UNC Class of 2013 Deposits Time Capsule in the University Archives

The UNC Class of 2013 has placed a time capsule filled with special mementos from their time here in Chapel Hill in the University Archives.

The time capsule is only a standard size banker’s box but it has been taped shut, placed in the Special Collections vault, and will not be opened until the class of 2013’s 25th Reunion in 2038.

Here are photographs of the senior class officers with the time capsule and placing it on the shelf in the vault. From left to right: Brennan Fox, chief marshall; Nora Chan, senior class vice president; and Tim Palmer, senior class president.

UNC Class of 2013 officers deposit time capsule in University Archives

UNC Class of 2013 officers place time capsule in the University Archives vault

Congratulations to the Class of 2013! See you in 2038.

Dave Brubeck, 1920-2012

Dave Brubeck photo in the Daily Tar Heel, Jan. 9, 1968, p. 1
Daily Tar Heel, Jan. 9, 1968, p. 1

On December 5, 2012, the world lost one of its greatest Jazz musicians, Dave Brubeck.  You may or may not be able to name his musical pieces, but you most certainly have heard some of them, especially “Take Five”, perhaps the best remembered piece of the Dave Brubeck Quartet.

You are probably asking why a blog devoted to UNC archives and history is posting a story about Dave Brubeck.  The answer lies in the Records of the Department of Radio, Television, and Motion Pictures (RTVMP) housed in the University Archives in Wilson Library.

The RTVMP records include audio recordings, a program, and program notes of the first performance of Brubeck’s oratorio, The Light in the Wilderness as well as audio recordings of an interview conducted with Brubeck.

On January 9, 1968, Brubeck premiered the oratorio at Hill Music Hall.  According to the interviews, Brubeck chose UNC as the site of the premier because of his friendship with Dr. Lara Hoggard (1915-2007), Kenan professor of music at UNC from 1967-1980 and founder of the Carolina Choir. Dr. Hoggard conducted the oratorio, which also included the Chapel Hill Choral Club and the Carolina Choir.

Here is an article about Brubeck and the oratorio from the Daily Tar Heel:

Daily Tar Heel, Jan. 9, 1968, p. 1
Daily Tar Heel, Jan. 9, 1968, p. 1

A copy of The Light in the Wilderness Premiere Program (Source:  Audiotape T-40086/205-206, Records of the Dept. of RTVMP, #40086, University Archives, Wilson Library):

The Light in the Wilderness Premier Program, p. 1
The Light in the Wilderness Premier Program, p. 1
The Light in the Wilderness Premier Program, p. 2
The Light in the Wilderness Premier Program, p. 2
The Light in the Wilderness Premier Program, p. 3-4
The Light in the Wilderness Premier Program, p. 3-4
The Light in the Wilderness Premier Program, p. 5-6
The Light in the Wilderness Premier Program, p. 5-6
The Light in the Wilderness Premier Program, p. 7-8
The Light in the Wilderness Premier Program, p. 7-8
The Light in the Wilderness Premier Program, p. 9-10
The Light in the Wilderness Premier Program, p. 9-10
The Light in the Wilderness Premier Program, p. 11
The Light in the Wilderness Premier Program, p. 11

A copy of The Light in the Wilderness Program Notes (Source:  Audiotape T-40086/205-206, Records of the Dept. of RTVMP, #40086, University Archives, Wilson Library):

The Light in the Wilderness Program Notes, p. 1
The Light in the Wilderness Program Notes, p. 1
The Light in the Wilderness Program Notes, p. 2-3
The Light in the Wilderness Program Notes, p. 2-3
The Light in the Wilderness Program Notes, p. 4-5
The Light in the Wilderness Program Notes, p. 4-5
The Light in the Wilderness Program Notes, p. 6-7
The Light in the Wilderness Program Notes, p. 6-7

Listen to Brubeck discuss the oratorio, his reasons for choosing UNC for the premier of the oratorio, the disbanding of the Brubeck Quartet, and other things in these interview clips:

Clip 1 from Dave Brubeck interview
Clip 2 from Dave Brubeck interview

Thanks to Steve Weiss, curator of the Southern Folklife Collection, for bringing these materials to our attention, and to John Loy, audio engineer extraordinaire in the Southern Folklife Collection, for converting the audio recordings of the interview.

