Manuscript [group] ID: 4-14

Name: Ryan, Fr. Abram, 1838-1886

Title: Fr. Abram J. Ryan Archive

Volume: notebooks; scrapbooks; folders; envelopes

Scope & Contents: The archive, housed in a single carton, contains bound and looseleaf notebooks that include photographs, original letters, transcripts of letters and journal entries, transcripts of poems, typescript excerpts from Ryan’s writings, typescript interpretive notes about Fr. Ryan by Fr. James McKey, numerous newspaper clippings, and postcards.

Historical Note: Fr. Abram Ryan was a Catholic priest in various Southern states and a chaplain in the Confederate Army who published collections of poetry. After the war he also published and edited a regional newspaper in Augusta GA. He became widely known for his poetry, lectured extensively across the south, northeast, and midwest, and was often referred to as “the Poet-Priest of the South.”

Provenance: The archive was originally collected by Sr. Mary Josephine Donallan from 1886 to approximately 1920. It was continued by Fr. James McKey until the 1950's, when ownership of the archive was transferred to Abbot Vincent Taylor, Abbot of Belmont Abbey. Today it is housed in the Rare Books & Special Collections Room of the Abbot Vincent Taylor Library at Belmont Abbey College near Charlotte, NC.

Subjects:

Donald Beagle
Director of Library Services
Belmont Abbey College