Student Protests over Time in NC Student Publications

Today over on the DigitalNC blog we’re sharing 10 examples of North Carolina student protests, beginning with the historic Woolworth’s lunch counter sit-in on this date in 1960 and continuing up to 2012.

The North Carolina Digital Heritage Center is located in Wilson Library and works closely with the North Carolina Collection. We’ll occasionally be cross-blogging some posts that North Carolina Miscellany readers may find interesting.

A Moravian Christmas

Possibly nothing is more festive during the holiday season than making a special trip to a Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market) in Germany, filled with fragrant firs, twinkling lights, and warm Glühwein. Short of booking a trip to Germany to experience this first-hand, the next best thing may be to witness something akin to German Christmas traditions right here in North Carolina among the Moravians of Old Salem, in what is now Winston-Salem, Forsyth County.

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Home Moravian Church in Winston-Salem, N.C. — Christmas, 1907

The Christmas Eve Love-Feast

The Moravian traditions are described in numerous histories and with particularly wonderful detail by Winifred Margaretta Kirkland in her pamphlet about Christmas in Old Salem. She vividly explains the Children’s Love-Feast ceremony, as well as other visual and aural sensations of the holidays in Salem. The Love-Feast is a Christmas Eve ceremony where candles are distributed, songs are sung, and sweet buns are eaten with milky coffee or tea. Particular attention is given to children of the church, providing them a central role in the proceedings. Recipes for the special coffee and other holiday treats can be found in cookbooks such as those published by Friedland Moravian Church and Fries Memorial Moravian Church.

Music is central to the Moravian Christmas traditions. Special hymns are sung at the Love-Feast and at Christmas Day services. One example from 1798 is completely in German, with a translation of a verse below.

Zur ChristnachtSecond Choir: 

Oh venerable night, a thousand suns shine upon you!

You brought the baby Jesus, so that we can reconcile with God.

That day is today, as my healing lays in swaddling clothes.

And a hymn from 1813, in both German and English, with a translation:

Zur ChristnachtCongregation:

Full of heaven’s glory and splendor, praise that night, which brought us salvation.

The spirits of that world, their light surrounded the shepherds’ faces;

For a lifetime, our thanks were also sung in their praises!

The Christmas Putz

As the caption of the photo below explains, “Every Christmas tree has its Putz:”

A typical Christmas Putz

The Putz is another central component of the Christmas holiday celebrations and a means for the community to come together, both in its construction and its display. The Putz is comprised of model buildings, small figures, and in modern times, sometimes lit with electricity. It typically has a nativity scene at its center, and can be small to accompany a tree, or large enough to even fill a room. Some are so elaborate, admission is charged for viewing.

These are a few of the traditions practiced by the German Moravians who settled in North Carolina, with their origins in Europe dating back to the 18th century. And while the inspiration may have come from Germany, the implementation has a new American – and North Carolinian – flair.

Photographs by Jerome Friar of Janet Reno’s U. S. Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing

Photographs copyright Jerome Friar, 1993.
Photographs copyright Jerome Friar, 1993.

Janet Reno, the first female to hold the office of United States Attorney General, passed away early today.  The North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives has four photographs made by Jerome Friar during the United States Senate Judiciary Committee hearings for her confirmation of appointment on 10 March 1993.

Campaign clutter? We want it

Flyer for Dr. Ralph Mcdonald
Ralph McDonald ran against Clyde Hoey in the Democratic primaries in 1936.

Election day is a mere 27 days away, so the robocalls should be interrupting your evening meals and the postcards and fliers will be filling your mailboxes. We, in the North Carolina Collection, can’t help make your evenings more peaceful. But we can relieve you of some of the clutter. As with elections past, we’re eager to collect campaign flyers, postcards and fundraising letters. Our collection of campaign ephemera now includes more than 5000 items and dates back to the 1800s. And we’re eager to keep it growing. We want to document campaigns across the state and at all levelsᾹlegislative, judicial, Council of State, Congressional and Presidential. That’s hard to do from our spot here in the Triangle. Please help us. Hold on to those mailers, flyers and voter guides. Then when you can stomach the clutter no more, send them our way. The address is:

John Blythe
Assistant Curator
P.O. Box 8890
Wilson Library, CB#3930
Chapel Hill, NC 27515-8890

One final note. We like knowing about the yard signs, particularly ones that strike you as unique. Unfortunately, they take up significant space and it’s hard for us to store them. Before you send us the actual sign, would you mind taking a photo of it and emailing the file to us as an attachment? The address is blythej@email.unc.edu Please remember to tell us where and when you spotted it.

