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Collection Number: 05400

Collection Title: Robert Louis Stevens Letters and Photographs, 1944-1946

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.


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Size 0.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 200 items)
Abstract Robert Louis Stevens (1925-2003) of Asheville, N.C., served as an enlisted man in the United States Navy during World War II aboard the U.S.S. Doyle C. Barnes, a destroyer escort that saw duty in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. After completing his undergraduate studies at the University of North Carolina in 1949, Stevens went on to a career in publishing and advertising in New York, N.Y. He also wrote short stories and plays. The collection contains letters from Stevens to his parents, 1944-1946. The letters document his service career from boot camp at the U.S. Naval Training Station in Bainbridge, Md., and radar school in Norfolk, Va., to escort and patrol duty in such locations as New Guinea, the Philippines, Borneo, and China. Subject matter primarily consists of daily life in training and active service, especially Stevens's literary interests.
Creator Stevens, Robert Louis, 1925-2003.
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.
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 Robert Louis Stevens Letters and Photographs #5400, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Acquisitions Information
Received from Clara C. Mackenzie (Acc. 100970) in June 2008.
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: Will Andersen, September 2008

Encoded by: Will Andersen, September 2008

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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

Robert Louis Stevens was born 11 July 1925. The son of Robert Alexander Stephens and Dorothy Sloan Stevens of Asheville, N.C., he matriculated at the University of North Carolina before being inducted into the United States Navy in February 1944. During World War II, Stevens served as a radarman third class aboard the U.S.S. Doyle C. Barnes, a destroyer escort that saw duty in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. After completing his undergraduate studies at the University of North Carolina in 1949, Stevens went on to a career in publishing and advertising in New York, N.Y., while maintaining an avocation as an author of short stories and plays. He retired to Saint Augustine, Fla., and died 19 July 2003.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Scope and Content

The collection contains letters, 1944-1946, from Robert Louis Stevens, a United States Navy enlisted man during World War II, to his parents in Asheville, N.C. The letters document his service career from boot camp at the United States Naval Training Station in Bainbridge, Md., and radar school in Norfolk, Va., to duty in the southwestern Pacific Ocean aboard the destroyer escort, U.S.S. Doyle C. Barnes. Subject matter primarily consists of daily life on escort and patrol duty in such locations as New Guinea, the Philippines, Borneo, and China, especially Stevens's reading habits and attempts to write his own plays and short stories. Also included are some samples of paper currency issued by the Japanese occupation government in the Philippines, as well as two photographs of Stevens in uniform.

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Contents list

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Letters and photographs, 1944-1946.

About 200 items.
Folder 1-3

Folder 1

Folder 2

Folder 3

Letters, 1944

Folder 4-9

Folder 4

Folder 5

Folder 6

Folder 7

Folder 8

Folder 9

Letters, 1945

Folder 10

Letters, January-February 1946

Image Folder P-5400/1

Photographs, circa 1944, circa 1945

Photographs of Robert Louis Stevens in uniform.

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