Thursday, February 26, 2009

UNCG Honors Children’s Book Writer … With Jazz!



Press Release by Michelle Hines
2-26-09

Carole Boston Weatherford writes about jazz. Her recent books for kids include “Becoming Billie Holiday” and “Before John Was a Jazz Giant: A Song of John Coltrane.”

Now Boston Weatherford, a University of North Carolina at Greensboro alumna who has given her papers to UNCG’s Jackson Library, is being honored by her alma mater during Cool Jazz Family Day, Saturday, March 28.

Cool Jazz festivities run from 1-4 p.m. at UNCG’s Weatherspoon Art Museum.

Boston Weatherford will read from her books and talk about her writing beginning at 2 p.m. in the Weatherspoon Auditorium. She will sign books afterwards in the museum’s atrium.

A quartet from the UNCG Jazz Band will perform in her honor at 3 p.m.

Boston Weatherford, a Baltimore native, wrote her first poem in first grade. She has written more than 20 books, including “Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom,” winner of a Caldecott Honor, the Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration and an NAACP Image Award.

Her papers, which she recently began transferring to Jackson Library, include manuscripts, proofs, clippings, photographs and cd’s. The collection supplements existing collections on youth literature, alumni authors, creative writing and African-American women.

Boston Weatherford teaches at Fayetteville State University. She lives in High Point with her husband, Ronald, and a college-age son and daughter.

The UNCG University Libraries and the Weatherspoon Art Museum are co-sponsoring the Boston Weatherford celebration.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Kay Hagan Gives N.C. Senate Papers to UNCG


By Dan Nonte, University Relations

Posted 2-16-09

GREENSBORO, NC — U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan has donated the papers from the decade she spent in the North Carolina Senate to UNCG.

The Greensboro Democrat was elected to the state Senate in 1998 and served as co-chair of the powerful Appropriations Committee for four years starting in 2003. She was elected to the U.S. Senate in November and took the oath of office Jan. 6.

The University Libraries received the papers in more than a dozen boxes on Jan. 12. A single stack of the correspondence, schedules and other documents would be about 15 feet tall.

“Senator Hagan’s generous gift further enhances the university’s impressive collections related to the history of the Piedmont Triad,” said Dean of University Libraries Rosann Bazirjian. “We’re extremely grateful she chose to keep these important papers in her hometown by giving them to UNCG.”

Receiving papers from a leader like Hagan raises the profile of University Archives and Manuscripts and should help attract additional historically significant collections, said Betty Carter, university archivist. In addition to this most recent gift, UNCG is home to the papers of businessman Joseph M. Bryan and U.S. Rep. Howard Coble.

Bryan, who died in 1995, was an insurance executive, broadcasting pioneer, philanthropist and hugely influential community leader in Greensboro. The university’s School of Business and Economics bears his name.

Coble, a Greensboro Republican, has represented North Carolina’s 6th Congressional District, since 1985. He announced in 2007 that his papers would be preserved at UNCG. Much of his collection has already been sent to the university; the remainder will be transferred when he retires.

Created in 1942 as the College Collection, University Archives and Manuscripts has grown to about 2,500 linear feet of material. It includes documents related to the university’s history, hundreds of manuscript collections and the Women Veteran’s Historical Project.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Life Magazine Images of Women in the Military

LIFE Magazine has added many of their photographs to the Google Images database. You can enjoy (and copy for your own personal non-commercial use.) There are some REALLY great high-resolution images and hours of time-wasting fun.


LIFE Photo Archive Hosted By Google


If you do a search for "WACS", "WAVES", "SPARS", "Female Marine", "American Red Cross", "Women Air Force", "Army Nurse", etc. you can see some really great images from the 1940s-now. (Plus, if you search for "WAVES", you can also see an image of Frank Sinatra waving.)

New WWI American Red Cross/Army Nurse Uniform

This World War I American Red Cross/U.S. Army Nurse’s Outdoor Uniform is a new addition to the Women Veterans Historical Collection. We are pretty excited about it because these uniforms are very rare.

During World War I, The American Red Cross supplied military service branches like the U.S. Army and Navy with extra nurses during World War I. It was prescribed that military, as well as auxiliary, medical units (such as the American Red Cross), wear some sort of standard wear outside of medical facilities and this uniform was worn by a nurse serving in France. It is constructed of olive green whipcord fabric.




The uniform was made by Abercrombie and Fitch in 1917 or 1918!




The fleur-de-lis patch on the left shoulder indicates that the nurse served overseas in the District of Paris as part of the U.S. Liaison Services to the French Army. The trim on the collar of this nurse’s coat is tan, telling us that as well as being a nurse, she also worked in the capacity of a clerk.



The chevron patch bordered in golden thread at the cuff on the left sleeve indicates that this nurse also served overseas for a period of six months.




And here is the accompanying wide-brimmed felt hat:



Here is a photograph from our Dr. Mary Emily Lapham Letters (WV# 0418) of Miss Correz, American Red Cross, Prague, 1919 wearing a similar uniform: