He Keeps Books
On Our History
37 -year-old Caswell native heads
largest department of archives in
the nation.
«If
JOIIX COREY
H. J. JONES
So it gives you a headache keeping
important family papers as birth cer¬
tificates, deeds, diplomas, personal let¬
ters, insurance policies and hundreds
of other records acquired through
years?
For comfort, consider the task of
H. G. Jones, State Archivist. He’s the
guardian of documents for the entire
family of four million North Caro¬
linians.
Altogether, more than 7.000 cubic
feet of records are filed under his
care in the State Archives in Ra¬
leigh. Still, he attempts to put his fin¬
ger on any one of them in a minute’s
notice.
And the papers arc as diverse as
mixtures in a Greek salad.
Old Charter
There’s the valuable Carolina char¬
ter issued to the eight lords proprie¬
tors in 1663. Another document con¬
tains seven of the lords' signatures.
Military records stack high from
Revolutionary Army pay vouchers to
World War II separation papers for
Tar Heel GIs.
Genealogical data abound in cen¬
sus and county records, which can
help put one on track through his
clan's history if he’s interested in
checking on skeletons in the family
closet.
Personal collections belonging to dis¬
tinguished past Tar Heels as James
Iredell. Calvin H. Wiley. Zcbulon
Vance and Congressman Thurmond
Chatham arc stored. The Chatham
documents relate to the Colony of
Carolina from 1664-1674.
County Records
Records front more than 90 of the
100 counties are on file. There Tc
thousands of reels of microfilm copies
of federal, state and county records.
Last October, one of the rarest of
John Adams’ documents, his "Thoughts
on Government.’’ turned up, much to
the delight of editors of the monumental
publication of the Adams Papers in
Massachusetts.
The only known copy of the federal
constitution sent to the states for rati¬
fication safely reposes in the Archives.
And therc'rc such unusual items as
the "message from the dead’’ written
by a dying Civil War soldier, the ap¬
prenticeship of young Andrew John¬
son. the marriage bond of the Sia¬
mese Twins, and a straight ra/or used
as a murder weapon in Cumberland
County.
Archivist Jones uses the razor as a
letter-opener. In the corner of his of-
If you ever think >011*11 drown in a
sen of paper, consider the poor ar¬
chivists of the world and lake heart.
Their problems are worse than yours!
These paper-sasers, from all over
the world, met recently in Washington
to try to stem the flood.
The U. S. has the biggest hoard of
all — 24 million cubic feet of stored
records. Archivists arc seeking help
from experts in every field to de¬
termine which papers to store and
belter methods of storing and repro¬
ducing records.
ficc sits the desk used by Civil War
Governor Zebulon B. Vance.
2,500 .Maps
Therc'rc 2,500 maps on North Caro¬
lina, showing such things as old lines
of travel from wooden turnpikes to
Indian paths.
And as if Archivist Jones has not
enough documents, he's currently con¬
ducting a campaign to microfilm
every North Carolina newspaper pub¬
lished before 1870.
All this adds up to why the Archives
and Manuscripts Division of the North
Carolina Department of Archives and
History claims the most comprehen¬
sive archival scl-up of any state in
America.
Largest in Nation
It has the largest staff — 42 em¬
ployees — and has the largest budget
— $240,000 per year — of any
archival agency in the nation. Never¬
theless, it’s the only archival agency
of national reputation that doesn’t have
a building especially designed for its
purpose.
Other Sections
A local records section, under re¬
tired Rear Admiral A. M. Patterson,
advises county and municipal officials
in their records problems, inventories
and schedules local records, and re¬
habilitates and microfilms local rec¬
ords of permanent value.
The state records section, super¬
vised by Dr. Thornton W. Mitchell,
inventories state records, oversees rec¬
ords management policies in state
agencies, and transfers into the State
Records Center (a separate building)
records that are not needed in the
day-to-day operations of government
( Continued on page 23)
THE STATE, APRIL 2 8, 1962
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