Times nor with the publicity firm of Ivy L. Lee.
Correspondence, 1920-1954, pertains chiefly to the Graves family in Chapel Hill, N.C., during the period when Louis Graves was owner and editor of the Chapel Hill Weekly. Professional correspondence increases during the 1930s and includes letters written by readers in response to editorials and articles in the Chapel Hill Weekly or simply to renew subscriptions. In particular there are letters from fellow journalists, including several from Josephus Daniels of the Raleigh News and Observer; R. P. Harriss, of the New York Herald (Paris); Gerald White Johnston of Baltimore; John Finley and Irving Brock of the New York Times; and Virginius Dabney of the Richmond Times Dispatch. There are also a few letters from political figures, including North Carolina governor John C. B. Ehringhaus.
Correspondence, 1954-1965, reflects Louis Graves's continued interest in the Chapel Hill Weekly, his writing career after his retirement, and the contacts he maintained with fellow journalists and old friends. In this period there are letters of political interest including one, November 1954, from President Dwight D. Eisenhower thanking Graves for his support in the election of 1954; one, May 1960, from Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, describing his write-in election to the United States Senate in 1954; and several from Graves's good friend, Congressman Carl Durham of the 6th District, North Carolina.
Items after 1965 are exclusively letters to Mildred Moses Graves and are chiefly personal in nature, some related to the death, memorial services, and estate of Louis Graves.
Folder 1a |
Original finding aidIncludes genealogical charts for the Graves and Hooper families and for the Moses and Dosser families. |
Folder 1 |
1880-1889 |
Folder 2 |
1890-1896 |
Folder 3 |
1897-1899 |
Folder 4 |
1900-1910 |
Folder 5 |
1911 |
Folder 6 |
1912-1913 |
Folder 7 |
1914-1916 |
Folder 8 |
1917 |
Folder 9 |
1918 |
Folder 10-11
Folder 10Folder 11 |
1919 |
Folder 12 |
1920-1922 |
Folder 13-14
Folder 13Folder 14 |
1923 |
Folder 15 |
1924-1929 |
Folder 16 |
1930-1932 |
Folder 17 |
1933-1935 |
Folder 18-19
Folder 18Folder 19 |
1936 |
Folder 20 |
1937 |
Folder 21-22
Folder 21Folder 22 |
1938 |
Folder 23 |
1939 |
Undated 1930s |
|
Folder 24-26
Folder 24Folder 25Folder 26 |
1940 |
Folder 27-32
Folder 27Folder 28Folder 29Folder 30Folder 31Folder 32 |
1941 |
Folder 33-34
Folder 33Folder 34 |
1942 |
Folder 35-36
Folder 35Folder 36 |
1943 |
Folder 37-38
Folder 37Folder 38 |
1944 |
Folder 39-40
Folder 39Folder 40 |
1945 |
Folder 41-42
Folder 41Folder 42 |
1946 |
Folder 43-45
Folder 43Folder 44Folder 45 |
1947 |
Folder 46-47
Folder 46Folder 47 |
1948 |
Folder 48 |
1949 |
Folder 49 |
Undated 1940s |
Folder 50 |
1950 |
Folder 51-52
Folder 51Folder 52 |
1951 |
Folder 53-54
Folder 53Folder 54 |
1952 |
Folder 55-57
Folder 55Folder 56Folder 57 |
1953 |
Folder 58-60
Folder 58Folder 59Folder 60 |
1954 |
Folder 61-62
Folder 61Folder 62 |
1955 |
Folder 63-65
Folder 63Folder 64Folder 65 |
1956 |
Folder 66-69
Folder 66Folder 67Folder 68Folder 69 |
1957 |
Folder 70-71
Folder 70Folder 71 |
1958 |
Folder 72 |
1959 |
Folder 73 |
Undated 1950s |
Folder 74-75
Folder 74Folder 75 |
1960 |
Folder 76-78
Folder 76Folder 77Folder 78 |
1961 |
Folder 79 |
1962 |
Folder 80-81
Folder 80Folder 81 |
1963 |
Folder 82-84
Folder 82Folder 83Folder 84 |
1964 |
Folder 85-91
Folder 85Folder 86Folder 87Folder 88Folder 89Folder 90Folder 91 |
1965 |
Folder 92 |
1966-1969 |
Folder 93 |
1970-1972 |
Folder 94 |
1973-1975 |
Folder 95 |
1976 |
Folder 96 |
Undated 1960s and 1970s |
Folder 97 |
Undated letters |
Folder 98 |
Undated cards |
Folder 99 |
Undated miscellaneous |
Arrangement: chronological
Includes clippings from newspapers and magazines, pertaining chiefly to the Graves and Moses families, to Louis Graves himself, and to the Chapel Hill Weekly. They do not include anything written by Louis Graves.
