History of the Student Government Association: An Exhibit

1960 SGA Election Ballot

The Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives invites students, faculty, and researchers to learn more about the history of the Student Government Association (SGA) at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) by viewing the recently installed exhibit titled “A Government of the Students, by the Students, for the Students: a history of the Student Government Association at UNCG.”

The first instances of student government at the State Normal and Industrial School (now UNCG) began in the 1890s when individual students, called marshals, were selected from the two literary societies along with one chief marshal. In 1910, a student council was created to act as an advisory group for student issues and was comprised of three elected officials from each class. Finally in 1914, school President Julius Foust agreed to the students proposal and officially allowed for the creation of the self-government association. This new organization consisted of four elected officers (president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer) and the elected dormitory presidents.  It was renamed the Student Government Association in 1921.

Using documents and images, the exhibit explores the evolution of the SGA and highlights  several key events. This includes the 1954 censure of the Coraddi by Chancellor Edward Kidder Graham for its publication of a drawing of a nude male and the 1973 Neo-Black Society controversy in which funding was suspended to the organization.

This exhibit will be on display in the three exhibit cases next to the Reference Desk in the main lobby of Jackson Library from December 19, 2014 – February 16, 2015.  

The Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives is open Monday through Friday, 9am until 5pm.  For questions or comments, please contact the exhibit curator, Sean Mulligan at 336-334-5763 or at Sean_Mulligan@uncg.edu.

The 100th Anniversary Time Capsule: What is it and where did it move?

The 100th Anniversary Time Capsule

You may have noticed that the uniquely shaped artifact that has been located next to the Access Service desk for the last several years is no longer there! It has been moved to the second floor lobby next to the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives - an appropriate place as it is part of the University Archives Artifact Collection.

If you have not taken a close look at the item, you may not know that it is actually a time capsule. A time capsule typically contains commemorative material for access at a future date. This particular capsule was created in 1992, the 100th anniversary of the opening of the State Normal and Industrial School (now UNCG), to be opened in October of 2042 during the celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the college.

There was a campus-wide competition held to decide who would create the 100th Anniversary Time Capsule – it was won by Robert E. (Trey) Sharp III, a senior form Winston-Salem, North Carolina, majoring in sculpture and religious studies. Sharp created a spherical ceramic container on a branch-like bronze stand that could be sealed with a bead of wax. The capsule is filled with speeches and artifacts associated with the centennial; campus photographs; and university programs and publications. Additionally, it holds material that reflected national and international events such as a piece of the Berlin Wall. After it was completed, it was moved to Jackson Library and it will reside here until it is opened in 2042.

*In January, there will be a three-part blog regarding campus time capsules in Spartan Stories. 

Enhancing Access to Oral History Interviews

Thanks to a 2014-2015 award through the University Libraries' Innovation and Program Enrichment Program, we are currently working on providing access to audio and enhanced transcripts for the oral history interviews conducted as part of our African American Institutional Memory Project.

These interviews with African American alumni from the 1960s and 1970s, which typically are an hour or more in length, provide in-depth information about an interviewee’s contributions to and viewpoint on their time at WC/UNCG. Often these interviews provide valuable personal insight into history in a way that the official university records cannot. Student researchers in particular find the oral history interviews interesting, as they present a perspective that is often more relatable to them.

Currently, access to these oral histories is provided primarily through the interview transcript (the word-for-word text of the interview). Audio recordings are available on CD if requested, but access to these recordings is not provided online. The transcripts are among the highest ranked downloads from across the University Libraries’ digital collections, yet the process of finding relevant information within the transcripts is often challenging due to their lengthy nature.

With the project funds, a second-year graduate student from the Department of History is working with us to use an open-source tool (the Oral History Metadata Synchronizer, developed by the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky Libraries) to enhance access to oral history audio recordings online and time-synch the audio recordings to existing transcripts. This will allow researchers to more readily search each oral history recording for relevant information and quickly skip to certain key topics discussed in the interview.

At the conclusion of the project in June 2015, it is anticipated that at least 25 enhanced oral history audio recordings and accompanying transcripts will be made available to researchers online. We also hope to build a web exhibit that highlights some of the key stories told in these interviews.

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October is Archives Month, an annual observance of the agencies and people responsible for maintaining and making available the archival and historical records of our nation, state, communities and people. As part of the month-long celebration, this blog is highlighting some of the innovative and exciting work being done in Special Collections and University Archives.

