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Key local figure

Mary Claire Engstrom

Mary Claire Engstrom (1906–1997) was a UNC-trained scholar of English literature who bought Hillsborough's Nash-Hooper House in 1959 and turned to documenting and preserving the town's history, surveying 122 old buildings for the Historic American Buildings Survey and twice chairing the Historic Hillsborough Commission.

Source: NCpedia: Engstrom, Mary Claire

1906–1997 as the Library of Congress records it · On the Friends’ Local Authors roster → · Library of Congress authority record ↗

5 indexed works are connected with this person, and the index includes 9 works by Mary Claire Engstrom.

Indexed works

Works in the index that concern this person directly, or were written by them. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it; background reading with wider context sits further down.

By Mary Claire Engstrom

Early Quakers in the Eno River Valley

Engstrom, Mary Claire · 1989 · Association for the Preservation of the Eno River Valley

Mary Claire Engstrom's history of the Quaker settlers of the Eno River valley from about 1750 to 1847, in the country that is now Orange and Durham counties. Published by the Association for the Preservation of the Eno River Valley in Durham in 1989, 73 pages with illustrations, maps and portraits.

The Book of Burwell Students

Engstrom, Mary Claire · 1979 · Historic Hillsborough Commission

Mary Claire Engstrom's biographical register of the young women who attended the Burwell School in Hillsborough, subtitled lives of educated women in the antebellum South. The school was kept by Margaret Anna Burwell and her husband, and the book bears on women's education in nineteenth-century North Carolina. Published by the Historic Hillsborough Commission, 1979, 256 pages with illustrations and portraits.

The Old Town Cemetery (1757), Hillsborough, North Carolina

Engstrom, Mary Claire · 1966 · Historic Hillsborough Commission

Mary Claire Engstrom compiled this single folded typescript sheet for the Historic Hillsborough Commission in 1966, recording the Old Town Cemetery of 1757 in Hillsborough. A note places the ground on lots 98 and part of 97 at the northwest corner of Churton and West Tryon streets. Topics include epitaphs, cemetery recording and Orange County genealogy. Part of UNC's North Carolina Collection.

The Hartford mill complex during the revolution

Engstrom, Mary Claire, 1906-1997 · 1979

Mary Claire Engstrom's article on the Hartford mill complex on the Eno and its fortunes during the Revolution, centered on Thomas Hart, who died in 1808. Nine pages with a facsimile and a portrait, printed in 1979.

UNC

William Hooper's Hillsborough years, 1782-1790

Engstrom, Mary Claire, 1906-1997 · 1974 · National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution

Mary Claire Engstrom's article on the last years of William Hooper, one of the North Carolina signers of the Declaration of Independence, who moved to Hillsborough in 1782 and died there in 1790. Four pages with a portrait, detached from the February 1974 issue of the Daughters of the American Revolution magazine.

UNC

Text of remarks ... before Epsilon Beta Chapter, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 20 March, 1978, following the annual Eleusinian Banquet

Engstrom, Mary Claire, 1906-1997 · 1978

Five typescript leaves carrying Mary Claire Engstrom's remarks of 20 March 1978 to the Epsilon Beta chapter at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, delivered after the annual Eleusinian Banquet. She spoke on accepting the Chi Omega fraternity's North Carolina Distinguished Service Award for Women and signed as chairman of the Historic Hillsborough Commission. Topics include historic buildings in Hillsborough.

UNC

All 9 works by Mary Claire Engstrom →

About Mary Claire Engstrom

Hillsborough Historical Society Journal: Vol.1, No.1, July 1998

Hillsborough Historical Society · 1998

First issue of the Hillsborough Historical Society Journal, July 1998, drawing on Mary Claire Engstrom's research on the town. Pieces cover William Churton, the surveyor who laid out Hillsborough; Edmund Fanning and the town in the Regulator troubles and the Revolution; the Third Provincial Congress, which met at Hillsborough in 1775; and figures and places of the old town: Mary Burke, known as Polly, the Presbyterian minister John Knox Witherspoon, Dr. Thomas Webb and Faddis Tavern.

Why this is here: Their name appears in the record.

Mary Claire Engstrom papers, 1963-1984.

Engstrom, Mary Claire, 1906-1997 · 1963

Research papers of Mary Claire Engstrom, 1906 to 1997, dated 1963 to 1984 and filling 13.75 linear feet with roughly ten thousand items, part of the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 4684. Her subjects were Hillsborough's historic buildings and districts, John Berry, Mr. and Mrs. Burwell's Female School, county cemeteries, Quakers, and local history. Correspondence with other genealogists belongs to the group.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Engstrom, Mary Claire, 1906-1997.

UNC

Rena C. Harrell correspondence, 1962-1966.

Harrell, Rena C. · 1962

Thirty three letters of Rena C. Harrell, written between 1962 and 1966, in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 3751-z. The correspondence concerns the Burwell school for girls at Hillsborough and social conditions in the town, and people and organizations represented include Mary Claire Engstrom, Carolyn Andrews Wallace, Hugh Conway Browning and Thomas Hugh Spence.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Engstrom, Mary Claire, 1906-1997.

