Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Helen Wolfe Evans. Papers, 1860-2002. Accession 42286. Personal papers collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Helen Wolfe Evans, Raleigh, North Carolina, 31 October 2005.

Biographical/Historical Information

Helen Wolfe Evans (1935-2009) was born Helen Baldwin Wolfe on 9 February 1935 in Richmond, Virginia, the daughter of Helen Perkins Hughes Wolfe (1897-1992) and Thomas Kennerly Wolfe (1892-1972). Her elder brother is the novelist Tom Wolfe (1930-2018). On 21 August 1957, she married Murphy Evans (1932-2012) in Richmond. The couple, which eventually relocated to North Carolina, had four children: Helen Hughes Evans, Virginia Borden Evans, David Murphy Evans, and Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Evans. In 1989, Helen Wolfe Evans earned a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies degree from Duke University. Much of her research there focused on Ella Graham Agnew (1871-1958), younger sister of Evans's maternal grandmother, Martha "Mattie" Agnew Hughes (1860-1934). Helen Wolfe Evans died in Raleigh, North Carolina, 21 April 2009.

Scope and Content

Papers, 1860-2002, include correspondence, newspaper clippings, and legal documents gathered by Helen Wolfe Evans (1935-2009) while researching the life of her great-aunt Ella Graham Agnew (1871-1958), an educator, administrator, and pioneer of the home demonstration movement. Files deal with various aspects of Agnew's life and legacy, including family members, friends, and business associates; the town of Burkeville, Virginia, where she spent her childhood; her service as a teacher and seminary principal in South Africa from 1895-1900; her place in and the general history of home demonstration work; organizations and agencies with which she was involved, including the Young Women's Christian Association and the Works Progress Administration; and honors such as buildings named after her, an honorary doctorate from the College of William and Mary, and a highway marker. Also included are a genealogy of the Agnew, Hughes, and related families; a transcript of a 1988 interview by Evans of her mother, Helen Hughes Wolfe; and two papers, 1988 and 1989, written on Agnew by Evans while a graduate student at Duke University.

Arrangement

File groupings and labels assigned by the donor have been maintained for the most part, and are arranged alphabetically.