Happy Birthday Cello Music Collection!

October 23 marks the fifty-first birthday of the UNCG Cello Music Collection, the single largest holding of cello music-related materials in the world.  This unique archive, presently representing the collections of eleven cellists, was made possible by the generosity of countless donors, but founded through the support of Friends of the Libraries.

UNCG Cello Music Collection

In 1963, when Elizabeth Cowling learned that the estate of Luigi Silva was prepared to sell his library, she immediately contacted University Librarian, Charles Adams. The library is committed in its support of faculty research, but there were several risks to consider in pursuing the Silva Collection. First, the school’s cello program was not particularly strong, as the school was ordered to become coeducational only that same year, and the cello was historically a masculine instrument. Additionally, the Library to that date only held one collection of archival music (the North Carolina Holograph Collection), and the Silva collection was fifteen times the size of that one. There was no music library nor was there a music librarian on campus either. However, the greatest obstacle was the quoted price of $3000 ($1000 for Silva’s manuscripts and $2000 for the remainder of the collection), an intimidating sum for 1963.    

Charles Adams conveyed Elizabeth Cowling’s vision of a centralized repository for cello music research founded upon the renowned library of Luigi Silva before the Friends of the Library (there was only one library at this time). In terms of an investment, it was a gamble, but the Friends of the Library were persuaded by Cowling’s passion and made the purchase. Cowling and Adams brought the collection back from New York in October of 1963. 

 

Contract for the sale of Silva's
Collection in Cowling's hand, Oct. 23, 1963

The collection was dedicated on April 5, 1964 with a recital featuring several of Silva’s arrangements. Many donations were made in honor of Luigi Silva celebrating this event. Margery Enix, a student of Silva, donated draft notes of Vademecum, Silva’s treatise on the thumb position. Franco Colombo, head of the New York branch of the music publisher Ricordi donated several of Silva’s manuscript drafts, including the 24 Caprices of Paganini transcribed for cello by Silva, Boccherini’s Concerto in D Major No.2, and the cello and piano transcription of Boccherini’s Concerto in D Major, Op. 34. Charles Wendt, a student of Silva's, donated a manuscript of the Paganini Capriccio XIII transcribed for cello and piano and purchased Robert Crome's The Compleat Tutor for the Violoncello (ca. 1765) for the collection. Cellist Rudolf Matz provided the gift of 15 volumes from his work First Years of the Violoncello. Violoncello Society of America president JanosScholz (who was awarded an honorary doctorate from UNCG in 1981) donated a manuscript collection of anonymous 18th century cello sonatas and transcribed opera arias.

The purchasing of the Luigi Silva Collection by the Friends of the Libraries has attracted many researchers and performers to the Libraries (even Leonard Rose in 1980), but it also encouraged other cellists to donate their collections. Ten cello music collections have been donated to the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections & University Archives since that time, inspired by the purchasing of the Luigi Silva Cello Music Collection. Over the past five decades, the centralized repository for cello music research envisioned by Elizabeth Cowling has been realized and made possible by UNCG Friends of the Libraries.

Program from Dedication of the Silva Collection

In celebration of the 50^th anniversary of the Friends of the Libraries’ dedication of the Silva Collection, we have digitized Silva’s manuscripts of Vademecum and La Tecnica Violoncellista so that musicologists and performers worldwide can benefit from this legacy.

Social Media, Outreach, and SCUA

Through blogs, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, and other outreach activities, University Archives spreads stories from the records of the University's past and promotes our work to preserve and provide access to these important records in new and exciting venues.

In addition to this blog, staff write weekly posts on the Spartan Stories blog, published each Monday morning. These posts, typically about 500 words in length, detail one specific person, place, event, or action in the University's history, from its founding through today. Recent posts have focused on the Darlinettes and Rhythmettes big bands of the 1940s and 1950s, the 1932 Carnegie Library fire, the founding and growth of campus radio station WUAG, and the move of the Chancellor's House in 2003. On the Spartan Stories site, readers can subscribe to receive updates on new postings via RSS feed or email. Since its creation in October 2012, Spartan Stories has been viewed over 14,000 times by more than 6,000 individual readers.

