Manuscript Collections

Manuscript Collections: Writings, correspondence, photographs, drawings, audio-visual, and other primary source materials.

  • A. R. Ammons Audio Collection

    Recorded readings by poet and artist A. R. Ammons from ZSR Library’s Special Collections.

  • A. R. Ammons Watercolors Collection

    Twenty watercolor paintings by American poet, author and Wake Forest University alumni A. R. Ammons.

  • African American Families Photograph Scrapbook Collection

    This collection contains images from an African American families photograph scrapbook collection. Items from the scrapbook span from 1920 to 2000.

  • Album of Reverend Alexander Bell Smith

    Materials include birth and death dates, family information, sermon notes, notes of a student, and a Civil War letter.

  • Arthur Raymond Gallimore Papers

    Arthur Raymond Gallimore and his wife, Gladys S. Gallimore, served as foreign missionaries in China on behalf of the Southern Baptist Convention. This digital collection includes selected materials from the physical collection.

  • Calvin Jones Collection

    Features handwritten documents regarding Jones’ plantations in Wake Forest, N.C.

  • Charles Lee Smith Collection

    Materials related to the meeting between professor and alumus Charles Lee Smith and Mohandas Gandhi in 1924.

  • Civil War in the American South

    A collaborative digital project containing items from the Civil War Era (1850-1865). Materials in this collection include letters, diaries, printed broadsides, and songs.

  • David Allen Hills Collection

    David Allen Hills was a professor of psychology at Wake Forest University. This collection features home movie footage of Hills and his family, including campus footage at Wake Forest .

  • David L. Smiley Papers

    Materials by and regarding Dr. David L. Smiley, Wake Forest University history professor and head of the Reid Staton Bible Class, including course materials and sermons.

  • Dolmen Press Collection - Printing Block Series

    This collection includes wood engravings, wood cuts, linocuts, and various metal plates ranging in date from 1902 to 1985, with the bulk of the blocks dating from the mid-1960s to 1985.

  • Duke Tobacco Company Cigarette Cards

    The Cigarette Cards collection consists of cards issued as advertisement for Duke Brothers and Company, Durham, N.C., and packed in Duke’s cigarettes.

  • Edwin G. Wilson Collection

    Edwin Graves Wilson (b. February 1, 1923), known affectionately as “Mr. Wake Forest,” is Professor Emeritus of English and Provost Emeritus for Wake Forest University. This collection contains selected materials related to Wilson’s work.

  • Eva Rodtwitt Photo Collection

    Eva Rodtwitt is a former lecturer in Romance languages at WFU. Images in this collection cover her early life in Norway during the Nazi occupation.

  • G. McLeod (Mac) Bryan Papers

    George McLeod (Mac) Bryan was a Wake Forest alumnus and prolific writer. This collection primarily includes Freedom of Information Act materials dating from 1947 to 1996.

  • George Carl and Cordie Phillips Loven Papers

    This collection contains their correspondence while Carl was training and deployed with the Army, 1917-1920. A small amount of other items include military and biographical materials, as well as two portrait photographs of Carl.

  • George L. Bright Civil War Diary

    George L. Bright was a band member of the 46th Ohio Volunteer Infantry (or 46th OVI), an infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

  • George Pennell Collection of Circus Materials

    George Pennell was a Wake Forest College alumnus (1914), Board of Trustees member, and an attorney. His legal clients included the city of Asheville and circuses. This collection documents Pennell’s personal and professional interests.

  • Gertrude Stein and Conference Press Collection

    Selected materials from the publishers’ archive for Gertrude Stein’s book, What Are Masterpieces? (Los Angeles: Conference Press, 1940), as well as several Stein manuscript fragments and notes, offprints, reviews, and other Stein ephemera.

  • Gray Family & Graylyn Estate Collection

    This collection features images from the Gray Family Collection and Graylyn Estate Collection.

  • Hayes and McNeill Families Papers

    Notable members of the families include Judge Johnson Jay Hayes, state legislator James Madison Hayes, Jr., Esquire editor and writer Harold T. P. Hayes, and local businessman Kyle Hayes.

  • Herbert E. Valentine Civil War Diary

    Herbert Eugene Valentine served in the Union Army, 23rd Massachusetts Volunteers, Co. F. His manuscript memoirs relate various anecdotes about his army experiences, mostly in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

  • Howell Smith Oral History Recordings

    Collection of oral history interviews facilitated by former Wake Forest University History Professor Howell Smith

  • Hubert Ashley Royster Papers

    Hubert Ashley Royster was an alumnus of Wake Forest College (Class of 1891), a medical doctor, and an author. This collection includes biographical information and other materials.

  • Ira W. Thomas Collection

    The diaries and sermon notes of Ira W. Thomas, a Baptist minister in northwestern North Carolina.

