Vastly Improved Roland Giduz Collection Finding Aid now available

Leroy Frasier, John Lewis Brandon, and Ralph Frasier (left to right), all from Durham, North Carolina, on the steps of South Building after completing court-ordered registration at UNC, 15 September 1955. Roland Giduz, photographer, negative 979.

We’ve recently extracted from an in-house database more than 4,500 records representing approximately 19,000 negatives made by Roland Giduz in and around Chapel Hill between 1947 and 1970, and have made that information available through a new finding aid.  Prior to this improved finding aid, researchers only had this degree of subject access by working directly with staff who could search the database.  So please follow the link to the finding aid and explore!

Above is Giduz’s historic photograph of Leroy Frasier, John Lewis Brandon, and Ralph Frasier (left to right), all from Durham, standing on the steps of South Building at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill after completing their court-ordered registration on 15 September 1955 to become UNC’s first three African American undergraduate students.  The photograph serves as a tribute to Ralph Fraiser, who will be speaking at the Sonja Haynes Stone Center this Friday, 19 February, from 12:30 to 2:00 P.M.

Presidents of UNC . . . and who else?

Photograph labeled on back, "Presidents of UNC"

Here’s a photograph that’s got a lot of us stumped, so we are turning it over to your collective knowledge.  The photograph is labeled on the back “Presidents of UNC” and that it was once part of the UNC News Bureau, but there is no other identifying information.  A bit of investigation, however, leads me to conclude that not all of these gentleman are UNC presidents.

What we know and what we suspect:

  • On the far left is Harry Woodburn Chase, president of UNC from 1919 through 1930.
  • Third from the right is Frank Porter Graham, successor to Chase, appointed by the Board of Trustees on 9 June 1930 and serving until 1949.
  • Chase was on hand for 1930 graduation ceremonies, held from 7-10 June.
  • Chase returned to UNC for University Day on 12 October 1939; the account in The Daily Tar Heel, however, don’t favor this occasion as the date of the photograph.
  • Second from the right is William Preston Few, long time president of Trinity College/Duke University.  He died 16 October 1940.
  • Dr. Francis P. Venable, UNC president (1900-1913), received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree during the 1930 commencement, but he is not in the photograph.  That doesn’t mean the photograph is from that event, but a photograph intended to portray UNC presidents.
  • Third from left looks like UNC president Edwin Anderson Alderman (1896-1900), but then again it doesn’t.  If it is, he died 29 April 1931.

OK . . . your turn! Recognize anyone else . . . or better yet, the occasion?

Twas a True Thanksgiving Indeed

Answer: About 28,000 people.

The question: How large was the largest crowd ever to see a football game in North Carolina prior to 1948?

Or: How many people are in this photograph?

Kenan Memorial Stadium, UNC vs Virginia, 24 November 1927
(click on image for larger view)

On 24 November 1927 Kenan Memorial Stadium, built specifically to handle the large crowds that amassed whenever the University of North Carolina Tar Heels faced the University of Virgina Cavaliers in Chapel Hill, was officially dedicated.  Among the witnesses that day was the panoramic camera of the Wootten-Moulton Studio.

The Thanksgiving Day / Homecoming Day game, won by UNC 14-13, was not the first to be played in Kenan Memorial Stadium—that debut took place against Davidson College twelve days prior.  A photograph in the student yearbook, The Yackety Yack, clearly shows empty seats.  The Virginia game, however, with its anticipated larger draw, was selected to be the stadium’s dedication day.  The photograph below depicts William Rand Kenan, Jr. and the parties of governors Angus Wilton McLean of North Carolina and Harry F. Byrd of Virginia during the game.

P004-BandG-KenanStadium_17249sm

Had you been around in 1927, what was the cost of admission (if you could get a ticket)?  Well, The Alumni Review ran advertisements for advance tickets that could be purchased for $2.00, which is about $25.00 today.

