Artifact of the Month: Laundry bag used at UNC

This week the North Carolina Collection welcomes new and returning UNC students to the 2014-15 academic year. Campus has been buzzing with students unpacking cars, buying books, and reuniting with friends. At the moment, everyone looks pretty clean… but it won’t be long before they all have dirty laundry.

laundry bag

Our August Artifact of the Month is a canvas laundry bag that was used by UNC students of two generations: First, Charles Edward Hight, Class of 1926, and later his daughter, Elna Hight, Class of 1964. Both Charles and Elna used this bag when attending UNC.

Charles & Elna Hight

We love that this humble laundry bag survived two tours of duty at UNC, decades apart. And we’re grateful to the Hight family for trusting us to be the caretakers of this timeless slice of student life.

Best wishes to all the students starting the academic year. Don’t forget to wash your sheets!

One thought on “Artifact of the Month: Laundry bag used at UNC”

  1. The Hights’ “humble laundry bag” is a great example of the importance of an object’s story (backstory, as the preseptugenarians might put it) over its intrinsic worth….. I’m also reminded of all those evocative old flea-market photos rendered virtually worthless by the absence of even a few names penciled on the back….

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