(EDUCATION) Family papers of chemistry professor Willis E By

Sale 2562 - Lot 214

Price Realized: $ 1,000

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500

(EDUCATION.) Family papers of chemistry professor Willis E. Byrd of Lincoln University. Approximately 60 items (0.3 linear feet) in one box; generally minor wear. Vp, bulk circa 1900-50

Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

Dr. Willis Edward Byrd (1922-2015) was raised in Athens, GA, received an A.B. in Chemistry from Talladega University, and then a PhD from the University of Iowa. From 1949 to 1988, he was at Lincoln University as a professor of chemistry and in other leadership positions. Included in this lot are 34 manuscripts and documents from his education and career, 1937-50, from his official Talladega transcript, recruitment letters and contract from Lincoln University, and more. While in military service in 1943, a letter from his father offered a pep talk: "Do not let anything change your course . . . a thorough preparation for life's work. Do not stop shorter than the gold for which you once started." 5 photographs show him as a young man, through a 1945 photograph in army uniform taken in Rome.

Family papers include 3 letters to his aunt Mary Elizabeth Jones (1892-1989) relating to her social work employment search in 1914-15; two long manuscript reports by his mother Annie L. Jones Byrd on community work in Athens, 1930-31; a pair of poll tax receipts from Brazoria, TX, 1895 and 1907; and a receipt for property taxes paid in Monroe County, 1864. 3 early family photographs circa 1900 show Dr. Byrd's parents, aunts and uncles, and an unidentified group of women at Spelman College. A panoramic photograph shows the attendees at the 1948 Interdenominational Christian Conference for Negro Women at Clark College in Atlanta.

Printed ephemera includes programs for events at Morehouse, Spelman, and Talladega; reports of the Mulberry Rover Missionary Baptist Association, 1908 and 1911; and a copy of the Lincoln Clarion from 1949 announcing the hiring of Dr. Byrd.