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Collection Number: 02967

Collection Title: Peter Force and William Q. Force Collection, 1775-1875.

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.


This collection was rehoused and a summary created with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities; this finding aid was created with support from NC ECHO.

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Size 0.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 73 items)
Abstract The collection includes papers acquired by Peter Force, collector and historical editor of Washington, D.C., and his son, William Q. Force, concerning the dispute over the authenticity of the Mecklenburg County, N.C., declaration of independence of 1775, including correspondence of the Forces and other persons, copies of pertinent materials, and a scrapbook of clippings.
Creator Force, Peter, 1790-1868.
Curatorial Unit University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.
Language English
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Restrictions to Access
No restrictions. Open for research.
Restrictions to Use
No usage restrictions.
Copyright Notice
Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], in the Peter Force and William Quereau Force Collection, #2967, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Alternate Form of Material
Scrapbook available on microfilm.
Acquisitions Information
Received from William Henry Hoyt of New York, N.Y., August 1953.
Additional Descriptive Resources
A copy of the original finding aid for this collection is filed in folder 1a.
Sensitive Materials Statement
Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.
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Processed by: SHC Staff

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

Updated by: Kate Stratton and Jodi Berkowitz, April 2009

This collection was rehoused and a summary created with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This finding aid was created with support from NC ECHO.

Diacritics and other special characters have been omitted from this finding aid to facilitate keyword searching in web browsers.

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The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Biographical Information

Peter Force (1790-1868) was a collector and historical editor of Washington, D.C., interested in the authenticity of the Mecklenburg County, N.C., declaration of independence of 1775. His son, William Q. (William Quereau) Force (1820-1880) was also involved in the dispute over the declaration.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Scope and Content

The collection includes papers acquired by Peter Force and his son, William Q. Force, concerning the dispute over the authenticity of the Mecklenburg County, N.C., declaration of independence of 1775, including correspondence of the Forces and other persons, copies of pertinent materials, and a scrapbook of clippings. There is also a catalog booklet compiled by the Records Survey conducted by the Works Progress Administration in 1940, calendaring the papers and including an index of names present in the papers.

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Contents list

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Peter Force and William Q. Force Collection, 1775-1875.

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