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A Guide to the Willis M. Carter Collection, ca. 1894-2017 Carter, Willis M., Collection ca. 1894-2017 51546

A Guide to the Willis M. Carter Collection, ca. 1894-2017

A Collection in
the Library of Virginia
Accession Number 51546


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Library of Virginia

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© 2016 By The Library of Virginia. All Rights Reserved.

Processed by: Margaret Rhett

Repository
The Library of Virginia
Accession Number
51546
Title
Willis M. Carter Collection, ca. 1894-2017
Extent
8.52 cu. ft. and 18 boxes
Creator
Willis M. Carter
Language
English

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Willis M. Carter Collection, ca. 1896-2017. Accession 51546. Personal papers collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Deborah Harding of New York, New York; Cuesta Benberry of St. Louis, Missouri; and Jennifer Vickers of Staunton, Virginia.

Biographical Information

Willis McGlascoe Carter was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, to Samuel Carter and Rhoda Brown Carter. Born into slavery the first of eleven children, Carter was educated at Wayland Seminary in Washington, D.C., became a teacher, a newspaper editor, and a statesman and political activist respected for his work to promote African American political rights and educational opportunities. He married Serena Bell Johnson (ca. 1869-5 August 1898) on 13 September 1888 and had two sons, Roscoe Wilson Carter (4 July 1889-28 December 1974) and Storum W. Carter (21 February 1893-28 February 1894). Carter is believed to be buried at Fairview Cemetery in Staunton, Virginia.

Cuesta Aldine Ray Benberry was born 8 September 1923 in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Walter Ray, Sr., and Marie Jones, and was raised and lived in St. Louis, Missouri. Benberry was an esteemed historian, particularly of African American quilts and culture, a teacher, and a librarian. She married George L. Benberry in 1951 and had one son, George, Jr., born in 1953. Benberry died 23 August 2007.

Scope and Content

Collection, ca. 1894-2017, of Willis McGlasgoe Carter (1852-1902), an African American newspaper editor in Staunton, Virginia, consisting of a journal, ca. 1894, by Carter; issue, 1 September 1894, of Carter's newspaper, the Staunton Tribune ; and a memorial, 1902, written by Carter's fellow teachers at Public School no. 2 in Staunton at Carter's death. Collection also contains additional research notes and materials gathered by Deborah Harding, Cuesta Benberry, and Margaret Rhett, including articles, interviews, maps, photographs, and court and federal records for the book From Slave to Statesman, The Life of Educator, Editor, and Civil Rights Activist Willis M. Carter of Virginia by Robert Heinrich and Deborah Harding, forward by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., published by LSU Press in May 2016. Collection also contains papers of Cuesta Benberry (1923-2007) of St. Louis, Missouri, who discovered the Carter journal.

Adjunct Descriptive Data

Other Finding Aid

Consult both the on-line finding aid and the hard copy finding aid located in the first folder in the first box of the collection.

Other Finding Aid

Consult both the on-line finding aid and the hard copy finding aid located in the first folder in the first box of the collection.

