Although Carolina does not currently host any official sci-fi student groups, Chapel Hill was home to the Chimera Fantasy and Science Fiction Club from 1984 to 1996. The Chimera Club was open to all students interested in science fiction and fantasy in film, television, fiction, and tabletop games. The Chimera Club even held an annual ChimeraCon for twelve years! A frequent guest to ChimeraCon was Orson Scott Card. Card is the author of the popular novel-turned-film Ender’s Game. Check out some of the ChimeraCon programs below!
From the Chimera Fantasy and Science Fiction Club of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Records, #40310-zFrom the Chimera Fantasy and Science Fiction Club of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Records, #40310-zFrom the Chimera Fantasy and Science Fiction Club of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Records, #40310-zFrom the Chimera Fantasy and Science Fiction Club of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Records, #40310-zFrom the Chimera Fantasy and Science Fiction Club of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Records, #40310-zFrom the Chimera Fantasy and Science Fiction Club of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Records, #40310-z
This weekend, many alumni and their families will return to campus for Homecoming, but for the sisters of Phi Mu’s Gamma Lambda chapter it will be an especially exciting occasion. The chapter is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a weekend of events including an exhibit in the lobby of Wilson Library.
The exhibit “Phi Mu on View” will feature the chapter’s 1964-1965 pledge scrapbook, records and photos related to the chapters’ purchase and renovation of the historic Brockwell House, the first issue of the Gamma Lambda Triangle, and much more. The chapter loaned these materials to University Archives last year.
The exhibit opens at noon on Friday, November 14th and will run through the weekend.
From the Records of the Gamma Lambda Chapter of Phi Mu Fraternity, University Archives.
From the Records of the Gamma Lambda Chapter of Phi Mu Fraternity, University Archives.
From the Records of the Gamma Lambda Chapter of Phi Mu Fraternity, University Archives.
Another new collection at University Archives arrived recently! The V-Day collection from the V-Day Carolina student group contains digital and physical material from 2006 to 2014 related to performances of the Vagina Monologues at UNC in English and Spanish.
Flyer for a 2013 V-Day Benefit from the V-Day Carolina Records ( #40431), University Archives.
V-Day Carolina is a chapter of an international organization that works to end violence against girls and women.
Note: The materials referenced in this blog post have not yet been processed and are currently not available to researchers. If you are interested in viewing these materials in person, please contact University Archives before your visit to determine their availability.
Flyer for the 1971-1972 National Collegiate Parachuting Championships. From the Records of the UNC Parachute Club (#40390), University Archives.
Last week, University Archives was excited to receive the records of the UNC Sport Parachute Club, a student organization founded in 1969.
The team represented the University in inter-collegiate competitions including the 1971-1972 National Collegiate Parachuting Championships (flyer above). Notice the spot below the falling parachutist—in competitions, participants were judged upon the accuracy of their landing in relation to a 10-centimeter disc.
Club member and records donor F. J. Hale recalls:
All of us saw similar rewards in parachuting; its beauty and exhilaration, and the unsurpassed freedom of being flung through the sky, and sailing gradually to earth under a huge nylon cloud.
Members of the UNC Sport Parachute Team in 1971.
A club member packs a parachute during a training session at Roanoke Rapids Air Force Station.
Club members at the National Collegiate Parachuting Championships.
Photos from the Records of the UNC Parachute Club (#40390), University Archives.
Note: The materials referenced in this blog post have not yet been processed and are currently not available to researchers. If you are interested in viewing these materials in person, please contact University Archives before your visit to determine their availability.
Sign for University Archives’ new exhibit on the Order of the Golden Fleece, now in the fourth floor reading room of Wilson Library.
This year the Order of the Golden Fleece celebrates its 110th anniversary, and University Archives is recognizing this milestone with an exhibit tracing the history and influence of the society on campus.
The Order, UNC’s oldest honor society, was founded in 1904 with the purpose of “restor[ing] unity to campus life.” Bringing together leaders from many different aspects of student life–athletics, debating societies, fraternities, and other areas–the Order hoped to alleviate factionalism and conflict on campus through cooperative leadership.
In their first year, they were called upon to mediate a conflict between the sophomore class and a group of medical students. In what was called the “Soph-Med Affair,” a group of sophomores had insulted some first year medical students, and the medical students had called for the sophomores to be expelled. In order to ease the conflict, the Order of the Golden Fleece worked with the sophomore class to produce a kind of anti-hazing campaign that –in contrast to anti-hazing campaigns of today — placed responsibility for preventing hazing on first-year students themselves.
Text of a poster produced as part of an anti-hazing campaign recorded in the Order of the Golden Fleece Minutes, November 1904. From the Records of the Order of the Golden Fleece, (#40161), University Archives.
In posters across campus (the text of which is reproduced in the Order’s minutes, seen at right) first year students were urged to “be seen and not heard” to avoid drawing the ire of older students.
Another product of the “Soph-Med Affair” was the university’s first student government. The conflict highlighted the need for a mediating organization to handle such conflicts within the student body, and the Order met with President Francis P. Venable to discuss the possibility of a “University Council.” The seven-member council they proposed would mediate disputes, handle honor code violations, and investigate hazing incidents. The University Council was established later that year, and became the first student government established at UNC.
Over the years, the Order has continued to unite campus leaders and influence student life. To learn more about the Golden Fleece’s history, check out the new exhibit in the fourth floor reading room of Wilson Library! The exhibit will be open through March 7th.
Members of the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1999. From the Records of the Order of the Golden Fleece, University Archives.