  • John Wesley Clay Brazil Mission Memoirs

    This collection includes memoirs of missionary work by printer, author, and Methodist missionary John Wesley Clay from 1924-1930.

  • Joseph E. Smith Music Manuscript Collection

    Collection of signatures by famous composers and conductors. The collection includes signed letters, postcards, business cards, photographs, and concert programs.

  • Joseph Edward Carter POW Journal and Papers

    This collection includes Carter’s WWII POW journal during his time at the Stalag Luft III POW camp, “The Evacuation of Stalag Luft III, Sagan, Germany”, written by Carter, and a military portrait of Carter.

  • Joseph Severn Watercolors

    A collection of 3 pencil and watercolor images by artists Joseph Severn. These images are noted as being done on his way to Rome with John Keats.

  • Katie Murray Papers

    Katie Murray was a Southern Baptist missionary in China and Taiwan from 1922 until her retirement in 1962. Selected materials in this digital collection includes biographical/genealogical information, correspondence and photographs.

  • Kurt D. Baum Family Collection

    Kurt 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. This collection includes correspondence letters from Germany and family photographs of Baum and his family members.

  • Laurence Stallings Papers

    Laurence Stallings was a writer and Wake Forest College alumnus. He is probably best known for his 1924 play, “What Price Glory.” This collection contains the manuscripts and correspondence of Stallings.

  • Lipe Family Civil War Letters

    This collection consists of 27 letters by 7 different Confederate soldiers, telling of their experiences in the Civil War. Includes a poem and unidentified notes.

  • Max and Gertrude Hoffmann Music Manuscript Collection

    A collection of music manuscripts from the collection of famed vaudevillians & performers Max and Gertrude Hoffman.

  • Max and Gertrude Hoffmann Photograph Collection

    Stunning photographs from the collection of Max and Gertrude Hoffman of Vaudeville and many stage performances from 1900-1956.

  • Odus McCoy Mull Papers

    Odus McCoy Mull was a lawyer, businessman, state politician, and active Wake Forest College alumnus from Shelby, North Carolina. This collection contains Mull’s correspondence, subject files, and other business, legal, personal, and political papers.

  • Penelope Niven Papers

    Penelope Ellen Niven (1939-2014), a celebrated biographer, educator and Wake Forest alumnus, earned national recognition for her works, including Carl Sandburg: A Biography. This collection highlights her contributions to literature, education, and her personal reflections on life, family, and writing.

  • Reynolda School Hiawatha Play Photographic Album

    On May 25, 1921, the Katharine Smith Reynolds’ Reynolda School produced a dramatic version of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s epic poem The Song of Hiawatha.

  • Richard M. Burr Congressional Papers

    Richard Burr was a member of the US House of Representatives and Senate from 1995 – 2023. This collection features selected materials from the Richard M. Burr Congressional Collection housed at ZSR Library.

  • Ronald Watkins Collection

    Selected digitized materials from the Ronald Watkins Collection. This collection includes materials from his time at Harrow School for Boys in Middlesex England as well as audio lectures on various Shakespearean plays and topics.

  • Samuel & Sarah Wait Collection

    Scanned images and transcripts of selected material from the Wait collection; digital finding aid for the entire collection.

  • Samuel Tilden Habel, Jr. Papers

    Samuel T. Habel, Jr. served as a Baptist pastor, college professor, and writer. This digital collection documents Habel’s professional work regarding materials related to his book writing.

  • 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.

  • Theater Actor Prints and Photographs Collection

    Early stage and film actors and actresses, performers, directors, and royalty from the 1880s through the 1930s.

  • Thomas K. Hearn Collection

    Selected materials in this collection document the years of Thomas Hearn’s presidency at Wake Forest University.

  • Wilbur J. Cash Collection

    This collection consists of some of Cash’s writings, including the Mind of the South in typescript, articles, review clippings, business, and personal correspondence of W.J. Cash and his wife Mary, photographs, and ephemera.

  • William Crenshaw Papers

    This collection includes handwritten bills of sale of enslaved African Americans owned by Crenshaw, as well as other handwritten financial documents dating back as early as 1817.

  • William L. Hughes Family Photo Collection

    William L. Hughes was a longtime member of Wake Forest University’s grounds staff. This collection includes early 20th century African American images of Hughes’ family.

  • William Louis Poteat Collection

    Digitized materials from the William Louis Poteat Papers collection. Poteat was an educator, Wake Forest alumnus (Class of 1877), biology professor, and President of Wake Forest College from 1905-1927.

  • World War I Collection

    This collection includes materials from soldiers in the war. It includes a songbook, a journal, uniform materials, and research pertaining to U.S. military personnel.

  • World War I Posters

    Includes 134 color photographs of propaganda posters pertaining to World War I publicizing efforts.