University Archives – Page 12 – History on the Hill

New “Water at UNC-Chapel Hill” Exhibit Now in the Virtual Museum

Imagine lining up to draw your drinking water from the Old Well, trekking to Smith Hall (now Playmakers Theater) for a bath, or showering every other day (at the university’s suggestion) to save water during a severe drought. In connection … Continue reading →

During the droughts of the 1960s and 1970s, water for irrigating athletic fields was brought to campus from surrounding creeks. (Yackety Yack, 1977, North Carolina Collection)

In connection with the university’s two-year “Water in Our World” theme, University Archives has added a new exhibit to the Carolina Story online museum highlighting the ways water has been a part of campus history—from the founding of the university among an “abundance of springs” to the water conservation efforts of today.

Check out the new exhibit at: https://museum.unc.edu/exhibits/water/

1990s Restroom Policy Reinstated

Please carefully read the original policy to ensure you are prepared for upcoming changes. April Fools!

Please carefully read the original policy to ensure you are prepared for upcoming changes.

Updated restroom policy from 1990. (From the Office of the Director of Athletics Records, 40093, University Archives.)

Original restroom policy from 1990. (From the Office of the Director of Athletics Records, #40093, University Archives.)

April Fools!

An Evening with NPR’s Carl Kasell, April 16

National Public Radio newscaster and radio personality Carl Kasell will be part of a free public program on April 16 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Continue reading

kasell_thumb National Public Radio newscaster and radio personality Carl Kasell will be part of a free public program on April 16 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Continue reading

The Wild West: How the Namesake of Avery Residence Hall Got Away with Murder

In the autumn of 1851, William Waightstill Avery had it all. The grandson of Waightstill Avery, a member of the committee that chose the site of the University, W.W. Avery had been elected to the North Carolina General Assembly, was a member of Carolina’s Board of Trustees, and was married to the governor’s daughter. The year before, W.W. Avery had been the keynote speaker at UNC’s graduation, where, only 13 years prior, he had graduated as valedictorian. However, in October of 1851, Avery’s life took a very violent and bizarre turn.

William Waightstill Avery (From the Portrait Collection, North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, P0002)

Avery’s nemesis in the General Assembly, Samuel Flemming of Burnesville, North Carolina, in Yancey County, was in a court battle with the family of his deceased wife, for her possessions. Avery, one of the most talented lawyers in western North Carolina, was representing Flemming’s opponents in court. On October 21, Avery viciously attacked Flemming’s character, calling his entire life’s work a “fraud.” Enraged, Flemming left the courthouse to buy a cowhide whip. When Avery left the courthouse, Flemming and the whip met him. Flemming brutally beat Avery, who was too small to fight back. The beating left Avery bloodied and weak but, more importantly, hungry for revenge.

Just a few weeks later, on November 11, Avery and Flemming crossed paths in a courtroom again, this time in Morganton, North Carolina. Flemming had business with the clerk and Avery had a number of clients appearing in court that afternoon. As they entered the court, Flemming shouted insults at Avery, who pretended not to hear them. However, just a few minutes later, as Flemming was finishing his business in the courtroom, Avery stood up and shot and killed Flemming, right in front of the judge.

Avery immediately surrendered himself to the sheriff and his trial began that Saturday. His attorney, John Bynum, claimed that Avery had been so provoked that the only just action was for him to kill Samuel Flemming. In a rhetorical flourish, Bynum said “no doubt, God forgives Mr. Avery. And whom God pardons, men dare not punish.” Exactly a week after Avery shot Flemming, Judge Battle, who had witnessed Avery shoot Flemming from his bench, read the jury’s verdict: “not guilty by reason of emotional insanity.”

After this bizarre encounter, Avery returned to the General Assembly and lived peacefully until 1864, when union sympathizers killed him. In 1958, the recently completed residence hall on Ridge Road was named in honor of William Wraightstill Avery to commemorate his contributions to the university as an outstanding student and member of the Board of Trustees.

