Resources for Learning About the History of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Great football moments from UNC’s past will come to the screen with an encore showing of Gridiron Glory in WIlson Library before the UNC-Virginia game. Continue reading
Great football moments from UNC’s past will come to the screen with an encore showing of Gridiron Glory in WIlson Library before the UNC-Virginia game. Continue reading
This past weekend saw the opening of Wilson Library’s newest exhibit — “Bill Friday: In His Own Words.” President Friday was a central figure in the University as well as an influential leader at the state and national levels. Come on … Continue reading →
This past weekend saw the opening of Wilson Library’s newest exhibit — “Bill Friday: In His Own Words.” President Friday was a central figure in the University as well as an influential leader at the state and national levels. Come on by and learn more about the man who led Carolina through integration, consolidation, sports scandals, and much more.
Bill Friday with students in July of 1978. From the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Photographic Laboratory Collection, #P0031 in the North Carolina Photograph Collection.
See the online portion of this exhibit at https://billfriday.web.unc.edu/. The physical portion is open in the Melba Remig Saltarelli Exhibit Room, 3rd floor, Wilson Library.
On this day in 1863, university president David Lowry Swain wrote to Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America, requesting exemption from conscription for university seniors. There were many exemptions to conscription, most resting on the petitioner’s class—one was … Continue reading →
On this day in 1863, university president David Lowry Swain wrote to Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America, requesting exemption from conscription for university seniors. There were many exemptions to conscription, most resting on the petitioner’s class—one was automatically exempt for owning twenty or more slaves, and one could buy exemption for $300 (around $5,500 in 2013 dollars)—or social status (certain government employees and workers deemed necessary, such as railroad workers). Below is the response, dated November 3rd, from Colonel Peter Mallet, Commandant of Conscripts for North Carolina.
(University of North Carolina Papers (#40005), University Archives)
(University of North Carolina Papers (#40005), University Archives)
The University Archives recently acquired the papers of Dr. Herbert L. Bodman, Jr., a UNC professor of Islamic studies who passed away in 2011. Dating from the early 1950s when Bodman was studying in Lebanon, the papers deal primarily with his … Continue reading →
The University Archives recently acquired the papers of Dr. Herbert L. Bodman, Jr., a UNC professor of Islamic studies who passed away in 2011. Dating from the early 1950s when Bodman was studying in Lebanon, the papers deal primarily with his dissertation research on community identities in the Syrian city of Aleppo during the eighteenth century. To this day, Aleppo is considered the largest city in Syria and has been the site of many historical conflicts, both ancient and modern, from the Crusades to the current civil war.
A multi-linguist, Bodman’s research spans English, French, and Arabic and sheds light on his exhaustive use and translation of a variety of sources. More abstractly, it offers a window into the research process before the time of computers when copious indexing was necessary. Below are some interesting notes from a meeting he had with Arab political leaders–one of whom appears to be Akram al-Hawrani (or Hourani), a leading member of the Baath Party–on March 5, 1953, in which they discuss the idea of Arab unity:
“Meeting with Akram Hourani & al-Afflah, 5 March 1953,” Dr. Herbert Bodman Papers, #40388, University Archives
Faculty papers occupy an essential place in the university’s history and, as Herbert Bodman’s papers demonstrate, also offer insight on the world at large.
In 1982, UNC System President Bill Friday wrote suggestions to give before the House Subcommittee on Postsecondary Education. His suggestions were a response to President Reagan’s proposals to cut student financial aid. One of President Friday’s counterpoints to the proposed … Continue reading →
President Bill Friday, 28 July 1977, From the NCC Photographic Archives. Black and White 120 Roll Film, 37875.
In 1982, UNC System President Bill Friday wrote suggestions to give before the House Subcommittee on Postsecondary Education. His suggestions were a response to President Reagan’s proposals to cut student financial aid. One of President Friday’s counterpoints to the proposed budget cuts follows.
“Transferring an increasing level of the cost of education from society to the current user of education services will create a new indentured class of individuals who may have borrowed more heavily for their education than their future earning power can accommodate.”
President Friday’s defense of his address to the subcommittee. From folder 1846, Box 50 of the Records of the Office of the President: William Friday, Collection 40009.
For many students, President Friday’s prediction of an indentured servitude may be becoming a reality. The Condition of Education 2013 was recently released by the Department of Education and the National Center for Education Statistics. According to this report: “In 2010–11, the average student loan amount, in constant 2011–12 dollars, was $6,800, which was a 39 percent increase from 2000–01, when the average student loan amount was $4,900. Of the 4.1 million students who entered the repayment phase on their student loans in fiscal year (FY) 2010, some 375,000, or 9 percent, had defaulted before FY 2011.” See the full report here.
What are your thoughts on student loans, student debt, and financial aid?
An exhibit on President Friday, “Bill Friday: In His Own Words,” will go on display in the Wilson Library on October 8th. The exhibit celebrates President Friday’s life of impact on the University, the State, and the Nation. You can also view an online exhibit The Legacy of William C. Friday in The Carolina Story: A Virtual Museum of University History.
Many of the legal issues faced by the UNC General Administration are no laughing matter, but sometimes they do make for some interesting, even humorous, correspondence. North Carolina law mandates that UNC system institutions receive a license from UNC’s Board … Continue reading →
Many of the legal issues faced by the UNC General Administration are no laughing matter, but sometimes they do make for some interesting, even humorous, correspondence.