Meg Tuomala Appointed Electronic Records Archivist

Meg Tuomala, Electronic Records ArchivistUniversity Archives and Records Management Services is pleased to announce that Meg Tuomala has re-joined our staff, this time as the Electronic Records Archivist. Her first day was December 3, 2012.

In this position, Meg will be responsible for ensuring the proper management and preservation of electronic archival records created by UNC-Chapel Hill and the UNC General Administration as well as lead efforts to assist other special collections units in Wilson Library in managing and preserving born-digital materials. Her contact information is mtuomala@email.unc.edu; 919-962-6402.

Meg received an undergraduate degree in Comparative Literature and Romance Languages from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2005 and a Masters in Library Science from UNC’s School of Library and Information Science in August 2010 with a specialization in Archives and Records Management. She is no stranger to Wilson Library or UARMS having worked as a graduate assistant in Special Collections Technical Services processing university archives collections and serving as the Records Services Archivist from September 2010-July 2011. Most recently, she served as the the Digital Archivist at the Special Collections at Washington University in St. Louis.

Welcome back Meg!

Revised Finding Aids for University Archives

Below is a list of revised finding aids to collections held in the University Archives. These finding aids include a brief description of the contents of the collection, historical information about the department from which the records originated, and a container listing of the collection’s contents. For questions about these collections, please contact Wilson Special Collections Library at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

Accounting Department (#40097): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40097.html

Board of Elections, Student Government (#40154): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40154.html

Board of Trustees (#40003): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40003.html

Carolina Symposium (#40146): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40146.html

Dean of the School of Public Health (#40120): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40120.html

Student Government (#40169): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40169.html

Health Alert!! Polio Outbreak on UNC Campus! UNC-NC State Football Game Cancelled!

The year was 1952 and the United States was still three years away from Jonas Salk becoming a household name.  At the time, polio was the scariest public health issue in the United States.  So when five UNC students, all athletes, were stricken with polio from mid-September to early October, it was no surprise that university officials took the necessary steps to prevent the disease from spreading further, cancelling the two home football games against North Carolina State and Georgia, and requesting that students remain on campus.

Cover of the Daily Tar Heel, Oct. 3, 1952
Cover of the Daily Tar Heel, Oct. 3, 1952
Daily Tar Heel editorial page, Oct. 3, 1952
Daily Tar Heel editorial page, Oct. 3, 1952

Although the editor of the Daily Tar Heel said there was “no cause for alarm”, students were understandably concerned as were their parents.  Parking lots were nearly empty and the highways out of town were “dotted with hitchhikers” as students ignored the requests to stay on campus and went home.  Long distance telephone calls to and from Chapel Hill doubled as students and parents kept in touch with each other.

Cover of the Daily Tar Heel, Oct. 4, 1952
Cover of the Daily Tar Heel, Oct. 4, 1952

In the end, the worry was all for naught as the five students, football player Harold “Bull” Davidson;  cross country teammates John Robert Barden, Jr. and Richard Lee Bostain, swimmer Robert Nash “Pete” Higgins, and freshmen football player, Samuel S. Sanders, all recovered quickly and none suffered any paralysis.

St. Anthony Hall donates autograph album from the 1860s

The UNC University Archives is pleased to announce the donation of a precious artifact from the Xi Chapter of St. Anthony Hall (Delta Psi) and the St. Anthony Association of North Carolina, their associated alumni organization. This artifact is an autograph book that includes the signatures of members of Delta Psi and other UNC fraternities from the 1860s, many of whom served in the Confederate Army and several of whom were killed during the war.