Folder 100 |
1876-1899 |
Folder 101 |
1900-1919 |
Folder 102 |
1920-1924 |
Folder 103 |
1925-1929 |
Folder 104 |
1930-1934 |
Folder 105 |
1935-1939 |
Folder 106 |
1940-1944 |
Folder 107 |
1945-1949 |
Folder 108 |
1950 |
Folder 109 |
1951-1953 |
Folder 110 |
1954-1964 |
Folder 111 |
1965 |
Folder 112 |
1966-1976 and undated |
Oversize Paper Folder OPF-4010/1b |
Certificates and diplomas, 1902-1953 and undated |
Extra Oversize Paper Folder X-OPF-4010/1a |
Blueprint, 1941 |
Arrangement: primarily chronological
Chiefly the writings of Louis Graves, both in published and unpublished form. The published writings consist of articles and short stories clipped from various periodicals and newspapers, 1909-1964. In addition, there are drafts and typescripts of articles and short stories, some of which were never published. There are also poems, abstracts for plays, and notes made in preparation for articles. Writings by Graves's mother Julia Charlotte Hooper Graves and by various other writers are included at the end.
Includes material on Graves and Moses family history, chiefly in the form of undated notes.
Folder 163 |
Graves Family genealogical material |
Folder 164-165
Folder 164Folder 165 |
Moses Family genealogical material |
Arrangement: primarily chronological
Includes notebooks, engagement calendars, photograph albums, scrapbooks, and other volumes. Most of the notebooks and engagement calendars were kept by Mildred Moses Graves, however, they reflect Louis Graves's activities almost as much as hers. A number of the calendars contain diary-like entries.
Items in this series include family photographs of members of the Hooper, Whitaker, Graves, Rees, Dosser, Moses, Irvine, and Graham families, as well as miscellaneous photographs of people both identified and unidentified.
Image Folder PF-4010/1 |
Hooper familyIncludes photographs of Louis Graves's maternal ancestors, including a photograph of a portrait of Reverend William Hooper; Louis Graves's great-grandfather, Wake Forest President William Hooper (1792-1876) and Louis Graves's grandfather, John DeBerniere Hooper (died 1886). |
Image Folder PF-4010/2-3
PF-4010/2PF-4010/3 |
Whitaker familyIncludes photographs of Louis Graves's cousins on his mother's side. |
Image Folder PF-4010/4-14
PF-4010/4PF-4010/5PF-4010/6PF-4010/7PF-4010/8PF-4010/9PF-4010/10PF-4010/11PF-4010/12PF-4010/13PF-4010/14 |
Graves familyIncludes photographs of the Graves family including Louis Graves's grandparents and parents and his siblings. |
Image Folder PF-4010/15 |
Rees, Mary Graves |
Image Folder PF-4010/16 |
Rees family |
Image Folder PF-4010/17-22
PF-4010/17PF-4010/18PF-4010/19PF-4010/20PF-4010/21PF-4010/22 |
Moses familyIncludes photographs of Mildred Moses Graves's parents and siblings. |
Image Folder PF-4010/23-24
PF-4010/23PF-4010/24 |
Irvine family |
Image Folder PF-4010/25-34
PF-4010/25PF-4010/26PF-4010/27PF-4010/28PF-4010/29PF-4010/30PF-4010/31PF-4010/32PF-4010/33PF-4010/34 |
Graham familyIncludes photographs of Mildred Moses Graves's brother-in-law, E. K. Graham Sr.; Frank Porter Graham; and E. K. Graham Jr. |
Image Folder PF-4010/35-55
PF-4010/35PF-4010/36PF-4010/37PF-4010/38PF-4010/39PF-4010/40PF-4010/41PF-4010/42PF-4010/43PF-4010/44PF-4010/45PF-4010/46PF-4010/47PF-4010/48PF-4010/49PF-4010/50PF-4010/51PF-4010/52PF-4010/53PF-4010/54PF-4010/55 |
Graves, Louis |
Image Folder PF-4010/56-58
PF-4010/56PF-4010/57PF-4010/58 |
Graves, Mildred Moses |
Image Folder PF-4010/59-61
PF-4010/59PF-4010/60PF-4010/61 |
Graves, Louis and Mildred Moses |
Image Folder PF-4010/62 |
Employees of the Chapel Hill Weekly and Orange Print Shop |
Image Folder PF-4010/63 |
Alderman, Edwin A. and family |
Image Folder PF-4010/64 |
Tau Kappa Phi members, 1902 |
Image Folder PF-4010/65 |
Lenoir, William |
Scott, Sir Walter |
|
Norwood, Robiner Hogg |
|
Draper, Ruth |
|
Image Folder PF-4010/66 |
Eisenhower, Dwight D. |
Image Folder PF-4010/67 |
MacNider family |
Cobb family |
|
Image Folder PF-4010/68 |
Patterson family |
Image Folder PF-4010/69 |
Kyser, Kay and family |
Image Folder PF-4010/70-92