North Carolina law mandates that UNC system institutions receive a license from UNC’s Board of Governors to confer degrees. Because of this, General Administration has found itself playing watchdog when institutions have 1) claimed to be constituents of the university system, or 2) have come under suspicion of being a degree mill.
In this 1984 letter, the former associate vice president of student services and special programs at UNC General Administration takes a rather serious tone against the founder of “Geometrodynamics University” for awarding himself a doctorate degree in quantum mechanics:
From the unprocessed backlog of General Administration’s Legal Affairs Division, #40015, University Archives.
This is just a relatively lighthearted example of an issue that UNC General Administration has to deal with; many more examples of similar, and more serious interactions can be found in the archives.
Two-hundred-and-twenty years ago today, the Board of Trustees of the yet-to-be-opened University of North Carolina contracted with James Patterson, a contractor from Chatham County, to build the university’s first building, Old East. Below is Patterson’s drawing and description of the … Continue reading →
Two-hundred-and-twenty years ago today, the Board of Trustees of the yet-to-be-opened University of North Carolina contracted with James Patterson, a contractor from Chatham County, to build the university’s first building, Old East. Below is Patterson’s drawing and description of the building to be constructed, from July 19, 1793.
Patterson’s drawing and description of Old East (front and back) from “Old East Interior and Exterior Plan,” 19 July 1793, in the University of North Carolina Papers #40005, University Archives.
Commencement visitors can step back in time during an open house at the Wilson Special Collections Library on Saturday, May 11. Continue reading
Commencement visitors can step back in time during an open house at the Wilson Special Collections Library on Saturday, May 11. Continue reading
Robert Digges Wimberly Connor, class of 1899, served as the first Archivist of the United States. He was born in Wilson on September 26, 1878. After graduating from UNC, Connor took teaching and administrative positions at several public schools in … Continue reading →
Photograph of Connor, 1899. From the NCC Photographic Archives, Harry LeGare Watson Photographic Collection, P0023.
Robert Digges Wimberly Connor, class of 1899, served as the first Archivist of the United States. He was born in Wilson on September 26, 1878. After graduating from UNC, Connor took teaching and administrative positions at several public schools in North Carolina before becoming head of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction’s Educational Campaign Committee. Around this time, he began his archival work as secretary of the North Carolina Historical Committee. In the late 1910s, Connor served on the UNC Board of Trustess and as president of the General Alumni Association. In 1921, Connor accepted the Kenan Professorship in History and Government. Connor was a well-liked professor and a prolific and respected scholar of North Carolina History.
Connor remained in Chapel Hill until 1934, when he was chosen by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to be the country’s first archivist. He served as head of the newly established National Archives for six years, successfully laying the groundwork for the monumental task of managing the records of the United States government.
Letter from Connor, 1941. From the Records of the Dept. of History, 40028, University Archives.
But Connor could not stay away from Chapel Hill—or teaching. So in 1941, he returned to the university, where he remained until his retirement in 1949. In a letter dated September 1941, Connor jokes with a colleague, “It must have been a rather severe shock to our good Dean, upon his return from his earthly heaven, to find that a hard-boiled administration, without his knowledge or consent, had dumped a decrepit ex-professor in his lap.”
For more information about Robert Digges Wimberly Connor, see his papers in the Southern Historical Collection (#2427). Also visit the Documenting the American South website for a complete biography.
When WUNC began airing NPR’s Morning Edition in 1980, it wasn’t the first time newscaster Carl Kasell’s famous voice had gone out on the station’s airwaves. In fact, when WUNC was dedicated as a student-run FM station in 1953, Kasell … Continue reading →
Carl Kasell in the Daily Tar Heel, January 19, 1955 (The Daily Tar Heel, North Carolina Collection, Wilson Library)
When WUNC began airing NPR’s Morning Edition in 1980, it wasn’t the first time newscaster Carl Kasell’s famous voice had gone out on the station’s airwaves. In fact, when WUNC was dedicated as a student-run FM station in 1953, Kasell (class of 1956) was part of its first staff. Kasell, who retired from Morning Edition in 2009 and now serves as the official judge and scorekeeper of NPR’s popular quiz show Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! is returning to UNC next week to discuss his life and career in “An Evening With Carl Kasell.”
Script for a “Variety Vacationland” ad performed by Carl Kasell and Charles Kuralt in 1953 (Department of Radio, Motion Pictures, and Television Records #40086, University Archives, Wilson Library)
As an announcer and operations manager for the WUNC, Kasell spent much of his time on campus in Swain Hall, where WUNC operated from its founding until 1999. He lent his voice to programs including American Adventure, a series broadcast nationally by NBC in 1955. He announced upcoming segments, played parts in advertisements, and read news (including the outcomes of UNC basketball games).
In 1955, Kasell helped to engineer what was perhaps the first stereo broadcast on radio. While broadcasting a musical performance, WUNC collaborated with local station WCHL to set up a microphone on either side of the performers–one broadcasting to WUNC and the other to WCHL. Listeners were advised to turn on two radios on either side of a room, one tuned in to WUNC and the other to WCHL, and this created a stereo effect.
Charles Kuralt (l) and Carl Kasell (r) at the WUNC Dedication, March 13, 1953 (University of North Carolina Photographic Lab Collection #P0031, North Carolina Collection Photographic Archive, Wilson Library)
Join us Tuesday for “An Evening with Carl Kasell” at the Genome Sciences Building. Materials from University Archives related to Kasell’s time at WUNC–including photos, newspaper clippings, scripts, and more–will be on display during the reception preceding the program. The event is free and open to the public. The reception begins at 5:00, to be followed by the program at 5:30.