The Xi Chapter of Delta Psi was founded on November 20, 1854, making it the second oldest fraternity still in existence at UNC.  The chapter was dormant for some years during the University’s post-Civil War ban on all fraternities and secret organizations. In 1926 Grahame Wood (U. Penn 1895) organized efforts to revive the Xi chapter at UNC. Xi has thrived since that time.

William C. Prout, brother in St. Anthony Hall, graduate of UNC’s class of 1865 and the original owner of the autograph album, presented the signature book to the re-founded Xi chapter in 1927. It has since been kept in the Xi Chapter’s extensive archives and was professionally restored in recent years under a grant from the St. Anthony Educational Foundation.  St. Anthony Hall and the St. Anthony Association of North Carolina moved to gift this item to the University Libraries due to its uniquely personal and historically valuable nature as well as its appeal to the University community as a whole.

Letter from William C. Prout donating the autograph album to the re-founded chapter in 1927
Letter from William C. Prout donating the autograph album to the re-founded chapter in 1927
Members of St. Anthony Hall at UNC in 1927 (from the Yackety-Yack)
Members of St. Anthony Hall at UNC in 1927 (from the Yackety-Yack)

The autograph album includes the signatures of students who attended UNC from 1862-1865, as well as other biographical data: the names of their girlfriends, their major area of study, their profession, the titles of courses taken, and their hometowns.  Brothers Prout and Wood later added death dates and annotated some of the entries to identify those who had been killed in the Civil War or had died.

Page spread from the autograph album
Page spread from the autograph album

In addition to signatures of St. Anthony Hall members, the book was passed around to other fraternities at UNC for their signatures.  Among the names from these other fraternities are Wesley Lewis Battle, who was killed at the Battle of Gettysburg and was the brother of UNC President Kemp Plummer Battle;  Julian Shakespeare Carr, tobacco manufacturer and namesake of Carrboro; Fredrick A. Fetter, a tutor at UNC and son of the longtime UNC professor, Manuel Fetter; and M. A. Curtis, Jr., son of the Episcopal priest and noted mycologist whose family’s notes, diaries, correspondence and other papers are housed in the Southern Historical Collection.

Autograph of Wesley Lewis Battle
Autograph of Wesley Lewis Battle
Autograph of Julian S. Carr
Autograph of Julian S. Carr

This autograph album is a significant acquisition for the University Archives and does much to help its efforts to document student life at UNC.  St. Anthony Hall intends to donate additional historical materials that document its history and the various activities in which its members have participated since the chapter was reorganized in 1927 after having closed in the aftermath of the Civil War.

St. Anthony Hall is a literary, artistic and social fraternity comprising a diverse group of writers, artists and performers.  Brothers and sisters of St. Anthony Hall are highly active in student life, working at times as editors and staff of the Daily Tar Heel, Phoenix magazine, Cellar Door, LAMBDA magazine, Shakespeare’s Sister, The Sixty-Niner and Yackety Yack; as elected and appointed members of all branches of Student Government; as competitors in intramural and Carolina Athletics sports programs; as performers in a variety of choral and musical groups; and in productions by PlayMakers and The LAB! Theatre.

Sisters and brothers of St. Anthony Hall have also been a part of many literary and artistic organizations in the larger community, including Paperhand Puppet Intervention, The ArtsCenter in Carrboro, The Performance Collective, Internationalist Books, The Somnambulist Project, The People’s Channel and many others. St. Anthony Hall hosts a Xi Chapter alumni reunion weekend called Swingout every spring.

Rush and pledge periods are held every semester on a schedule independent from most other fraternity rush periods. Fall ‘12 rush is going on at this time. For information on rush activities contact rushsta@gmail.com.

