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 Samuel Henry Lockett Papers #432, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Alternate Form of Material

Microfilm copy (filmed 2007) available.

• Reel 1: Image folders 1-13; photograph album
• Reel 2: Folders 1-20
• Reel 3: Folders 21-38
• Reel 4: Folders 39-56
• Reel 5: Folders 57-68
• Reel 6: Folders 69-84
• Reel 7: Folders 85-120
• Reel 8: Folders 121-135
• Reel 9: Folders 136-144

Acquisitions Information

Gift of Mrs. J. E. Lopez and H. W. Lockett received in 1938. Additions of 1971 and 1975 given by Barbara Dailey. Addition received from Donald Lockett of Atlanta, Ga., in December 1976 (Acc. 76168). Additions of February 1976, April 1977, October 1978 (Acc. 78055), October 1980 (Acc. 80144), April 1983 (Acc. 83072), March 1984 (Acc. 84030 and Acc. 84039), and October 1998 (Acc. 98206) received from Barbara Dailey.

Additional Descriptive Resources

The original finding aids for this collection are filed in folder 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.

Processed by: Susan Ballinger, Roslyn Holdzkom, Linda Sellars, and other SHC staff, 1976-1999

This collection was rehoused under the sponsorship of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Office of Preservation, Washington, D.C., 1990-1993.

Encoded by: Nancy Kaiser, February 2005

Funding from the Watson-Brown Foundation, Inc., supported the encoding of this finding aid and microfilming of this collection.

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.

• Civil engineering--United States--History--19th century.
• Coast defenses--Confederate States of America.
• Colombia--Description and travel.
• Confederate States of America--Defenses.
• Confederate States of America. Army. Corps of Engineers.
• Diaries (Blank-books)
• Egypt--Description and travel.
• Egypt--History--19th century.
• Egypt--Photographs.
• Families--United States--Social life and customs.
• Latin America--History--19th century.
• Latin America--Photographs.
• Lockett, Cornelia Clark, 1842-1912.
• Lockett, Samuel Henry, 1837-1891.
• Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College--Faculty--History--19th century.
• Military engineering--Confederate States of America.
• Military engineering--Egypt--History--19th century.
• Military engineering--United States--History--19th century.
• Mobile (Ala.)--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• Pensacola (Fla.)--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• Railroads--Chile--History--19th century.
• Railroads--Colombia--History--19th century.
• South America--History--19th century.
• South America--Photographs.
• Statue of Liberty (New York, N.Y.)--History.
• Statue of Liberty National Monument (N.Y. and N.J.)--History.
• University of Tennessee (Knoxville campus)--Faculty--History--19th century.
• Vicksburg (Miss.)--History--Siege, 1863.
• Water-supply engineering--United States--History--19th century.
• Women travelers--History--19th century.
• Women--Diaries.
• Women--Egypt--Social conditions.

• Charles Woodward Hutson Papers #362

Samuel Henry Lockett was born 6 July 1837 in Mecklenburg County, Va., to Napoleon Bonaparte Lockett (1813-1867) and Mary Clay Lockett (1814-1885). Soon after his birth his family moved to Marion, Ala. He graduated from Howard College in Alabama and in 1854 was appointed to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated in 1859 as a second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers. He then served briefly as an assistant professor at the Academy. On 21 December 1859 he and Cornelia C. Clark (1841-1912), daughter of William H. Clark and Jane Emslie Clark of West Point, N.Y., were married in the Academy Chapel.

In 1860 Lockett became assistant to Colonel W. H. C. Whiting and returned south to do engineering work in the Eighth Lighthouse District. He was in charge of constructing a fort near Pensacola, Fla., when the South seceded. He then joined the Confederate Army and eventually became colonel and chief engineer for the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana.