Many of the Spartan Stories readers come to the blog from one of the two social media accounts focused on University Archives. The University Archives Twitter account (@UNCGArchives) has nearly 300 followers. The account is used to highlight collections, anniversaries, events, and resources in SCUA. A recurring trend is participation in the popular Throwback Thursday (#tbt) hashtag, where a photo from the University's past is posted. You can follow University Archives if you have a Twitter account. But if you don't, you can view new tweets by visiting the Spartan Stories site and scrolling through the Twitter box on the right side of the screen (just below the Past Posts).

Below the Twitter blog is a way for folks to keep up with the University Archives Tumblr, the most recent addition to the social media outlets for learning more about University Archives and University history. You can also follow the Tumblr directly if you have Tumblr account. Although we only started the Tumblr in July, we're already up to almost 100 followers -- a large number of whom are current UNCG students. The Tumblr is updated on an almost daily basis, and often focuses on photos, important quotes, or other short highlights from the University's past.

We have also begun posting a number of film clips from University Archives to YouTube. These include some promotional videos for the University from the mid-1970s as well as some shorter clips from events and activities in the 1940s and 1950s. Since posting began in July, the videos have had nearly 1000 views total. The most popular has been a video showing various buildings on campus in the 1950s. This video has been seen by over 300 people.

SCUA staff are also teaching classes, conducting campus tours, developing lectures and other special events, and creating exhibits in the library and around campus in an effort to ensure that the history of the University is known by students, faculty, staff, alumni, and others. If there are people or events in the University's past that you would like us to focus on in future blog posts or social media activity, please let us know!

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October is Archives Month, an annual observance of the agencies and people responsible for maintaining and making available the archival and historical records of our nation, state, communities and people. As part of the month-long celebration, this blog is highlighting some of the innovative and exciting work being done in Special Collections and University Archives.

Preserving Our Digital History

Have you ever tried to access a digital document that you created in the mid-1990s? Finding a computer with the hardware to read the 3.5” floppy or Zip disk it was probably stored on is a massive challenge. But even if you do find a way to access the files, you likely will have trouble opening or reading the content – and that’s if the disk and content haven’t been accidentally erased or corrupted over the years!

Digital preservation is a huge task, and staff at the UNCG University Libraries are tackling issues head on with a newly-created tool aimed at acquiring, managing, and preserving important digital archival files now so that researchers – now and in the future – can have greater insight into how our University and society as a whole operates. This development puts UNCG ahead of most other institutions in terms of proactively addressing digital preservation.

BDRM interface

The new tool – called Born-Digital Records Management, or BDRM – is a collaboration between the Libraries’ Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) and Electronic Resources and Information Technology (ERIT) departments. In preserving University history, for instance, it allows us to actively acquire electronic newsletters, presentations, websites, and other materials that typically lose information and operability if printed.

The BDRM interface allows faculty, staff, and administrators to upload their digital archival records directly to University Archives. Behind the scenes, archivists can use the BDRM tool to arrange and describe these files in a way that makes them findable through online searches, through our finding aids, and (coming soon!) through a special BDRM public website.

While an archivist may simply stumble upon a forgotten Civil War era diary that is still perfectly readable, the accessibility of a chance find is much less likely in the digital world. With their work on BDRM, the University Libraries is ensuring that valuable records aren’t lost due to file deterioration or technological obsolescence. We want to be sure that the archival records created today – regardless of format – are findable and retrievable by researchers now and in the future.

If you have questions about BDRM or transferring digital archival files to the University Libraries, please contact Special Collections and University Archives.

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October is Archives Month, an annual observance of the agencies and people responsible for maintaining and making available the archival and historical records of our nation, state, communities and people. As part of the month-long celebration, this blog is highlighting some of the innovative and exciting work being done in Special Collections and University Archives.

October 10 is also Electronic Records Day, as sponsored by the Council of State Archivists. This day is designed to raise awareness among state government agencies, the general public, related professional organizations, and other stakeholders about the crucial role electronic records play in their world. We in SCUA recognize the importance of electronic records in modern communication, and we are working to ensure that the importance archival records of today are preserved for researchers now and in the future. 

A New Exhibit in the Hodges Reading Room: Kay Brown, David O. Selznick, and Gone with the Wind

Exhibit Poster


The Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives is pleased to announce a new exhibit -  Kay Brown, David O. Selznick, and Gone with the Wind. This exhibit features photographs and mementos belonging Dr. Kate Barrett, daughter of Kay Brown Barrett. Dr. Barrett is currently a Professor Emerita in the Department of Kinesiology of the School of Health and Human Sciences and continues to be involved in many university projects.