Thanks for helping us document North Carolina politics.

Happy 100th Birthday National Park Service!

Happy 100th birthday to the National Park Service (NPS)!

On August 25, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the National Park Service Organic Act establishing the NPS as an agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior to coordinate administration of the then 37 national parks and monuments. Today the NPS oversees 412 parks, monuments, and other conservation and historic properties.

In 1926, 10 years after establishment of the NPS, creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was authorized. Covering 522,427 acres, almost evenly divided between the states of North Carolina and Tennessee, the park is today the most visited of the 59 national parks, attracting over 9 million visitors annually. More than 1,660 kinds of flowering plants can be found along its more than 800 miles of tended trails.

Here are a few postcards from the North Carolina Collection’s postcards collection showing the beauty and wonder of this special place:

A_View_Near_Crestmont_in_the_Great_Smoky_Mountain_National_Park_area

Black_Bear_Great_Smoky_Mts_Natl_Park

Lake_Santeetlah_Near_End_of_Great_Smoky_Mountains_National_Park

Mount_Sterling_from_Cove_Creek_Gap_at_Sunset_Great_Smoky_Mountains_National_Park

Celebrate the 100th anniversary of North Carolina’s state parks on Saturday

In 1916, Mount Mitchell became North Carolina’s first state park. This year, the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources celebrates the centennial of the state park system, which now encompasses dozens of parks and recreation areas.

Centennial events have been happening at parks across the state throughout the year. The signature centennial event will be held this Saturday at Mount Mitchell State Park — and the North Carolina Collection will be there!

We’ll host a special display dedicated to the mountain’s namesake, Elisha Mitchell, showcasing Mitchell’s pocket watch.

pocket_watch500

For more on the significance of the pocket watch in Mitchell’s life and death, read our June Artifact of the Month post.

We’re looking forward to celebrating this milestone in our state’s history. If you’ll be nearby, we’d love to see you there!

Exhibition “Photographs by Hugh Morton: An Uncommon Retrospective” opens in Raleigh

MortonExhibitionNCMH_flyer
Photographs by Hugh Morton: An Uncommon Retrospective opened this past Saturday at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh. The Museum of History is the sixth venue for the exhibition since its debut in August 2013 at the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts at Appalachian State University in Boone.  The Morton photographs will be at the museum for more than a year!  Admission is free.  If you are looking for ways to beat the triple-digit heat index temperatures we’ve been experiencing in the eastern part of the state in recent days, a visit to Museum of History may be just the ticket.  The exhibition looks terrific!  The museum’s staff designed the exhibition to flow chronologically and several images sport new descriptive labels, so if you’ve seen the exhibition once before it is worth seeing it again.

There will be several programs at the museum related to the exhibition in the coming months, including “Hugh Morton, More Than Bridges and Bears” with Hugh Morton’s grandson Jack Morton and the exhibition’s curator Stephen J. Fletcher, North Carolina Collection Photographic Archivist, on December 8, 2016, 5:30-8:00 pm.

Bison in North Carolina

The Natural History of North Carolina, by John Brickell, 1743.
The Natural History of North Carolina, by John Brickell, 1743.

On January 30, 1919 the French Broad Hustler reported the shipment of “six head of buffalo –three males and three females –to Hominy, Buncombe County” by the American Bison Society. Their arrival in North Carolina marked the reintroduction of America’s largest big game animal to the state. The experiment was short-lived. Despite the birth of two calves and the addition of bred heifers and a bull, only two members of the herd remained a decade later. The reestablishment of bison into the wild in North Carolina was a failure.

Two centuries earlier, North Carolina was home to a robust number of bison. In 1709, English naturalist and explorer John Lawson described North Carolina as having “Plenty of Buffalos” in his A New Voyage to Carolina. A few decades later, Irish-born explorer John Brickell included an illustration of a “Buffello” in his Natural History of North Carolina. Brickell describes Native Americans’ many uses for the buffalo, including for food, bedding, clothing and housewares. Writing in 1748, German explorer and botanist Pehr Kalm noted, “The wild Oxen have their abode principally in the woods of Carolina, which are far up in the country. The inhabitants frequently hunt them, and salt their flesh like common beef, which is eaten by servants and the lower classes of people.”

