The Manuscript Collections consist primarily of unpublished documents such as literary manuscripts, letters, diaries, cartoons, photographs, architectural drawings, and organizational, church and governmental records. Also included are some printed material, microforms, tape recordings, films and other items received as part of the manuscript collections.

The major emphasis of the Manuscript Collections is on North and South Carolina, with particular attention to the Charlotte/Mecklenburg area.

The largest and most important collection is the Harry Golden Papers, consisting of about 300,000 items that document the life and work of one of the most colorful and important practitioners of personal journalism in the 20th century.

The collection reflects the involvement of Golden, editor of the Charlotte based Carolina Israelite and author of several best sellers, in politics, civil rights and Jewish affairs.

The Golden papers also include an extensive group of original documents and secondary material relating to Carl Sandburg, Golden's friend and the subject of his 1961 biography.

Through an agreement with the city of Charlotte and the State Archives, the library is the repository for the official papers of Charlotte's mayors. These collections are complemented by the papers of other elected officials, including Fred Alexander, the first black city councilman in Charlotte in this century and later a state senator. The library also has the minute books of the city and county school boards, 1885-1960, various city and county records, 1870s to 1920s, the files of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Charter Commission, 1969-71, papers of members of the Planning Commission, 1978-92, and records of the Mecklenburg County Health Department, 1915-84.

The papers of Julius Chambers and of Ben Horack and William Waggoner, rival attorneys in the Swann v. Charlotte/Mecklenburg Board of Education case that established busing as a constitutional means of integrating schools, are the most heavily used of several collections relating to race relations and civil rights. Other important collections include the records of the Charlotte/Mecklenburg Community Relations Committee, and the papers of national NAACP chairman Kelly Alexander Sr., gubernatorial candidate Dr. Reginald Hawkins and Charlotte 3 member T. J. Reddy.

The Torrance Banks Family Papers, 1768-1932, are almost certainly the largest and most comprehensive collection of Mecklenburg County family papers in existence. Among other families whose papers are available are Alexander, Arthur, Caldwell, Davidson, Harrell, Hood, Irwin, Latta, Leary, Liddell, Love, Moor, Patterson, Pharr, Spratt, Spring, Sullivan, Van Landingham, Walker and Wilkes. Collections of individuals include the papers of artist and AME Zion minister William A. Cooper, journalist Pete McKnight, labor organizer Boyd Payton and novelist Marian Sims. The George M. Ivey and William H. Sumner collections include 30-40,000 photographic prints, negatives and slides.

Collections of architectural drawings include the papers of Louis Asbury and Martin Boyer, who designed many homes in Myers Park and Eastover, and of Biberstein, Bowles, Meachem and Reed, who designed textile mills all over the South. Among the organizations that have donated their records are three DAR chapters, the Charlotte branch of the American Association of University Women, the Charlotte Woman's Club, the 38th Evacuation Hospital Unit formed by Charlotte doctors during World War II, the Mecklenburg Historical Association and the Unitarian Church of Charlotte. The records of the Piedmont and Northern Railway Co. and J.A. Jones Construction Co. are the largest of several collections relating to area businesses.