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.
Size | 13.75 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 10000 items) |
Abstract | Mary Claire Engstrom served as chair of the Historic Hillsborough Commission, Hillsborough, N.C., from 1964 to 1966 and 1976 to 1983. Primarily research files compiled for numerous projects conducted for the Historic Hillsborough Commission and others, documenting Hillsborough and Orange County, N.C., historical buildings, sites, and individuals. Substantial files include those on architect John Berry, the Burwell School, Quakers in the Eno area, inns and tavers, mills, and cemeteries. Personal correspondence in the collection includes letters from other local historians and genealogists, including Margaret Berry Street, and carbon copies of weekly letters, 1977-1983, from Mary C. Engstrom's husband, Alfred Garvin Engstrom (1907- ), Distinguished Alumni Professor of French at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, to a childhood friend, discussing philosophy, literature, and current and local events. |
Creator | Engstrom, Mary Claire, 1906-1997. |
Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
Language | English |
Processed by: Barbara Aschenbrenner, December 1993 with subsequent revisions
Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008
Arrangment is only roughly to the box level and the collection has not been archivally refoldered.
Updated by Rebecca Stubbs and Laura Smith, January 2022
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.
Mary Claire Engstrom (1906-1997), daughter of Lester L. Randolph and Florence Alberta Toynbee Randolph of Kansas City, Mo., served as chair of the Historic Hillsborough Commission, Hillsborough, N.C., 1963-1983, in addition to acting in an official capacity for other Orange County, N.C., historic groups. She received her Ph.D. in 18th-century English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and did postdoctoral research at Harvard and Yale, specializing in 18th-century satire. She was married to Alfred Garvin Engstrom (1907-1990), Distinguished Alumni Professor of French at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Back to TopThe collection consists primarily of historical research files compiled by Mary Claire Engstrom from various sources. Her historical research was predominantly concerned with Orange County personalities, buildings, institutions, and groups, and resulted in the documentation and description of 18th- and 19th- century Hillsborough deed records, 122 historic sites in Hillsborough, a colonial history of Hillsborough, numerous biographies, and a survey of all cemeteries and isolated graves, both black and white persons, in Orange County. Among other topics she studied in depth were early Quakers in the area, local inns and taverns, mills, and the Hillsborough Academy for boys and Burwell School for girls. In addition, she assisted in genealogical research in response to individual requests. Her research files contain final published versions of many of her historical essays.
Additionally, the collection contains some personal correspondence, including letters from other local historians sharing details of their discoveries and intended research strategies. Carbon copies of detailed weekly letters sent by Alfred Garvin Engstrom from 1977 to 1983 to his childhood friend Dez Dwyer of Belvedere, Ill., discuss philosophy, literature, remembrances, current events, weather, sports, local events, and include descriptions of nature, all written in an entertainingly erudite manner. Also included are letters, chiefly 1983-1988, about books and literature from Alfred Engstrom to Philip Griffith of Monroe, N.C.
While the collection has not yet been formally arranged, the papers have been somewhat organized. Please note that this organization is superficial; that is, some files will not be in the "proper" box. Also, there is considerable crossover between files compiled on historic individuals and families and files compiled for historic buildings associated with those families.
Related photographs may be found in the Mary Claire Engstrom Collection in the Photographic Archives, North Carolina Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The collection is organized as follows:
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