Event Teaches Student Organizations to Document and Preserve Legacies

radicals_thumb “When I Was at UNC”: Preserving the Work and Legacy of Student Organizations through Documentation Tuesday, March 26, 2013 5:30 p.m. Program | UNC Student Union Room 3201 Free and open to the public Information: Jay Gaidmore, UNC Archivist, gaidmore@email.unc.edu, (919) 962-6402 Student organizations have long been integral to the UNC experience, with more than … Continue reading

Free Expression at UNC is Subject of Wilson Library Exhibition

A new exhibition in the North Carolina Collection Gallery of Wilson Library explores the history of free speech controversies at UNC. Continue reading

Freedom_thumb A new exhibition in the North Carolina Collection Gallery of Wilson Library explores the history of free speech controversies at UNC. Continue reading

Eighty-Nine Years of Championship Basketball

1959 program from the Southern Conference’s Dixie Classic. (Records of the Athletic Communications Office, #40308, University Archives.)

Eighty-nine years ago this past Monday, the Tar Heels basketball team won the first championship tournament of the then newly formed Southern Conference. The men’s basketball team went on to win seven more SoCon tournaments before joining the Atlantic Coast Conference, which it helped to form, in 1953. Collegiate sports regulations have changed over the decades but the reputation of Tar Heel athletes remains stellar across myriad sports.

First page of President Graham’s statement to faculty. (Records of the Office of the Vice President for Finance, #40011, University Archives.)

College athletics has long played an important role in the university’s history. President Frank Porter Graham addressed faculty in 1938, extolling “the spirit of youth in the democracy of sports.” He believed that sound regulations and codes would allow a stadium to become a rallying place full of “high devotion expressed in music, songs, cheers, struggle, and drama, deep with loyalties called forth by the precious meaning of the alma mater.” Graham notes that codes of sportsmanship, like academic study, carry over into “human relations, industrial, inter-racial, and international.”

A new conference is born. (Records of the Office of the Vice President for Finance, #40011, University Archives.)

In 1953, UNC–Chapel Hill founded the Atlantic Coast Conference together with six other schools. In a copy of a letter to Dr. Oliver K. Cornwell, the temporary secretary of the as-yet unnamed conference, Chancellor R.B. House confirms the university’s withdrawal from the Southern Conference. Today, N.C. State, Duke, Wake Forest, Clemson, and Maryland, along with UNC, are still members of the ACC. Thus began an illustrious history that continues to the present.

“An Infernal Passion Undying”

If you read the Daily Tar Heel, you’ve likely read Ian Williams’ iconic column “Why I Hate Duke.” The Daily Tar Heel usually highlights the piece before our first basketball game of the year against Duke. The article is essentially … Continue reading →

If you read the Daily Tar Heel, you’ve likely read Ian Williams’ iconic column “Why I Hate Duke.” The Daily Tar Heel usually highlights the piece before our first basketball game of the year against Duke. The article is essentially the Carolina student’s guide to hating that dark, blue school to the North both on and off the basketball court. In his article, Williams states that he hates Duke with an “infernal passion undying.” Many of us feel that way in light of our recent loss, but just how long has the Carolina community loved to loathe our adversary?

The answer is long before that archenemy was actually named Duke University!

Written to be sung to the tune of Little Marie, this song was from William Starr Myers book that documented much of his poetry and writing from his time at UNC. From folder 15, Box 2 of the William Starr Myers Papers, collection #03260, in the Southern Historical Collection, the Wilson Library.

Written to be sung to the tune of “Sweet Marie,” this song can be found in William Starr Myers’s notebook documenting much of his writing during his time at UNC. (Folder 15, Box 2, of the William Starr Myers Papers, #03260, Southern Historical Collection.)

That’s right. UNC has the distinction of hating Duke before they became a full-fledged university and was simply known as Trinity College. Let that sink in for a minute.

For the football game against Trinity College on the 24th of October 1894, William Starr Myers (an editor for The Tar Heel, the forerunner of The Daily Tar Heel) wrote several poems to commemorate the day. One of his songs began:

“I’ve a secret to impart Trinity/We’re going to break your heart Trinity;/And you’ll think that Judgment Day,/Is’nt [sic] very far away, when the Referee calls ‘Play’ Trinity./You will see Trinity, Trinity how it will be/That your faces fearful sights are to see/Every star that studs the sky/Then will wink the other eye, and bid you/’Go & die,’ Trinity.”

