Clarence H. Poe (1881-1964) Papers, PC.256
Descriptive Summary
- Title
- Clarence H. Poe (1881-1964) Papers
- Call Number
- PC.256
- Creator
- Poe, Clarence Hamilton, 1881-1964
- Date
- 1860-1964
- Repository
- State Archives of North Carolina
Collection Overview
Papers of Clarence Poe of Raleigh, editor (1899-1953) and publisher of the Progressive Farmer, and author. Poe's correspondence (1903-1964) concerns material submitted to the Progressive Farmer by writers and artists; editorial positions taken by Poe; operational matters, including interoffice memorandums; Poe's books; institutions and organizations such as the N.C. Literary and Historical Association and the Art Society; government programs and legislation affecting the rural South; national issues such as foreign aid, disarmament, specific foreign policies, integration, and medical care for the aged; and elections, especially 1950-1960, with concern over anti-Catholic sentiment in 1960. There are carbons of Poe's letters to state and national leaders from Aycock to Kennedy, giving advice on current issues. Correspondents include Charles B. Aycock, Josiah W. Bailey, Gutzon Borglum, Tait Butler, J. Melville Broughton, William J. Bryan, Harry F. Byrd, R. Gregg Cherry, Harold D. Cooley, C. Christopher Crittenden, Josephus Daniels, Charles B. Deane, Allen J. Ellender, Sam J. Ervin, 0. Max Gardner, Frank P. Graham, Lister Hill, Clyde R. Hoey, Robert Lee Humber, Lyndon B. Johnson, Charles R. Jonas, John F. Kennedy, Kay Kyser, William G. McAdoo, A. W. McLean, A. R. Newsome, Nelson A. Rockefeller, Terry Sanford, W. Kerr Scott, John Sparkman, Jesse Stuart, William B. Umstead, and Henry A. Wallace.
Subject files contain background material on many topics including biographical information on Poe's father-in-law Charles B. Aycock, Benjamin W. Kilgore (including correspondence with Kilgore, 1923-1943), Seaman A. Knapp, Priestly H. Mangum, and Leonidas L. Polk; nominations for Hall of Fame; and correspondence, minutes, membership lists, and committee reports for executive committees of the boards of trustees for N.C. State College and the Consolidated University (1922-1953), the Art Museum and Art Society (1937-1954, 1960), the Farm Foundation (1933-1944), and the Watauga Club (1926-1963). There are also records of thirteen commissions and committees on which Poe served, notably the N.C. Constitutional Commission (1930-1934); Committee for Tax Reform Amendments (1935-1937); Balanced Prosperity in the South Campaign (1939-1944); Federal Board for Vocational Education (1944-1946); N.C. Medical Care Commission (1944-1948), including detailed reports on health needs and reports on UNC medical school expansion; commissions on hospital care (1944-1947) and national health needs (1951-1953); International Development Advisory Board (1950-1953); and Governor's Advisory Committee on Education (1954), chaired by Thomas J. Pearsall, which studied problems of school integration. Other committees dealt with memorials to Charles B. Aycock, Josephus Daniels, and Sir Walter Raleigh. Speeches and articles (1897-1958) by Poe emphasize agricultural progress, problems of rural poverty, and what can be done by women, Negroes, rural churches and schools, government programs, and individual leaders.
Papers (ca. 1911-1961) of the Progressive Farmer besides correspondence include annual
reports; articles and editorials, especially by Poe (1911-1956); advice to farm boys
from such people as Robert Dollar, Thomas A. Edison, Douglas Fairbanks, Harry Emerson
Fosdick, Hamlin Garland, Red Grange, Adm. Robert E. Peary, Franklin D. Roosevelt,
Theodore Roosevelt, and Alfred E. Smith; and stories about the old South, slavery,
Indians, and the Civil War, sent in by readers as contest entries (1955-1961). Personal
papers relate to Longview Farm (Wake Co.); his trip around the world, primarily to
the Orient, with diary (Aug., 1910-Feb., 1911), letters and photographs; publication
of his books, with drafts of the last two; and the Poe-for-governor movement (1939).
There are also his letters to wife and children (1923-1924) and some personal accounts.
In August of 2019, the private collections archivist added an additonal box to the
collection, Box PC.256.75. It contains photographs that were spread throughout the
collection and needed identifications and archival folders. In addition, a few other
types of materials were pulled from the original 74 boxes, in order to identify these
items and to make them more accessible to researchers. These include four travel notebooks,
1909-1911; two typed addresses; and a folder that pertained to Poe's wife, Alice Aycock
Poe.