In 1936, Kay Brown was well into her successful career as Eastern Representative of Selznick International Pictures when she came across the yet unpublished manuscript of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind. Brown read the book in galley form and was so impressed with it that she immediately contacted producer David O. Selznick and his financial backer John “Jock” Whitney and urged them to buy the rights to the novel. Unsure of the success of a Civil War film, Selznick initially was not interested in the property, but Brown was adamant and he trusted her. Margaret Mitchell trusted her too and the two women would form a friendship that would last long after the filming ended. The legal rights to the book were purchased from the author for the sum of $50,000. Brown then began the painstaking project of acquiring a writer to adapt the book for the screen. Meanwhile, Selznick began searching for the right director to bring the story to life. 



Kay Brown with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Jock Whitney at a press conference announcing the purchase of the rights to the novel Gone with the Wind

Casting the movie would soon take on a life of its own.  After the book was published, it became a Pulitzer Prize winning sensation and casting the leads became a national event. While Selznick was considering casting the usual suspects of the Hollywood stars, fans across the country had their own ideas. Everyone seemed to think that Clark Gable was a natural choice for Rhett Butler, but he was under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and legal negotiations ensued. In the end, MGM lent Gable for the movie in exchange for the distribution rights and half of the profits. It was a hard bargain, but as fans threatened to boycott the film if Gable was not cast as Rhett Butler, Selznick had little choice but to agree. Olivia de Havilland was borrowed from Warner Brothers Studios for the role of Melanie Hamilton Wilkes and Leslie Howard reluctantly agreed to take the part of Ashley Wilkes.


Producer David O. Selznick and the portrait of Scarlett O'Hara used in the film

The search for the right girl to play the self-centered and determined heroine Scarlett O’Hara would be the stuff of which legends are made. Selznick’s representatives traveled throughout the country testing local actresses, creating a media frenzy which continued until the movie’s release. Almost every actress in Hollywood tested for the role but ultimately, it was an English actress, Vivien Leigh, who would capture the part and the heart of the nation as Scarlett.

Gone with the Wind premiered in December of 1939 and became an instant critical and financial success. The movie swept the 1940 Academy Awards - nominated in thirteen categories and winning in eight. Selznick took home the Best Picture Oscar, Vivien Leigh won for Best Actress, and Hattie McDaniel won for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mammy, becoming the first African American to win an Academy Award. The movie won additional Oscars for Best Director (posthumously awarded to Victor Fleming) and Best Screenplay (Sydney Howard) as well as Best Cinematography, Best Editing, and Best Interior Decoration. Walter Plunkett, who designed the costumes for the movie, was not nominated as there was not yet an official category for Best Costume Design until 1948.



A personalized photograph of Arthur Miller

After Selznick was forced to liquidate his studio in 1942 amid financial troubles, Brown became a talent scout and agent, representing stars such as Rex Harrison, Montgomery Clift, and John Gielgud, as well as writers Arthur Miller and Lillian Hellman. Brown was considered a brilliant and powerful presence in the literary and film industry until her retirement at 80. In addition to her career, she had a full personal life, marrying James Barrett and having two daughters, Laurinda and Kate.

This exhibit will be featured in the Hodges Reading Room from October 1, 2014 until January 7, 2015. The Reading Room is open from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

October is Archives Month!

Celebrate Archives Month!!!

October is North Carolina Archives Month, an annual observance of the agencies and people responsible for maintaining and making available the archival and historical records of our nation, state, communities and people. Throughout October 2014, the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) will host numerous exhibits and events aimed at promoting awareness of the importance of our profession to our state’s citizenry and public leaders.

Folks who are not able to attend any of the events or exhibits will still have a chance to join in on the celebration through our various social media outlets. This blog will be used to highlight some of the exciting and innovative work being done to promote archives at UNCG. Additionally, SCUA staff will share additional information and materials via Twitter, Tumblr, and the Spartan Stories blog.

2014 Women Veterans Historical Project Annual Luncheon

The 17th Annual Women Veterans Historical Project Luncheon will be held on Saturday, November 8th from 11:30-2 at UNCG's Elliott University Center.

The program will feature a panel discussion about veterans writing workshops. Recent North Carolina Poet Laureate Joseph Bathanti will facilitate a discussion with women veterans Mary Hennessy, an Army Nurse who served during the Vietnam War, and Pamela L. Adams, an Army Reserve Officer who deployed to Iraq. Both Hennesy and Adams have participated in Bathanti's writing workshops.