In the winter of 1965, the Gamma Lambda Chapter of Phi Mu Sorority had moved into their new house at 211 Henderson Street. The move was festive and joyful. To celebrate the season, the sisters wrote their own version of the poem The Night Before Christmas.
We came across the poem in the scrapbook that the Gamma Lambda chapter recently loaned to us. The clatter that awoke the sisters in this poem, however, was not from reindeer on the roof but from “caroling boys with their bottles of cheer!”
Phi Mu’s rendition of “The Night Before Christmas,” 1965. Click for a larger version.
Happy holidays from everyone at University Archives and Records Management Services!
Phi Mu Chapter Association (alumnae) President Debra Pickrel and House Corporation Director Karen O’Donnell Dias discuss which materials the chapter will present to University Archives first.
Over the past year and a half, UNC Chapel Hill’s University Archives has actively pursued student groups in an effort to better represent the history of student life. However, there are a lot of student groups to choose from on our active campus. One of our priorities has been to collect Greek life materials. Because more than 3,000 students on our campus are involved in Greek life, fraternities and sororities are a part of the Carolina Experience for many students.
This semester, Phi Mu will be the first of UNC’s sororities to deposit its materials in University Archives for safekeeping. While we have some fraternity records (including Delta Kappa Epsilon and Chi Psi), sorority records have been noticeably absent in our holdings. As the Gamma Lambda chapter of Phi Mu approached planning for its 50th anniversary in 2014, alumnae began to reflect on their chapter’s history. Realizing that historic materials were stored in several disparate places and that many items could use conservation and preservation, they were eager to find a way to store them in a single location under archival conditions. Participating in the new University Archives initiative will accomplish this and facilitate all future anniversary research.
Phi Mu Chapter Association (alumnae) President Debra Pickrel (center left) shows University Archives and Records Management graduate assistant Morgan Jones a construction photo of the sorority’s house at 211 Henderson Street as Chapter Historian Lauren Spoenimon (far left) and Chapter President Mary Maher (far right) look on.
When Phi Mu’s Gamma Lambda chapter colonized at Carolina in 1964, the Board of Trustees had just approved the admittance of women regardless of their residence or major; however, admittance was still extremely competitive because of the scarcity of housing for female students. With the loan of Phi Mu’s 1964-1965 scrapbook and other materials to University Archives, researchers and chapter sisters alike will be able to understand how Phi Mu began its first 50 years on Carolina’s campus.
We look forward to working with Phi Mu as well as other sororities this year to increase the representation of Greek organizations in University Archives!
If you are a member of a Greek fraternity or sorority and wish to deposit materials in the archives for safe keeping, please contact us!
As part of the digitization of the Joseph Lawrence Dusenbery’s journal for “Verses and Fragments: The James L. Dusenbery Journal (1841-1842)“, a few selected documents from the records of the Dialectic Society held in the University Archives have also been digitized.
These documents include an address to the Dialectic Society by his brother, Edwin Lafayette Dusenbery, in 1845, and the Dialectic Society Library Circulation Records of Joseph, and two other brothers, Henry Mcrorie and William Brevard.
Dusenbery’s journal is the “heart” of this online resource. Kept by him during his senior year, the journal is an amazing resource for those interested in student life at UNC in 1841 and 1842.
To celebrate the rich history of their organizations, each year the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies delve into the University Archives to find a topic that was debated 200 years ago. The topic may be something still very applicable to today, or it may be debated in an “old-style” fashion, as if reliving history.
Dialectic Society Pin (from the collections of the North Carolina Collection Gallery)
On Monday, November 21 at 7:30pm, in the Dialectic Society chambers of New West, the Di-Phi will hold its annual bicentennial debate. The topic is a debate from March 3, 1824, “Is an alliance between Great Britain and the United State to be desired by the latter.”
Dialectic Society Chambers, 1935
The University Archives holds the records of both the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies from their founding in 1795, including minute books, addresses, debates, and photographs.
For more information about these Societies and their records, please see the following finding aids:
What are your fondest memories of college? Were they formed outside the classroom, hanging out with your friends? Did you warmly remember hours spent singing with the chorus, helping your friend run in student elections, or building sets for an upcoming play?
For participants, these activities rounded out their student experiences. Sadly, the events and memories are too fleeting; little pieces are lost with each graduating class until they are all but forgotten. Last fall, The Daily Tar Heel highlighted this lack of student organizational history in an article focusing on Company Carolina. The article incurred the wrath of many Company Carolina alumni, who believed they had left the group with plenty of unforgettable history!
University Archives would like to help students and alumni better preserve their collective memories. Towards that goal, we are actively seeking to assemble records produced by student organizations. These records might include items such as meeting minutes, rules of governance, production records, ephemera, photographs, and website content. This summer, as we test the best methods for collecting these records, we are focusing on two student theatre groups: the already-inspired Company Carolina and the long-running Lab! Theatre. Eventually, we hope to make contact with many other student groups.
Here’s where you can help! We encourage all current student groups to contact us so we can discuss transferring their records to the University Archives. We are also happy to offer groups advice on how they can preserve their own records. If you are a UNC alumnus with records from your own time working with a student group, we would also like to hear from you! Help us make the student experience part of Carolina’s permanent archival record.
Scene from Lab! Theatre's 2000 production of "Crimes of the Heart"
This weekend, many alumni and their families will return to campus for Homecoming, but for the sisters of Phi Mu’s Gamma Lambda chapter it will be an especially exciting occasion. The chapter is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a weekend of events including an exhibit in the lobby of Wilson Library.
