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Albert Earle Garrett, Jr. (1909-1998), a graduate of the University of North Carolina Law School, practiced law in Danville, Va. In his student days, he met Swain Wu, a Chinese citizen (then called Swain Wool) pursuing an education at the College of William and Mary and at Columbia University. After his return to China, Wu became an educator, businessman, and government official. In 1957, Wu left mainland China and moved to Hong Kong; in 1963, he immigrated to the United States.

A.P. Watt was the world's first literary agency and was the largest for its first thirty years of operation. Alexander Pollock Watt (1834-1914) began working as a literary agent in 1875 when a friend asked him to negotiate a contract with a London publishing company. By 1881, A.P. Watt had incorporated his business and begun to define the role of the literary agent. The A.P. Watt firm has remained in the forefront of the market in popular fiction and it has counted numerous important and/or best-selling authors among its clients.

M. Rutledge Rivers (1868-1940), lawyer of Charleston, S.C., who served as attorney for various corporations and corporate counsel for the City of Charleston, 1918-1920. Rivers was also active in civic affairs, chairing the Port Utilities Commission in 1923 and serving on the South Carolina Board of Education and on the boards of trustees of both the College of Charleston and the Medical College of South Carolina. The collection includes correspondence relating to M. Rutledge Rivers's solicitation of support from political allies for his son, Buist Rivers, who was seeking the chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee of the South Carolina legislature; a yearbook celebrating the centennial of the High School of Charleston, of which Rivers was then president of the board of trustees; a couple of miscellaneous items relating to the Masonic Lodge; a certificate of membership on the South Carolina State Board of Education; and a microfilm copy of a letterpress copybook, ca. 700 pages, containing business letters, 1 March 1894-28 October 1898. The letters relate to legal actions Rivers undertook on behalf of various clients. An index to correspondents is included in the front of the volume.

George Washington Carver (1864?-1943), African-American scientist of the Experimental Station of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Insitute, was known for his work in agricultural experimentation, especially in investigations of uses of peanuts and sweet potatoes and extraction of dyes from soils and clays. He was also an accomplished painter and lectured extensively in behalf of agricultural improvements and interracial cooperation. Wilson L. Newman first met Carver when Newman was a student at Vanderbilt University and chair of the Commission on Race of the Regional Council of the Student Y.M.C.A. Newman later taught in the Home-Study Department of the University of Chicago.

H. L. Mencken of Baltimore, Md., was a journalist, author, and critic.

Harriett Hardison Robson (b. 1899) of Wadesboro, N.C., was married to C. J. Canaga, a United States Army officer, and from 1927-1931 they lived in Peking, China where he was assigned as a language officer and military attache. The collection consists primarily of letters from Robson to her mother written while she was living in Peking. The letters describe Peking, the military and political struggle between Nationalist and Communist forces for control of the Chinese government, Chinese customs, trips to historic sites around Peking and to northern provinces, and social activities among the foreign legations in Peking. Also included are a drawing of William Henry Donald, a few clippings, and a Christmas card. Additionally, there are 51 photographs taken in the northern provinces of China and the Hawaiian Islands.

The American Association (later Alliance) for Health, Physical Education and Recreation, a division of the National Education Association, was formed in 1927 to awaken a wide and intelligent interest in physical and health education; to acquire and disseminate knowledge concerning it; and to promote such universal physical and health education as will provide well-trained teachers and secure adequate programs throughout the South. The Southern District includes Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.

Leonard Earl Fields was born in 1897 in Kinston, N.C. He attended the University of North Carolina for his undergraduate degree, 1917-1921, and received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1929. He married Sarah Beckton Stanley in 1924. Fields became a practicing physician in 1930 in Chapel Hill, N.C. He served as an examining physician for the Selective Service System in Orange County, N.C., during World War II. Fields died in September 1984.

August Wilhelm was the fourth son of Wilhelm II, German Emperor, (1859-1941). He continued to use the title Prince of Prussia after father's abdication in 1918; he supported the National Socialists in the 1930s.

For many years, an organization of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill students and faculty organized, planned, and supervised the biennial Carolina Symposium on Public Affairs, a week-long program of speeches, panel discussions, seminars, and other activities focusing on a topic of current political, social, economic, or cultural interest. Under the leadership of University President Frank Porter Graham and Dean of Students Francis F. Bradshaw, the Symposium originated in 1927 as the Institute of Human Relations.