Guide to the Ira B. Mullis Papers, 1925-1964

Collection Number MC 00018

NCSU Libraries logo

Collection Information
Abstract:

This collection contains correspondence, reports, memos, Mullis' professional writings, photographs, blueprints, maps, charts and notes. Materials in the collection date from 1925-1964.

The Ira B. Mullis Papers document the career of a professional civil engineer engaged in the practical and theoretical aspects of road and roadbed design, construction and maintenance in the U.S. from 1904-1964.

Contact Information:
Special Collections Research Center
NCSU Libraries
Campus Box 7111
Raleigh, North Carolina
27695-7111 USA
Phone: (919) 515-2273
Fax: (919) 513-1787
URL: http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/specialcollections/
Web Contact Form
Processed by
Joel Mauger and Michael Watts
Encoded by
Michael Watts

Descriptive Summary

Repository

North Carolina State University Libraries, Special Collections Research Center

Creator

Mullis, Ira B.

Title

Ira B. Mullis Papers, 1925-1964

Call Number

MC 00018

Extent

1.5 linear feet, 3 archival boxes

Location

For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Special Collections Research Center Reference Staff.

Language of Material

English

Information for Users

Restrictions to Access

This collection is open for research; access requires at least 24 hours advance notice.
Acquisitions Information

Donated by Ira B. Mullis in 1967 (Accession no. 1967-0001).
Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Ira B. Mullis Papers, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, NC
Copyright Notice

The nature of the NCSU Libraries' Special Collections means that copyright or other information about restrictions may be difficult or even impossible to determine despite reasonable efforts. The NCSU Libraries claims only physical ownership of most Special Collections materials.

The materials from our collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source.

Biography Note


Born in Wingate, NC on August 29, 1877, Ira Broadis Mullis spent the whole of his professional career (1904-1956) as a civil engineer engaged in road construction and design. He specialized in the materials, techniques, maintenance and design of roadbeds, bringing to this field a personal interest in geology as well as engineering. Mullis graduated from Wingate College and then attended North Carolina State College, now North Carolina State University, from 1903 to 1904 until the death of his father, and the subsequent financial hardship, forced him to leave without graduating in order to pursue a professional career as a civil engineer.

He spent the early part of his career from 1904-1920 in North Carolina serving as the City Engineer for Lumberton, NC (1910-1913) and, under the direction of Joseph Hyde Pratt, as a Highway Engineer for the North Carolina Geological and Economic Survey (1913-1915) and the North Carolina Highway Commission (1915-1918). From 1920 until 1940, he worked for the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads first as a Testing Engineer based in Washington D.C. (1920-1931) and then as a Highway Engineer (1931-1942) based in the Midwest. Mullis' district, District 5, encompassed Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. His duties included the supervision of road and bridge construction in the district, road location and inspection, examination of pavement and roadbed failures and the development of specifications for adequate roadbed compaction. He left the Bureau of Public Roads in January 1942, and moved to Raleigh, N.C. to work for two Raleigh based firms, Southern Aggregates Corporation and the engineering firm of Pratt, Lassiter and Watkins. He retired in 1956 at the age of 79.

Mullis had several papers published in the Proceedings of the American Society of Civil Engineers between 1938 and 1963, and retained a lifelong interest in roadbed design, construction and maintenance. He was married to Annie Duckett Mullis and had one child, a son, Ira Broadis Mullis Jr.

Scope and Content Note


This collection documents the professional career of Ira B. Mullis as a civil engineer working on road and roadbed design, construction and maintenance from 1925-1964. Correspondence and Professional Writings form the bulk of the collection and provide detailed information about the day to day duties of an engineer working for the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads in the form of memos, reports, articles, papers and letters, as well as material on his tenure as a consulting engineer for two private Raleigh, N.C. based companies, Southern Aggregates Corporation and Pratt, Lassiter and Watkins. Biographical information can be found in the Correspondence series but the collection contains few items of a strictly personal nature. Other types of materials found in the collection include photographs, blueprints and maps.

Organization of the Collection


The Mullis Papers are organized into five series as follows: Correspondence, Professional Writings, Research Notes, Road Compacting Equipment Promotional Material, and Miscellaneous.

Online Catalog Terms


The following terms have been used to index the guide to the collection in the NCSU Library's online catalog.

