The library is easy to locate, but parking is not as easy to find. There is a municipal parking garage on the north side of E. Rosemary St. near N. Columbia St. that charges a flat rate of $6 per day, and provides an easy and pleasant walk through the campus to the library.
This collection of papers is on the 4th floor of the library. Take the elevator up and follow the signs to the Southern Historical Collection. the staff is very friendly and helpful. Prior to going to the library, register online for access to the materials to save some time:
UNC / Duke Special Collections Library Request System
After registering, you can request access to the materials you wish to see, saving a little more time when checking in. Even if you don’t request access this way, it isn’t a big deal. The staff will enter the request for you as you check in.
No bags or other personal materials are allowed in the reading room. You may take a camera and computer (guest wifi access is also provided) only. The library provides guest lockers in the the lobby area right where you enter the special collections room, free of charge. This is where you lock up your bag, etc. There are pencils and paper provided in the reading room. You may bring research notes into the reading room, but they must be reviewed and stamped by the staff before going in, and will be inspected on the way out to ensure no items are pilfered from the collection.
The collection is housed in archive boxes; this particular collection having 87 folders in 8 archive boxes. There is a finding aid for this collection that is very helpful and descriptive. You may only have one of the archive boxes checked out to you in the reading room at one time. If you are going to be reviewing items in many boxes, the staff will have them pulled and staged on a cart for you. After you return a box, they will hand you the next one through the service window.
The first 48 folders are letters and papers. These range in date from 1836 to about 1900, and are letters from all members of the family, sorted by date in the archive. The rest of the folders are the diaries of Anne Turberville Beale Davis, Joseph Hoomes Davis, Robert Beale Davis, John Williams Corbin Davis and Martha Anne (Nannie) Davis Beale. These cover the period 1838 to 1920, with some gapes during periods when no diary was being kept, or the diary is missing from the collection. These are a rich source of information on daily life and business. You could spend weeks just reading these.