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Digital Collections


Digital Collections | Manuscript Collections | Rare Book Room Collections


Digital Collections
These collections reflect the intellectual heritage of Davidson College including student scholarship, student and college publications, faculty and staff scholarship, artifacts and special collections. Some of our digital collections are temporarily unavailable as we transition to a new digital system. If you have any questions, please email archives@davidson.edu.

Advisory Statement

This site contains materials originally published in yearbooks, newspapers, and other Davidson College publications. You may encounter upsetting racist, oppressive, and outdated representations in these documents. They are included for historical accuracy and do not represent the views of the current Davidson College community, which honors the dignity of all persons and commits itself to a quest for truth and the building of a more just and humane future.

Manuscript Collections

Ardrey Papers
William Erskine Ardrey (1839 – 1907) was born in the Lower Providence area of Mecklenburg County on September 23, 1839. He entered Davidson College in 1858, but left the college in 1861, before completing his degree, to fight for the Confederacy in the Civil War. Ardrey served until the end of the war (his regiment was at Appomattox when Lee surrendered), and then returned to Mecklenburg county where he was active in political and civic life. The collection includes biographical information, diaries (spanning the Civil War period), petitions, and account ledgers spanning the years 1861 to 1907.

J. F. Nash’s WWI Postcards
A booklet of postcards entitled La Guerre Européenne 1914-1915: Aprés le Passage Des Allemands – Les Ruines (The European War 1914-1915: The Ruins after the Passage of the Germans) from the manuscript collection of John Frederick Nash, class of 1911.

Postcard Collection
The Davidson College Postcard collection consists of postcards of the Davidson College campus and of the town of Davidson, North Carolina.

Presbytery Minutes
Excerpts from the minutes of the Presbytery of Concord, relating to the founding of Davidson College. These excerpts are used with permission of the Presbytery.

College Letters
These letters were selected from the manuscript collections housed in Archives and Special Collections. The dates of the letters range from 1837 to 1921. Each letter contains references to college life and events. Many of them also have information about family, friends and non-college events.

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Rare Book Room Collections

The Bullard Book of Hours
Manuscript volume produced around 1500 in northern France rebound in the late 19th century with blind-stamped morocca over wooden boards with brass clasps.

Omar ibn Sayyid Collections

The following exhibit is a curated collection of scanned leaves from an Arabic Bible owned by Omar ibn Sayyid, as well as his two Arabic translations of the Lord’s Prayer, all dating back to the early-to-mid 19th century. The selected Bible leaves feature notations authored by Sayyid at an unknown date in the margins of the printed text (marginalia).

Emblemata
A 16th and 17th century book of emblems by Andrea Alciati (1492-1550).

The Holy Bible of Omar Ibn Sayyid
The Arabic language bible owned by Omar Ibn Sayyid, given to him by the Owens family.

William Patterson Cumming Map Collection
The collection includes 48 early maps of the North American continent and its regions, with a special focus on the Southeast.

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