Contents List

Box 1
Collection contents list folder.
Box 1 Folder A
Willis M. Carter journal.
Box 1 Folder B
Willis M. Carter memorial tribute.
Box 1 Folder C
Staunton Tribune (see box 18, folder 100).
Box 1 Folder 1
Herringshaw's listing of Willis M. Carter.
Box 1 Folder 2
Goodloes/Winns (3 folders).
Box 1 Folder 2A
"The Ethiopian "--Portuguese slave trade.
Box 1 Folder 3
Goodloes-Lipscomb.
Box 1 Folder 4
Lipscomb.
Box 1 Folder 5
Goodloes.
Box 2 Folder 6
Goodloes/Fancy Hill/Sneeds-Hemings.
Box 2 Folder 7
Locust Dale--Sam Towler (2 folders).
Box 2 Folder 8
Jane Lew--Goodloes--Stephens and Jacksons.
Box 3 Folder 9
George A. Farrow--Brooksville (3 folders).
Box 3 Folder 10
Civil War--miscellaneous.
Box 3 Folder 10A
Civil War book-- On the Home Front: A Civil War Diary from Augusta County, Virginia .
Box 3 Folder 11
Southern Claims depositions (2 folders).
Box 4 Folder 12
Sawmill, 1868.
Box 4 Folder 13
Hanger's Farm.
Box 4 Folder 14
Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad and N. B. Shepherd/Hinton.
Box 4 Folder 15
Capon Springs.
Box 4 Folder 16
Porcelain Works and Waynesboro school.
Box 4 Folder 17
Washington--schools-churches-Baptists.
Box 4 Folder 18
Newport, Rhode Island, and the Centennial.
Box 4 Folder 19
Washington-- "Private Schools "--Virginia Avenue--Drama Club Association.
Box 5 Folder 20
Washington--Columbian law building.
Box 5 Folder 21
Washington--city directories and 1880 census page.
Box 5 Folder 22
Daniel O'Brien.
Box 5 Folder 23
Washington libraries.
Box 5 Folder 24
Wayland Seminary.
Box 5 Folder 25
Wayland catalogues.
Box 5 Folder 26
Tom Brown Prize at Wayland Seminary.
Box 5 Folder 27
Cresson Springs.
Box 6 Folder 28
Rhoda (Brown) Carter Spears (mother of Willis Carter).
Box 6 Folder 29
Rhoda (Brown) Carter Spears (mother of Willis Carter).
Box 6 Folder 30
Rhoda (Brown) Carter Spears (mother of Willis Carter).
Box 6 Folder 30A
Dorcas Carter Thompson.
Box 6 Folder 31
Clara Yarber Brown Pickle.
Box 6 Folder 32
Augusta County schools--history.
Box 7 Folder 33
Supt. Charles Grattan.
Box 7 Folder 34
Smoky Row School.
Box 7 Folder 35
West End/Westwood School.
Box 7 Folder 36
Colored Teachers' Census.
Box 7 Folder 37
The Normal School/Peabody Institute.
Box 7 Folder 38
Augusta County Teachers' Association.
Box 7 Folder 39
National Memorial Association.
Box 7 Folder 40
Augusta County teaching career and pay records (3 folders).
Box 8 Folder 41
P.S. No. 2--Staunton.
Box 8 Folder 42
Staunton School Board minutes.
Box 8 Folder 43
Valley Training School.
Box 8 Folder 44
Francisco Newman.
Box 8 Folder 45
Willis M. Carter's marriage to Serena Bell Johnson.
Box 8 Folder 46
Serena Bell Johnson Carter.
Box 9 Folder 47
Willis and Serena Carter--the Davenports.
Box 9 Folder 48
Serena Carter--true reformers.
Box 9 Folder 49A
"Aunt Harriet " Carter.
Box 9 Folder 49B
414 North Augusta Street--Lee A. and William H. Carter--Kate, Luella, and Lillian Staples.
Box 9 Folder 49C
George Carter.
Box 9 Folder 50
David C. Carter.
Box 9 Folder 51
I Garland Penn book--1891, first edition-- The Afro-American Press and Its Editors .
Box 9 Folder 52
Handwriting comparison to Penn book.
Box 10 Folder 53
1895 Atlanta Exposition.
Box 10 Folder 54
Danville Riot and Willis Carter on committee.
Box 10 Folder 55
Danville Riot--Frank T. Ware.
Box 10 Folder 56
Book--Jane Dailey's Before Jim Crow .
Box 10 Folder 57
Book--Charles E. Wynes' Race Relations in Virginia 1870-1902 .
Box 10 Folder 58
Politics--Virginia history.
Box 10 Folder 59
Emancipation Day celebration.
Box 10 Folder 60
1893 Roanoke.
Box 10 Folder 61
Campaign clubs.
