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 Ben Marks and Paula Rosengarten Letters #5639, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Purchased in July 2015 (Acc. 102272).

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: Jodi Berkowitz, August 2015

Encoded by: Jodi Berkowitz, August 2015

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.

• Courtship--History--20th century.
• Courtship--Maryland--20th century.
• Courtship--Virginia--20th century.
• Families--Maryland--Social life and customs.
• Families--Virginia--Social life and customs.
• Love-letters.
• Marks, Ben.
• Rosengarten, Paula, 1929-2011.

Paula Rosengarten was born in 1929 to Frank and Sophia Rosengarten, immigrants from Russia who became naturalized citizens of the United States. According to the 1940 census, the Rosengarten family resided in Norfolk, Va., and Paula had two siblings, Shirley and Stanley.

Ben Marks grew up in Roanoke Rapids, N.C. After completing the tenth grade (the limit of public schools at the time), Marks attended Staunton Military Academy in Virginia, followed by business school in Baltimore, Md., and may have attended American University.

Paula Rosengarten and Ben Marks met in October 1947 and began corresponding immediately. They were married in August 1950. Paula Rosengarten Marks died in 2011.

The collection consists of correspondence between Paula Rosengarten of Norfolk, Va., and Ben Marks of Baltimore, Md., during their courtship, 1947-1950. Letters describe their daily activities, work, school (in the case of Ben), family, and friends. They often include comments about receiving letters from the other, hurrying to get a letter into the mail, and eagerly anticipating their next visits. As Paula was in Virginia and Ben was in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., area throughout their courtship, letter writing was their primary means of communication. In addition to letters, greeting cards were exchanged for birthdays, Valentine's Day, and the Jewish New Year.