Want to read more about Kenan Memorial Stadium?  Visit our sister blog, “A View to Hugh” for a post entitled “Majstic Kenan Stadium, Majestic Gem” written by Jack Hilliard for more on Memorial Stadium from the perspective of Hugh Morton’s camera.  You may also want to read an article on the history of Kenan Stadium by Lee Pace on the Tar Heel Blue website, which features a post card from the Durwood Barbour Collection of North Carolina Post Cards.  For you analog readers, an article about the dedication day game and ceremonies is in the December 1927 issue of The Alumni Review, with the title borrowed for this post.

Apollo Astronauts at UNC

Apollo Astronauts at Morehead Planetarium, 6 June 1966

This homage to the 40th anniversary of man landing on the moon is posted at the approximate time Neil Armstrong stepped foot on the lunar surface.  Did you know, however, that before Armstrong made that famous footprint, he—and almost every National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronaut—walked the grounds of UNC-Chapel Hill?

From 1959 through 1975, Morehead Planetarium hosted an astronaut training program designed to teach stellar constellation recognition and stellar navigation.  Neither Neil Armstrong nor Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr.—the first two men to walk on the moon—appear in this photograph, but both attended the training program on subsequent dates within the next few weeks.  In total, Aldrin attended five training missions and Armstrong completed eleven at Morehead between 1964 and 1969, and the two trained together in the program twice, once in 1968 and once 1969.

In the photograph above by Wolf Witz from the UNC Photographic Laboratory Collection (negative 28733), twenty-one astronauts, about a month after their induction into the NASA space program, line a staircase at Morehead Planetarium on 10 June 1966, encircling an exhibit panel labeled “In Our Lifetime . . . .”  The negative and photographic prints in the North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives have no identifications, but we know from the Web page “Astronauts Who Trained at Morehead Planetarium and the Missions They Flew” that the following astronauts are in the photograph:

  • Vance D. Brand
  • John S. Bull
  • Gerald P. Carr
  • Charles Conrad Jr.
  • Charles M. Duke Jr.
  • Ronald E. Evans
  • Edward G. Givens Jr.
  • Fred W. Haise Jr.
  • James B. Irwin
  • Joseph B. Kerwin
  • Don L. Lind
  • Jack R. Lousma
  • Thomas K. Mattingly Jr.
  • Bruce McCandless II
  • F. Curtis Michel
  • Edgar D. Mitchell
  • William R. Pogue
  • Stuart A. Roosa
  • John L. Swigert Jr.
  • Paul J. Weitz
  • Alfred M. Worden

How many of these men made it to the moon?

The moon as projected inside Morehead Planetarium.  Photographer Richard McKee.

(The moon as projected inside Morehead Planetarium, 6 July 1962.  The man in the lower left corner is probably planetarium director A. F. Jenzano.  Photographer Richard McKee, UNC Photography Laboratory Collection, negative 23170.)

A Land of Opportunity

The beautiful cover of the above pamphlet, North Carolina: Conditions Conducive to Farming, Trucking, Fruit Growing, Stock Raising, etc., in the Old North State surfaced when I was searching for materials to use in the exhibit Cultivating “The Great Winter Garden”: Immigrant Colonies in Eastern North Carolina, 1866-1940. I didn’t include it in the exhibit, however tempting the artwork, because it didn’t address immigration even though it did touch on other related topics presented in the exhibit such as intensive farming.  In the pamphlet, the Department of Agriculture advocated intensive farming, but on a large scale, contrary to the smaller intensive farming promoted by the Ten Acres Enough perspective of Hugh MacRae, a key focal point of the exhibit.  With the first week of summer well underway, now seemed like a good time to bring it to the light of day.

The pamphlet does not have a publication date, but the state Department of Agriculture likely issued it in 1910 or 1911.  There is one sentence in the text that helps determine its probable date:

In 1910 North Carolina had 331 cotton mills, whereas in 1900 she had but 177.  This shows that there were over fifteen cotton mills built per annum during the last ten years.