A float from the 1951 Beat Dook parade showing a Tar Heel Ram eating a bowl of Duke cereal for breakfast. (P0033/0040, the Roland Giduz Photograph Collection, the North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives.)

The rivalry with Duke has a long history, which has taken various forms over the years. For instance, between 1950 and 1965 there was an annual “Beat Dook” Parade held on Franklin Street near the end of November.

As we anxiously await the rematch on March 9, I think it’s safe to say that yes…our Carolina community truly does hate Duke with “an infernal passion undying.” And many of us wouldn’t have it any other way.

New Online Exhibit on Student Organizations at UNC

When was the first student body president elected? Who’s a Di and who’s a Phi? What’s a Gimghoul? A new exhibit has been added to The Carolina Story: A Virtual Museum of University History that should answer those questions and … Continue reading →

When was the first student body president elected? Who’s a Di and who’s a Phi? What’s a Gimghoul?

Loreleis Concert Poster, Courtesy of Margaret Moore Jackson

A new exhibit has been added to The Carolina Story: A Virtual Museum of University History that should answer those questions and more. It highlights some of the hundreds of organizations that have been a part of student life throughout the university’s history, including debating societies, student government, performance groups like the Loreleis and the Playmakers, activist groups, Greek organizations, honor societies, secret societies, and others. Check out the new exhibit here.

Chapel Hill Revolutionary Movement, 1969 (Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Records, #40124, University Archives).

Alumni–were you involved in student organizations while at UNC? Do you have photos, posters, papers, recordings, or other materials related to your organizations? If you are interested in donating these materials to the University Archives to help document the history of your organizations, please contact Jay Gaidmore (gaidmore@email.unc.edu).

The Flu Pandemic of 1918-1919 at UNC

A parent asks to be notified by telegram if his son catches the flu (University of North Carolina Papers, #40005, University Archives).

In the fall of 1918, students were preparing for battle. In August, Congress had lowered the draft age from 21 to 18, and as part of the Student Army Training Corps (SATC), students drilled daily, anticipating the day that their numbers would be called. However, before they could be sent to fight in Europe, they found themselves fighting a deadly enemy on their own campus—influenza.

The first wave of the global “Spanish Flu” pandemic began in the spring, followed by a much deadlier second wave in the early fall. By September 1918, it had spread to North Carolina. Concerned parents wrote to university president Edward Kidder Graham, fearful for their children’s health.

Graham’s response to a concerned parent (University of North Carolina Papers, #40005, University Archives).

The campus was quarantined in October, and second-year medical students and local nurses were recruited to work in the overflowing infirmary. Three students died in a span of less than two weeks, and on University Day, 1918, no public gathering was held. After a few weeks, the situation seemed to be improving. In an October 19th letter to a parent, President Graham noted that there were 30 students in the infirmary and 20 convalescing—significantly fewer than the nearly 130 hospitalized a week before.

However, just two days later President Graham himself fell ill. Within days, he developed pneumonia as a complication of influenza. As the campus grew concerned about his condition and hoped for his recovery, the SATC commander asked that students not disturb Graham by marching or performing drills near his house. After less than a week’s illness, Graham died.

A memorial to President Graham printed as a frontispiece to the Dec. 25, 1918 High School Journal(Edward Kidder Graham Papers, #00282, Southern Historical Collection).

The next day, all classes and military drills were cancelled, and students were asked to “demean themselves in a quiet manner” in respect for the president. On October 31, Dean Marvin Stacy was appointed chairman of the faculty and assumed leadership of the university. Over the next two months, the war ended, the SATC disbanded, and the health crisis began to wane. However, influenza remained a serious threat. In January, 1919, Stacy also died of pneumonia as a complication of influenza, just less than three months after the death of his predecessor by the same illness.

By the spring, the global pandemic was ending. Over the course of the epidemic on campus, over 500 were treated for influenza in the infirmary and six died—students William Bunting, Larry Templeton, and Kenneth Scott; nurse Bessie Roper; President Graham; Mrs. W.J. Hannah, a mother who caught the disease while caring for her son; and Dean Stacy.