After the war, Lockett taught mathematics, engineering, and related subjects first at Judson Institute in Marion, Ala., and then at Louisiana State Seminary (later Louisiana State University). He went to Louisiana State in 1867, when the campus was still located at Alexandria. In 1869, when the Alexandria campus burned and the University moved to Baton Rouge, he moved also, remaining on the faculty until 1873. During the summers of 1869, 1870, and 1872 he traveled throughout Louisiana gathering data for a topographical survey of the state. Later he was in charge of two private schools, Calhoun College in Jacksonville, Ala. (1873-1874) and Hamner Hall in Montgomery, Ala. (1874-1875). He left Montgomery in mid 1875 to accept a post as colonel of engineers in the Egyptian Army. He served in Egypt and Abyssinia until mid 1877, when he returned to the United States to teach at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

Lockett left the University of Tennessee in 1883 to work with various engineering contractors constructing waterworks in various cities, including Belleville, Ill.; Shelbyville, Ill.; Circleville, Ohio; Paducah, Ky.; and Lawrence, Kan. By 1885 he was chief engineer for the firm of Comegys and Lewis, Contractors, New York City, N.Y. From 1888 until his death he was involved with other firms and businessmen in work on engineering projects in Chile and Colombia. In 1888 he and two associates went to Santiago, Chile, to negotiate details of a contract for building a railroad. The following year he went to Cartagena, Colombia, to advance another railroad project and also to assist in improvements on the Dique Canal. In 1890 he returned to Colombia to examine coal deposits near Rio Hacha. In 1891 he went to Bogota, Colombia, to construct waterworks. He died there on 12 October 1891.

Lockett had six children: Cornelia Lockett, who died young; Jean (1862-1951), who married Eugene F. Fuller; Edith (fl. 1865-1940), who married Joseph E. Lopez; Henry Watkins (fl. 1868-1950), who married May Keeler; Samuel Hobart (1870-1915), who married Addie McMichael; and Ettie Boyd (1873-1920), who married George Morgan.

The collection documents Samuel Henry Lockett's family life and his careers as a military officer, engineer, and teacher. Correspondence, chiefly with his wife, Cornelia Clark Lockett, documents their marriage, household matters, and family life, as well as the nature of the work that kept Lockett away from his family. There is some correspondence with their children, other Lockett and Clark family members, and with military and professional associates. Other materials, including writings, reports, notebooks, photographs, and maps, relate chiefly to Lockett's professional careers: he served in the Confederate Army as a colonel and chief engineer for the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana, where he prepared Confederate defenses at Vicksburg, Miss., Mobile, Ala., Pensacola, Fla., and other points along the Mississippi River and Gulf Coast; he was colonel of engineers in the Egyptian Army in Egypt and Abyssinia (1875-1877); he taught at Louisiana State University (1867-1873) in Alexandria and Baton Rouge, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville (1877-1883), and at private schools in Alabama (1877-1878); and he worked as an engineer on the construction of the Statue of Liberty, New York City, N.Y. (1883-1884), on waterworks projects in Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, and Kansas (1883-1889), and on railroad projects in Chile and Colombia (1883-1891). Also included are materials relating to the odograph, a survey instrument invented by Lockett; extensive notes for a topographical survey of Louisiana; several volumes documenting family travel and life abroad, including Cornelia Clark Lockett's journal in Egypt and a partial newspaper copy of an article based on the journal she kept while she was in Colombia in 1890; lectures and writings on scientific and mathematical subjects as well as education and the arts, Egypt, Panama, Peru, Chile, and Colombia; and a retrospective account of the defense of Vicksburg. Other materials include miscellaneous legal and business papers, newspaper clippings, a book of poetry, and a recipe book. Some items are in Spanish.

This collection originally was arranged and described in two series, A and B. Series A contained the original deposit and additions of 1971 and March 1975. Series B was created to accommodate a large addition made in June 1975. Subsequent additions were made to both series: additions of March and December 1976, and April 1977, were integrated into Series A; an addition of February 1976 was integrated, and additions of October 1980, April 1983, March 1984, and October 1998 were maintained separately, all in Series B. Though this arrangement results in considerable overlap of subject and date in the two series, the arrangement has been maintained in order to preserve the usefulness of extensive and in some cases item level description provided in earlier finding aids (now filed in folder 1). Series titles, however, have changed and subseries have been created to reflect the provenance of the collection. Series A is now Series 1. Original Deposit and Additions of 1971, March 1975, March and December 1976, and April 1977. Series B is now Series 2. Separately Maintained Additions after 1974, with the additions of June 1975-February 1976, October 1980, April 1983, March 1984, and October 1998 constituting the five subseries.

• Oversize papers (OP-432/5, 9-11, 14-17; XOP-432/1-4, 6-8, 12-13, 18)
• Photographs (P-432/1-119)
• Photograph album (PA-432/1)