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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.
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Collection Overview
| Size | About 6000 items |
| Abstract | Frederick William Wolfe was born the seventh child and fourth son of Julia Elizabeth Westall and William Oliver Wolfe, a white family in Asheville, N.C., in 1894. He was educated in Asheville schools and worked as a salesman in Dayton, Ohio, before serving in the Navy during World War I. After his naval service, he attended the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, graduating in 1922. Fred Wolfe worked in Atlanta for Fairbanks, Morse and Company for about seven years, and then held several sales jobs in High Point, N.C., and Harrisonburg, Pa. In 1934, he joined the Blue Bird Ice Cream Company of Spartanburg, S.C., as a salesman, a position he held until the early 1960s. He married Mary Burris in 1943. In his later years, Fred Wolfe devoted himself to perpetuating the memory of his brother, Thomas Wolfe, through the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Association and in speeches at colleges and universities. Fred Wolfe died in 1980 and is buried in the family plot in Riverside Cemetery, Asheville, N.C. The papers contain Wolfe family correspondence, correspondence with Maxwell Perkins and Edward Aswell in their roles as executors of the Thomas Wolfe Estate, personal correspondence of Fred Wolfe, manuscripts about Thomas Wolfe, legal documents including executors' reports of the estate of Thomas Wolfe, correspondence about the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Association and the restoration of the Old Kentucky Home, family memorabilia, and volumes that chiefly relate to the Wolfe family. Family correspondence covers the years 1882 to 1977 and includes letters to and from Fred Wolfe, Mabel Wolfe Wheaton, Julia E. Wolfe, Frank Wolfe, W.O. Wolfe, Effie Wolfe Gambrell, and other members of the Wolfe and Gambrell families. Some of this material relates to Thomas Wolfe, but much of it concerns family matters. There is considerable correspondence between family members about the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Association, which shows the part the family played in the restoration and preservation of the Old Kentucky Home. Correspondence with Maxwell Perkins and Edward Aswell relates to the Thomas Wolfe Estate. There is also correspondence with members of the New York law firm of Ernst, Cane, and Berner, and especially with Paul Gitlin of that firm who succeeded Aswell as executor of the Thomas Wolfe Estate. Other correspondence consists of Fred Wolfe's personal correspondence, some of which demonstrates his efforts in preserving the memory of Thomas Wolfe's life and work. There are letters to and from individuals who wrote about or knew Thomas Wolfe, especially LeGette Blythe, Aldo P. Magi, John Skally Terry, Andrew Turnbull, Henry T. Volkening, Richard Walser, and Wolfe's literary agent and first biographer Elizabeth Nowell. There are also subject files containing material relating to the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Association, documents from the Thomas Wolfe Estate, other legal and financial documents, materials relating to real estate in Asheville and in Florida, correspondence about grave markers in Asheville, a few manuscripts of published and unpublished articles about Thomas Wolfe, and a few copies of Fred Wolfe's speeches about Thomas Wolfe. There are playbills from productions related to Thomas Wolfe or his work, tourist guides for Asheville, and publicity materials about the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Association and the Old Kentucky Home. Wolfe family memorabilia includes commencement invitations; some business cards for the Old Kentucky Home; and a small printed advertisement for the North Carolina, Julia E. Wolfe's 1904 boarding house in Saint Louis, Mo. Also included are Mabel Wolfe Wheaton's autograph album and guest book, a small account book that belonged to Julia E. Wolfe before her marriage, a small notebook of W.O. Wolfe, and other items. |
| Creator | Wolfe, Fred. |
| Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. North Carolina Collection. |
| Language | English |
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Information For Users
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Processing Information
Processed by: Frances Weaver, A. Hope Shull, Nicholas Graham, 1998
Encoded by: Benjamin Bromley, January 2009
Revisions by: Nancy Kaiser, December 2019
Finding aid updated by Dawne Howard Lucas in April 2020 to change the collection number from CW5 to 70016
There were some letters from Thomas Wolfe to members of his family among Fred Wolfe's papers. In accordance with the gift agreement of April 1981, these letters were placed in the Wolfe Family Papers (#70003). The clipping file and loose clippings that were with Fred Wolfe's papers were transferred to the Thomas Wolfe Collection clipping file.
Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine 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 and racial 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 identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.
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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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Biographical Information
Frederick William Wolfe was born the seventh child and fourth son of Julia Elizabeth Westall and William Oliver Wolfe, a white family in Asheville, N.C., on 15 July 1894. He was educated in Asheville schools and was working as a salesman in Dayton, Ohio, when the United States entered World War I. He returned to Asheville and joined the Navy, serving for about a year. After his naval service, he attended the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, graduating in 1922. Fred Wolfe worked in Atlanta for Fairbanks, Morse and Company for about seven years, and then held several sales jobs in High Point, N.C., and Harrisonburg, Pa. In 1934, he joined the Blue Bird Ice Cream Company of Spartanburg, S.C., as a salesman, a position he held until the early 1960s. He married Mary Burris on 24 July 1943. In his later years, Fred Wolfe devoted himself to perpetuating the memory of his brother, Thomas Wolfe, through the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Association and in speeches at colleges and universities. Fred Wolfe died on 8 April 1980 and is buried in the family plot in Riverside Cemetery, Asheville, N.C.
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Scope and Content
The Fred Wolfe Papers contain Wolfe family correspondence, correspondence with Maxwell Perkins and Edward Aswell in their roles as executors of the Thomas Wolfe Estate, personal correspondence of Fred Wolfe, manuscripts about Thomas Wolfe, legal documents including executors' reports of the estate of Thomas Wolfe, correspondence about the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Association and the restoration of the Old Kentucky Home, family memorabilia, and volumes chiefly relating to the Wolfe family.
Family correspondence covers the years 1882 to 1977 and includes letters to and from Fred Wolfe, Mabel Wolfe Wheaton, Julia E. Wolfe, Frank Wolfe, W.O. Wolfe, Effie Wolfe Gambrell, and other members of the Wolfe and Gambrell families. Some of this material relates to Thomas Wolfe, but much of it concerns family matters. There is considerable correspondence between family members about the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Association, which shows the part the family played in the restoration and preservation of the Old Kentucky Home.
Correspondence with Maxwell Perkins and Edward Aswell relates to the Thomas Wolfe Estate. There is also correspondence with members of the New York law firm of Ernst, Cane, and Berner, and especially with Paul Gitlin of that firm who succeeded Aswell as the executor of the Thomas Wolfe Estate. Other correspondence consists of Fred Wolfe's personal correspondence, some of which demonstrates his efforts in preserving the memory of Thomas Wolfe's life and work. There are letters to and from individuals who wrote about or knew Thomas Wolfe, especially LeGette Blythe, Aldo P. Magi, John Skally Terry, Andrew Turnbull, Henry T. Volkening, Richard Walser, and Wolfe's literary agent and first biographer Elizabeth Nowell.
In addition to the alphabetical correspondence files, there are subject files containing material relating to the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Association, documents from the Thomas Wolfe Estate, other legal and financial documents, materials relating to real estate in Asheville and in Florida, correspondence about grave markers in Asheville, a few manuscripts of published and unpublished articles about Thomas Wolfe, and a few copies of Fred Wolfe's speeches about Thomas Wolfe.
There are playbills from productions related to Thomas Wolfe or his work, tourist guides for Asheville, and publicity materials about the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Association and the Old Kentucky Home. Wolfe family memorabilia, which contains only printed material, includes commencement invitations; some business cards for the Old Kentucky Home; and a small printed advertisement for the North Carolina, Julia E. Wolfe's 1904 boarding house in Saint Louis, Mo. Also included are Mabel Wolfe Wheaton's autograph album and guest book, a small account book that belonged to Julia E. Wolfe before her marriage, a small notebook of W.O. Wolfe, and several other items.
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Series Quick Links
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Series 1. Correspondence.
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Series 2. Subject Files.
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Series 3. Other Materials.