A Bygone University Day

UNC President William Friday greets US President John F. Kennedy (University Day, John F. Kennedy Visit: Photographs, 1961, in the Office of President of the University of North Carolina (System): William C. Friday Records #40009, University Archives, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill).

On October 12, 1961, Present John F. Kennedy came to UNC at Chapel Hill to celebrate University Day.

William C. Friday, president of the Consolidated System of North Carolina (before it became the University of North Carolina system) remembers that day:

It’s an experience to go through a visit of the President of the United States. . . . I had called every high school around here. Because I wanted the children to have the experience I had. . . . We invited all the faculty here. And everybody in town. And they filled the place up. It was a glorious day of sunshine. . . . Well, the big limousine rolled up, and Governor Sanford got out, and President Kennedy walked up to me and said, ‘Happy Columbus Day.’ October 12 was Columbus Day also. And that meant a lot to him, you know. . . . A lot of people asked, you know, “What did he say to you?” Well, I say, “Well, his first question was, ‘Who won the game last Saturday?'”

(Oral History Interview with William C. Friday, December 3, 1990. Interview L-0147. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.)

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.

Mia Hamm at UNC

As the college soccer season gears up, University Archives staff have unearthed some records from a golden era of women’s soccer at UNC.

Mia Hamm playing for UNC in 1992. Photo credit: Sports Illustrated Magazine, December 1992

Mia Hamm was at the height of her powers while playing for coach Anson Dorrance on the UNC women’s soccer team from 1989-1994. Hamm led the Tarheels to four NCAA championships, and finished her collegiate career as the Atlantic Coast Conference’s all-time leading scorer in goals, assists, and points.

Although we may remember Brandi Chastain’s jersey-stripping antics at the 1999 Women’s World Cup, it was Mia Hamm’s earlier goal that propelled the team toward victory. Through that and subsequent tournament wins (including Olympic gold medals in 2000 and 2004), Hamm helped change the way the world viewed women’s soccer. Hamm continues to be remembered as one of the University of North Carolina’s greatest athletic alumni.

The following memoranda were written by Associate Director of Athletics Beth Miller and Director of Athletics John Swofford, regarding some of Hamm’s achievements at UNC.  These documents form part of the Records of the Department of Athletics (#40093) in the University Archives in Wilson Library.

Memo from Beth Miller to Mia Hamm, January 21, 1993. Records of the Department of Athletics, #40093, University Archives
Memo from John Swofford to Coach Anson Dorrance, March 28, 1994. Records of the Department of Athletics, #40093, University Archives

UNC Dorm Life, 1947

Think you’ve got it rough in your dorm? Check out these pictures of dorm rooms from 1947.

Don’t like your new roommate? What if you had two dozen new roommates? Here’s a room of twenty-four-or-so prison-grade beds.

Student Health Service of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Records #40127, University Archives, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

More after the jump.

Continue reading “UNC Dorm Life, 1947”

Pat Summitt Letter in the University Archives

In 1987, Pat Summitt coached the University of Tennessee women’s basketball team to the first of what would be eight national championships for the school.  Frances Hogan, the associate athletic director for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, wrote a note of congratulations to Coach Summitt.  Summitt responded thanking Hogan for her demonstration of support and also taking the opportunity to congratulate UNC for its decision to hire Sylvia Rhyne Hatchell as the head coach of the women’s basketball team.  Coach Hatchell had just completed her first season at UNC, and Summitt predicted Hatchell would be successful.

Pat Summitt Letter
Letter from Pat Summitt to Frances Hogan, May 5, 1987, Records of the Department of Athletics, #40093, University Archives

And she was correct, as Hatchell has become one of the winningest coaches in women’s basketball history, being one of only four head coaches in Division I history to win 800 games, and earning coach of the year honors in 1994 and 2006.  Since coming to UNC in 1986, Hatchell has led the women’s basketball team to a national championship in 1994, eight ACC titles, and six 30-win seasons.

The professional interactions of these two began in the 1974-1975 season, when Summitt was in her first season as the coach at Tennessee and Hatchell served as the junior varsity coach.

 

“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.

God Cancelled!

(From the Program in the Humanities and Human Values records, University Archives, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.)

One of our processors, Jennie Halperin, found this unintentional (?) pun while combing through the Program in the Humanities and Human Values records.

And We’re Live in 3… 2… 1…

Among the fresh crop of collections now open for research are a few which display two of UNC’s most publicly visible institutions, radio station WUNC and television station UNC-TV.  Their records provide a glimpse into the inner functionings of these stations, those parts that aren’t broadcast from Chapel Hill to Manteo.

Charles Kuralt (left) and Kent Jackson (right) doing a radio dramatization during the dedication ceremonies for WUNC Radio, in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Photographic Laboratory Collection #P0031, North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Continue reading “And We’re Live in 3… 2… 1…”