Thomas Frederick Dixon Jr. Finding Aid

Abstract

The Thomas Frederick Dixon, Jr. Collection contains documents, manuscripts, biographical works, and other materials pertaining to the life and literary career of Thomas Dixon. Dixon was a well-known novelist, playwright, and Baptist minister from North Carolina whose novel The Clansman (1904) was later adapted into the motion picture The Birth of a Nation. The collection includes manuscript chapters from the first writing of Dixon’s autobiography and a previously unpublished screenplay.

Acquisitions Information

The Thomas Frederick Dixon, Jr. Collection was donated to Gardner-Webb College in 1948 by Madelyn D. Dixon. Lee B. Weathers, former publisher of The Shelby Star, facilitated the donation and transfer of the materials from the Dixon family to Gardner-Webb College. Prior to his death, Dixon and his wife communicated to Weathers a request that his personal library and nine original paintings be donated to the college.

Preferred Citation

Thomas Frederick Dixon, Jr. Collection; item description, dates. Series, Subseries, Item #, University Archives, Gardner-Webb University, Boiling Springs, NC.

Subject Headings

• American Literature – Southern States
• Baptists – Clergy – North Carolina
• Dixon, Thomas, 1864 - 1946
• Dixon, Madelyn Donovan (1894 – 1975)
• Dramatists, American
• Griffith, David Wark, (1875 – 1948)
• Novelists, American
• Racism in Motion Pictures
• Racism in Literature
• The Birth of a Nation
• The Flaming Sword
• Shelby, NC
• Slide, Anthony
• Weathers, Lee Beam, (1886 – 1958)