The Joseph Wallace King manuscript collection contains documents and materials relating to the life and work of the American artist. This collection only contains the archives of Joseph Wallace King which include items such as: correspondences, printed materials, financial documents, photographs, slides, negatives, transparencies, original theatrical works, newspaper clippings, magazines, etc. While Elon University owns a number of pieces of King's artwork, none of his paintings are included in this collection. Please contact the Archivist and Special Collections Librarian for information regarding King's paintings at Elon. The collection is arranged numerically by box number as originally assigned by Deborah King Melina. The items originally housed in each box when the collection was given are still housed in each designated box. Within each box, the materials are arranged alphabetically by type or by a general title assigned to the contents in each folder, and then chronologically.

Box 1 contains materials primarily from the 1960s and 1980s-1990s. This box contains mostly correspondences, magazine and newspaper clippings, and photographs. Information regarding the Lady Godiva parade in Winston-Salem, NC in the 1990s is included in this box. Box 2 contains materials primarily from the 1950s-1960s and the 1990s. This box contains mostly correspondences, essays, manuscripts composed by Joe King, and newspaper clippings. Box 3 contains materials primarily from the 1950s and 1980s and most of the contents are manuscripts written by Joe King. Box 4 contains materials primarily from the 1960s-1970s. The majority of documents in box 4 pertain to Joe King's painting of Queen Elizabeth II. Documents include correspondences, brochures, newspaper and magazine clippings, negatives and transparencies, and photographs. Box 4 also contains some materials relating to Joe King's painting of Richard Nixon. Box 5 contains miscellaneous photographs. Box 6 contains materials from the 1960s-1980s. Most of the items in box 6 are miscellaneous negatives and transparencies, and photographs. Box 7 contains negatives and transparencies, and photographs primarily from the 1960s-1970s. Box 8 also contains negatives and transparencies, and photographs primarily from the 1960s. Box 9 contains negatives and transparencies, photographs, and newspaper clippings primarily from the 1960s-1980s. Box 10 contains miscellaneous photographs from the 1960s-1980s. Box 11 contains materials from the 1970s, primarily pertaining to Joe King's paintings of the Saudi Arabia kings. Documents include correspondences, newspaper and magazine clippings, negatives, transparencies, and photographs. Box 12 contains miscellaneous negatives and transparences, and photographs from the 1960s-1970s. Box 13 contains materials such as booklets documenting places to see in England and the Royal family, magazine articles about the Richard Nixon painting, and miscellaneous photographs. Box 14 contains materials from the 1970s-1990s. Some of the items in box 14 include information about Eddie Carmel, miscellaneous correspondences, information about the autobiographical book by Joe King, papers about his divorce from Earline King, information about a variety of exhibitions, information pertaining to Hammer Galleries and the Lotos Club, and a set of miscellaneous negatives, transparencies, and photographs. Box 15 contains miscellaneous negatives and transparencies, and photographs from the 1980s-1990s. Box 16 contains miscellaneous correspondences, negatives, transparencies, and photographs from the 1960s-1980s. Box 17 contains materials from the 1960s-1970s that primarily relate to exhibitions, the autobiographical book by Joe King, miscellaneous magazine articles, negatives, transparencies, and photographs. Some original prints and drawings by Joe King are also included in box 17. Box 18 contains materials from the 1970s-1990s. Items in this box include manuscripts written by Joe King, newspaper clippings, and miscellaneous negatives, transparencies, and photographs. Box 19 includes materials relating to the feature film "Somebody Moved My Mountain." Items include agreements, correspondences, photographs, press releases, and scripts. Box 20 contains materials from the 1960s and 1990s such as appraisals, books, correspondences, tax information, magazine and newspaper clippings, proposals, and sale information all relating to the Battle of Gettysburg cyclorama. Box 21 contains miscellaneous slides. Box 22 contains miscellaneous negatives and transparencies, and photographs. Box 23 contains a group of address books that belonged to Joe King. Box 24 contains audio-visual materials from the 1960s-1970s that primarily relate to the feature film "Somebody Moved My Mountain." Box 25 contains miscellaneous correspondences, financial documents, and photographs from the 1970s-1980s. Box 26 contains a scrapbook from the feature film "Somebody Moved My Mountain." Box 27 contains a scrapbook of materials related to the Richard Nixon painting by Joe King. Box 28 contains a scrapbook of materials related to the Queen Elizabeth II painting by Joe King. Box 29 is a sealed box that includes photographs by Joe King that he used in paintings by Vinciata. This box is to remained sealed until 2057. Box 30 and 31 are the original film reels of the feature film "Somebody Moved My Mountain." Also included in this collection are a number of artifacts that have been added to the Belk Library Archives and Special Collections artifact collection. Please refer to section below titled "detailed description of the collection" for more specific information about what is housed in each box.

The below section of the Scope and Content Note was composed by Deborah King Melina, October 2011.

After my husband's death in January 1996, I began almost immediately to clear out his studio at Reynolda Village in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It was a long and tedious task lasting a year and two months. I found photographs and slides on the floor of an outside storage room. They were under a number of boxes, paintings, frames and bits and pieces of furniture. I knew some of the paintings and recognized some of the models or subjects. Realizing that a great task lay ahead of someone, I decided that that someone had to be me. I began making boxes and envelopes of every painting, negative and photograph that I found. Sadly, some paintings were discarded as they were beyond repair. One was a portrait of Michael Dauberville, the son of the owner of the Bernheim-Jeune Dauberville Gallery in Paris, France. This painting appears in the publication . The paint and gesso had fallen off the canvas, eerily leaving only one eye attached. My husband had been in the same studio at Reynolda Village for 50 years and some of the things found there dated from those very early days. Some of the documentation for, "The Battle of Gettysburg," a bequest left to Wake Forest University, was discovered amongst the papers in the storage room. These documents are now among the collection at Elon University.

There were several plays written by my late husband in the 1950s. A few he had spoken to me about, others were a complete surprise. Also among the debris was a single article of "Rebel at Large"; this was a weekly newspaper column written in the 1930s for a Washington based daily paper. Unfortunately, there is only the one article and it had been cut out of the paper without the heading. So, exactly which paper he wrote for remains a mystery. I remember him referring to this column only once; he said that he wrote about life in Washington, D.C. The pot holes, the politics and the conveniences and inconveniences of life in the Capital city. I had no idea that he had saved even one article and quite frankly, I think he would have been surprised also to know that he had managed to preserve this one.

When the task of cataloguing paintings, organizing manuscripts, cleaning negatives and slides, etc. was complete, I telephoned Elon and offered the collection to them. As my husband had chosen to leave a bequest of all paintings executed by him and found in his studio at the time of his death to Elon, I felt it would best to leave the rest of the contents in the studio to Elon. I am hoping to make Elon a repository for his life's work.

Many of our very good friends were and still are supporters of Elon and this was the key to Joe's decision to leave his collection to the university. The arrangements were made through his great friend Dr. Jo W. Williams who has been a great help and who shares my vision of preserving in one place all that can be gathered about my late husband's career.