Emily Jack – Page 4 – NC Miscellany

Artifact of the Month: Puffer fish from UNC’s Wilson Hall

Maybe the suddenly spring-like weather has a hold on me, but I can’t shake the thought that our April Artifact of the Month is smiling.

This puffer fish is part of a large collection of artifacts and specimens that were transferred to the North Carolina Collection Gallery in 2005. The objects came from UNC’s Wilson Hall, which housed the University’s Zoology Department and its library.

The Gallery accepted the transfer of these objects when Wilson Hall undertook a massive renovation. The collection, which includes hundreds of animal specimens and fossils, accentuates the Gallery’s goal of preserving items relating to natural history and the history of science at the University.

As part of the Gallery’s own renovation, we’ve recently upgraded our natural history exhibit, which features biographical panels on important naturalists, specimens from Wilson Hall, and original prints by John James Audubon.

Currently, the puffer fish can be seen in the exhibit Rooms of Wonder: From Wunderkammer to Museum, 1565-1865, in the Saltarelli Exhibit Room in Wilson Library, until April 17.

Wikipedia edit-a-thon, March 30, 2014

Last year, NC Miscellany noted that despite its status as the largest African American managed financial institution in the United States, there was no Wikipedia article about the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company.

Mutual Life Insurance Company — North Carolina Mutual block, Parrish Street, Durham, NC.

An article about the company has since been created, but it needs more work. And it’s just one of many weak areas in Wikipedia’s coverage of topics related to African American history in North Carolina.

On Sunday, March 30, the North Carolina Collection will host its second Wikipedia edit-a-thon, from 1:00 to 4:30.

Participants will create, expand, and improve Wikipedia articles about African American history, culture, people, events, and institutions in North Carolina. All are welcome — no special topical knowledge or Wikipedia experience is needed. Bring a laptop and we’ll help you do the rest!

For more details and to RSVP, see the event page.

Artifacts of the Month: Charms from 1944 UNC “coed”

In honor of Women’s History Month, the North Carolina Collection looks back at 1944 — which was an interesting year to be a woman at UNC.

Women’s enrollment numbers climbed while men left the classroom in unprecedented numbers to serve in the military. Women’s athletics flourished, with “coeds” playing soccer, volleyball, tennis, basketball, and badminton. And for the first time, UNC held what the 1944 yearbook, the Yackety Yack, calls a “unique ‘beauty’ dance,” in which thirty-two Carolina women vied for eight beauty queen titles.

They were complicated times to be sure. To offer a more personal window into coed life that year, we offer our March Artifacts of the Month: two charms that belonged to Jean Holmes Lochridge, Class of 1944.

The charms represent the Women’s Council and the University Club. According to the description accompanying her senior photo in the Yackety Yack, Lochridge was a member of both, in addition to the Alderman House Council, the Phi Assembly, the Executive Committee, the Senate, and the Intramural Volleyball and Badminton teams.

Lochridge’s daughter donated these charms to the NCC Gallery, and we’re honored to be charged with their stewardship. Not only are they a valuable reminder of the general student experience at UNC in 1944, but they also offer a unique slice of life from the perspective of one intriguing Carolina woman.

Stereographic photography exhibit extended!

If you’ve been waiting for a personal invitation to see the exhibit “Southern Scenery in 3D: 19th-Century Stereographic Photography,” this blog post is as close as you’re likely to come.

Due to popular interest, the exhibit has been extended — but it will be up for just a couple more weeks in the North Carolina Collection Gallery, until February 9.

Highlights include 19th-century views of the Wilmington waterfront, Linville Falls, and St. Mary’s Chapel in Raleigh; an exhibit case highlighting the evolution of stereographic viewers (including that Fisher Price Viewmaster you had as a kid); and, best of all, a 19th-century viewer you can use to look at twelve reproduction stereograph cards.

For hours, parking, and other visitor information, see the Wilson Library website.

We hope to see you soon!

Artifact of the Month: Ice skates, 1860s

When freezing temperatures dig in, as they did last week and undoubtedly will again before this winter is through, it’s helpful to remember that we’re not the first generation of North Carolinians to know what ice looks like.

Our January Artifact of the Month is a pair of ice skates that belonged to Pittsboro native Henry Armand London, UNC Class of 1865, when he was a student.

The skates have fastening rings for attaching leather straps, which the wearer used to tie the skates to his feet. The straps are missing and the iron skates are rusted, but the bent toe guard hints at at least a few days skating. A look at London’s student diary (catalog record here) confirms this assumption.

(If anyone knows what London means by having a snap, please chime in in the comments!)

After graduating, London went on to become a prominent merchant in Pittsboro, as well as a lawyer, journalist, historian, state senator, and trustee of UNC.

You can view other artifacts that belonged to UNC students in our digital collection Carolina Keepsakes.

Artifact of the Month: Santa’s Land souvenir decal

Where can you find North Pole resident Santa Claus fraternizing with a lion and a puma? Only on this souvenir decal from Santa’s Land Park and Zoo in Cherokee, NC.

The undated decal, our December Artifact of the Month, gives us Santa-as-cultural-icon, as opposed to Santa-as-symbol-of-Christmas. Aside from Mr. Claus, nothing in the image is remotely Christmas-y. And the park itself is open throughout most of the year but not during the winter holidays.

While the park’s opening date is elusive, the decal’s graphics and this postcard from Flickr user Jacob…K indicate that Santa’s Land has been around for several decades.

