Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

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 Mary Malvina Southard Geer Papers #05005, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Provenance

Received from Anne Geer of Pittsboro, N.C., in November 1999 (Acc. 98517). Addition received from Anne Geer and Sarah Geer in August 2022 (Acc. 20230511.1).

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.

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.

• Family--South Carolina--Social life and customs--20th century.
• Furman University--Students--History--20th century.
• Geer family.
• Geer, Mary Malvina Southard.
• Geer, Solomon Haddon, 1890-1935.
• Greenville Woman's College--Students--History--20th century.
• Mexico--History--Revolution, 1910-1920.
• Philippines--Description and travel.
• Southard family.
• Soviet Union--History--Revolution, 1917-1921--Photographs.
• Students--South Carolina--Social life and customs--20th century.
• United States Naval Academy--Students--History--20th century.
• United States. Navy--Officers--Correspondence--History--20th century.
• United States. Navy--Sea life.
• Veracruz (Veracruz, Mexico)--History--American occupation, 1914.
• Women college students--South Carolina.
• Women--Education, Higher--South Carolina--History--20th century.
• World War, 1914-1918--Naval operations.
• Geer, William Monroe, 1915-1999.
• Perry, B. F. (Benjamin Franklin), 1805-1886.

• Interview with William Geer by Pamela Dean, 27 July 1990 L-0034, in the Southern Oral History Program Collection #4007, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Mary Malvina Southard was the daughter of W. O. Southard and his wife, S. C. Southard, of Jonesville, S.C. She was attending Greenville Female College (later Greenville Woman's College) in 1907, when she met Solomon Haddon Geer, the son of a hotelier from Belton, S.C. Geer was a sophomore at Furman University. Their relationship continued through Geer's years at Furman and his attendance at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., 1909-1913. They were married in June 1913. Solomon Haddon Geer subsequently served on various naval vessels and participated in the occupation of Veracruz, Mexico, by United States troops in 1914. He was then transferred to duty in the Pacific, serving on a survey ship in the Philippines after the outbreak of World War I. He may have contracted tuberculosis in 1917. He returned to the United States in 1918 and was estranged from his wife. He died in 1935.

Mary Malvina Southard Geer and Solomon Haddon Geer had two children: William "Bill" Monroe Geer (1915-1999) and Dorothy Haddon Geer (1918-2002). Bill Geer was a long-time history professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The collection contains a large number of letters, 1906-1936 and undated, from Solomon Haddon Geer to Greenville Female College (later Greenville Woman's College) student Mary Malvina Southard during their courtship and after their marriage in 1913. There are also letters from other members of the Southard and Geer families to Mary Malvina Southard Geer. The letters from Solomon Haddon Geer discuss his social life while a student at Furman University, his academic and social experiences while at the United States Naval Academy, details of his training and duties while serving in the United States Navy on various warships, and his experiences during the 1914 occupation of Veracruz, Mexico, and on survey duty in the Philippines during World War I. Also included are typed transcripts of most of the letters; photographs of Mary Malvina Southard Geer; and photographs taken during the Russian Revolution, that appear to depict the aftermath of the coup attempt led by Czech general Rudolf Gajda, in Vladivostok, Russia, in 1919. The addition of August 2022 includes Geer family postcards; transcripts of two interviews with Mary Malvina Southard Geer's son, former UNC-Chapel Hill history professor William Monroe Geer about his upbringing in Jonesville, S.C.; and William Monroe Geer's handwritten transcription of a journal kept by 19th century South Carolina politician Benjamin Franklin Perry. Journal entries date from Entries from 1832 to 1863.

Items separated include photographs (PF-5005/1-3).