Bison disappeared from North Carolina almost a century before they were wiped out in the American West. Joseph Rice, an early settler of the Swannanoa Valley around Bull Creek, is known for shooting that area’s last buffalo in 1799. A plaque at milepost 373 of the Blue Ridge Parkway marks the location.

Bull Creek Valley, Milepost 373 of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Bull Creek Valley, Milepost 373 of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The second edition of the North Carolina Gazetteer includes more than 40 entries for places that bear witness to the once ubiquitous presence of buffalo in North Carolina. They include Buffalo (a community in Cherokee County), Buffalo Creek (a waterway in Ashe County, one of many in the state named after buffalo), Big Lick (a place so named in Stanly County for the salt that attracted deer and buffalo in droves), Buffalo Cove (a place in which many buffalo were killed), and Buffalo Ford (a buffalo crossing along the Deep River in Randolph County).

An Accurate Map of North and South Carolina With Their Indian Frontiers...
An Accurate Map of North and South Carolina With Their Indian Frontiers…

In May, President Obama signed the National Bison Legacy Act, which designates the bison as the country’s national mammal. The next time you picture a wild buffalo, think of it here in North Carolina, grazing in the state’s woods and grasslands and drinking from its streams.

Scotswoman Janet Schaw in North Carolina on the Brink of Revolution

They are tall and lean, with short waists and long limbs, sallow complexions and languid eyes, when not inflamed by spirits. Their feet are flat, their joints loose and their walk uneven. These I speak of are only peasantry of this country, as hitherto I have seen nothing else, but I make no doubt when I come to see the better sort, they will be far from this description. For tho’ there is a most disgusting equality, yet I hope to find an American Gentleman a very different creature from an American clown. Heaven forfend else.–Janet Schaw, on North Carolinians, 1775

In the North Carolina Collection at UNC’s Wilson Library, a fascinating 18th century manuscript contains the first-hand account of a young Scotswoman, Janet Schaw, and her travels across the Atlantic that landed her right smack in the middle, or rather at the absolute peak, of tensions culminating in the American Revolution. The manuscript, which is a handwritten transcription of letters sent from Schaw to an unknown recipient back home, starts from the moment she set foot on the departing ship in Scotland, on to the Caribbean Islands, and then, particularly for those interested in the state’s history, the Cape Fear region of North Carolina.

Janet arrives on the coast of North Carolina in February 1775. Her first stay is in Brunswick, a town that was already in decline at the time of her visit, then razed by British troops the next year and never rebuilt. Her first host was Richard Quince, owner of the ship Rebecca that had transported Janet and her group to the coast. From there, she travels the short distance to her brother Robert’s plantation, Schawfield. During the rest of the summer, she makes short trips to Wilmington and other plantations in the immediate area. Her brother, a Loyalist, with others who supported Governor Martin and the Crown, were finally forced to take refuge off the coast on a British warship by October 1775. For context, note that the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence was signed May 20, 1775.

Plantations on the Lower Cape Fear
H. de W. Rapalje’s map of plantations near Wilmington showing the location of Schawfield, 1725-1760

As the situation deteriorated over the summer and tensions rose, Janet provided sharp political insight to the recipient of her letters, although biased to the Crown and disdainful of the violence already surging in the colonies. She also took the time to include incredibly vivid and detailed observations about her surroundings and environment, from how gardens were kept (or not, in her strong opinion) to the flora and fauna along the Cape Fear that were new to her. Janet’s writing style, tone, and unfiltered opinions indicate an impassioned, engaged, and thoughtful traveler. As a result, the manuscript is not only a pleasure to read, but this first-hand account is incredibly informative for understanding what took place during a tumultuous time in American history.

Schaw excerpt
Page 217 from the original Schaw manuscript describing trees in the Cape Fear area

The manuscript itself has an intriguing story. On page 391, there is a date: 8th Decr. 1782, indicating when it was created. The copy held by the NCC was bought in the early 1970s, and before that time, only three others were known to exist. To produce the well-known transcription, of which there are a number of editions, Charles and Evangeline Andrews only consulted the copy of the manuscript at the British Museum, which is now understood to be lost.

For those interested in the context of Schaw’s visit and the history of the time period in North Carolina, other writings such as James Sprunt’s Chronicles of the Cape Fear River 1660-1916 would be an excellent resource. There are details about the town of Brunswick, descriptions of prominent members of society, and plantations along the Cape Fear. Janet’s brother Robert Schaw is only mentioned briefly. He was, however, a known and prominent citizen, and close with another distinguished Scottish family, the Rutherfurds, that had settled at the Cape Fear. Janet Schaw traveled to North Carolina with three of John Rutherfurd’s children who had been in school in Scotland. Mentions of Robert can be found in the Colonial and State Records online at Documenting the American South, for example a receipt for a horse used by the army against the Regulators (and never returned) and the Ordinances of the Provincial Congress 1776.