Notable members of the Xi chapter include journalist Charles Kuralt ‘55, soccer coach Anson Dorrance ‘74, book critic Jonathan Yardley ‘61, sportswriter Peter Gammons ‘67, editorial cartoonist Jeff MacNelly ’69,  and basketball player Charlie Scott ’68, the first African-American to join a fraternity and receive an athletic scholarship at UNC.

Known for its support of progressive causes, St. Anthony Hall was one of only two fraternities to sign a pledge in 1963 not to patronize businesses and restaurants in Chapel Hill unless they desegregated. Its members were active in the fight to end the Speaker Ban and in the spring of 1971, the chapter became the first UNC fraternity to go co-ed.

St. Anthony Hall in the 1969 Yackety Yack
St. Anthony Hall in the 1969 Yackety Yack

St. Anthony Hall has eleven chapters around the country, the first of which was founded at Columbia in 1847.  In addition to UNC and Columbia, the other schools with chapters are University of Pennsylvania, Trinity College, University of Rochester, Princeton University, Brown University, University of Mississippi, Yale University, University of Virginia, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The autograph album is available for use in the Wilson Special Collections Library.  Its finding aid is available online at:  http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40352.html.

Thanks to Michael Williams, the historian for the St. Anthony Association of North Carolina, for writing this post.

“Plain as an old shoe, honest as an old field-hand, tough as a top sergeant . . . ”: A Tribute to Robert Burton House

On August 17, 1987, Robert Burton House, former Chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, died.  He was a 1916 graduate of UNC and joined the University’s staff in 1926 as the executive secretary after a brief stint as a high school teacher and archivist.  With the creation of the Consolidated University of North Carolina and the ascension of Frank Porter Graham as its president, House became dean of administration of the Chapel Hill campus in 1934. Eleven years later, his position was renamed “chancellor,” and he served in this role until 1957. That same year, he returned to teaching, joining the faculty of UNC’s Department of English.

Robert Burton House playing the harmonia
Robert Burton House playing the harmonia. From the UNC Photographic Laboratory Collection, North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, P0031

On May 27, 1957, at House’s last Board of Trustees meeting as Chancellor, John W. Umstead, Jr., honored House’s service to UNC by reading a tribute, a portion of which is transcribed here:

“…Bob House symbolizes Chapel Hill.  He has seen it grow until there are now more faculty members than there were total students when he entered as a freshman.  New schools, departments and divisions have come and many generations of graduates have gone.  In his own modest words he said, ‘All this I saw, and of some of it I was a part.’  No one has surpassed him in loyalty and devotion to the University.

Once, to a professor, allured by the financial offers of another institution, he said, ‘You may go if you like.  But I have enlisted for life.  And if everybody else departs I expect to go up to Old South Building every morning, ring the college bell, knock the ashes out of my pipe, and lecture to the birds, the squirrels and the trees on the state of the universe and the University.

As Secretary, Dean, and Chancellor of the University at Chapel Hill he has spoken and played his mouth harp in practically every city and town in North Carolina, and in almost every village and country school, and in doing so he has preached the spirit of this intangible University about which I speak.

Albert Coates spoke aptly of Bob House when he described him as ‘plain as an old shoe, honest as an old field-hand, tough as a top sergeant, blunt as the crack of doom, impulsive to a hurt, generous to a fault, wrathful as an Old Testament prophet, ruthful as a sinner brought to penance by an inward grace, overflowing with notes that are always set to music, full of lightning as a cloud in a storm, and full of the calm that follows, an artist with the thunderbolt and a master of the still small voice full of earthiness without a trace of vulgarity, and full of flare as a lightwood knot.’  This is Bob House.”

Source:  Records of the Board of the Trustees of the University of North Carolina System, 1932-1972, #40002, Minutes, Volume 5, May 27, 1957, pp. 208-210.

Thanks to Lynn Roundtree for bringing this tribute to our attention.

