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 H. R. Totten Papers, #3843, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from the North Carolina Botanical Gardens Foundation and the Botany Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1974 and 1975.

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.

Processed by: SHC Staff

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

Updated by: Kate Stratton and Jodi Berkowitz, September 2009; Nancy Kaiser, January 2021

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.

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.

• Arboretums--North Carolina--Chapel Hill--History.
• Biological stations--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• Botanical gardens--North Carolina--Chapel Hill--History.
• Botanists--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• Camp Blanding (Fla.)--History.
• Chapel Hill (N.C.)
• Chapel Hill (N.C.)--Economic conditions.
• Coker, William Chambers, 1872-1953.
• Highlands Biological Station--History.
• Medicinal plants--United States--History.
• Mentha citrata.
• Mushroom culture--United States--History.
• Real estate development--North Carolina--Chapel Hill--History--20th century.
• Totten, H. R. (Henry Roland), 1892-1974.
• United States. Army--Reserves.
• United States. Army. American Expeditionary Forces.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--Faculty--History--20th century.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962). Dept. of Botany--History--20th century.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill--Faculty--History--20th century.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dept. of Botany--History--20th century.
• World War, 1914-1918--France.

• Botany Department Papers (#2053).

H. R. (Henry Roland) Totten (1892-1974) was a professor of botany at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1913-1963; realtor; and Army Reserve officer. Totten was born in Matthews, N.C., to William Theophilus and Jeannette Barham Totten. He was educated at Yadkin Collegiate Institute, where his father was principal, and went on to earn multiple degrees in botany from the University of North Carolina. He taught at the University from 1913 to 1963. His primary interests and responsibilities were in field botany, pharmacology, and dendrology. He was closely associated with Dr. William Chambers Coker and co-authored Trees in North Carolina with him in 1916 and Trees of the Southeastern States in 1934. He was also instrumental in the development of the Botanical Garden and served on the Building and Grounds Committee.

Totten was an active member of the United States Army Reserves and took leave from the University to serve in World Wars I and II. During World War I he served with the American Expeditionary Force in France and was at Camp Blanding, Fla., during World War II.

Totten was also apparently involved in the breeding and showing of pedigreed dogs.

He was married to Adelaide "Addie" Williams of Stedman, N.C., in 1923.

The papers include general and professional correspondence, military papers, and organizational records of H. R. Totten. General correspondence includes letters to and from botanical associates, many of whom were also personal friends, and from amateur botanists and admirers of his work. Among the most frequent correspondents are Dr. and Mrs. William Chambers Coker, Roland Harper, Lionel Melvin, and Thelma Howell. There are a few family items, cirriculum vita, and other related materials filed at the beginning of the papers.

There are correspondence, memoranda, minutes, reports, announcements, and publications related to the Highlands (N.C.) Biological Station with which Totten was associated throughout his career at the University, and similar but less extensive materials related to other scientific associations, especially the North Carolina Academy of Science, North Carolina Wildflower Preservation Society, and Association of Southeastern Biologists. The papers also include correspondence, plant lists and reports about three of Totten's botanical projects: a drug garden, propogation of mentha citrata, and mushroom culture. There are also a number of botanical photographs.

Papers related to Totten's military involvement include correspondence, orders, completed forms, memoranda, announcements and circulars along with information about the University of North Carolina military science curriculum and the Carolina Volunteer Training Program.

There are also papers related to the development of William Chambers Coker's Chapel Hill, N.C., property including detailed accounts of real estate transactions, correspondence concerning all phases of the development, and surveys, land plats, and maps.

Totten's University of North Carolina papers include correspondence, reports, mimeographed notices, memoranda, minutes, diagrams and plans

• Photographs (IB-3843/1; OP-PF-3843/1b)
• Oversize papers (XOPF-3843/1a-2a)