Roy Thompson Papers, 1940s-1980s

Summary

Creator:
Thompson, Roy, 1923-2007
Abstract:

This collection contains the journals and writings of Roy Thompson (1923-2007), a white columnist and reporter for the Winston-Salem Journal and Sentinel newspapers from 1950 to 1985. 55 three-ring binders of typewritten text on a variety of paper types. Materials include 34 notebooks of Thompson's "North Carolina Notes," short quotations or summaries of facts about North Carolina and North Carolinians that Thompson found in books and other print resources. Entries range across a variety of subjects related to the state's people, literature, history, natural environment, and places. There are more than 24,000 entries, indexed in 9 additional notebooks. The collection also includes 11 notebooks and binders that Thompson kept from 1940 through 1948, which include his years as a student studying journalism at the University of North Carolina. The journals include typescripts of some of Thompson's articles, essays written as a student, and diaries of his life. A binder from 1953 includes clippings of columns and news reports for the Winston-Salem newspapers. There is also a mockup of Thompson's publication Around Europe in 80 Feedboxes, 80 columns that he wrote during travels in Europe in 1955. Materials have been removed from three-ring binders. Received as part of the North Carolina Collection.

Extent:
14,400 items (12 linear feet)
Language:
Materials in English

Background

Biographical / historical:

Roy Thompson (1923-2007) was a local columnist and reporter for the Winston-Salem Journal and Sentinel newspapers from 1950 to 1985. First joining the Journal's staff following his graduation from the University of North Carolina in 1947, he became the Journal's first local columnist when he began writing "The Feedbox" column in 1950. In addition to his columns, Thompson authored a 52-week series for the Journal during the United States of America's bicentennial celebration in 1976, which was combined into a book called Before Liberty. He also wrote a book entitled Mrs. Fletcher' s Eden, about historical novelist Inglis Fletcher, as well as a collection of columns he wrote while on assignment for the Journal were combined into a small book called Around Europe in 80 Feedboxes.

Scope and content:

This collection contains the journals and writings of Roy Thompson (1923-2007), a local columnist and reporter for the Winston-Salem Journal and Sentinel newspapers from 1950 to 1985. 55 three-ring binders of typewritten text on a variety of paper types. Materials include 34 notebooks of Thompson's "North Carolina Notes," short quotations or summaries of facts about North Carolina and North Carolinians that Thompson found in books and other print resources. Entries range across a variety of subjects related to the state's people, literature, history, natural environment, and places. There are more than 24,000 entries, indexed in 9 additional notebooks. The collection also includes 11 notebooks and binders that Thompson kept from 1940 through 1948, which include his years as a student studying journalism at UNC. The journals include typescripts of some of Thompson's articles, essays written as a student, and diaries of his life. A binder from 1953 includes clippings of columns and news reports for the Winston-Salem newspapers. There is also a mockup of Thompson's publication Around Europe in 80 Feedboxes, 80 columns that he wrote during travels in Europe in 1955. Materials have been removed from three-ring binders.

Acquisition information:

Received from Arlene Thompson in May 2024 (Acc. 20241015.1).

Processing information:

Processed by: Andrew Crook and Laura Smith, October 2024

Encoded by: Laura Smith, October 2024

Materials have been removed from the three-ring binders and rehoused into folders.

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.

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.

Access and use

Restrictions to access:

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to use:

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 Roy Thompson Papers #70196, North Carolina Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Location of this collection:
Louis Round Wilson Library
200 South Road
Chapel Hill, NC 27515
Contact:
(919) 962-3765
wilsonlibrary@unc.edu