UNC

Mary Claire Engstrom photographic collection, 1930s-1979 (bulk 1950s-1976).

Engstrom, Mary Claire, 1906-1997 · 1934

Photographs gathered by Mary Claire Engstrom (1906-1997), dated from the 1930s to 1979 with most falling between the 1950s and 1976, about 2,140 items in 4.4 linear feet in UNC's North Carolina Collection. Subjects include historic buildings in Hillsborough and Orange County, the Alexander Dixon House, the Nash Hooper Graham House, Bingham School, Nash and Kollock School, the Hillsboro' Military Academy, Carrboro views, and the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Engstrom, Mary Claire, 1906-1997.

UNC

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.

  • Foundational · NC 289.6 ENG Early Quakers in the Eno River Valley: Ca. 1750-1847 Engstrom, Mary Claire · 1989

    Mary Claire Engstrom's history of the Quaker settlers of the Eno River valley from about 1750 to 1847, in the country that is now Orange and Durham counties. Published by the Association for the Preservation of the Eno River Valley in Durham in 1989, 73 pages with illustrations, maps and portraits.

  • Foundational · NC 371.82 ENG The Book of Burwell Students: Lives of Educated Women in the Antebellum South Engstrom, Mary Claire · 1979

    Mary Claire Engstrom's biographical register of the young women who attended the Burwell School in Hillsborough, subtitled lives of educated women in the antebellum South. The school was kept by Margaret Anna Burwell and her husband, and the book bears on women's education in nineteenth-century North Carolina. Published by the Historic Hillsborough Commission, 1979, 256 pages with illustrations and portraits.

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 7 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Mary Claire Engstrom and her husband buy the Nash-Hooper House in Hillsborough In 1959 Mary Claire Engstrom, who had earned a UNC doctorate in English literature in 1939, and her husband, UNC French professor Alfred G. Engstrom, bought the Nash-Hooper House in Hillsborough. From then on she turned her research to the history of Hillsborough and its surroundings. People: Alfred G. EngstromSearch the index · NCpedia: Engstrom, Mary Claire
  2. Mary Claire Engstrom documents 122 Hillsborough sites for the Historic American Buildings Survey From 1963 to 1965 Mary Claire Engstrom documented 122 old structures and historic sites in and around Hillsborough for the Historic American Buildings Survey. Her research helped many of them reach the National Register, including the Nash-Hooper House as a National Historic Landmark, and helped establish two Hillsborough historic districts.Search the index · NCpedia: Engstrom, Mary Claire
  3. Mary Claire Engstrom helps found the Hillsborough Historical Society Mary Claire Engstrom was instrumental in founding the Hillsborough Historical Society, which filed National Register applications for local buildings, led walking tours and published newsletters and journals. It merged with the Orange County Historical Museum in 2007.Search the index · NCpedia: Engstrom, Mary Claire
  4. Mary Claire Engstrom chairs the Historic Hillsborough Commission Mary Claire Engstrom chaired the Historic Hillsborough Commission, a state-appointed body created in 1963, from 1964 to 1966 and again from 1976 to 1983. Her research files for the commission and other projects cover deeds, cemeteries, mills, inns, Quaker settlements and schools such as the Hillsborough Academy and the Burwell School.Search the index · UNC Libraries finding aid: Mary Claire Engstrom Papers, 1963-1984 (#4684)
  5. The old Walker Milling Co. building on courthouse square is torn down Orange County, which bought the mill property in August 1963 for $25,000, had a Wilmington contractor raze the building to clear the lot for parking. Historical groups asked the commissioners to save it, but they would only agree, by a split vote, to buy the old handmade bricks for resale. People: Mary Claire EngstromSearch the index · DigitalNC: The News of Orange County, December 10, 1964, p. 8
  6. Mary Claire Engstrom surveys the family graveyards of Orange County In the 1970s the Hillsborough historian Mary Claire Engstrom recorded cemeteries across the county, many of them private burial grounds on farms. Her index was kept at the Register of Deeds in Hillsborough.Search the index · NC Digital Collections: Kelly Lally and Ruth Little, Chapel Hill Township Survey Final Report (1992), p. 11
  7. Mary Claire Engstrom dies Mary Claire Engstrom, born in Kansas City in 1906, died on May 20, 1997. She had lived in Hillsborough and continued her historical research there until her death.Search the index · NCpedia: Engstrom, Mary Claire

Places in this person’s story

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows them all.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.

All places and the county map →

Named with them in the chronology

People named in the same dated entries as Mary Claire Engstrom, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.

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The index lists works with an Orange County connection. To find everything else about Mary Claire Engstrom, search these catalogs.

Books about Mary Claire Engstrom

Books by Mary Claire Engstrom

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Photographs, papers, and newspapers

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