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 Alfred Abraham Kent Papers, #3885, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Alfred A. Kent Jr. of Granite Falls, N.C., April 1969.

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.

Processed by: SHC Staff

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

Updated by: Kate Stratton and Jodi Berkowitz, June 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.

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.

• Account books.
• Christian County (Ky.)--Social life and customs.
• College prose, American--North Carolina.
• Drugstores--Accounting--History.
• Fluvanna County (Va.)--Social life and customs.
• Kent, Alfred Abraham, 1858-1944.
• Kent, Archeleus Suddreth, fl. 1828-1843.
• Medicine--North Carolina--Societies, etc.--History.
• Medicine--Practice--Accounting--History.
• North Carolina Medical Society--History.
• North Carolina. Board of Medical Examiners--History.
• Physicians--North Carolina--History.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--Students--History--19th century.

Alfred Abraham Kent (1858-1944) was a physician and businessman of Lenoir, N.C. Kent was educated at the University of North Carolina and Jefferson Medical College. He served as a member of the North Carolina Board of Medical Examiners, 1903-1908; member of the North Carolina General Assembly, 1911; and as president of the North Carolina Medical Society, 1912. He also had business interests in Kent Furniture Company, Kent-Coffey Company, Kent-Coffey Furniture Company, and Citizens Building and Loan Association, all of Lenoir, N.C. After his retirement in 1925, he moved to Winter Park, Fla.

The collection includes correspondence, and business and medical papers, chiefly 1895-1930, of Alfred Abraham Kent. The correspondence is primarily professional, related to Kent's involvement with the North Carolina Medical Society and the North Carolina Board of Medical Examiners. There are also some letters related to Kent's land holdings in North Carolina, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Florida; his other industrial interests; and personal matters. Also included are account books, 1886-1918, for Kent's medical practice and drugstore in Lenoir, and writings by Kent including thirty essays written while a student at the University of North Carolina and fifteen articles predominantly on medical topics. Early letters, 1828-1843, are from friends in Fluvanna County, Va., and Christian County, Ky., to Kent's grandfather, Archeleus Suddreth Kent, discussing crops and relatives and friends in those locations. There are also some land deeds, indentures, survey orders, newspaper clippings, and other miscellaneous items.