If you do the math (331-177=154; 154/15=10.267; 1900+10ish=1910) we see that the writer drew upon recent data, providing us a likely year of publication.

An even bigger faux pas than omiting the publication date is not identifying the artist, whose work we must enjoy without attribution.

Graham A. Barden on Armistice Day, 1946

I’m afraid Veteran’s Day would be over before I could sort out the story behind this photograph.  On the surface it’s pretty straight forward: the caption on the back of the photograph reads, “Rep. G. A. Barden addresses Armistice Day celebration, Jacksonville, 1946.”  Neither of the two Jacksonville newspapers covered the story, which is a bit odd considering the back of the photograph also has “3 col” written in pencil, suggesting it was published at three columns wide.  And it’s doubly odd when you consider that Billy Arthur—seated to Barden’s left—donated the photograph to the NCC, and he owned one of those two newspapers. (Arthur was also a North Carolina state representative at the time.)

Could it be that the date is incorrect?  It could be that the photograph was published elsewhere at a different time.

Perhaps our friends at Duke University special collections, which holds long-time United States Representative Graham Arthur Barden’s papers, can shed some light on the topic of the speech?

Anyone want to explain why the flag on the right partially reads “_?_ce Meadows / Swansboro” rather than be a flag related to Jacksonville?

Or are these all visual red herrings?

Windmill on Lake Mattamuskeet

Nick’s post earlier today reminded me of the photograph in the North Carolina County Collection you see above.  The caption on the back of the photograph reads, “Early and late method of grinding corn in Hyde Co N.C.  Mill on edge of lake Mattamuskeet.”  The photograph was donated by the family of Collier Cobb, who became instructor of geology at UNC in 1892 and, in 1893, the chairman of the university’s newly-established Department of Geology. He served in that post until 1934, the year of his death.  Cobb was a photographer among his many talents, so he may be the creator of this unattributed photograph.  A collection of Cobb’s negatives and photographs are part of the North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives.

UNC versus Notre Dame football

Many keyboards are clattering with chatter this week about the upcoming contest between the UNC and Notre Dame football squads on Saturday, so here’s our contribution.

You may be surprised to know that the host for the first encounter between these schools’  teams was neither Kenan Memorial Stadium in Chapel Hill nor Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend.  No, it was Yankee Stadium in New York City.

Why the Big Apple?

Starting in 1913, the annual Notre Dame versus Army football game evolved into a major rivalry.  From 1925 through 1946, the two teams battled at Yankee Stadium (with the exception of 1930, which was played in Chicago) in order to draw upon both institutions’ large alumni bases in New York.  The 1946 contest ended in a 0-0 tie between the country’s top two rated teams, and is a college football classic. The two previous years, however, saw Army routing Notre Dame with combined scores of 107—0, and the Black Knights declared that the annual meeting would cease with a finale to be played at Notre Dame Stadium in 1947.  The Fighting Irish’s returned to Yankee Stadium on November 12, 1949 to play UNC in their final appearance there until the 1963 Gotham Bowl.

The Tar Heels’ 1949 encounter with Notre Dame was not the first time UNC played in “The House that Ruth Built.”  Yankee Stadium was home field for the New York University football team beginning in the mid 1920s. UNC made its Yankee Stadium debut against NYU in 1936 with a 14-13 victory. The following year the UNC-NYU game was moved from Yankee Stadium to Ohio Field to make room for the World Series. Back in Yankee Stadium again in 1938, UNC bested NYU 7-0.

