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[Identification of item], Johnson Family Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.
The Johnson Family Papers were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library as a gift in 1978.
Processed by Rubenstein Library staff
Encoded by Jen Snow, June 2011
Accession(s) described in this finding aid: 1-4-78 and unmarked addition.
Descriptive sources and standards used to create this inventory:
This finding aid is NCEAD compliant.
The Johnson family was an Alabama family whose members were instrumental in founding the Alabama School for the Deaf in Talladega.
The Johnson family's papers chiefly contain letters (1927-1930) from Nellie Hall Johnson (wife of Joseph Henry Johnson Jr.), of Talladega, Alabama, to her son, Seaborn Johnson, while he was a student at Alabama Polytechnic Institute and elsewhere; together with correspondence, some legal and financial papers, student papers from the University of Alabama, and printed material, of three generations of the Johnson family in Alabama and Georgia. Topics include Cave Spring, Georgia, Hollins College, and slave sales. Persons represented include Abner Darden, Joseph Henry Johnson Jr., and the Asbury and Darden families.
The younger Seaborn's namesake, Seaborn Johnson, was born deaf in 1845; his older brother, Joseph Henry Sr., worked at the Georgia School for the Deaf in Cave Spring, and founded the Alabama School for the Deaf in Talladega in 1858. Seaborn was the first student attending the school, then went on to Gallaudet University. Nellie's husband Joseph Henry was the son of Joseph Henry Sr. and Emily Johnson.
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