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Collection Number: 04120

Collection Title: Riddick Family Papers, 1804-1964 (bulk 1892-1943).

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 1.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 700 items)
Abstract Members of the Riddick family include Wallace C. Riddick (1864-1942), professor of civil engineering and administrator at North Carolina State College, Raleigh, N.C., 1892-1937; his nephew, Ivy G. Riddick (1890-1956), an agent of the British-American Tobacco Company, Shanghai, China, 1918-1943; and Ivy Riddick's wife, Margaret Riddick. Wallace Riddick's material consists largely of items relating to land he bought and sold in Wake County, N.C., but includes some items relating to N.C. State College and engineering education. Papers of Ivy Riddick and his wife include personal letters discussing conditions in Shanghai and the Philippines, 1939-1943, and some items relating to Riddick's employment by the British-American Tobacco Company. Also included are photograph albums and scrapbooks kept by the Riddicks in China.
Creator Riddick (Family : Riddick, W. C. (Wallace Carl), 1864-1942)
Curatorial Unit University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.
Language English
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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Information For Users

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 Riddick Family Papers, #4120, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Acquisitions Information
Received from Eugenia Riddick (Mrs. Fred) Steck of Chapel Hill, N.C., February 1977.
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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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Processing Information

Processed by: SHC Staff

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

Updated by: Kate Stratton and Jodi Berkowitz, September 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.

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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

Wallace Carl Riddick (1864-1942), son of Wiley Goodman Riddick and Anna Ivy Jones Riddick, was raised in Wake County, N.C., and was educated at Wake Forest College, the University of North Carolina, and Lehigh University. After working briefly as an engineer he joined the faculty of the North Carolina Agricultural and Mechanical College in Raleigh, N.C., as a professor of hydraulics and also coached athletic teams. He became the vice president of North Carolina State College in 1908 and the president in 1916. In 1923 he resigned that post to organize the School of Engineering at that institution and became its dean. He remained dean until his retirement in 1937. While at State College he served on the State Highway Commission, the Conservation Commission, and for one year on the Board of Visitors of the United States Naval Academy. He married Lillian Daniel in 1893.

Ivy Goodman Riddick Junior (1890-1956), son of Ivy Goodman Riddick and grandson of Wiley Goodman Riddick, began work in the sales department of the American Tobacco Company in North Carolina in 1914. In 1916 he was transferred to the leaf department and in 1919 he was sent to manage the leaf department of the American Tobacco Company's sister company, the British-American Tobacco Company, in Hankow, China. He worked as a factory supervisor, 1920-1939, and thereafter worked for another tobacco company in Shanghai. He remained in Shanghai until 1943 when he was forced to evacuate to the United States. He returned to North Carolina with his wife Margaret and daughter Frances.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Scope and Content

The collection includes papers of Ivy Goodman Riddick; his wife, Margaret; his uncle, Wallace C. Riddick; and Wallace Riddick's father, Wiley G. Riddick. Wallace C. Riddick's material consists largely of items relating to land he bought and sold in Wake County, N.C., but includes some items relating to North Carolina State College and engineering education. Papers of Ivy Riddick and his wife include personal letters discussing conditions in Shanghai, China, and the Philippines, 1939-1943, and some items relating to Riddick's employment by the British-American Tobacco Company. Also included are photograph albums and scrapbooks kept by the Riddicks in China.

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Contents list

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series Quick Links

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 1. Family History and Genealogy

Folder 1a

Original finding aid

Folder 1-2

Folder 1

Folder 2

Riddick Family history and genealogy

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 2. Wiley G. Riddick Papers, 1865-1909.

5 items.

Wiley Goodman Riddick's papers include a tax in kind certificate for 1864-1865; a loyalty oath to the United States; a vote registration certificate; and Wiley G. Riddick's will.

Folder 3

1865-1909

See also Folder 34.

Extra Oversize Paper Folder XOPF-4120/1

1865-1909

See also Folder 34.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 3. Wallace C. Riddick Papers, 1804-1951 and undated.

About 225 items.

More than half of Wallace C. Riddick's papers are legal documents, mostly deeds to land he bought and sold in Wake County, N.C. There are also obituaries, recommendations for Riddick when he applied to be a civil engineer with the United States Navy; a report of instruction and facilities in the Department of Mechanics and Applied Mathematics at North Carolina State College, 1893; an address given by Riddick in 1938 to the North Carolina Society of Engineers on engineering education and professionalism; a 1938 Proposed Constitution and By-Laws of the North Carolina Society of Engineers; 14 picture postcards of North Carolina State College, circa 1940; and a letter to Riddick in which an engineer friend explains how he got an engineering job through Tammany Hall backing in New York.