PF-4010/70PF-4010/71PF-4010/72PF-4010/73PF-4010/74PF-4010/75PF-4010/76PF-4010/77PF-4010/78PF-4010/79PF-4010/80PF-4010/81PF-4010/82PF-4010/83PF-4010/84PF-4010/85PF-4010/86PF-4010/87PF-4010/88PF-4010/89PF-4010/90PF-4010/91PF-4010/92 |
Miscellaneous peopleIncludes Christmas photograph cards. |
Image Folder PF-4010/93-97
PF-4010/93PF-4010/94PF-4010/95PF-4010/96PF-4010/97 |
Graves's home, Chapel Hill, N.C. |
Image Folder PF-4010/98-103
PF-4010/98PF-4010/99PF-4010/100PF-4010/101PF-4010/102PF-4010/103 |
Chapel Hill, N.C., scenes |
Image Folder PF-4010/104-105
PF-4010/104PF-4010/105 |
Unidentified houses and buildings |
Oversize Image Folder OP-PF-4010/1 |
Individual portraits of various women and men, circa 1920s-1950s |
Oversize Image Folder OP-PF-4010/2 |
Paul Green and Louis Graves in the Chapel Hill Weekly office |
Louis Graves being hooded at University of North Carolina commencement, 1941 |
|
Unidentified scenesContains image of a horse statute and image of cherry blossoms. |
|
Paul Green and Louis Graves in the Chapel Hill Weekly office; Louis Graves in hooding ceremony at 1941 University of North Carolina commencement; horse statue; cherry blossoms |
|
Special Format Image SF-P-4010/1-2
SF-P-4010/1SF-P-4010/2 |
Two images of an unidentified womanCased photograph and photolithiograph (on stone). |
Framed Item FR-4010/3 |
Silhouette showing Steward's Hall and Main (now South Building) at the University of North Carolina, made by Frances Jones (Mrs. William) Hooper, 1814. |
Includes three recorded interviews with Louis Graves entitled "Personalities in Residence-Louis Graves", recorded by the Department of Radio, Television, and Motion Pictures, University of North Carolina.
Audiodisc D-4010/1-3
D-4010/1D-4010/2D-4010/3 |
"Personalities in Residence-Louis Graves" |
Folder 250 |
Folder number not used |
Acquisition Information: Accession 102601
The Addition of June 2016 consists of Graves and Moses family photographs; a Graves family scrapbook containing photographs of friends, family, and Chapel Hill, including African American residents of Chapel Hill and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill staff; Moses family genealogy, clippings, and other papers, including family obituaries.
Box 20 |
Ruth Draper papers |
Moses genealogy |
|
Chapel Hill Weekly |
|
Clippings |
|
Graves family obituaries |
|
"Mildred and Louis Graves and the Chapel Hill Weekly," 5 January 1992 |
|
Newspapers |
|
Moses family papers |
|
Handwritten poem by Robert Frost |
|
Image Folder PF-04010/106 |
"Graham, Graves, and Rees (?)" |
Image Folder PF-04010/107 |
Moses family photographs |
Image Folder PF-04010/108-110
PF-04010/108PF-04010/109PF-04010/110 |
Graves family photographs |
Image Folder PF-04010/111 |
Family photographs |
Image Folder PF-04010/112 |
Fanny McDade, circa 1954 |
Image Folder PF-04010/113 |
Robert Frost, circa 1955 |
Oversize Volume SV-04010/85 |
Graves family scrapbook |
Acquisitions Information: Accession 20221024.2.
The addition contains correspondence, photographs, and genealogical materials of the Graves, Moses, and related families.
Box 20 |
Genealogy |
Correspondence: Edward P. Moses, 1899, 1922-1961 |
|
Correspondence: Louis Graves, 1940-1959, 1964 |
|
Correspondence: Mildred Moses Graves, 1925-1927, 1940 - 1941, 1958, 1964 |
|
Correspondence: Mary Moses Claywell, 1916, 1921 - 1933, 1952, 1976 |
|
In Memoriam: Mrs. Susan Williams Moses |
|
Newsclippings about the death of Edward P. Moses, 1948 |
|
Houseguests at 111 Battle Lane |
|
Image Folder PF-4010/114 |
Images of Graves Family membersIncludes four photographs of Black residents of Chapel Hill, including Decie Baker and Jessie O'Kelly Coleman, and a group photograph of stone wall workers for Louis and Mildred Graves at 111 Battle Lane in Chapel Hill, circa 1955. Also includes family photographs, including a photograph of Mildred Moses Graves's sister Elizabeth Kirby Moses and a photograph of Graves's mother, Caroline Dosser Moses (1855-1901). |
Special Format Image SF-P-4010/3 |
Cased image: Ann Amelia Atkinson Dosser and Thomas Emerson DosserGrandparents of Mildred Moses Graves. |