Resources for Learning About the History of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
UNC professor Stephen Davis will discuss the University in the 19th century, as discovered through two decades of archaeological exploration. Continue reading
UNC professor Stephen Davis will discuss the University in the 19th century, as discovered through two decades of archaeological exploration. Continue reading
This Wednesday, Wilson Library and the UNC Department of History are putting on the first of two events that are 100 years in the making. It all started in 1915, when former UNC president Kemp Plummer Battle presented the North Carolina Historical … Continue reading →
This Wednesday, Wilson Library and the UNC Department of History are putting on the first of two events that are 100 years in the making.
It all started in 1915, when former UNC president Kemp Plummer Battle presented the North Carolina Historical Society with a sealed tin box. The box contained a Montgomery Ward catalog and was accompanied by a letter that outlined an unusual request. He asked that in 1965 and 2015, a member of the University community be appointed to write an essay on the changes in American life the catalogs showed.
In 1965, Chancellor Robert B. House was appointed to take on Battle’s challenge, writing an essay called “Great and Important Changes.” After comparing the 1915 and 1965 catalogs, House returned the 1915 catalog to Wilson Library and added the 1965 catalog for use in 2015.
![Kemp Plummer Battle [From the 1919 Yackety Yack, North Carolina Collection, Wilson Library]](https://blogs.lib.unc.edu/uarms/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2015/03/kpb.jpg)
Kemp Plummer Battle [From the 1919 Yackety Yack, North Carolina Collection, Wilson Library]
This year, the University is taking on the challenge with two lecture events. On April 8th, John Kasson, UNC professor of history and American studies, and Dana McMahan, UNC professor of journalism and mass communication, will address the topic “Mail Order Catalogs and Consumers.” In September, Peter Coclanis, UNC professor of history, and Dr. Lee Craig, professor in the Poole College of Management at NC State University, will speak on “Mail Order Catalogs and the American Economy.” Both events will be moderated by Fitz Brundage, chair and professor of history.
At both events, there will be a display of items related to the challenge, including Battle’s original instructions, the 1915 and 1965 catalogs, and Robert B. House’s 1965 essay. Light refreshments will be served.
Please join us at 5:30 this Wednesday in the Pleasants Room of Wilson Library for this exciting event!
If you live in the New Bern area, there’s still time to see the exhibition “Photographs by Hugh Morton: An Uncommon Retrospective” at Tryon Palace—and tomorrow, Saturday February 7th, would be a good time to visit. Why . . . … Continue reading →
Carraway Gardens at Tryon Palace, New Bern, N.C.
If you live in the New Bern area, there’s still time to see the exhibition “Photographs by Hugh Morton: An Uncommon Retrospective” at Tryon Palace—and tomorrow, Saturday February 7th, would be a good time to visit. Why . . . ?
If you are a UNC alumnus, there is also a special “meet-and-greet” reception (details and RSVP) at 1:00. The gathering, sponsored by the University of North Carolina Alumni Association, will provide a chance for alumni to mingle and socialize, and I’ll l be there to talk and answer questions informally about the Morton collection, the Bayard Wootten photographic collection (she was a New Bern native), the North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, the Wilson Special Collections Library, or photographs in general.
Can’t make it tomorrow? No worries . . . yet. The Hugh Morton exhibition will be on display at Tryon Palace through February 22nd.
Today, November 5, 2014 marks a very special anniversary on the UNC campus. It was ten years ago, on a beautiful Hugh Morton photo-post-card-day, that the magnificent Charlie Justice statue was dedicated just outside the Justice Hall of Honor at … Continue reading →
Today, November 5, 2014 marks a very special anniversary on the UNC campus. It was ten years ago, on a beautiful Hugh Morton photo-post-card-day, that the magnificent Charlie Justice statue was dedicated just outside the Justice Hall of Honor at the Kenan Football Center. On that day, the dedication ceremony included several people representing the university, plus friends and teammates—but we didn’t hear from the man who made it all possible: sculptor Johnpaul Harris. So, today on the tenth anniversary, Morton Collection volunteer Jack Hilliard shares some of Harris’ thoughts about that day and his work with his friend Hugh Morton.
I didn’t want to make him [Justice] too much of a pretty boy, but I didn’t want to make him this mean, killer football player either. —Johnpaul Harris in the February 6, 2005 issue of the High Point Enterprise.
Johnpaul Harris with model of Charlie Justice statue, ca. 2004. Photograph by Hugh Morton.
