American Trade Bindings now Online

The American Trade Bindings Digital Library presents over 1100 book covers which chronicle the development of book binding in the United States. The ATB project contains a variety of both fiction and non-fiction titles, primarily from the Charles M. Adams American Trade Binding Collection, published between the 1830s and the 1920s.

American Trade Bindings Digital Library

The American Trade Bindings project primarily contains books from the Charles M. Adams American Trade Binding Collection, named in 1987 for the former UNCG librarian largely responsible for the collection’s establishment. The Special Collections & Rare Books Department of the UNCG University Libraries contains several other collections documenting book arts, include Artists' Books and Livres d'Artiste, Athenaeum Press Collection, and the Way & Williams Publishers Collection. Some selections from the Early Juvenile Literature Collection and the Woman's Collection are also available online through the ATB website. The project was managed and produced by the Digital Projects unit of the University Libraries.

Thank you to all staff who made this project a success!

The Ghosts of UNCG

Tales have long circulated about the ghosts that allegedly haunt the campus. UNCG’s most well known ghost reportedly inhabits Aycock Auditorium.

Aycock Auditorium

Raymond Taylor, who taught drama and was the director of dramatic activities on campus from 1921 until 1960, recounts his personal experiences with the ghost of Aycock Auditorium.

According to Taylor, an elderly lady once lived in a large house where Aycock Auditorium now stands. Lonely and unhappy, she one day went up to the attic and hanged herself with a rope from the rafters. When the house was torn down, she haunted the area until Aycock Auditorium was built in 1927, and then she adopted the auditorium as her home. Taylor told of an incident that happened on a hot day when he and the Aycock Auditorium janitor were working on a set for a play.

In order to be more comfortable he and the janitor removed some of their clothes. When Taylor went upstairs to dress he found his clothes disarranged and his watch chain arranged on the table in the form of a cross.

Students have given the Aycock spirit a name, they call her Jane Aycock, and say she is the daughter of the man for whom the auditorium was named; but Governor Charles Aycock had no daughter by that name.

Mary Foust Residence Hall

A ghost also allegedly haunts Mary Foust Residence Hall, which is named for Mary Foust, the daughter of the College’s second President, Julius I. Foust.

Mary Foust died during childbirth in 1925 and rumors have floated around for years about random “unexpected crying” and “funny noises” on the hall’s second floor.

Also, an unproven rumor circulates that in the 1950s, three nursing students hanged themselves from the attic rafters.

In the late 1960s, the Spencer Residence Hall ghost was known simply as “The Blue Ghost” or “The Woman in Blue.”

Bell Towers of Spencer Residence Hall

Students later gave her the name “Annabelle.” Annabelle is supposedly the spirit of a student who hanged herself years ago in one of Spencer Residence Hall’s bell towers; however, no suicide has ever been documented.

In the 1970s, Annabelle allegedly appeared as a blue shadow to staff members in the Spencer parlor, and there have been reports of a blue haze passing by a laundry room and of objects being flung across rooms.

Woodstock 1969 : Photographs by Arnold Doren

The Arnold Doren Photograph Collection was acquired by the University Libraries in 2009. Doren, an award-winning photographer, was a member of the UNCG art department faculty from 1978 to 2002. Doren died in 2003.

Doren traveled around the world taking photographs of places, people, things and events. Traditional, Polaroid and digital photographs are included. Also there are landscapes, portraits, and still lifes. The Collection consists of over 70 boxes of varying sizes and is proving to be a treasure-trove of artistic and historical images.

The “Woodstock 1969” exhibit includes 20 images. Actually, Doren took 10 rolls of film at the Woodstock Festival and printed just over 35 images. The images of Jimi Hendrix are perhaps the most memorable—although photographs of those attending the Festival are quite revealing. The photographic contact sheets for all of the images are a part of the Collection.