The Daily Tar Heel reported an estimated 25,000 UNC fans—with 2,200 student tickets sold—would head for New York to see the 5-2 Tar Heels take on the 6-0 Fighting Irish.  Those departing from Chapel Hill and vicinity traveled on two Seaboard Air Line Railroad and Southern Railway “specials,” Carolina Coach Company buses, and caravans of decorated cars.  The DTH published a small article describing some of their escapades along the way.  Yackety Yack photographer Bob Brooks photographed one of the automobiles parked on a New York street. The car is adorned with player names—featuring a train on the driver-side door featuring The “Choo-Choo” All-American Charlie Justice—and expressions, such as “Hello Yankees! How ‘Yawl’?” and “We’re From Carolina Gung Hav’ Beeg ‘Pahty.'”  The writing on the front fender cannot be made out entirely, but something or someone is “Gung Take Noo-Yawk.”

Brooks also captured at least two scenes during the huge pep rally of 3,000 UNC students on the preceding Friday night with 20,000 spectators lining the streets on Times Square.  The streets were full of Confederate flags and UNC fight songs.

UNC registered the first score of the game, a touchdown by UNC running back Dick Bunting—seen on the bottom of the pile in the photograph below. Other UNC players, grouped in the center, are Kenny Powell on the far left, Joe Neikirk (#63), Art Weiner (#50), and Julian King (#84).

That would be the only UNC score. The Tar Heels held the eventual national champions to a 6-6 draw by halftime. But without the Tar Heels’ All-American running back Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice, who was unable to play after injuring his ankle the week before against William and Mary, and nowhere near the depth of reserves of their opponent, the Irish rattled off 36 unanswered points in the second half for the victory.  Through it all, Tar Heel fans remained highly spirited, described by DTH reporter Roy Parker, Jr. as “the cheeringest bunch of Carolina rooters ever assembled.”  Even after the game’s close, the singing of “Hark the Sound” drowned out the Notre Dame fight song.

Wachovia Loan and Trust Company

Wachovia Loan and Trust Company document

Charlotte-based Wachovia Corporation finds itself in the news today as Citigroup is buying out a major portion of Wachovia’s operations as part of the ongoing financial upheaval.  I headed to the Forsyth County folders in the photographic archives’ North Carolina County Collection to see what might be of interest to mark this eventful day in the state’s banking history, and found the document presented here.  The donated document finds itself in the photographic archive because of the illustration of the Wachovia Loan and Trust Company’s first permanent building in Winston, N.C.  It is also fascinating to note that the letterhead proclaims the trust company’s capital at $200,000—about $5.5 million today.

Founded in 1893 after state legislation permitting the creation of trust companies in 1891, Wachovia Loan and Trust Company was distinct from Wachovia National Bank founded in 1879.  The two institutions merged to become Wachovia National Bank and Trust Company on January 1, 1911.

Though not directly concerned with Wachovia, the content of the message, dated April 1st 1901, might be interesting to historians of the state’s banks. Thomas Maslin, listed in the 1906 Winston-Salem directory as the assistant treasurer and secretary at Wachovia Loan and Trust Company, wrote to John Tate of Charlotte, N.C., requesting “the names of the gentlemen of your city who are actively promoting the organization of a new Trust Company . . . the title of which is to be Southern States Loan and Trust Company.”  Maslin wanted to know because he had “several friends that will take stock as soon as they know something about what it intends to do, and I expect to run down to Charlotte, as soon as I know the names of the gentlemen connected with it.”

Some quick catalog checking and Googling located no reference to a Charlotte banking firm by that name. The 1900-1901 Charlotte city directory has no listing for a John Tate employed in banking, only a traveling salesman for a mills supply company.  There was listed a Southern Estate, Loan & Trust Co., but the “Farmers and Merchants National Bank” to which Maslin refers was actually the Merchants and Farmers National Bank.

Maslin suggested that Tate contact John M. Miller, listed in the 1900-1901 Charlotte directory, as the Merchants and Farmers cashier. Five years later in the 1905-1906 directory, there is listed a Southern Loan and Savings Bank that occupies the same building as the Southern Real Estate and Trust Company, and the two firms—with different operating officers—share a joint full-page advertisement.

Does anybody have any additional information to help fill in the story?