Box 10 Folder 62
Willis Carter--Owensville (a different person also named Willis Carter).
Box 10 Folder 63
Republican convention and 1896 St. Louis National Republican Convention.
Box 10 Folder 64
Negro Protective Association--Richmond 1897.
Box 11 Folder 65
Negro Educational and Industrial Association--Charlottesville.
Box 11 Folder 65A
Mattie Brown in Washinton.
Box 11 Folder 66
The Constitutional Convention--Richmond, 1901-1902.
Box 11 Folder 67
James H. Hayes.
Box 11 Folder 68
Willis M. Carter--death/obituaries.
Box 11 Folder 68A
Photo believed to be Willis M. Carter.
Box 11 Folder 68B
2010 Fairview Cemetery ceremony honoring Willis Carter.
Box 11 Folder 69
Willis M. Carter--voting record.
Box 12 Folder 70
City directories (2 folders).
Box 12 Folder 71
City directories after 1904.
Box 12 Folder 72
"Colored Secret Societies "/lodges.
Box 12 Folder 73
Miscellaneous 1902 newspaper articles.
Box 12 Folder 74
Jennie Leitch/Leech--court papers for Roscoe Carter.
Box 12 Folder 75
Jennie/Jessie Leitch--census records.
Box 12 Folder 76
Leitch/Leech family obituaries.
Box 12 Folder 77
Leitch/Leech family photographs and June 2006 interview with Mr. William M. Leech (M. for McGascoe).
Box 12 Folder 78
Leitch family miscellany.
Box 13 Folder 79
Roscoe Wilson Carter--Virginia and St. Louis, Missouri--Fay Eva Wallace Carter.
Box 13 Folder 80
Roscoe Wilson Carter--Chicago, Illinois--Marguerite Carter.
Box 13 Folder 81
Hortense Hilaire Brown.
Box 13 Folder 82
Roscoe Wilson Carter--death records.
Box 13 Folder 83
Miscellaneous Staunton and Augusta County history.
Box 13 Folder 84
Staunton and Augusta County maps.
Box 13 Folder 85
Miscellaneous cemetery records--Augusta County/Staunton.
Box 13 Folder 86
Staunton history book-- Staunton, Virginia: A Pictorial History .
Box 14 Folder 87
Cuesta Benberry.
Box 14 Folder 87A
Cuesta Benberry--African American newspapers and text.
Box 14 Folder 88
Willis Carter's Southern / Staunton Tribune 1890s.
Box 14 Folder 89
Miscellaneous newspapers and editor information.
Box 14 Folder 90
1927 and 1928 issues of the Staunton Tribune .
Box 14 Folder 91
1920s Staunton Tribune and W. C. Brown.
Box 14 Folder 92
"Signatures " at back of Carter's journal.
Box 14 Folder 93
Copy of Carter's journal, memorial tribute, and transcript.
Box 15 Folder 94
Cuesta Benberry--biographies and obituaries.
Box 15 Folder 95
Bibliography.
Box 15 Folder 96
2009 newspaper article and editorial.
Box 15 Folder 97
Staunton, Virginia, research trip photographs and documents, 2006.
Box 16 Folder 98
Cuesta Benberry research files (4 folders).
Box 17 Folder 99
Deborah Harding research drafts (2 folders).
Box 17 Folder 99A
Miscellaneous Harding research material.
Box 17 Folder 102
Richard Slatten Award for From Slave to Statesman from the Virginia Historical Society, 2017 .
Box 17 Folder 103
Augusta Historical Bulletin , 2016, containing review of From Slave to Stateman (pp. 143-145).
Box 17 Folder 104
Book reviews of From Slave to Statesman , 2016-2017 ( "H-Net Reviews, " North Carolina Historical Review , Virginia Magazine of History and Biography , Journal of Southern History , and Kraina Ksiazek, a bookstore in Poland).
Box 17 Folder 105
From Slave to Stateman events in Staunton, Virginia, May 2016 .
Box 17 Folder 106
From Slave to Stateman group discussion in New York City at the Church of St. Luke in the Fields, April-May 2017 .
Box 18 Folder 100
Staunton Tribune , 1 September 1894 .
Box 18 Folder 101
Maps.
Box 18
Illustrated Historical Atlas of Augusta County , 1885 .
Box 18
Herringshaw's Encyclopedia of American Biography , 1898 .