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Collection Number: 02392-z

Collection Title: Susan Dabney Smedes Papers, 1860-1930.

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 3 items
Abstract Susan Dabney Smedes (1840-1913) was a Mississippi planter's daughter, author, and teacher and missionary in the West. The collection includes copies of papers of or about Smedes and microfilm of a manuscript recipe and household hint book, 1860. Included are Smedes's diary and memoranda, 1888-1889, at Helena, Mont., about life in the household of her sister and brother-in-law, with whom she lived; letters she wrote from England, 1908; and an account of her life written in 1930.
Creator Smedes, Susan Dabney, 1840-1913.
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 Susan Dabney Smedes Papers, #2392-z, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Acquisitions Information
Received from Mrs. Joseph R. Walker of Chester, Va., November 1941.
Additional Descriptive Resources
A copy of the original finding aid for this collection is 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.
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Processed by: SHC Staff

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

Updated by: Kate Stratton and Jodi Berkowitz, May 2010

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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Susan Dabney Smedes (1840-1913) was a Mississippi planter's daughter, author, and teacher and missionary in the West. Smedes was the daughter of Thomas S. G. Dabney and Sophia Hill Dabney of Burleigh Plantation, near Raymond, Miss. She was married in 1860 to Lyell Smedes of Raleigh, N.C., who died soon after their marriage. After her husband's death, Smedes returned to her family's plantation in Mississippi and lived there until her father's death in 1885. In 1887 she published Memorials of a Southern Planter, the story of her father's life and a picture of civilization in the antebellum South. Smedes went as a teacher and missionary to South Dakota, 1886; lived in Helena, Mont., with her sister Mrs. B. H. Greene, circa 1887-1891; travelled to England, 1908; and lived sometime in Washington, D.C., and Sewanee, Tenn.

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The collection includes copies of papers of or about Susan Dabney Smedes and microfilm of a manuscript recipe and household hint book, 1860. Included are Smedes's diary and memoranda, 1888-1889, at Helena, Mont., about life in the household of her sister and brother-in-law, with whom she lived; letters she wrote from England, 1908; and an account of her life written in 1930 by Kline H. Smith.

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Contents list

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