William Ruthrauff Amberson Papers, 1915-1977

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Summary

Creator:
Amberson, William Ruthrauff, b. 1894.
Abstract:

William R. Amberson was a professor at the University of Tennessee Medical School at Memphis, 1930-1937, advisor to the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union, and trustee of the Delta and Providence cooperative farms in Mississippi.

The collection is primarily personal correspondence relating to Amberson's activities as a member of the Socialist Party and his relationship with the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union (STFU) and the Delta and Providence cooperatives farms. Also included are a few clippings, manuscript copies of some speeches and articles, eviction notices, and several financial papers, including receipts of tenants and expense sheets of H. L. Mitchell, secretary of the STFU. Also scattered through the main body of the papers are items dealing with the Socialist Party in Tennessee, the Communist Party in the South, the Llano del Rio Cooperative Colony in Louisiana, race relations, the condition of the southern tenant farmer, and southern politics. Correspondents include Roger Baldwin, C. T. Carpenter, Sherwood Eddy, Sam H. Franklin, Robert S. Keebler, Howard Kester, Koss Kimberlin, George Lambert, A. James McDonald, Mary Connor Myers, Clarence Senior, Norman Thomas, Frank Trager, Blaine Treadway, James Peter Warbasse, and Lawrence Westbrook. Also included is a small amount of correspondence with Pauli Murray, regarding Amberson's participation in a March 1940 National Sharecroppers Week event. Later correspondence documents Amberson's donation of his papers to the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In addition, there is a very small amount of scattered family correspondence, as well as professional correspondence relating to Amberson's work at the University of Tennessee Medical School at Memphis and later at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, circa 1939 to 1959, and the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., after 1960.

Extent:
1600 items (3.5 linear feet)
Language:
Materials in English

Background

Scope and content:

Mostly personal correspondence of William R. Amberson, concerning the Southern Tenant Farmers Union (STFU), the Delta and Providence Cooperative Farms, the Socialist Party, and related matters. Also included in the papers are a few clippings, manuscript copies of some speeches and articles, eviction notices and several financial papers, including receipts of tenants and expense sheets of H. L. Mitchell, secretary of the STFU.

The 1933-1937 papers deal mostly with the STFU in Arkansas and Oklahoma. There are no papers for 1938. 1939-1940 concerns principally the Cooperative Farms. There are only seven letters between 1945 and 1968, including one from Norman Thomas in 1968. The collection also contains letters from A. James ("Mac") McDonald who worked at Delta and Providence Cooperative Farms, from 1940-1959.

Other topics scattered through the main body of the papers are the Socialist Party of Tennessee, the Communist Party in the South, the Llano del Rio Cooperative Colony of Louisiana, race relations, the conditions of the southern tenant farmers and southern politics.

The Addition of May 2006 includes correspondence, chiefly concerning the events leading up to and following William R. Amberson's resignation from the board of Delta Cooperative Farm in February 1939. Also documented is Amberson's involvement with the Southern Tenant Farmer's Union. Correspondents include Sherwood Eddy, Sam H. Franklin, Howard Kester, A. James McDonald, Norman Thomas, and Blaine Treadwell. Also includes a small amount of correspondence with Pauli Murray, regarding Amberson's participation in a March 1940 National Sharecroppers Week event. There is also significant amount of correspondence with J. Isaac Copeland and others, 1967-1977, related to the donation of Amberson's papers to the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Correspondence, 1972-1973, documents communication with Copeland and others regarding a manuscript prepared by Amberson about being mistaken for a member of John Dillinger's gang in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1934. In addition, there is a very small amount of scattered family correspondence, as well as professional correspondence relating to Amberson's work at the University of Tennessee Medical School at Memphis and later at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, Md., and at Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass.

Acquisition information:
Received from W. R. Amberson of Falmouth, Mass., 1968-1973. Addition of May 2006 (Acc. 100428) received from Barbara Amberson of Sacramento, Calif.
Processing information:

Processed by: SHC Staff, 1997

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

Addition of May 2006 processed by: Martin Gengenbach, May 2011

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.

No usage restrictions.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], in the William Ruthrauff Amberson papers #3862, Southern Historical 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