Folder 4

Obituaries and miscellany, 1895-1970

Folder 5

Letters, 1893-1951

Folder 6

Letters, 1898

Folder 7

Family legal papers, 1804-1899

Folder 8

Legal papers, 1900-1909

Folder 9

Legal papers, 1910-1912

Folder 10

Legal papers, 1913-1916

Folder 11

Legal papers, 1917-1919

Folder 12

Legal papers, 1921-1925

Folder 13

Legal papers, 1931-1938

Folder 14

Legal papers, 1940-1949

Folder 15

Miscellany, 1901-1922 and undated

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 4. Ivy G. Riddick Papers, 1908-1949.

410 items.

Arrangement: chiefly chronological.

Includes Ivy and Margaret Riddick's personal correspondence from Shanghai and Hankow, China to each other, and from friends and relatives in the United States. Letters relate to Ivy Riddick's employment at British-American Tobacco Company, Margaret Riddick's exporting of Chinese linens and lace for sale in North Carolina, and conditions for Americans and American businesses in China. Included are letters between Margaret Riddick and Ivy Riddick, 1939-1941, during which period Margaret and daughter Frances were living in an American community in Manila, Philippines after having been evacuated from China. After 1943, there are scattered personal letters to the Riddicks, living in North Carolina, from friends and relatives. The series also includes many pictures, photographs,and postcards.

Volumes related to Ivy and Margaret Riddick can be found in Series 6, Folders 35-36.

Folder 16

Letters, 1908-1919

Letters contain mostly family news; a letter from a soldier in France during World War I describing his activities behind the front; and a contract between Ivy G. Riddick and the British-American Tobacco Company in Shanghai, China.

Folder 17

Letters, 1920-1929

Letters concern Ivy G. Riddick's passing several Chinese language exams; Riddick's attempt to seek employment as a tobacco dealer for another company; and an eyewitness' account to the aftermath of the Kanto earthquake in Yokohama, Japan in 1923.

Folder 18-19

Folder 18

Folder 19

Letters, 1930-1939

Correspondence of the 1930s includes business letters of Ivy G. Riddick, business letters of Margaret Riddick and the personal letters of both. The business correspondence of Ivy G. Riddick is primarily related to aspects of his employment with the British-American Tobacco Company, but other items mention the American reaction against Chinese in Shanghai in 1934 and Japanese justifications for not locating factories in occupied China in 1936. Margaret Riddick's business correspondence, mostly letters and receipts, concerns her partnership with Sarah Jones to whom Margaret Riddick sent linens and lace to sell in a dress shop in Raleigh, N.C. Personal letters concern family news of relatives in the United States to 1939. There are also letters, 1939 and 1941, between Margaret Riddick and daughter Frances, who were evacuated to Manila, Philippines, and Ivy G. Riddick, who remained in Shanghai. These letters describe personal feelings, conditions in Shanghai and conditions in the American community in the Philippines.

Folder 20

Letters, 1940-1949

Includes the remainder of the letters, 1941, between Ivy G. Riddick in Shanghai and Margaret Riddick in the Philippines and several letters containing family news from relatives in the United States. Also included is an essay by Ivy G. Riddick concerning the ineffectiveness of the American Army protecting American people and business in China and other topics.

Folder 21

Letters, 1951-1954

Scattered personal letters to the Riddicks from relatives and friends.

Folder 22

Miscellany, undated

Folder 23

Passports

Image Folder PF-4120/1-14

PF-4120/1

PF-4120/2

PF-4120/3

PF-4120/4

PF-4120/5

PF-4120/6

PF-4120/7

PF-4120/8

PF-4120/9

PF-4120/10

PF-4120/11

PF-4120/12

PF-4120/13

PF-4120/14

Photographs and postcards

See also Photograph Album PA-4120/1.

Folder 24-30

Folder 24

Folder 25

Folder 26

Folder 27

Folder 28

Folder 29

Folder 30

Folder numbers not used

Folder 31

Miscellany, 1937

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 5. Anna Riddick Papers, 1939-1964.

Legal and business papers mostly concern contracts to have a commercial building built in Raleigh, N.C.

Folder 32

Business and legal papers, 1939-1964

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 6. Volumes, 1874-1943.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Items Separated

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