Individuals

  • Lassiter, Robert G.
  • Mullis, Ira Broadis
  • Pratt, Joseph Hyde

Corporate Entities

  • American Society of Civil Engineers
  • American Tractor Company
  • Southern Aggregates Inc.
  • United States Government Agencies--Bureau of Public Roads
  • United States Government Agencies--Public Roads Administration

Topics

  • Geology--Classification of rocks
  • Roadbeds--Compaction
  • Roadbeds--Design
  • Roads/Highways--United States--Design and Construction

Detailed Description of the Collection

  • Correspondence, 1925-1961


    0.5 linear feet, 1 archival box

    Mullis' correspondence is almost entirely of a professional nature as even the most personal items contain mention of his career or publications. Included in this series are items such as internal reports from the Bureau of Public Roads, extensive biographical outlines, letters to North Carolina representatives and senators and engineering faculty members at North Carolina College. An extensive correspondence, written from 1939-1942, with Robert G. Lassiter of Southern Aggregates and Joseph Hyde Pratt, a well known professor of geology and engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, details Mullis' attempts to obtain a cooperative placement at North Carolina State College under the auspices of the Bureau of Public Roads and the Department of Engineering. Almost all outgoing correspondence is in the form of typewritten carbon copies, while incoming correspondence is in the form of signed originals. Some third party correspondence is also present in this series.

    • Correspondence 1925 - 1937 [MC 0018 Box 1, Folder 1]
    • Soil Testing Data, Kansas 1934 - 1937 [MC 0018 Box 1, Folder 2]
    • Soil Testing Data, Nebraska 1935, Aug. - Nov. [MC 0018 Box 1, Folder 3]
    • Miscellaneous Soil Testing Data no date [MC 0018 Box 1, Folder 4]
    • 2 Maps, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Weather Bureau no date [MC 0018 Box 1, Folder 5]
    • Correspondence 1939, Jan. 18 - Dec. 20 [MC 0018 Box 1, Folder 6]
    • Correspondence 1940, Jan. 3 - Dec. 11 [MC 0018 Box 1, Folder 7]
    • Correspondence 1941, Jan. 10 - Aug. 30 [MC 0018 Box 1, Folder 8]
    • Correspondence 1941, Sept. 7 - Dec. 3 [MC 0018 Box 1, Folder 9]
    • Correspondence 1942, Oct. 2 - June 7 [MC 0018 Box 1, Folder 10]
    • Correspondence 1951, Jan. 12 - 1961, Jan. 23 [MC 0018 Box 1, Folder 11]
    • Biographical Sketch 1939 [MC 0018 Box 1, Folder 12]

    [Return to Descriptive Summary]

  • Professional Writings, 1935-1964


    0.5 linear feet, 1 archival box

    Mullis' professional writings, including reports and articles, published and unpublished, from ca. 1939 to 1964. these represent Mullis career as a professional road engineer for the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads until January of 1942 when he entered the private sector as a consulting engineer for Southern Aggregates and Pratt, Lassiter and Watkins, a Raleigh NC based engineering firm for which he worked until retiring in 1956. Sizable amounts of correspondence, especially professional responses and congratulations from friends and family, accompany two published papers: Principles Applying to Highway Roadbeds February (1939) and Properties of Roadbeds (1963).

