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Collection Number: 03953

Collection Title: Bowman Gray Collection of Papers Related to the First and Second World Wars, 1910s-1940s

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 5.0 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 3500 items)
Abstract The collection assembled by white tobacco industry executive Bowman Gray, Jr. (1907-1969) contains correspondence, newspaper clipping files, leaflets, circulars, pamphlets, ephemera, propaganda, and government publications and documents related to the First and Second World Wars and interwar period. Letters received by white businessman Frank M. Gregg (1864-1937) of Cleveland, Ohio, and printed items and ephemera Gregg contemporaneously amassed comprise the bulk of materials related to the First World War. Materials pertain to the American Red Cross, National Security League, war relief societies, liberty loans and bonds, war refugees, conscription, military training, anti-war, peace, and "America First" campaigns, and government regulations on industry. Clipping files pertain chiefly to the Second World War and the interwar period particularly the 1930s and include editorials and opinion columns, political cartoons, and news articles the collector arranged in groupings by type, chronology, and subject. Subjects are wide ranging and include United States General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Adolf Hitler, and other individuals, public opinion, civilian efforts and the home front, European Jews, censorship, Allied Forces, Axis Powers, military engagements and campaigns, North Africa, China, and post war planning.
Creator Gray, Bowman, Jr., 1907-1969.
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 Bowman Gray Collection of Papers Related to the First and Second World Wars, #3953, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Acquisitions Information
Received from Bowman Gray of Winston-Salem, N.C., in 1961 (Acc. 103645).
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: Wilson Library Staff

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

Updated by: Kate Stratton and Jodi Berkowitz, May 2010

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.

Updated: July 2019

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Subject Headings

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

Bowman Gray, Jr., (1907-1969), a white executive in the tobacco industry, was the son of Nathalie Fontaine Lyons Gray and Bowman Gray, Sr., president of the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Bowman Gray, Jr., graduated from The University of North Carolina in 1929 and began work with the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in 1930, first as a salesman. He served as president of the company from 1957 until 1959. He then became chairman of the board and chief executive officer and remained chairman until his death.

In 1936, Gray married Elizabeth Palmer Christian of Richmond, Va., and the couple had five sons: Bowman, Frank Christian, Robert Daniel, Lyons, and Peyton Randolph.

During the Second World War, Gray served as an officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve and on active duty in Norfolk, Va. He worked for the Navy's intelligence service and was credited with founding the branch known as operational intelligence, in which enemy operations were analyzed.

Gray's philanthropic support was expansive and included projects, funding, and board memberships for orphanages, schools, research, the YMCA, and his alma mater UNC. Bowman Gray donated his extensive collections about the two world wars to UNC in the 1960s.

*Information for this biographical note was compiled from an article in the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, 6 volumes, edited by William S. Powell. Copyright ©1979-1996 by the University of North Carolina Press.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Scope and Content

The collection assembled by white tobacco industry executive Bowman Gray, Jr. (1907-1969) contains correspondence, newspaper clipping files, leaflets, circulars, pamphlets, ephemera, propaganda, and government publications and documents related to the First and Second World Wars and interwar period. Letters received by white businessman Frank M. Gregg (1864-1937) of Cleveland, Ohio, and printed items and ephemera Gregg contemporaneously amassed comprise the bulk of materials related to the First World War. Materials pertain to the American Red Cross, National Security League, war relief societies, liberty loans and bonds, war refugees, conscription, military training, anti-war, peace, and "America First" campaigns, and government regulations on industry. Clipping files pertain chiefly to the Second World War and the interwar period particularly the 1930s and include editorials and opinion columns, political cartoons, and news articles the collector arranged in groupings by type, chronology, and subject. Subjects are wide ranging and include United States General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Adolf Hitler, and other individuals, public opinion, civilian efforts and the home front, European Jews, censorship, Allied Forces, Axis Powers, military engagements and campaigns, North Africa, China, and post war planning.

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Contents list

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Bowman Gray Collection of Papers Related to the First and Second World Wars, 1910s-1940s.

Box 1-10

Box 1

Box 2

Box 3

Box 4

Box 5

Box 6

Box 7

Box 8

Box 9

Box 10

Papers, 1910s-1940s

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