Shortly after Charlie Justice’s death on October 17, 2003, teammate Joe Neikirk approached Hugh Morton with an idea for a statue. Morton, who had worked with his friend Sculptor Johnpaul Harris on other projects like the Mildred and cubs statue and the deer habitat at Grandfather Mountain, immediately called his friend to see if he would be interested in a football statue. Harris described his reaction in a 2005 letter to Hugh Morton:
“I probably more than anybody know how Coach (Carl) Snavely felt when Charlie turned up at Chapel Hill. If it wasn’t a gift from God for Snavely it was certainly one for me. You called me late in 2003 to see if it was the kind of project I would be interested in. I think you knew the answer, but maybe not the extent of it. It was the ultimate project for a man who was an OK football player who in high school knew nothing of Charlie Justice other than that he was the first famous ball player that I or any of my generation remember.”
In an interview with Annette Dunlap in the November 19, 2004 issue of Asheboro’s The Courier-Tribune, Harris said, “I jumped on it.” Morton then became the linchpin between the university and Harris. “There’s a lot of red tape established on the Chapel Hill campus for the installation of artworks,” Harris continued in his Dunlap interview. “I just had to wait for it to run its course.”
Envelope, labeled by Hugh Morton, containing photographs used by Johnpaul Harris to create the Charlie Justice statue.
While he waited, Harris and Morton started to work on the project . . . as Harris continues in his letter to Morton:
“. . . you started sending pictures from your fantastic collection of Carolina images. I treasure each one for several reasons, but at the time they were just full of information that was vital to the project. When I asked for more particular angles, you always came through for me. It was like Christmas every time I opened the mail box to find a big white envelope with Grandfather Logo in the corner. I had enough information to do the job, but I never saw a picture that didn’t further my understanding of who Charlie Justice was.
“. . . Then one day the phone rang and it was Willie Scroggs (Senior Associate Athletic Director for Facilities at UNC) saying that they wanted me to do the Charlie Justice statue. It was the sweetest moment of my life as a sculptor, until the team reviews, and the unveiling.”
It was now time for serious work. Harris and Morton’s UNC committee selected the walking pose rather than an action shot and Harris prepared a 26-inch-model for Athletics Director Dick Baddour to review—a review that came on the day of the 2004 Blue-White game at Kenan Stadium. Harris was a special guest at the game.
Next up, on June 1, 2004, was the first of two Justice-era player reviews. This was my introduction to Johnpaul Harris. We have remained good friends and get together for lunch every few weeks.
Harris continues with his letter to Morton:
I thought Charlie looked pretty good when the teammates came over to critique it.
The players offered suggestions and Harris took lots of notes. Three weeks later, the players had a second review in Harris’ Asheboro studio. Harris made final adjustments, then a final mold before Charlie was off to the foundry. On January 7, 2005 Johnpaul Harris was a guest on the UNC-TV program North Carolina People with William Friday. Harris explained the process of taking four, 30-gallon-barrels of North Carolina clay and making it into a work of art to be cast at the foundry.
As Harris wrote to Morton,
It felt really good to have Charlie in place and out of my hands for a change. I still enjoy seeing the pictures you made that day.
On Tuesday morning, November 2, 2004, I got a call from Hugh Morton. He said, “We’re going to put the Charlie Justice statue in place tomorrow morning. We’d like to have you there.”
Wednesday, November 3rd was a beautiful day in Chapel Hill as Johnpaul Harris directed a crew from Architect Glenn Corley, and placed the 950 pound, 8 foot, 6 inch work of art into its final position. When all of the installation work was done, Hugh Morton said to Harris, “You did a magnificent job. It looks just like Charlie.”
On November 5, 2004 the Morton-Harris team was once again prepared to impress with the dedication of the Charlie Justice statue.
In his letter to Morton, Harris continued:
For me, days don’t come any better than unveiling day. The weather was perfect. There were so many friends and family, there was not enough time to do all the visiting I would have liked, not to mention catching up with Charlie’s teammates that I have come to know.
“It was great to see everybody enjoying Charlie after the unveiling. Barbara Crews (Charlie and Sarah’s daughter) seemed to enjoy it more than anyone else and for longer periods. I saw her staring up into the face and remarking that she hadn’t seen her Daddy from that perspective since she was a little girl. I’m sure it sparked a deep well of memories for her. She also mentioned that she had never seen his hands as open as they were, since they had suffered so many injuries (probably from pro ball). Thanks, Hugh, for introducing us. I did miss getting the definitive picture of you and me standing before the thing that we had spent so much time and energy on in the past two or three seasons. Maybe we can do that on some nice crisp Saturday before a home game.”
Unfortunately, that pictured never got taken.