To gain an idea of how a plantation contemporaneous to Schawfield would have operated, the Hayes Collection (in the Southern Historical Collection at Wilson) would be an excellent resource. The North Carolina Collection Gallery also has a replica of the the Hayes Plantation library. Not much criticism of the manuscript has been produced, however the few that have been written are very useful in understanding the text, for example, an analysis by Sue Fields Ross, plus a fascinating analysis of foodways in the Schaw manuscript by Sue Laslie Kimball.

The Barber Brothers: Asheville’s Printing Industry Entrepreneurs

The tall but narrow little pamphlets inevitably catch one’s eye on the shelf: each is only about 6 pages in length, and they are printed in bright colors and intriguing fonts on good paper. With almost four decades’ worth of issues, there is a lot to peruse. The series, Tips, is filled with sayings, words of wisdom, insider tips to succeed in business, and jokes. Such a charming and unusual publication provides the lure to discover much more about its story and reveals a much larger insight into life in Asheville, NC around the turn of the century.

From the first issue of Tips, 1909
From the first issue of Tips, 1909

Tips served as the long-lived house organ for the prolific Asheville-based publishing company The Inland Press. While Tips was the company’s house publication for some decades, with the first issue appearing in April 1909, the company also printed hundreds of books and pamphlets over many years, from collections of poetry to travel industry pamphlets, plus general kinds of office supplies, labels for products, and really anything that could be printed on paper. The North Carolina Collection at Wilson Library holds dozens of their publications.

From the earliest days of The Inland Press, the business garnered industry attention and accolades. The Typographical Journal (July 1, 1902, Volume 21, page 121) has a full-page feature advocating Asheville for the location of the 1903 convention of the International Typographical Union of North America. B. George Barber is stated to be the president of the union at this time, and the author asserts, “Our new president, Mr. Barber, is an artistic jobman, and is now doing a neat little business ‘on his own hook.’”

The Hill Directory for Asheville from 1904/05 has one, if not the earliest, city directory listing for a B. George Barber, printer, and Inland Press. Later directories and newspaper articles about the business would show that his brother, Frank, also joined the business and helped to run it for some time. Census records also show that B. George Barber was an Englishman and had immigrated to the States in 1881 when he was just a small child.

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May 12, 1914 clipping from the Asheville Gazette-News

The city residents were apparently interested in the activities of The Inland Press, as local newspaper coverage over the years would indicate. In 1914, the Asheville Gazette-News reported that the shop had moved to no. 10 Market Street. Details abound as far as the layout of the building and the type of equipment found: six Platen presses, a monotype machine (said in the article to be the first in the state), and a “cutting edge” Babcock Optimus flatbed press. “The plant in its entirety is one that the owners are exceedingly proud of and one that brings credit to the city.”

The Linotype Bulletin, “Linotype Specimens Received” feature (March 1918, volume 14, page 109) states: “Effectiveness of the new lining gothics is well shown by a number of job specimens from B. George Barber, proprietor of the Inland Press, Asheville, N.C. Mr. Barber is a tasteful printer and directs the work of his Model 14 Linotype with skill and judgement. The little house organ, Tips, an entire Linotype product issued by the Inland Press, has this motto: ‘An idea at work is worth two in your nut.'”

The Asheville Citizen-Times continued to feature news about Inland Press. An article from May 3, 1919 announces that brother Frank A. will join the company, stating that the business had “steadily grown during the past few years until this firm has become one of the largest in the state.” Over the years, the paper would continue to document the growing business, including expansion. For example, July 8, 1919’s issue detailed the purchase of property from Edwin George Carrier to build a “three or four story modern printing establishment” on Spruce Street in Asheville. Other fascinating events in the history of the press include a 1921 union walkout. The striking printers said that the shop owners employed non-union members and refused to negotiate new contracts. A March 11, 1921 Citizen-Times article states that Mr. Barber has “only the kindest feelings for the union men who quit,” “but realized they were forced to do so.”

The growth of The Inland Press and the role of the Barbers in Asheville’s business and entrepreneurial community in the early 20th century is as fascinating a story as one that was printed in their shop. Tips can be found in the North Carolina Collection at call number C655 I56t.