    • A Method of Evaluating Roadbeds 1935, Feb. 14 [MC 0018 Box 2, Folder 1]
    • Principles Applying to Highway Roadbeds 1937 [MC 0018 Box 2, Folder 2]
    • Correspondence Regarding Principles Applying to Highway Roadbeds 1937, Apr. 12 - 1939, Dec. 7 [MC 0018 Box 2, Folder 3]
    • Other Correspondence Regarding Distribution and Receipt of Offprints of Principles Applying to Highway Roadbeds 1938, July 25 - 1940, Mar. 29 [MC 0018 Box 2, Folder 4]
    • Roadbed Failures and How to Avert Them 1939 - 1942 [MC 0018 Box 2, Folder 5]
    • Copies of Discussions Regarding Principles Applying to Highway Roadbeds 1939 [MC 0018 Box 2, Folder 6]
    • Edited Copy of Mullis' Final Discussion for Principles Applying to Highway Roadbeds 1939, May 24 [MC 0018 Box 2, Folder 7]
    • Correspondence Regarding Distribution and Receipt of Offprints of Principles Applying to Highway Roadbeds 1939, Dec. 1 - 1941, Oct. 17 [MC 0018 Box 2, Folder 8]
    • Standards of Compaction 1941 [MC 0018 Box 2, Folder 9]
    • Report on Aggregates Produced by Seminole Rock and Sand Co., Miami Florida 1943 [MC 0018 Box 2, Folder 10]
    • Report on Aggregates Produced by South Carolina Granite Co., Blairs, S. C. 1943, Nov. 9 [MC 0018 Box 2, Folder 11]
    • Report on Railroad Ballast 1943, Nov. 9 [MC 0018 Box 2, Folder 12]
    • Report on Abrasion Losses on Stone from Greystone Quarry Operated by Greystone Granite Quarries 1944, Aug. 16 [MC 0018 Box 2, Folder 13]
    • Profitable Railroad Ballast 1944, Aug. 21 [MC 0018 Box 2, Folder 14]
    • Aggregates for Drainage 1944, Oct. 10 [MC 0018 Box 2, Folder 15]
    • The Value of Codes, Standards, Inspection, and Labels in Industry 1944, Oct. 27 [MC 0018 Box 2, Folder 16]
    • Economics of Crushed Stone Road Ballast 1944, Nov. 25 [MC 0018 Box 2, Folder 17]
    • Report on Woodleaf Stone Sands, handwritten by Mullis for Pratt, Lassiter, and Watkins no date [MC 0018 Box 2, Folder 18]
    • Photos, Notes, etc. Principles Applying to Highway Roadbeds no date [MC 0018 Box 2, Folder 19]
    • A Method of Rock Classification for Road Use 1951, Sept. [MC 0018 Box 3, Folder 1]
    • Street Conditions and Construction Methods in the City of Raleigh, N.C. 1951, Sept. 8 [MC 0018 Box 3, Folder 2]
    • Properties of Roadbeds and Bases 1952, Apr. 4 [MC 0018 Box 3, Folder 3]
    • Norlina - Macon N.C. I -755 1953, Dec. 3 [MC 0018 Box 3, Folder 4]
    • Report to Charles E. Proudley, Raleigh, N.C. on U.S. 29, no date [MC 0018 Box 3, Folder 5]
    • Properties Affecting the Strengths of Roadbeds and Bases, 1956 [MC 0018 Box 3, Folder 6]
    • Properties of Roadbeds, 1961, July 16 [MC 0018 Box 3, Folder 7]
    • Closing Discussion on Properties of Roadbeds, 1963, Apr. [MC 0018 Box 3, Folder 8]
    • Fundamental Principles of the Ideal Roadbed, 1964, Sept. [MC 0018 Box 3, Folder 9]
    • Soil Cement Mixtures, no date [MC 0018 Box 3, Folder 10]
    • Historical Roadbuilding Techniques and Materials, no date [MC 0018 Box 3, Folder 11]
    • Certain Premises Applying to Roadbeds and Construction, no date [MC 0018 Box 3, Folder 12]
    • Notes on Roadbed Studies, no date [MC 0018 Box 3, Folder 13]
    • More Notes on Roadbed Studies, no date [MC 0018 Box 3, Folder 14]

    [Return to Descriptive Summary]

  • Research Notes, undated


    0.25 linear feet, 0.5 archival box

    These notes pertain to Mullis' professional research and include charts, notes from secondary sources, copies of articles, and listings of principles relevant to the construction of roadbeds.

    • Handwritten Notes, Principles of Roadbeds, Ira B. Mullis, no date [MC 0018 Box 3, Folder 15]
    • Handwritten Notes and Charts no date [MC 0018 Box 3, Folder 16]
    • Articles, Catalogues and Publications no date [MC 0018 Box 3, Folder 17]
    • Miscellaneous Notes From Secondary Sources on Roadbed Design and Construction no date [MC 0018 Box 3, Folder 18]
    • Notes and Tables on Porosity and Sub-Grade Soil Testing Methods no date [MC 0018 Box 3, Folder 19]
    • Compaction Studies, Charts, Tables and Graphs no date [MC 0018 Box 3, Folder 20]

    [Return to Descriptive Summary]

  • Road Compaction Equipment Promotional Material, undated


    0.125 linear feet, 0.25 archival box

    This series contains brochures and photos of equipment including compacting rollers and tractors used in the construction of roadbeds, earthen dams and other types of projects requiring soil compaction.

    • Letters, Brouchures, and Publicity Photos for Manufacturers of Road Compaction Equipment no date [MC 0018 Box 3, Folder 21]

    [Return to Descriptive Summary]

  • Miscellaneous, undated


    0.125 linear feet, 0.25 archival box
    • Reprint from an Article from the Baptist Student; American Railway Engineer's Association - List of Publications; American for Testing Material - List of Publications no date [MC 0018 Box 3, Folder 22]

    [Return to Descriptive Summary]