I thought my football life was behind me. I never expected to tell anyone that I had been an All Central Tar Heel Conference player. But the most perfect completion of the circle of my gridiron days has been realized. A pretty good footballer from Troy (NC) was chosen to honor in bronze the memory of the greatest football legend of the 20th century from North Carolina. I was part of the team that was Charlie’s team and by extension, I became a part of Charlie’s team. Finally, I had to live up to your faith in me and then if there was anything else I had to satisfy my own demands for my work. Thank you for making it all possible. Without the superb record that you shared with me, the work would have come far short of what we achieved. And thank you for your friendship, which started with our collaboration on Mildred. For my part I know that it will never end.
—Johnpaul Harris, February 5, 2005
Epilog
Sculptor Johnpaul Harris posing with his statue of Mildred the Bear and cubs in the Nature Museum at Grandfather Mountain, N. C.
Morton and Harris had worked together about fifteen years before the Justice statue when Morton commissioned Harris to create a statue of Mildred the Bear, the loveable people-friendly mascot of Grandfather Mountain, with her cubs. That effort is now in the Grandfather Mountain Nature Museum. During a 2005 interview with Jimmy Tomlin in the High Point Enterprise, Harris remembered working inside Mildred’s habitat getting precise measurements. “She was great. Of course, they were keeping her happy with apple pieces while I was in there.” Harris also got to pet the cubs. “They’d put their paws around your neck and lick you in the face, just like a puppy.”
In addition to Mildred and Charlie, you can see other Johnpaul Harris sculptures at the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro where there is an 11-foot Rhino statue. UNC Alumnus Charles Loudermilk funded for the city of Atlanta a Johnpaul Harris statue of former mayor Andrew Young for the city’s Walton Spring Park (now Andrew Young Plaza), installed in 2008.
Postscript
As Harris was driving his truck home from Chapel Hill following the review of his Justice model in May of 2004, the odometer tripped 222,222.2. When Johnpaul told Hugh the story about the 2s, He smiled and said, “Maybe somebody was trying to tell you something.”
I agree with Hugh. I feel sure that #22 saw that and smiled.
Nine years ago on September 8, 2005, the “new and improved” Memorial Hall on the UNC campus was celebrated with a grand re-opening weekend. On this special anniversary, Morton Collection volunteer, Jack Hilliard, takes a look back at this iconic … Continue reading →
Nine years ago on September 8, 2005, the “new and improved” Memorial Hall on the UNC campus was celebrated with a grand re-opening weekend. On this special anniversary, Morton Collection volunteer, Jack Hilliard, takes a look back at this iconic building.
Memorial Hall at UNC-Chapel Hill, April 22 1987.
It became painfully clear during UNC’s commencement weekend of 1883 that Gerrard Hall was too small for Carolina’s growing family. Afterward, officials quickly drew plans for a new 4,000-seat building on a site just west of Gerrard to be named Memorial Hall in honor of David Lowry Swain, President of the University from 1835 until 1868, and North Carolina’s Governor from 1832 until 1835. Soon after construction began, however, the university expanded the memorial honor to include UNC alumni who died in the Civil War as well as additional outstanding Carolina alumni and North Carolina citizens.
A lagging fund raising campaign and cost overruns plagued the project, but finally construction was completed and Memorial Hall was dedicated on June 3, 1885. A project that had an original estimated cost of $20,000 had a final cost about $45,000. (That’s $1.074 million in today’s dollars.) Despite a poor architectural design and major acoustical problems, the facility served the University until 1929. In 1896, after the campus gymnasium became a dining hall, Memorial Hall was used as a gymnasium and remained in that capacity until Bynum Gym was opened on May 29, 1905. By 1929, Memorial Hall had suffered major damage to its foundation. The building was declared unsafe and torn down.
On January 18, 1930 John Sprunt Hill, speaking for the University building committee, recommended “the erection of a modern fireproof building of greater dignity, to replace old Memorial Hall.” The State Emergency Fund provided $150,000 to construct a new structure on the site of the old hall. The new Memorial Hall was completed in mid-summer 1931 at a final cost of $182,000 ($2.6 million in today’s dollars). On University Day, October 12th, the new facility was dedicated and the building was presented to University trustee, John Sprunt Hill, by North Carolina Governor O. Max Gardner.
The first performance on stage in the new building was dancer Carola Goya. For almost 30 years, Memorial Hall served the University and Chapel Hill community well with entertainment, freshman orientations sessions, awards nights, baccalaureate exercises, commencement ceremonies, lectures, pep rallies, the North Carolina Symphony, and even a beauty pageant in 1966. The list of those appearing on stage reads like a who’s who . . . Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck, Montovani, Marcel Marceau. On January 31, 1942, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt visited campus as keynote speaker at a jointly-sponsored International Student Service-Carolina Political Union Conference on “Youth’s Stake in War Aims and Peace Plans.”