The amusement park at Santa’s Land offers innocent fun like the “Rudicoaster” — a roller coaster that approximates the experience of riding in a sleigh pulled by Rudolph. But Santa’s Land’s zoo has been in the news recently, due to complaints from Cherokee tribal elders over the park’s treatment of its captive bears.

This travel decal is one of many from the Lew Powell Memorabilia Collection, which is rich with wonderful North Caroliniana. Stay tuned: In the coming year we’ll launch a digital collection featuring a selection of items from this collection.

Artifact of the Month: Slide rule, 1916

Sam Cooke was just being clever when he sang “…don’t know what a slide rule is for.”

I, on the other hand, genuinely don’t know. But that won’t stop me from declaring a 1916 slide rule to be November’s Artifact of the Month.

UNC alumnus Bill Higgins generously donated this artifact as part of a collection of student memorabilia that belonged to his father, Charles W. Higgins, UNC Class of 1917.

yearbook scan — Charles W. Higgins in the 1917 UNC yearbook

The rule’s manufacturer, Keuffel & Esser Co., operated out of Hoboken, New Jersey and sold slide rules from 1886 to 1976, according to The International Slide Rule Museum.

This version, model 4053 3, features a conversion table on the back. Like the rule itself, many of its conversions bear little relevance to life in 2013.

The International Slide Rule Museum tells us that in 1967, Keuffel & Esser Co. commissioned a study of the future, predicting that Americans in 2067 would live in domed cities and watch 3D television. “Unfortunately for the company, the report failed to predict that slide rules would be obsolete in less than ten years, replaced by the pocket calculator.”

Still, it’s easy to believe that Charles Higgins, a Mathematical Club member, probably made good use of this tool in 1916. And while we in the NCC Gallery can’t fully appreciate its mathematical value, we certainly do appreciate its historical value.

Artifact of the Month: Holmes Stereoscope

Our October Artifact of the Month serves as an important reminder: Hollywood dazzle aside, the impulse to turn a two-dimensional image into a three-dimensional experience is nothing new.

The artifact in question, a 19th-century stereoscope, comes from the collection of the NCC Photographic Archives. The stereoscope gives the illusion of depth to a side-by-side pair of flat images, which, when viewed through the device, appear as one 3D image.

This model, the Holmes Stereoscope — invented by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr — was the most popular stereoscope in the 19th century.

Get the 3D experience in person

From now through February 2, you can view a selection of stereographic images from the Photographic Archives in the exhibit “Southern Scenery in 3D: 19th-Century Stereographic Photography.” The exhibit in the NCC Gallery includes scenes made by Rufus Morgan, father of noted North Carolina photographer Bayard Wootten, and offers a glimpse of stereographic scenes of the Wilmington waterfront and western North Carolina.

In conjunction with the exhibit, Wilson Library will host the event “North Carolina Through Student Eyes,” where student recipients of the 2012 and 2013 North Carolina Documentary Photography Award will present their projects.

For details on visiting Wilson Library, including hours, parking, and directions, see the Library’s hours and directions page.

Artifact of the Month: Great Smoky Mountains souvenir plate

In September 1940, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt came to the North Carolina/Tennessee border for the dedication of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

To mark the anniversary of this occasion, our September Artifact of the Month is a commemorative plate highlighting some of the park’s notable features.

The plate, for which we have no date, depicts seven Smoky Mountain attractions:

The native black bear (which gets central billing)
The “loop-over” (a place where the road loops over itself)
Gatlinburg’s observation tower, known as the Space Needle
The traditional Cherokee Eagle Dance
The outdoor drama Unto These Hills, a historical play about the Cherokee people
The observation tower on the top of Clingman’s Dome
An “Indian chief”

This last image, the Indian chief, shows a stereotypical “Hollywood Indian” rather than a Cherokee in traditional Cherokee dress — a nod to the controversial practice of intentionally dressing with tourists’ expectations in mind. (The Museum of the Cherokee Indian’s website covers the topic of Cherokee dress concisely and well on its FAQ page.)

A quick look around eBay reveals that the seven attractions featured on this plate appear over and over in vintage Smoky Mountain souvenir items. But, of course, there’s much more to love about the Smokies. If you have a favorite Great Smoky Mountains attraction, activity, or memory, leave a comment and tell us about it!

Artifact of the Month: Silver plate for a 58-year UNC employee

This silver plate, the July Artifact of the Month, was a gift to a UNC employee of uncommon loyalty. In 1914, Chapel Hill native Mittie Pickard began working at the UNC Medical School. She was the first woman to work at the school and its first medical technician.

In an interview later in life, she recalled her early days at the School as a time “when you went to work early, stayed late, didn’t count the hours, and coffee breaks were unheard of.”

Pickard maintained her dedication even when she was off the clock, often spending her vacation time in laboratories at Harvard and the Mayo Clinic.

In 1953, after thirty-nine years on the job, she was awarded this engraved plate, which reads:

In appreciation
Miss Mittie Pickard
whose services through the years
have meant so much to the
School of Medicine
of the
University of North Carolina
presented by
the Medical Alumni Association
April 23, 1953

But Miss Mittie wasn’t nearly done. In 1959, upon retiring from the Pathology Laboratory, she was almost immediately asked to lead the eye pathology and surgical research laboratory. She worked there for thirteen more years.

All told, Pickard logged fifty-eight years in the School of Medicine, under six consecutive deans.

She died on August 26, 1979, at eight-five years old.

The Pickard Family Papers were recently donated to the Southern Historical Collection. The NCC Gallery is pleased to be the steward of Miss Mittie’s plate, a tangible reminder of one woman’s stellar service to the University.