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Local figure

Hope Summerell Chamberlain

Hope Summerell Chamberlain wrote and illustrated Old Days in Chapel Hill, in which she presented the letters of Cornelia Phillips Spencer. When she turned 77 in June 1947 the Chapel Hill Weekly described her keeping house, gardening, writing and sketching, with one book of reminiscences published and another finished.

Source: DigitalNC: The Chapel Hill Weekly, June 20, 1947, page 3 ("Mrs. Chamberlain 77 Tomorrow")

On the Friends’ Local Authors roster → · Library of Congress authority record ↗

3 works about Hope Summerell Chamberlain are indexed here, as are 4 works by Chamberlain.

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 2 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Hope Summerell Chamberlain's Old Days in Chapel Hill is published Chamberlain's life and letters of Cornelia Phillips Spencer, illustrated with her own drawings, was published in 1926. The University of North Carolina Press was still advertising it in the Chapel Hill Weekly in 1927 and 1930. People: Cornelia Phillips Spencer Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · UNC Libraries finding aid: Hope Summerell Chamberlain Papers, 1888-1951 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, June 11, 1926, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, March 4, 1927, p. 1
  2. The Bull's Head Bookshop announces a talk by Hope Summerell Chamberlain on Old Days in Chapel Hill The Bull's Head Bookshop on the ground floor of the University Library announced a talk by Chamberlain about her book for Tuesday afternoon, October 13, with autographed copies on sale for $1.35. Place: Bull's Head Bookshop, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: University LibrarySearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, October 9, 1936, p. 2 (Bull's Head Bookshop notice)

Indexed works

Works about or by Hope Summerell Chamberlain. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it. Background reading appears below.

By Hope Summerell Chamberlain

Life story of Elisha Mitchell, D.D., 1793-1857 : professor in the University of North Carolina from 1818 until his death in 1857

Chamberlain, Hope Summerell · 1990 · University Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Hope Summerell Chamberlain's life of her grandfather Elisha Mitchell, 1793 to 1857, who taught at the University of North Carolina from 1818 until his death. Written for the family, as the typescript says, and reproduced on microfilm by the university library in 1990. Topics include Mitchell as a botanist in Chapel Hill and the university's early faculty and history.

UNC

Hope Summerell Chamberlain papers, 1888-1951.

Chamberlain, Hope Summerell · 1888

About one hundred items of Hope Summerell Chamberlain's papers, 1888 to 1951, part of the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 2545-z. Includes biographical and historical material. Topics include American women authors in North Carolina, the education of women, local history in the state, social life in Chapel Hill, and Elisha Mitchell, the nineteenth century university professor.

UNC

Hope Summerell Chamberlain (1871-1960) Collection

Chamberlain, Hope Summerell · 1790

Typescripts of three memoirs Hope Summerell Chamberlain wrote in the 1940s and never published: 'Older Years Than Fifty', about Salisbury in the 1880s, 'What's Done and Past' and 'Oh Call Back Yesterday'. A bound volume adds copies of six Chamberlain family letters from Massachusetts and New York, 1790 to 1818. Chapel Hill, the university and Elisha Mitchell also come up. State Archives of North Carolina, PC.45.

Old days in Chapel Hill, being the life and letters of Cornelia Phillips Spencer

Chamberlain, Hope Summerell

Hope Summerell Chamberlain's life of Cornelia Phillips Spencer (1825 to 1908), built around Spencer's letters and her years in Chapel Hill and at the university, with illustrations by the author. Undated. This copy bears the author's autograph.

Start at OCPL

Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection whose titles, catalog subjects, or descriptions match this person. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled.

  • Rebecca Wall Collection · NC BIO SPENCER CHA Old Days in Chapel Hill: Being the Life and Letters of Cornelia Phillips Spencer Chamberlain, Hope Summerell · 1926

    Hope Summerell Chamberlain's life and letters of Cornelia Phillips Spencer (1825 to 1908), published in 1926, which doubles as a picture of Chapel Hill and the university in the nineteenth century. It runs 325 pages with illustrations and portraits.

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