1. Personal Papers, 1917-1980s

The collection consists of personal materials and those documenting Harrison's mother, Anna DeCosta Banks, the Hospital and Training School for Nurses and McClennan-Banks hospital. Personal papers of Evangeline Banks Harrison and her family include her Avery Institute graduation program (1917), a school essay, biographical data, inspirational clippings, photographs, including an unidentified daguerreotype (circa 1850s) and a sporadically kept diary (circa 1937-1940s). Armistead Harrison materials document his membership in the Owls Whist Club and his long time career as a barber at Felder's Barbershop, Charleston, South Carolina. Anna DeCosta Banks materials include photos, biographical data, diplomas, etc. There are early graduation programs from the Hospital and Training School for Nurses, and clippings and notes regarding the history of the segregated hospital founded by Dr. Alonzo McClennan including photocopies of some issues of The Hospital Herald journal he edited. Included are constitutions, bylaws, and charters of that institution and its successor, the McClennan-Banks Memorial Hospital. With significant correspondence (1947-1959) regarding the closing of the earlier institution, and the struggle to secure financing to support a hospital to treat African Americans. Those active in the debate included the Catholic Diocese of Charleston, Roper Hospital and Medical Society of South Carolina, the city of Charleston, and the county of Charleston which eventually took responsibility for a new structure. Correspondents include hospital officers, Thomas Carr McFall, Samuel J. Poinsette, building designer Augustus E. Constantine, other architects, a representative of the Society for Preservation of Spirituals, and Harold S. (Dick) Reeves, wanting to hold a Gullah reading to raise money. With some miscellaneous materials regarding hospital staff and their descendants.