Mary Hennessy

Pamela Adams

The program is open to everyone. Tickets are FREE for UNCG military affiliated students (veterans, reservists, active military), $14 for all other military veterans and $18 for non-veterans. Table sponsorship opportunities to support student attendance will be available for $300.

For details and to make reservations please contact Beth Ann Koelsch at (336) 334-5838 or bakoelsc@uncg.edu.

Save the Date(s): October is Archives Month!

October is North Carolina Archives Month, an annual observance of the agencies and people responsible for maintaining and making available the archival and historical records of our nation, state, communities and people. Throughout October 2014, the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) will host numerous exhibits and events aimed at promoting awareness of the importance of our profession to our state’s citizenry and public leaders.

Field Day at State Normal, 1914

Beginning October 1, two exhibits focused on the 2014 North Carolina Archives Month theme of “North Carolina at Play: Health and Leisure in Our State” will be displayed in Jackson Library. The first will be housed at the College Avenue entrance and will highlight resources held by SCUA that tell the history of health and leisure in North Carolina. The second exhibit, which will be next to the library's reference desk on the first floor of Jackson Library, will focus on the history of health and leisure at UNCG since its founding as the State Normal and Industrial School in 1891. These exhibits will be available for viewing at any time the building is open.

The Hodges Reading Room in Jackson Library will host a lecture by Dr. Joy Kasson of UNC Chapel Hill on Lois Lenski and her career as a documentary writer for children on October 8 at 4pm. Much of Kasson's research was done using the Lois Lenski Papers in SCUA. You can read more about the talk here: http://uncgfol.blogspot.com/2014/09/getting-books-from-life-lois-lenski.html. 

On October 9 at 10:30am in the Hodges Reading Room, SCUA staff will present a talk on "Interpreting College Scrapbooks as a Microcosm of Institutional and Social History." Archivists Kathelene Smith and Jennifer Motzsko will chart the evolution of the scrapbook, from its origins as a commonplace book to the commercially produced album found on 19th century college campuses. They will also explore the similarities, differences, and overall themes shared by scrapbooks held in SCUA as well as their potential use by scholars, and the importance of preserving them for future generations of historians. A number of scrapbooks related to health and leisure will be displayed.

Stacey Krim, curator for SCUA's Cello Music Collection, will present a biographic overview of Lev Aronson, whose manuscript and annotated music is among the most recent additions to the collection. Lev Aronson (1912-1988) was an established performer and teacher of the violoncello and Jewish survivor of the German and Russian labor camps of World War II. After immigrating to the United States in 1948, Aronson continued his career as principal cellist of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in addition to holding teaching positions at Baylor University and Southern Methodist University. In addition to the presentation, original works composed by Aronson around the time of his imprisonment during WWII will be displayed.

Students in the South Spencer Gymnasium, 1907

SCUA will also offer two walking tours of campus focused specifically on the history of health and physical education on campus. Tours will be offered at 2pm on Wednesday, October 15 and Wednesday, October 22. Each walking tour will take approximately 45 minutes and will be limited to 15 participants. The tours are open to any UNCG student, faculty, staff, or alumni. To reserve a place on the walking tour, please email SCUA@uncg.edu and indicate which tour you would like to take part in. Specifics on meeting location will be emailed to participants prior to the tour date.

Throughout October, SCUA staff will share additional information and materials via various social media outlets. Follow University Archives on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/UNCGArchives) or Tumblr (http://UNCGArchives.tumblr.com) for daily features on the topic of health and leisure in North Carolina, links to web exhibits featuring SCUA materials, and details on a temporary "pop up exhibit" that will take place on campus at a time and location to be determined. Additionally, the Spartan Stories blog (http://uncghistory.blogspot.com) will publish weekly posts highlighting the history of health and leisure activities at UNCG.

