Jean Bradley Anderson papers

Jean Bradley Anderson is a historian, teacher, professional genealogist, and pioneer Durham and Durham County preservationist. A Philadelphia native, Anderson graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a BA in English from the University of Pennsylvania, received an MA in English from the same institution, and has taught the subject at Duke University and North Carolina Central University. Anderson moved to Durham in 1955 with her husband Carl, who was hired to teach English at Duke University. In the mid-1960s they moved to the country to a house on the Eno River. An old graveyard on the land piqued her interest in who had lived there, and she began to look into the histories of the people named on the tombstones. At the time the Andersons moved to the Eno, the City of Durham was making plans to dam it for a reservoir. Hoping to convince the city to preserve a valuable historical site, Anderson says, "I began to do research in the [Duke Library] manuscripts room looking for anything that pertained to the original families that lived along the river. This was the beginning of my discovery of the treasures in the manuscript room, and I was hooked" (Indy Week, June 15, 2011). Anderson was a founding member of the Historic Preservation Society of Durham, now known as Preservation Durham. She has been active in numerous other local preservation efforts including the Eno River Association, Historic Stagville, and Hill House. She is the author of numerous books on local history including Durham County: A History of Durham County, North Carolina, commissioned by the Historic Preservation Society of Durham, now in its second edition; Piedmont Plantation: The Bennehan-Cameron Family and Lands in North Carolina commissioned by the North Carolina Division of Archives and History in 1948; The Kirklands of Ayr Mount, originally comissioned by the then-owner of Ayr Mount, Richard Jenrette, in 1985; Carolinian on the Hudson: The Life of Robert Donaldson; and Campus Club, Duke University: A History.