Eleanor Roosevelt standing at the stage entrance to Memorial Hall with her secretary Malvina Thompson on the left, Frank Porter Graham (second from left), and Josephus Daniels (right), during Roosevelt’s January 1942 visit to the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, as the keynote speaker at a jointly-sponsored International Student Service-Carolina Political Union conference on “Youth’s Stake in War Aims and Peace Plans.”
Over the years, Hal Holbrook with his “Evening with Mark Twain” made several appearances as did Flamenco guitarist Carlos Montoya. At the height of the folk music era Joan Baez, and Peter, Paul and Mary stopped by. In 1987 Charles Kuralt and Loonis McGlohon performed “North Carolina is My Home.” A speakers list includes, Billy Graham, Terry Sanford, and Ted Kennedy. Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather have been featured at the Nelson Benton Memorial Lecture series sponsored by the School of Journalism and Mass Communications, and coaches Carl Snavely, Wallace Wade, and Dean Smith were featured as part of an ongoing series on sportsmanship. On May 13, 1989 as part of Graduation/Reunion Weekend, Hugh Morton presented a slide show from Carolina’s Golden Age to a near-full house in the storied facility.
Dan Rather during his appearance at the Nelson Benton Lecture series at UNC-Chapel Hill in Memorial Hall on April 26, 1991.
When UNC’s Clef Hangers completed their annual spring concert on April 20, 2002 the doors to the ‘Great Hall” were closed for a three-year major building transformation. A partnership between the State of North Carolina and hundreds of generous donors funded the $18 million project. The new Memorial Hall now has air conditioning, seven dressing rooms, new marble lobby floor, and a new stage that is twice the size of the original. The auditorium seating configuration is improved with wider aisles and better sight lines.
On September 8, 2005 a ribbon-cutting ceremony kicked off the Grand Reopening Gala that featured stars Tony Bennett, Itzhak Perlman, and Leonard Slatkin—plus our own North Carolina Symphony. Following the hall’s renovation, Carolina Performing Arts has continued to offer world-class performances in music, dance and theater, and the caliber of performers picked up right where it had left off before closing with Bonnie Raitt, Yo-Yo Ma, Nanci Griffith, and Vince Gill. In 2005, National Public Radio’s “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me!” originated a nation-wide broadcast from Memorial Hall, and in 2009 the world-renowned Bolshoi Ballet performed a first ever concert in the Southeast.
The future is just as bright for Memorial Hall. Performances this season include the Pittsburgh Symphony under the direction of Manfred Honeck, and Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. And of course the Holidays would not be complete without the Carolina Ballet’s performance of “The Nutcracker.”
Jack Morton, a professional photographer in Raleigh and grandson of Hugh Morton will give a presentation titled “My Grandfather and His Camera” this evening at Barton College as part of the opening reception for the exhibit “Photographs by Hugh Morton: … Continue reading →
Model and photographer at Fort Macon, North Carolina. This Morton photograph, though more tightly cropped, was on the magazine cover of The State, 1 April 1955.
Jack Morton, a professional photographer in Raleigh and grandson of Hugh Morton will give a presentation titled “My Grandfather and His Camera” this evening at Barton College as part of the opening reception for the exhibit “Photographs by Hugh Morton: An Uncommon Retrospective.” Installed in the Barton Art Galleries (Case Art Building, 700 Vance St. NE, Wilson, NC) the reception begins at 5:00 p.m and the presentation starts at 6:30 p.m. The exhibit will be at Barton College through October 3. This is the third venue for the exhibit, which debuted a year ago.
Jack Morton will talk about the influence his grandfather had on him and his development as an artist. Regular readers of A View to Hugh may recall “The Doors Shall Remain Open,” a post written by Jack Hilliard last year that includes a photograph of the two Mortons on the sidelines during a UNC football game. That post has a link to an article also titled “My Grandfather and his Camera” written by Jack Morton in 2003. It will be interesting to hear how Jack continues to be influenced by his grandfather’s photography more than a decade later.
On September 16, I will be giving a presentation at Barton titled “Hugh Morton’s Rise To His Photographic Peak.” I explore the first three decades of Morton’s photographic career, share my experience of curating and producing the exhibit, and discuss several photographs that are part of the exhibition. During the day I’ll be meeting in the gallery with a hisory of photography class. I am looking forward to both trips to Wilson!
Please note: “Operator error” caused a number of reader’s comments from the past few weeks to disappear from the blog a couple days ago. I ceased activities on the blog until I could recover them this morning. My apologies!
