Restrictions to Access

Use of audiotapes may require production of listening copies.

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 M. Ruth Little Collection #20065, Southern Folklife Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Provenance

Received from M. Ruth Little of Raleigh, N.C., prior to 1996.

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.

• Cemeteries--North Carolina--Cumberland County.
• Cemeteries--North Carolina--Davidson County.
• Cemeteries--North Carolina--Lincoln County.
• Cemeteries--North Carolina--New Hanover County.
• Cemeteries--North Carolina.
• Cumberland County (N.C.)--History.
• Davidson County (N.C.)--History.
• Decorative arts--North Carolina.
• Graveposts.
• Little, M. Ruth (Margaret Ruth), 1946- .
• McLean, J. Thomas.
• New Hanover County (N.C.)--History.
• North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Sepulchral monuments--North Carolina.
• Stone carvers--North Carolina.
• Stone carving--North Carolina.

Architectural historian Margaret Ruth Little (Stokes) was born in 1946 in Tacoma Park, Md., and completed her Ph.D. degree with a major in art history and a minor in folklore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1984. Little has been involved in many projects within North Carolina, including a number of historic architectural surveys, the creation of nominations for National Register of Historic Places registrations, and cemetery surveys. A resident of Raleigh, N.C., she consults with the state's Historical Preservation Office and has her own firm, Longleaf Historical Resources.

M. Ruth Little was awarded the Harriette Merrifield Forbes Award in 2001 by the Association for Gravestone Studies for "an outstanding contribution to the field of gravestone studies" through her book, Sticks and Stones: Three Centuries of North Carolina Gravemarkers (University of North Carolina Press, 1998).

Survey information, photographs, and other items relating to the National Endowment for the Humanities-funded North Carolina Cemetery as Cultural Artifact Project, 1981-1982, directed by Professor Terry Zug of the Curriculum in Folklore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with M. Ruth Little as the principal investigator. The Project supported Little's 1984 doctoral dissertation, later published as Sticks and Stones: Three Centuries of North Carolina Gravemarkers (University of North Carolina Press, 1998) with photography by Tim Buchman.

The Project was intended to be "the first investigation in the state of historic cemeteries and graveyards as cultural benchmarks with aesthetic characteristics and iconographical content," and focused on photographic documentation, recording, and cataloging of cemeteries in three counties: Cumberland County, N.C.; Davidson County, N.C.; and New Hanover County, N.C. The intensive survey covered Cumberland, New Hanover, and Davidson counties completely, and Lincoln County, N.C., and Catawba County, N.C., on a selective basis. Other counties were added for comparison. Intended to link demographic and cultural traits with regional practices, one of the Project's primary focus points was to identify gravemarker artisans and carvers throughout the region and to trace their movements within, and influences over, the carving tradition.

Included are master cards with cemetery survey information and topographical maps used in the research and identification process. Each master card contains the cemetery name; location; inclusive dates; topography; landscaping; boundaries; marker descriptions and design motifs; an overall site plan; and a brief history, if known. Photographic materials include black-and-white prints, negatives, and color slides, most relating to specific master cards. Many of the images are of cemeteries or gravemarkers. Also included are research notes; keysort cards; grant materials; audiotapes of an interview with gravestone carver J. Thomas McLean of Lincolnton, N.C.; and other items.

Separated items include sound recordings (FS-5710 and FS-5711).