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.
An intimate look at the lives of each of Davidson College president Dr. Robert Hall Morrison's six daughters: Isabella Sophia, Harriet Abigail, Mary Anna, Eugenia Erixene, Susan Washington, and Laura Panthea Morrison.
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
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.
RG 12/30: Black Student Coalition Records
The Black Student Coalition was founded in 1967 "to establish and maintain a spirit of solidarity among the black students of Davidson College." The collection contains various charters, Project 87, the Rainbow Revue Newsletter, and a statement of protest against "old south" parties on campus. The collection is only partially digitized.
RG 5/4.3: Alumni and Family Engagement, Black Alumni Network Newsletters (1990 - 2001)
A selection of materials related to the Davidson Black Alumni Network (DBAN) have been digitized for access. These include select issues of the Black Alumni Network Newsletters. These newsletters feature articles about campus happenings, reunion plans, and short biographical updates. Access the scans of the newsletter at the link, here.
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.
RG 12/4: Student Government Association, Records from the Diversity Coordinating Committee
Description: This collection consists of records from the Student Government Association, including information on student clubs and organizations, meeting minutes from various SGA committees, and documents related to campus life and policy decisions. Included are records from the Diversity Coordinating Committee. The minutes of this committee have been digitized and are available, here.
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 email address can view if you are logged in.
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."
DC0111s: Pinckney Chambers Letter
Pinckney Brown Chambers was a member of the Davidson College class of 1840. This collection consists of a December 9 1837 letter written by Chambers that describes his experiences at Davidson, including record of an incident in which students were expelled from the college for interacting with enslaved persons. This letter has been digitized and is available, here.
These letters were selected from a number of the small manuscript collections housed in Archives and Special Collections. The dates of the letters range from 1837 to 1921. Each letter contains references to college life and events. Many of them also have information about family, friends, events, including the Civil War, the town of Davidson, and interactions with enslaved people.
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.
1914-2016
Student Newspaper
Spreadsheet with select article titles related to marginalized populations, here
1842-2011
1895-2011
Student Yearbook
View a spreadsheet with select issues and pages from Quips and Cranks related to marginalized populations.
Campus postcards from the late 19th to early 21st century
The semi-centennial catalog Davidson College (1837-1887) was the first attempt at a comprehensive compilation of Davidson alumni, trustees, and faculty providing far more data than the preexisting lists of Davidson graduates.
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 prevent the digitization of these files in full, but they are accessible via 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 the student experience include:
To make an appointment to view these materials, 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