The Woodstock Festival was held on the 600 acre farm of Max Yasgur, located in Bethel, NY, 43 miles southwest of the village of Woodstock. (Some of the photographs are identified as “Bethel 1969.” Only later were they identified as Woodstock.) Thirty two performers sang to approximately 500,000 people during the three-day festival which began on August 15, 1969, at 5:07 p.m. with Richie Havens. Other performers included The Who, Sly and the Family Stone, The Grateful Dead, Arlo Guthrie, Jefferson Airplane and Jimi Hendrix—the last performer of the Festival and perhaps best known for his rendition of the “Star Spangled Banner.”
-Betty Carter

Woodstock 1969 : Photographs by Arnold Doren
August 11 - September 18, 2009
Lobby, Second Floor Main, Jackson Library

University Archives Outreach

As part of our outreach at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s University Archives, Hermann Trojanowski offers two programs for the University Studies (UNS) students. UNS is a one-semester course designed to help students make a successful transition to the University and covers topics such as adjustment and expectations, time management, learning styles, personal responsibility, goal setting, choosing a major/registering for classes, wellness, leadership and citizenship; and skills such as writing, note-taking, studying, test-taking, and learning about the history of the University.

Jane Aycock, the ghost of Aycock Auditorium

The first program is a presentation titled “The History of UNCG and Campus Ghosts” and is taught in the Hodges Reading Room located on the second floor of Jackson Library, Main Building. During the presentation, UNS students learn about the history of UNCG as well as the three ghosts that allegedly haunt Aycock Auditorium, Mary Foust Residence Hall, and Spencer Residence Hall.

Charles Duncan McIver Death Mask

In addition to the presentation, Hermann sets up a small display for the students consisting of the 1906 Death Mask of our founding president Charles D. McIver and several items from the University Archives Textile Collection such as a 1906 Marshal Dress, 1913 Gym Suit made of black wool, and a 1917 World War I military uniform worn by former campus physician Dr. Anna Gove and made by Abercrombie & Fitch.

UNS Summer Launch Class in front of the Charles Duncan McIver Statue

The second program is a 50-minute historic walking tour of the campus. During the tour, students learn about the founding of the school in 1891, the typhoid epidemic of 1899 during which thirteen students and one staff member died, the burning of Brick Dormitory in 1904, and brief historical facts about the buildings on the tour as well as the three campus ghosts that allegedly haunt Aycock Auditorium, Mary Foust Residence Hall, and Spencer Residence Hall.

Hermann also offers historic campus walking tours to faculty, staff, and visitors as well as parents during the annual Parents Weekend each September.

How Does Your Garden Grow

An exhibit featuring gardening trends from
World War I through the 1970s highlighting
materials in the World War I and
Home Economics Pamphlet Collections

July 6, 2009 – January 4, 2010

EUC Connector

WORLD WAR I

Inspired by the devastating food shortages in Europe, Charles Lathrop Pack promoted gardening on the homefront. The National War Garden Commission was established in March 1917. Pack’s essay “Make Your War Garden a Garden of Victory” describes the genesis of the victory garden program.

WORLD WAR II

During World War II, the Victory Garden was promoted as both a patriotic duty and thrift measure. The Office of Defense Health and Welfare Services was joined by such companies as Kerr Glass Manufacturing to advertise the Food For Victory campaign.

1970s

Throughout the 1970s, the energy crisis, inflation, and political upheaval fueled a desire for thrift and self-sufficiency. The individual, or “Victory Garden” returned and the community garden movement took hold in more urban areas. Even the threat of nuclear war was a motivation to learn how to produce, prepare, and store one’s own food.

Take a moment as you pass through the EUC Connector to discover how the War Garden of World War I became the Victory Garden of World War II and how the events in the 1970s inspired a resurgence of the victory garden as well as the creation of the community garden movement.
You can search within the World War I Pamphlet Collection and Home Economics Pamphlet Collection through the library catalog.

Women Veterans Historical Project featured on local NBC affiliate WXII

On July 2, 2009, Curator Beth Ann Koelsch was interviewed live by Wanda Starke, co-anchor of the WXII Channel 12 local NBC affiliate. The station is involved in the "Triad Flight of Honor". Beth Ann set up an exhibit of WWII uniforms and posters and spoke with Starke about women's contributions to WWII and the Women Veterans Historical Project." Wanda Starke also interviewed on of "our" Greensboro-area WWII veterans, WAC/Army Air Force veteran Reva Ingram Fortune.

WASPs Honored by President Obama

(From the Dorothy Hoover Collection)

On July 1, 2009, the WWII WASPs (Women Airforce Service Pilots) were given their long overdue recognition when President Obama awarded the 300 surviving WASPs the Congressional Gold Medal.

Here is the story from CNN: Obama awards WWII-era women pilots congressional medal

NPR interviewed WASP Deanie Parrish and current Air Force Major Nicole Malachowski about the WASPs:



Decades After WWII, Female Pilots Finally Honored.