Abstract The Olivia Johns Rice Collection comprises 660 items housed in five boxes and documents the personal, professional, familial, and community life of Olivia Johns Rice and members of the Johns, Rice, and Hazard families from the late nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth century. The collection includes extensive correspondence; legal, financial, and educational records; church membership materials; agricultural and household documents; personal identification papers; printed ephemera;...

Scope and Contents This collection documents the life and work of Mahlon Van Horne, who served as pastor of the Union Congregational Church in Newport, Rhode Island, for 28 years, beginning in 1869, along with papers from his family. Included is the original manuscript of his sermon, “The Negro in Rhode Island,” that he delivered in 1887, a letter he wrote October 15, 1902, reporting the death of his son in a horse-riding accident in St. Thomas, a letter addressed to Florence (Van Horne) Miller, a collection...

Scope and Contents The William Spencer Smith DeCoursey collection contains items belonging to DeCoursey, his mother, Clara Lavinia (Mitchell) Pinkston, and his wife, Lois (Joyner) DeCoursey. William Spencer DeCoursey’s folder contains photographs of him from his childhood to his time in the Navy. There is also a US Navy recruitment postcard addressed to him.Clara DeCoursey Pinkston’s folder contains photographs, a certificate of membership in the Order of the Eastern Star and two...