Since our last update, we’ve reached the milestone of 80,000 items within our Digital Collections, following the addition of several new digital collections and more items added to our established collections. The following are our most recent collections we’ve made available online.
Curt D. Baum Family Collection
Curt D. Baum was a Jewish boy of 17 years old when he was sent in 1937 to live in the United States from Germany to escape Nazi rule. Over the next several years, he received a series of letters from family members (mostly his parents) in Germany, which provide a vivid and often unique view of Jewish life under Nazism – and the efforts to find refuge in the United States – in the years just prior to and at the beginning of World War II and the Holocaust. Some of Baum’s descendants currently live in Cincinnati, Ohio and Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Baum was born in 1921, and passed away in 2004.
This collection includes correspondence letters from Germany and family photographs of Baum and family members.
George Carl and Cordie Phillips Loven Papers
George Carl Loven was born in Burke County, North Carolina, in 1891. In 1893, Cordie Lucretia Phillips was born in Mitchell County. Cordie was a teacher in Ledger, North Carolina, and later was a general store clerk in Spruce Pine. Carl and Cordie met at the Spruce Pine fair. Carl was drafted into the U.S. Army during World War I.
The two frequently wrote letters to one another during the war, while Carl was drafted to train in South Carolina and deployed in Europe. Carl fought in France and Belgium, where he suffered a leg wound requiring hospital treatment. After his return to the United States, Carl and Cordie were married in 1920 and settled in Spruce Pine. They had two daughters together, Marjorie and Evelyn. Cordie died in 1963, followed by Carl in 1968.
This collection contains correspondence between George Carl Loven and his future wife, Cordie Phillips Loven from 1917-1920. The collection’s legal papers contain a biographical statement of the relationship between George Carl Loven and Cordie Phillips Loven, as well as copies of several military documents and birth certificates, and a few photographs.
Howell Smith Oral History Recordings
J. Howell Smith was raised in Farmersville, Texas. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Baylor University (1959), a master’s degree from Tulane University (1961), and a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1968) with funding from a Rockefeller Foundation program to send more scholars to the American South. He also completed coursework at Howard University, in 1969. Smith joined the WFU History Department in 1965 and remained until his retirement in 2007, when he became a professor emeritus. He began teaching about non-southern history topics in his first few years at Wake Forest, including African-American history.
In 1968, English professor Dr. Thomas Gossett and Smith began offering January term trips to Washington, D.C., and New York City’s Harlem neighborhood centered on African-American life. The oral histories in this collection were conducted by WFU students as part of Smith’s class offerings.
Currently featured in the collection is an interview with William “Bill” Stevens, a former WFU student. Steven recalls his involvement along with other WFU students, who joined a group of students from Winston-Salem State University to protest segregated lunch counters in Winston-Salem on Feb. 23, 1960. More recordings to be added.
Bill Stevens Interview: Part 1:
Hubert Ashley Royster was an alumnus of Wake Forest College (Class of 1891), a medical doctor, and an author.
His papers contain biographical information; his Wake Forest College senior thesis; two grade reports from Wake Forest College, 1889-90; and photographs of the “Righteous Thirteen” , 1890; the 1898 football team; the Terpsichorean Serenading Club, 1890; and Sophomore, Junior, and Senior photographs of Royster, 1889-91.
Joseph Edward Carter POW Journal and Papers
Joseph Edward “Ed” Carter served in the United States Army as a B-17 bomber pilot during WWII. On October 19, 1943, he was shot down over Bremen, Germany. He was initially declared killed in action, and his parents had a memorial service for him.
However, Carter was actually captured and was held at the Stalag Luft III German prisoner of war camp located in Sagan, 100 miles south-east of Berlin, now called Zagan, in Upper Silesia, Poland. He was later held in the Stalag Luft VI German prisoner of war camp, located near the town of Heydekrug, Memelland (now Šilutė in Lithuania).
Upon his return to the United States, he married his childhood sweetheart, Evelyn Culberson, and had four sons. He died in 2016. This collection includes Carter’s POW journal written during his time at Stalag Luft III, “The Evacuation of Stalag Luft III, Sagan, Germany”, written by Carter, and a military portrait of Carter.
Sanders Meredith Ingram Papers
Sanders Meredith Ingram attended Wake Forest College in the first class, 1834-1835, and then returned in 1838-1840. He served in the Mexican War as a volunteer from Tennessee, and briefly as a lieutenant in the 38th Regt. North Carolina Infantry during the Civil War. He was a planter in Richmond County, North Carolina and served in the North Carolina General Assembly.
This collection contains biographical information and correspondence with family and friends, and with friends serving in the 38th and 23rd North Carolina infantry regiments during the Civil War. Two journals contain accounts of his life in Rockingham, 1842-44, and his experiences in the Mexican War, 1846.
His published account of his Mexican War experiences are found in the 1848 issues of the North Carolina Argus in this collection. Another newspaper (1885) contains information on the centennial of Cedar Creek Baptist Church (now Lilesville Baptist Church). Also included is a “promissory note for the hiring of a Negro” dated 1858.
Wake Forest University’s Student Government is the representative body for the undergraduate classes and the School of Business. This collection includes election materials, such as advertisements and results, budget materials, judicial committee materials, leadership conference materials, and information and records regarding the legislature. New materials are being added to this collection regularly.
Biennial reports of the Eugenics Board of North Carolina
Located in the Books and Pamphlets collection, these reports cover the years 1934 to 1950.
7 Comments on ‘New Digital Collections, Come See!’
Thank you, Mel, and thank you to all our student employees, for making these collections available!
These are all wonderful and fascinating collections. Thanks so much for making them accessible. Congratulations.
Congrats on passing the 80,000 items milestone! These new collections look interesting and are wonderful additions to our digital offerings.
What an interesting post, Mel! I loved reading these stories. Many thanks to you and your team in the digitization lab for making these collections available online.
Congratulations to you all for growing our digital collection so much! I had to look at the George Carl and Cordie Phillips Loven Papers because my grandfather was in WWI and we have the letters between him and his future wife for about the same period of time before they got married. It’s possible they would have been in training together at Camp Sevier, so I had to have a close look at that section! There are more postcards in this collection than in ours!
Congratulations and thank you for this valuable work. The results are impressive.
Much appreciation for the work you to do make these collections available, searchable, and as accessible as possible, Mel!