***** FULL SCHEDULE OF EVENTS *****

Wednesday, October 8, 4pm, Hodges Reading Room, Jackson Library
"Getting Books from Life: Lois Lenski, Documentary Writer for Children" lecture

Thursday, October 9, 10:30am, Hodges Reading Room, Jackson Library
"Interpreting College Scrapbooks as a Microcosm of Institutional and Social History" lecture

Wednesday, October 15, 2pm
Campus Walking Tour (RSVP to SCUA@uncg.edu, limited to 15 participants)

Wednesday, October 22, 2pm
Campus Walking Tour (RSVP to SCUA@uncg.edu, limited to 15 participants)

Tuesday, October 28, 2pm, Hodges Reading Room, Jackson Library
"A Biographic Overview of Lev Aronson" lecture

Ongoing, October 1 through October 31, 1st floor, Jackson Library
Exhibits focused on "North Carolina at Play: Health and Leisure in Our State"

University Archives Videos Now on YouTube

University Archives has started posting some video clips to the University Libraries' YouTube account. The clips are digitized from films held in University Archives. A "Films from UNCG University Archives" playlist collates all the University Archives clips in one place. You'll find scenes from past commencement activities, special campus events and visitors, and even a few past promotional videos for UNCG.

This quick tour of campus from 1950 has been particularly well received. Around the 1:50 mark you'll see some shots of Jackson Library in its final construction stages.

Keep an eye on the site for more video clips to come!

University Archives Awarded University Libraries’ 2015 Innovation and Enrichment Grant

University Archivist Erin Lawrimore has been awarded the UNCG University Libraries’ Innovation and Enrichment Grant for 2014-2015. Her project will focus on enhancing access to oral history recordings conducted by staff of the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) as part of the UNCG Institutional Memory Collection.

SCUA has a long tradition of conducting and preserving oral history interviews with faculty, administrators, students, and alumni from across the University’s history. These interviews, which typically are an hour or more in length, provide in-depth information about an interviewee’s contributions to and viewpoint on specific time periods or events in campus history. A recent focus has been on documenting the experiences of African American students during the 1960s and 1970s. Often these interviews provide valuable personal insight into history in a way that the official university records cannot.

Currently, access to these oral histories is provided primarily through the interview transcript (the word-for-word text of the interview). Audio recordings are available on CD if requested, but access to these recordings is not provided online. The transcripts are among the highest ranked downloads from across the University Libraries’ digital collections, yet the process of finding relevant information within the transcripts is often challenging due to their lengthy nature.

This project will utilize an open-source tool (the Oral History Metadata Synchronizer, developed by the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky Libraries) to provide access to oral history audio recordings online and time-synch the audio recordings to existing transcripts. This will allow researchers to more readily search each oral history recording for relevant information and quickly skip to certain key topics discussed in the interview. At the conclusion of the project in June 2015, it is anticipated that at least 25 enhanced oral history audio recordings and accompanying transcripts will be made available to researchers online. Additionally, the project will establish a workflow for providing enhanced access to additional oral history interviews in SCUA.

Created by Dean Rosann Bazirjian in 2009 and first awarded in 2010, the objective of the Innovation and Program Enrichment Grant is to provide one-time funding of up to $2,500 for projects that will innovatively enhance and expand library services and programs.

Celebrating the Class of 1964 at Reunion

On Friday, April 11, University Archives joined UNCG's Reunion Weekend celebration of the Class of 1964. On Friday morning, archivists Kathelene Smith and Erin Lawrimore created an exhibit in the lobby of the EUC Auditorium featuring photographs, publications, textiles, and other materials related to the Class of 1964's time on campus. Events highlighted included Rat Day, the opening of Grogan and Reynolds Residence halls, and the school's transition from Woman's College to UNCG.

In the afternoon, Kathelene and Erin transitioned some of the exhibit to the Alumni House, and assisted Dr. Anne Parson's public history graduate students in conducting oral history interviews with reunion attendees. The graduate students also displayed their exhibit which was featured in the Hodges Reading Room in December 2013.

Additionally, throughout the day, the University Archives Twitter account (@UNCGArchives) featured photographs of the Class of 1964 at WC/UNCG.

Planning for future Reunion Weekend exhibits and activities is already underway. Erin and Kathelene have met with leadership from both the Class of 1965 and the Class of 1966 to ensure that SCUA is able to enhance their 50th reunion celebrations.