A View to Hugh has been on a summer vacation of sorts as other projects have pressed to the fore. This week marks the start of another school year at UNC, and the resumption of more frequent posts. Today, Hugh … Continue reading →
With the title caption “A New ‘Shot’ of the Old Well and South Building” in the October 1946 issue of The Alumni Review, this is Hugh Morton’s first UNC scene published in that magazine after WWII—with the columns vertically straightened, its edges cropped on all sides for publication, and accompanied by a long caption about Morton war service. This scan shows the entire negative. This was also on the magazine cover of The State for its October 5th issue, cropped even more tightly at the base of the well to accommodate the magazine’s masthead.
A View to Hugh has been on a summer vacation of sorts as other projects have pressed to the fore. This week marks the start of another school year at UNC, and the resumption of more frequent posts. Today, Hugh Morton collection volunteer Jack Hilliard looks back 68 years to another time that many believe was “the best of times” at UNC.
But first . . . some background on the photographs used for this post. Above is Morton’s first post World War II photograph of a UNC scene published in The Alumni Review. Along with a long caption about Morton’s war service, the image filled an entire page inside the October 1946 issue. The November issue featured the photograph below on its cover, and its caption states that Morton had recently “presented to the Alumni Office a half dozen new pictures of familiar campus scenes.” Those photographs, most of which are not in the online Morton collection, illustrate this blog post. (If you are counting, however, you’ll come up with seven after the one above.)
The November 1946 issue of The Alumni Review featured on its cover a cropped version of this photograph of the Morehead-Patterson Bell Tower.
It was a heterogeneous group of different ages and experiences—all due to a terrible war which had interrupted or affected the lives of most of us. . . We developed a tremendous school spirit in a very short time, and we were pretty charged up about changing the world and making it better.
—Class of 1947 “Revised Yackety Yack” 25th Reunion Edition, May 1972 by Sibyl Goerch Powe
Most UNC alumni consider their time in Chapel Hill as the best. I grew up in North Carolina during the late 1940s and early ‘50s and I remember that period as being the best. Many at Carolina, however, describe the years between VJ-Day (“Victory over Japan Day” celebrated on 2 September 1945 in the United States) and the Korean War—the years 1945 through 1950—as UNC’s “Golden Era.” World War II was finally over and Tar Heels everywhere could look ahead to the better times.
This era was born near the end of WWII when, on June 22, 1944, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944—forever to be known as the “GI Bill.” Among its many provisions, Title II Chapter IV revolutionized education in the United States, especially for those returning from service during World War II, because it empowered the federal government to reimburse colleges and other approved educational institutions for “the customary cost of tuition, and such laboratory, library, health, infirmary, and other similar fees as are customarily charged, and may pay for books, supplies, equipment, and other necessary expenses” of qualifying veterans—not to exceed $500 for “an ordinary school year.” The bill also allotted subsistence provisions of $50 per month for single veterans and $75 per month for those with dependents.
This night photograph of South Building appeared in the November 1946 issue of The Alumni Review with the caption title “Columns of South.” The caption writer described this photograph as being “symbolic of the University–old and new” showing “the ‘new’ side, looking south toward the area of greatest physical expansion of the campus in the years since the building period of the ‘Twenties.”
In the seven years following enactment of the GI Bill, approximately 8 million veterans received educational benefits, and of that number about 2.3 million attended colleges and universities. Enrollment at UNC rose to 6,800 which was 2,400 more than any time before.
As one would imagine, this jump in enrollment caused some housing and classroom-size challenges. An interesting article in October 1945 issue of The Alumni Review discussed the anticipated effects of armistice on UNC’s student housing. “The exodus of the U. S. Navy Pre-Flight School on October 15 left the University with a surplus of dormitory space for men students for the first time since Pearl Harbor,” the magazine wrote. “A particular need that developed with the influx of veterans was accommodations for married students.” The article also noted that Lenoir Dining Hall, which had been reserved for the cadets, could now become “an All-University cafeteria.”
The December 1946 issue of The Alumni Review used this photograph of Manning Hall with a caption that explained the conditions on campus. “Like many other University buildings now, Manning Hall (home of the University’s Law School) is crowded with students. Enrollment in the school is now 217, a sharp rise from the student body of 13 to which the school dropped during the war.”
Quonset huts, trailers and pre-fabs became a way of life, despite the departure of pre-flight school cadets who had occupied ten dormitories. On south campus, the federal government constructed Victory Village in less than a year on 65-acres at a cost $1.25 million. Many of the returning vets who were married lived there. The Victory Village address book reads like a who’s who at UNC. Terry Sanford, William Friday, and William Aycock, along with 349 other families made up the extended neighborhood, which lasted until 1972 when it was torn down to make room for expansion of UNC Hospitals.
For others on campus, cots were set up in the Tin Can and under the seats at Emerson Stadium while many other students lived with Chapel Hill families. The returning veterans along with a normal compliment of high school students presented a conflict of personalities on campus. Never before had so many students had so little in common—and got along so smoothly together. Students held dances on special weekends along with fraternity parties and gatherings at the Student Union, which at that time was Graham Memorial. The Big Band Era was still around although winding down and Tommy Dorsey made a return to campus. He had been a guest, along with Frank Sinatra, in May 1941 prior to our country’s entry into the war.
This negative is almost identical to the one used for the January 1947 cover of The Alumni Review. The only difference is the hands on the clock, which stand at 6:30. Morton made the negative used for the cover at 6:20. The latter negative survives, but it suffers from severe acetate negative deterioration. Morton use two different film types; this is a film pack negative. Shown in its entirety here, the cover image cropped the bit of light at the spire’s top and the lower portion of the clock and portions of both sides. The light at the top of the tower appears in both negatives, but it is blackened on the magazine’s cover.
The common denominator for all on campus, however, was sports. Leading the Carolina Spirit was Head Cheerleader Norman Sper, Jr. Leading the Carolina Band was Professor Earl Slocum with featured bandsman Andy Griffith. And the man on the sideline and court-side with the camera was Hugh Morton. It was during this post-war period that Morton’s photography blossomed. Interestingly, Morton did not return to Chapel Hill to finish his final year of college despite the GI Bill. Instead, he entered his grandfather’s real estate business, Hugh McRae & Co., in Wilmington—but a camera was always close at hand.
This scan shows the full negative of the scene used by The Alumni Review for its March 1947 cover. Given the vertical format of the magazine, however, they cropped off the right side of the image. The caption reads in part, “We are indebted again to Hugh Morton ’43 for this month’s cover. With the magic of the camera he has pictured Graham Memorial building (at left) and the trees which line the walk toward Old East Building in a romantic scene.”
Many years later, on May 13, 1989, as part of UNC’’s Graduation/Reunion Weekend, the General Alumni Association offered its annual presentation of “Saturday Morning in Chapel Hill.” The ’89 edition featured a panel discussion consisting of ten Tar Heel athletes from the Golden Era, led by Robert V. “Bob” Cox, UNC Class of ’49, and a Hugh Morton slide show. The title of the program was “Why Did We Have it So Good and What Made US Different?” It played to a near full-house in Memorial Hall on the UNC campus.
Wilson Library, now the home of the Hugh Morton collection, when it was known as the University Library. The Alumni Review cropped off the right side of this photograph to create a vertical for the cover of its April 1947 issue.
With coaches like Carl Snavely (football), Bunn Hearn (baseball), Tom Scott and Ben Carnevale (basketball), and Chuck Erickson (Golf)—all under the leadership of Athletics Director Robert Fetzer—Carolina won 32 Southern Conference Championships for the years 1945 through 1950 . . . plus 10 National Champions, 3 basketball and 3 football All Americas, 3 major bowls games and a football National Player of the Year. With names like Bones (McKinney), Hook (Dillon), Harvey (Ward), Vic (Seixas), Art (Weiner), Chunk (Simmons) and Sara (Wakefield). And of course the poster boy for the era was nicknamed “Choo Choo” (Charlie Justice).
Stellar athletes mingled with the regular student population along Franklin Street, just as they do today. However, the Franklin Street of 1946 was a lot different than the one the class of 2018 will come to know and love, One of those businesses from 1946 survives today at 138 East Franklin: it’s the Carolina Coffee Shop. Also back in ’46 there was Danziger’s with pizza on the menu, The Porthole “with rolls to die-for,” says Charly Mann on the web site “Chapel Hill Memories,” and Harry’s, with food, New York style. Also along Franklin was the Varsity Shop, Huggins Hardware, Foister’s Camera Store, and the Intimate Book Shop (the original one with the squeaky wooden floors). And you could go to the movies for $1.20 at the Carolina Theatre and see Hollywood’s top movie from 1946, The Best Years of Our Lives, from director William Wyler and starring Myrna Loy and Fredrick March.
This photograph of South Building appeared full-page in the April 1947 issue of The Alumni Review with a caption that noted that the building had been renovated in 1925. “Of the University’s 40,000 matriculates and ex-matriculates” it continued, “three-fourths of them knew this view of South Building in their student days.” The photograph as published is cropped significantly and rotated slightly clockwise to make the columns more vertical.
A Sidebar:
UNC’s great All America football player Charlie Justice was a Navy veteran and was eligible for the GI Bill. UNC also offered him a football scholarship. So Charlie asked UNC’s Athletics Director Robert Fetzer if his football scholarship could be transferred to his wife. Fetzer said he didn’t know but would check with the Southern Conference and the NCAA to make sure it would be OK. Turns out it was, and the Justices enrolled at UNC on February 14, 1946. Sarah Alice Justice became the first and possibly the only female to study at Carolina on a football scholarship.
