To view born-digital and digitized versions of archival materials, special collections, and college scholarship from Davidson College and Archives, Special Collections & Community, explore Digital Davidson. For questions about the materials located here, please email the department.
In Special Collections, we have a diverse array of materials, including published books, serials, pamphlets, and maps.
Listed here are publications about legacies of slavery as related to early trustee and faculty families at Davidson College, as well as general local histories.
For more information about what you can find in the library, please search the library's catalog.
2005
Sarah Frew Davidson and Karen MacConnell
An intimate look at the lives of each of Dr. Robert Hall Morrison's six daughters: Isabella Sophia, Harriet Abigail, Mary Anna, Eugenia Erixene, Susan Washington, and Laura Panthea Morrison. Special forward by John Kuykendall, past president of Davidson College (Davidson, NC). Winner of the prestigious 1996 Willie Parker Peace History Book Award.
Major John Davidson of "Rural Hill" plantation, Mecklenburg County, N.C.
1943
The plantation world around Davidson; the story of North Mecklenburg "before the war."
The library also retains copies from 1973 and 1982.
History of the town of Davidson from its founding to the early 21st century.
2012
A history of the Davidson College Presbyterian Church
1987
David Played a Harp is an autobiography by Ralph W. Johnson, a bi-racial, self-educated, retired barber. His barber shop in Davidson, NC was the target of student picketing which challenged state law exempting personal service shops from the civil rights act. He writes personally of the changes of the 20th century in education, race relations, business opportunity.
These typescripts of the nineteenth century faculty meeting minutes are akeyword searchable. The collection also contains the minutes of the Trustees of Western Carolina College (1821 - 1824). These records include information about disciplinary actions, course recommendations, the effects of the Civil War, and the treatment of college "servants."
These typescripts of the nineteenth century trustee meeting minutes are keyword searchable. The Board of Trustees originally comprised of representatives from the various local Presbyterian synods. These records include information about disciplinary actions, faculty proposals, the effects of the Civil War, and the treatment of college "servants."
Report of the Task Force on Racial/Ethnic Concerns (1984)
The Task Force on Racial/Ethnic Concerns was established by President John Kuykendall in 1984 to take a critical look at the environment which the college provided for black students (and students of other racial/ethnic groups) and the experience which that environment afforded them. The Task Force Report Review Subcommittee was appointed in 1988 to conduct a progress review of the strategies outlined in the 1984 Task Force Report on Racial/Ethnic Concerns.
Davidson Monthly (1870 - 1871, 1886 - 1930)
Subtitled “A Magazine Devoted to Science, Literature and Art,” The Davidson Monthly reported on local events, published the important speeches of the Eumenean and Philanthropic literary societies, and ran editorials, but the focus of the magazine was poetry, prose, and essays written by Davidson students and alumni.
Davidson Journal (1987 - Present)
The Davidson Journal was first published in the spring of 1987 at the College's sesquicentennial celebration alongside the Davidson Update (which was a spin-off of the Alumni Journal). It merged with the Davidson Update after the fourth issue in the fall of 1989. It comes out four times a year, once per season, and includes Alumni news and stories about the College. Anyone with a Davidson College Google account can view if you are logged in.
DC022: Robert Zenas Johnston Collection
This collection concerns Robert Zenas Johnston (1834-1908) and includes school notebooks from Davidson College and Columbia Theological Seminary, student essays, correspondence, his sermons (1859-1907) and speeches, as well as a small amount of financial and printed materials.
DC0222s: Jethro Rumple Collection
The collection consists of correspondence concerning the Concord Presbytery, the manuscript of a biography of Rev. John Bunyan Shearer, and manuscript notes about Davidson College in the 1840s, including information about Esom, the president's "body servant."
DC060: General William Lee Davidson Collection
William Lee Davidson was born in 1746, moving from Pennsylvania to North Carolina in 1750. He became a general during the Revolutionary War, dying on the battlefield of Cowan's Ford in February 1781. Davidson College was named in his honor in 1837 after his son donated family land for the construction of the college. A small selection of materials from this collection have been digitized and are available online, here, including a will and information about college governance.
Davidson College Collective Memory: oral history and interview collection
The Davidson College Collective Memory sub-group consists of oral histories and interviews that explore the history and culture of Davidson College. The collection is made up of interviews with Davidson College students, alumni/ae, faculty, staff, and campus partners, including the former "Alumni of Color" interview project.
Digital Davidson: Oral Histories & Interviews
Digital Davidson is the digital repository for Archives & Special Collections. A selection of digitized oral histories and interviews are available via this space, including the "Nuestras Historias: Archiving Latinx Identity at Davidson" project, the "History of Jewishness at Davidson College" project, the "History of Gender and Sexuality at Davidson College" project, and the "History of Asians and Asian Studies at Davidson College" project.
Oral Histories & Interviews (RG19)
The Oral Histories and Interviews Record Group (RG19) holds interviews that primarily cover the history of Davidson College, the Town of Davidson, and the Lake Norman area. The sub-groups within the larger record group overwhelmingly represent course projects produced by Davidson College students in collaboration with college faculty and staff. Visit Digital Davidson to access digitized oral histories.
Davidsoniana Files, or "D-Files," primarily contain secondary source information and are housed in the Archives. This includes newspaper articles, scanned memos, brochures and pamphlets, speeches, and booklets. Copyright restrictions mean the files cannot be digitized in full, but they can be accessed by appointment. For a complete listing of the files available for research, consult the linked document at the bottom of this box.
D-Files related to general campus history include:
To make an appointment to view these files, please email us at archives@davidson.edu.
Davidson College Library Research Guides are licensed under
CC BY-SA 4.0.
Mailing Address: Davidson College - E.H. Little Library, 209 Ridge Road, Box 5000, Davidson, NC 28035