New and Revised Finding Aids for University Archives

Below is a list of new and revised finding aids to collections held in the University Archives. These finding aids include a brief description of the contents of the collection, historical information about the department from which the records originated, and a container listing of the collection’s contents. For questions about these collections, please contact Wilson Special Collections Library at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

NEW:
Center for International Understanding (#40356): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40356.html

Department of Religious Studies (#40340): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40340.html

Employee Forum (#40299): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40299.html

Honors Office (#40229): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40229.html

North Carolina Education Research Council (#40311): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40311.html

North Carolina Health Careers Access Program (#40219): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40219.html

Sigma Alpha Epsilon, North Carolina Xi (#40334): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40334.html

University Managers’ Association (#40296): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40296.html

WUNC (#40278): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40278.html

REVISED:
Campus Y (#40126): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40126.html

Department of Art: (#40077): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40077.html

Department of Chemistry (#40079): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40079.html

Department of Dramatic Art (#40080): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40080.html

Department of English and Comparative Literature (#40081): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40081.html

Department of History (#40082): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40082.html

Department of Music (#40235): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40235.html

Department of Physics and Astronomy (#40084): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40084.html

Department of Radio, Television & Motion Pictures (#40086): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40086.html

Institute of Marine Sciences (#40068): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40068.html

Library Business Administration and Social Sciences Reference Department (#40050): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40050.html

Library Humanities Reference Department (#40051): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40051.html

Library Staff Development Committee (#40063): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40063.html

North Carolina Botanical Garden (#40072): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40072.html

Office of the Chancellor: Christopher C. Fordham (#40024): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40024.html

Office of the Chancellor: Paul Hardin (#40025): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40025.html

Office of the Chancellor: Michael Hooker (#40026): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40026.html

Office of the Chancellor: William O. McCoy (#40227): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40227.html

Office of the Chancellor: James Moeser (#40228): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40228.html

Office of the Dean of the School of Medicine (#40118): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40118.html

Office of the Vice Chancellor for University Advancement (#40132): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40132.html

Order of the Gorgon’s Head (#40300): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40300.html

Order of the Grail-Valkyries (#40161): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40161.html

School of Education (#40043): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40043.html

University of North Carolina Network Television (UNC-TV) (#40258): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40258.html

RIP Rameses XVIII

On Thursday, February 9, 2012, the beloved UNC mascot, Rameses, passed away.

Rameses XVIII (courtesy of the UNC General Alumni Association)

He was the 18th ram to hold this title since the ram was introduced as UNC’s mascot in 1924 by Vic Huggins, UNC’s head cheerleader.  Huggins decided that UNC needed a mascot just like NC State had the wolf and Georgia had the bulldog.  Since Jack Merritt was a star on UNC’s football team and was nicknamed “the battering ram”, Huggins decided that UNC’s mascot should be a ram.  He went to Charles T. Woollen, the university’s business manager, and requested $25 to buy a ram.  They ordered the first ram from Texas.  Over the succeeding years, Rameses has held a special place in the hearts of Tar Heel fans.  Rameses XVIII’s successor is Bam Bam, who will roam the Kenan sidelines as Rameses XIX.

Enjoy these photographs of Rameses over the years (from the UNC-Chapel Hill Image Collection, North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives).

RamesesRamesesRamesesRamesesRameses

Selected Dialectic Society Records Digitized as Part of a Documenting the American South Project

As part of the digitization of the Joseph Lawrence Dusenbery’s journal for “Verses and Fragments: The James L. Dusenbery Journal (1841-1842)“, a few selected documents  from the records of the Dialectic Society held in the University Archives have also been digitized.

These documents include an address to the Dialectic Society by his brother, Edwin Lafayette Dusenbery, in 1845, and the Dialectic Society Library Circulation  Records of Joseph, and two other brothers, Henry Mcrorie and William Brevard.

Dusenbery’s journal is the “heart” of this online resource. Kept by him during his senior year, the journal is an amazing resource for those interested in student life at UNC in 1841 and 1842.