A landmark on the UNC campus celebrate its 101st birthday today, June 2, 2014. Morton collection volunteer Jack Hilliard and I take a combined look at this Tar Heel icon. Stephen Fletcher: Perspective and context are two hallmarks of photography—just … Continue reading →
A landmark on the UNC campus celebrate its 101st birthday today, June 2, 2014. Morton collection volunteer Jack Hilliard and I take a combined look at this Tar Heel icon.
Stephen Fletcher:
Perspective and context are two hallmarks of photography—just as they are with all the arts. The photographer’s viewpoint shapes a photograph’s subject and how he or she frames the subject (by what it contains and eliminates) narrows the story or emotions that subject conveys. As a UNC student and alumnus, Hugh Morton photographed UNC’s Confederate Monument, only a sampling of which appears in the online collection.
The Confederate Monument, commonly known as “Silent Sam,” is a controversial landmark on the UNC campus. Last year—Sunday, June 2nd, 2013—marked its 100th anniversary. There was no official recognition of this milestone. All, however, was not quiet for afternoon saw nearly 100 people attend a Real Silent Sam Committee protest rally. The Friday before, the University Archives blog For the Record posted two documents: a letter written by then-UNC president Francis P. Venable to James G. Keenan expressing his desire that its design not be a monument to the dead “but to a noble idea,” and two pages from Julian S. Carr’s dedication speech laced with Anglo Saxon supremacy and racial violence.
As you approach the statue today, its context is vastly different from those who knew the landscape in 1913. The monument sets near the edge of wooded McCorkle Place, at the time the only campus quadrangle. As Jack writes below, “In its park-like setting, many only see Silent Sam as a nice place to sit on a warm spring day and enjoy the beauty of William Meade Prince’s ‘Southern Part of Heaven.’” As one looks deeper, however, one finds more meaning in the monument’s geographical context and the perspective of those who built it in their place in time.
In 1913 University leaders erected the northwest–facing statue near the northernmost point on the campus. Nearby to the monument’s southwest are three buildings, architecturally connected, named Pettigrew Hall, Vance Hall, and Battle Hall—all completed the previous year. James Johnson Pettigrew, UNC class of 1843, was a Brigadier General in the Civil War, shot and killed while retreating less than two weeks after playing a major role in the Battle of Gettysburg. Zebulon Vance was North Carolina’s Civil War governor. Kemp Plummer Battle, during the Civil War era, was a delegate to the Secession Convention in 1861, president of the Chatham Railroad that hauled coal from mines in Chatham County to Confederate armament factories, and a trustee of the university. He would later become university president. The monument, in contextual words, was symbolically set before three Confederate stalwarts.
Jack Hilliard:
More than 1,000 university men fought in the war. At least forty percent of the students enlisted—a record unequaled by any other institution, North or South. At their convention in 1909, the North Carolina Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy decided to honor the 321 UNC alumni who died in the Civil War, as well all students who joined the Confederate Army. Supporters raised $7,500 to erect a seven-foot statue, commissioning Canadian sculptor John A. Wilson to do the work.
The dedication and unveiling was held 101 years ago on June 2, 1913 with University President Francis P. Venable pulling off the concealing curtain and North Carolina Governor Locke Craig, UNC class of 1880, as principal speaker. The statue’s dedication plaque reads: “To the sons of the university who answered the call to their country in the War of 1861-1865, and whose lives taught the lesson of their great commander that Duty is the sublimest word in the English language.”
The youths, buoyant and hopeful that had thronged these halls, and made this campus ring with shouts of boyish sports, had gone. The University mourned in silent desolation. Her children had been slain . . . this statue is a memorial to their chivalry and devotion, an epic poem in bronze. The soul of the beholder will determine the revelation of its meaning. —Governor Locke Craig, from his dedication speech.
Also speaking at the dedication was the chair-person of the monument committee, Mrs. Bettie Jackson London. In her speech she said: “In honoring the memory of our Confederate heroes, we must not be misunderstood as having in our hearts any hatred to those who wore the Blue, but we do not wish to forget what has been done for us by those who wore the Gray.”
Representing the Confederate veterans was Gen. Julian Shakespeare Carr, UNC Class of 1866. Carr, namesake of nearby Carrboro and whose name is on at least one UNC campus building, captured the spirit of the times in his speech.
“The present generation, I am persuaded, scarcely takes note of what the Confederate soldier meant to the welfare of the Anglo Saxon race during the four years immediately succeeding the war, when the facts are, that their courage and steadfastness saved the very life of the Anglo Saxon race in the South.” Carr went on to say that the “purest strain” of white blood was still to be found in the South at the time, because of the duty performed by Confederate soldiers.
