Lafayette Collection at Davis Memorial Library

LAFAYETTE COLLECTION

The Marquis de Lafayette was an early military volunteer from France who assisted the colonists during the Revolutionary War. After the war he was feted by many American cities. In 1825 he came for a triumphant tour of the town of Cross Creek in Cumberland County. The town was subsequently renamed "Fayetteville" in his honor.

The College's collection of Lafayette material dates from 1967, when the school was persuaded through Mrs. Margaret McMahan, a Lafayette scholar, to purchase this collection of letters, monographs and realia for $3800. The collection's original owner, Melville Fuller Riley of Connecticut, had sold it to the Schindler Antique Shop of Charleston, South Carolina. To house this special collection and to add new acquisitions, a group called "The Friends of Lafayette" raised additional money.

The College is indebted to many individuals and groups for their efforts in housing and developing its Lafayette collection. These include the Fayetteville Women's Club, the J. E. B. Stuart Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the Cumberland County Historical Society, and the Methodist College Women's Club. An important figure in the history of the collection was Norma Womack (later to be head librarian at the college). Mrs. Womack was central in early efforts to purchase, and display the Lafayette collection. She was active in the Friends of Lafayette, the Methodist College Women's Club, and other groups. The acquisition and promotion of the collection was a central part of her professional activities over many years.

Davis Memorial Library's original Lafayette room, was dedicated on September 6, 1973, the 216th birthday of the Marquis. A new room recently opened in the South Wing of the library. This room is built and furnished in the style of a southern American home at the time of the visit of the Marquis de Lafayette to Fayetteville in 1825.

The collection comprises diverse materials and formats, including 19 original letters written by Lafayette or concerning him, over 150 monographs (including newspapers, eulogies and funeral orations) written during Lafayette's life or just after his death, 175 books (many more than 150 years old), and a collection of books about Lafayette for children. In addition, the collection contains many other formats, such as commemorative medals and plates, maps of the Cape Fear Region during Lafayette's 1825 visit, two original music scores and a five dollar note on the Lafayette Bank of Boston, 1837.