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Collection Number: 01526

Collection Title: James Ryder Randall Papers, 1855-1864; 1905-1912.

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 0.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 151 items)
Abstract James Ryder Randall was a poet and newspaper editor of Baltimore, Md., and Augusta, Ga. The collection includes letters, 1863-1864, from Randall to Katherine Hammond of South Carolina, whom he later married, while he was engaged in the shipping business and briefly associated with the Confederate Navy at Wilmington, N.C. There are also letters and poems to Mary Girvin (later Peters) of Baltimore, Md., in the 1850s, copies of Randall's love poems to her, and a diary, 1855, kept by Randall while a student at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., and on holidays in Baltimore. Later items are primarily news clippings concerning Randall's death and the publication of his poems.
Creator Randall, James Ryder, 1839-1908.
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 James Ryder Randall Papers, #1526, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Acquisitions Information
Loan from Ruth Randall of North Augusta, S.C., 1948.
Loan from James Girvin Peters, Jr. of Colorado Springs, Colo., January 1956.
Purchased from Kenneth W. Rendell, Inc., Sommerville, Mass, January 1971.
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.
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Processed by: SHC Staff

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

Updated by: Kate Stratton and Jodi Berkowitz, January 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.

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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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James Ryder Randall (1839-1908) was a poet and newspaper editor of Baltimore, Md., and Augusta, Ga. He is known for writing the poem "Maryland, My Maryland," 1861, which became a war hymn of the Confederacy and later the state song of Maryland. Randall entered Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., when he was about ten years old and left school in his graduating year for health reasons to take a voyage to Rio de Janeiro. After his voyage he returned to Baltimore, then moved to Florida, then to Louisiana, where he taught English literature and Classics at Poydras College, Pointe Coupee. He served for a time in the Confederate Army but left the service for health reasons. He subsequently worked as a writer for the Augusta Chronicle for twenty years, as secretary for Congressmen Fleming and O'Brien of Georgia, and as an editorial writer in Baltimore. He married Katherine S. Hammond of South Carolina in 1865.

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The collection includes letters, 1863-1864, from James Ryder Randall to Katherine Hammond of South Carolina, whom he later married, while he was engaged in the shipping business and briefly associated with the Confederate Navy at Wilmington, N.C. There are also letters and poems to Mary Girvin (later Peters) of Baltimore, Md., in the 1850s and early 1860s, copies of Randall's love poems to her, and a diary, 1855, kept by Randall while a student at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., and on holidays in Baltimore. Later items are primarily news clippings concerning Randall's death and the publication of his poems. There is also one letter, 1905, from Randall to a Mr. Cleveland with some comments on his poetry.

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Contents list

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117 items.

Letters from James Ryder Randall while he was engaged in the shipping business and briefly associated with the Confederate Navy at Wilmington, N.C., to his fiancee, Katherine S. Hammond of South Carolina.

Folder 1a

Original finding aid

Folder 1

1863

Folder 2-4

Folder 2

Folder 3

Folder 4

1864

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Addition of January 1956

33 items.

The addition includes letters and poems from James Ryder Randall to Mary E. Girvin, circa 1855-1863; a diary, 1855, kept by Randall while a student at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., and on holidays in Baltimore, Md.; and clippings of concerning Randall's death and the publication of his poems.

Folder 5

1855-1863, 1908-1912

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Addition of January 1971

1 item.

The addition includes a letter from James Ryder Randall to a Mr. Cleveland with some comments on his poetry.

Folder 6

1905

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