After the speeches, a quartet sang “Tenting on the Old Campground Tonight,” while the estimated crowd of one thousand got a close-up look at the work of art.
In his 101 years, Silent Sam has often been the subject of controversy. There are those who think the statue is a symbol of racial oppression and there are those who believe it to be a symbol of regional pride.
On his 100th birthday, on June 2, 2013, Silent Sam had to once again endure some shots . . . this time verbal shots from a group of protestors from “The Real Silent Sam Movement,” who said the statue represents a racist past that continues in some places today.
“The reality is that Sam has never been silent,” state NAACP President Rev. Dr. William J. Barber told the crowd of about 85. “He speaks racism. He speaks hurt to women—particularly black women. And he continues just by his presence to attempt to justify the legacy of the religion of racism.”
From time to time the statue has been covered with graffiti calling for an end to violence and war, as evidenced by Hugh Morton’s photographs from April 1968. It has often been covered with dark blue paint from Duke or red from State. Through controversy and vandalism, Silent Sam endures, continuing his watchful eye. The area around the statue has often been and continues to be a place where students can gather and speak out on issues of the day. And then there are those who view Silent Sam as simply a nice place to sit on a warm spring day and enjoy the beauty of William Meade Prince’s “Southern Part of Heaven.”
Stephen Fletcher:
Back in 2007, I wrote a brief post about the fundraising event held at Kenan Memorial Stadium for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. Today marks the fiftieth anniversary of the event—North Carolina’s Tribute to President John F. Kennedy for … Continue reading →
Back in 2007, I wrote a brief post about the fundraising event held at Kenan Memorial Stadium for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. Today marks the fiftieth anniversary of the event—North Carolina’s Tribute to President John F. Kennedy for the benefit of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library.
North Carolina Governor Terry Sanford with Hugh Morton and E. G. “Andy” Anderson (county chair from Martin County) during a John F. Kennedy Memorial Library Fundraising Committee meeting, 16 April 1964. Hugh Morton chaired the state’s committee. The governor posed for a portrait with each of the county chairs in attendance. UNC Photo Lab photograph by Jerry Markatos.
Every spring for the past several years, I have pulled together a slideshow for UNC’s Alumni Reunion Weekend for visitors to watch during Wilson Library’s Saturday afternoon open house. To create the slideshow, I go through the negatives in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Photographic Laboratory Collection (the UNC “Photo Lab”) for that particular year’s fiftieth anniversary class and select about 100 negatives to be scanned. This year I came across a familiar face while surveying negatives made during the 1963-1964 academic year. I used the above image in the slideshow, but not the one below.
Hugh Morton in conversation with former Governor Luther H. Hodges, Jr. (left) and an unidentified person in the Morehead Planetarium. On the far right is UNC Chapel Hill Chancellor William B. Aycock. UNC Photo Lab photograph by Robert Arndt.
Hugh Morton was the chair of the state’s fundraising efforts—a logical choice given his highly successfully efforts to bring the USS North Carolina to Wilmington. The North Carolina Collection holds a few items from the state’s tribute to JFK. Within the Hugh Morton collection are several color slides made by an unknown photographer. Five of these slides can be seen in the online Morton collection, as can three black-and-white photographs of Governor Terry Sanford and Hugh Morton presenting North Carolina’s $250,000 contribution to Jacqueline Kennedy on December 22nd.
There is a black-and-white image of Lyndon Baines Johnson with Governor Sanford examining a copy of the tri-fold pamphlet made to raise funds trough ticket orders to the event. The North Carolina Collection has copies of the flyer, the front cover of which seen below.
Flyer announcing North Carolina’s Tribute to John F. Kennedy. (North Carolina Collection)
The Daily Tar Heel, in its last issue of the year, gave a 50/50 chance that LBJ would be able to attend. Newspaper articles from the Charlotte News and the Durham Morning Herald make no mention of LBJ being in attendance. Currently we have this image categorized with those made during the tribute on May 17th, 1964. I think, however, that that photograph is likely from a different event because, if you zoom in, you can see that Sanford is wearing a pin back button that says “MY BRAND’S LBJ”—hardly appropriate to wear during a tribute to JFK.
Also in the North Carolina Collection is a DVD copy of the 16mm film made about the day’s event as a gift for Jacqueline Kennedy. Additionally, the North Carolina Collection also has two copies of the program from the event. Copy two of this item also contains several letters and announcements to county chairmen from Hugh Morton.
View reunion class yearbooks, take in a slide show celebrating the class of 1964, and enjoy exhibitions about UNC and Civil War history. Continue reading
View reunion class yearbooks, take in a slide show celebrating the class of 1964, and enjoy exhibitions about UNC and Civil War history. Continue reading