A New Exhibit Featuring Lois Lenski

The Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives is pleased to host a new exhibit on Lois Lenski.  "Lois Lenski: Art, Illustration, Literature, Research" is an exhibit designed around four themes utilizing materials from the Lois Lenski Papers and collections housed in SCUA. The exhibit attempts to show some aspects of Lois Lenski's work that are familiar to many readers of her children's books, but also highlight other aspects of her work that are not so well known. Lois Lenksi was a very talented (and prolific!) children's author but she was also much more than that. She was a well-published illustrator of many types of books for other authors.  She was an accomplished artist, producing quality work in pencil, watercolor, oils, and engraving. She also did very intensive research for both her historical and regional children's books. This exhibit hopes to expand the knowledge of Lenski's accomplishments and provide context to her life's work. The exhibit, located in the Hodges Reading Room, will be up through May 31, 2014.
                                                                                                                                                                          

Celebrating Women's History Month

To celebrate Women's History Month, the University Archives Twitter feed (@UNCGArchives) will be posting photos throughout the month, highlighting our founding and history as an institution focused on women's education (from 1891 through the arrival of the first male undergraduates in Fall 1964).

As always, you can also learn more on our Spartan Stories blog.

"Votes for Women" rally, 1919

University Archives Scrapbooks Available Online

We're happy to pass along news that the University Libraries' Digital Projects unit has completed the digitization of 236 scrapbooks held in University Archives (see their blog post with additional details about the project). Highly acidic paper and glue along with delicate bindings make the physical scrapbooks challenging to handle and use as a researcher. By digitizing the scrapbooks, researchers will be able to search and use these valuable, yet fragile, records. 

Rat Day photo, Class of 1962 scrapbook

Many of these scrapbooks were created by students or student groups (clubs, dormitories, etc.). As such, these important records help document the history of student life at the school we now know as UNCG. The oldest of the digitized scrapbooks, however, contains newspaper clippings, programs, and other materials relating to the death of founding president Charles Duncan McIver in 1906. One of the most recently-created scrapbooks documents the activities, events, and productions associated with the UNCG School of Music, the UNCG Summer Repertory Theatre, and the UNCG Theatre from 2001-2002.

The scrapbooks join a host of other University Archives records that have been digitized and made available online in recent months. These include graduating class vertical files for classes from 1893 to 1950 (the remainder are currently being digitized), student handbooks from 1897 to 1926 (more to come), and course bulletins from 1893 to 2009. Combined with our other digitized resources such as the Carolinian (student newspaper) and Pine Needles (student yearbook), these materials form a solid foundation for any research on the history of UNCG.

What's New in SCUA Exhibit

The Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives is excited to announce the launching of a new, rotating exhibit in the first floor reading room of Jackson Library titled "What's New in SCUA."  The rotating exhibit will feature recently acquired artifacts, books, documents, and photographs from the Special Collections and University Archives.

Currently on display is a scrapbook from Anne Mae Swain, a student at the school from 1944-1948, an item from the George Darden Piano and Opera Music Collection, and a 1955 Women Marines recruiting publication titled Jobs For You.

Changing Times: An exhibit on the History of UNCG

The Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives is excited to announce the launching of a new, rotating exhibit in the first floor reading room of Jackson Library titled "Changing Times: A History of The University of North Carolina at Greensboro." The exhibit will trace the development of the school from its founding in 1891 up to the present day and will feature artifacts, documents, and photographs from the University Archives.

The Main Building (now Foust Building) and the Brick Dormitory, 1897

The first display highlights the years where the University was known as the State Normal and Industrial School, from 1891-1897.  It includes information regarding Anna Gove, the second school physician; on Charles D. McIver, the school's first president and founder; and on the cost of attendance in 1893.

University Archives is now on Twitter!

Now there's one more way to learn about UNCG history and the work being done in University Archives. We've launched a Twitter account (@UNCGArchives) to share news of events, classroom engagement, historic photos, and UNCG trivia. This new account will combine the efforts of University Archives and the Libraries' Digital Projects team to provide short, frequent updates -- and to answer your questions about UNCG history!

Alumnae House in the snow, circa 1942

University history (and University Archives materials!) featured in Our State article

The January 2014 issue of Our State features a wonderful article highlighting the history of UNCG. The piece, titled "A Place of Distinction," explores the history of Woman's College through the experiences of alumna and former director of admissions Alice Irby. The article (found on pages 54-63 and at http://www.ourstate.com/womans-college-greensboro/) focuses on campus changes during the 1950s and 1960s, including issues of housing for married students and desegregation.

Associate Editor Sarah Perry conducted much of her research for the article in University Archives in Fall 2013. In addition to incorporating information from our vast oral history collection as well as the records of Charles Duncan McIver and other campus administrators, Perry selected numerous historic photographs to include in an online exhibit that accompanies the printed article. The printed article also contains some wonderful photographs of campus today -- including a picture of Jackson Library on the issue's main contents page.