Exhibit - Maud Gatewood: Sketches

Maud Florance Gatewood was a widely recognized Southeastern artist and painter. Her most familiar work is known to feature natural landscapes and botanicals as well as figurative designs that depict various aspects of the human experience. Gatewood's artwork currently resides in several public and private collections, including the Weatherspoon Art Museum in Greensboro, NC.

Gatewood was born on January 8, 1934 and raised in Yanceyville, North Carolina. In 1954, she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina (now The University of North Carolina at Greensboro) and, in 1955, a Master's Degree from Ohio State University.

In 1963, Gatewood was awarded a Fulbright scholarship with which she studied in Austria under Oskar Kokoschka. Also among her awards and recognitions, she received the 1984 North Carolina Award in Fine Arts, the American Academy of Arts and Letters painting award in 1972, and an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from UNCG in 1999.

In addition to painting, Gatewood was also a very active member of her community, elected as the first female member of the Caswell County Board of Commissioners with which she served for several years. She became a faculty member at UNC Charlotte in 1964 and a founding head of the university's Art Department. She passed away November 8, 2004 in Chapel Hill at the age of 70.

This exhibit featuring select drawings from Maud Gatewood's sketchbooks is on display in the Hodges Reading Room from August 31, 2015 to January 31, 2016.

Our exhibit is part of The Maud Gatewood Trail.  Check out this brochure for more locations to see Maud Gatewood's art on display.

A Flair for the Dramatic: Early Campus Theater Productions,1896-1916

A Midsummer Night's Dream, 1912

The students of The University of North Carolina at Greensboro claim a rich history of dramatic performance. From the campus’s earliest years as the State Normal and Industrial School for Women, the student body has authored plays, created stage sets, sewn costumes, and performed both male and female roles. The first theatrical performance was County Fair in 1894, and each subsequent year saw an increase in the dramatic repertoire enjoyed by students, faculty, and the public. As there was no drama program at the time, student groups, such as the campus literary societies (predecessors of the modern sorority), the YWCA, specific classes, and the Dramatics Club (beginning in 1912) organized and performed for the pleasure of the campus.

An exhibit featuring photographs of student dramatic productions dating from 1896 to 1916 is on display in the Elliott University Center connector from September 1st until November 1st.

Archives (and UNCG archivists!!) Change Lives

At the 2015 Society of American Archivists annual meeting in Cleveland last week, SAA and their Committee on Public Awareness premiered a promotional video to highlight their awareness campaign -- Archives Change Lives. If you look closely, you'll see two of our UNCG SCUA employees making brief appearances!

A Portable Likeness: Selected Portrait Miniatures and Their Literary Context

The Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives is pleased to announce a new exhibit in the Hodges Reading Room. A Portable Likeness: Selected Portrait Miniatures and Their Literary Context, features selected portrait miniatures, both in the portable form as well as in a literary context.

Portrait miniatures emerged from the pages of manuscripts and appeared in portable form during the early 16th century. They were originally painted on vellum, card, wood, or copper and were considered a luxury item, often framed in precious metals or jewels. The images were painted with watercolors, oils, and enamels. Ivory became a more popular surface for artists around 1700, but portraits continued to appear on paper and card as well.

The earliest miniatures depicted royalty and were given as signs of favor and patronage. The late 16th century saw loyal, wealthy subjects wearing the images of Queen Elizabeth I of England as a sign of fidelity. Attempting to imitate the royals, members of the nobility began to commission miniature portraits to commemorate births, marriages, deaths, or the long departure of a loved one. By the 18th century, they were widely available to the rising middle class. These portable items were owned and carried by men and women alike, often on rings, in lockets and cases, on chains, and
incorporated into pins, necklaces, bracelets, and hair pieces.  Larger images were often displayed in a cabinet or “treasure room.”  While portrait miniatures usually show only the upper torso of the sitter, hairstyles, hats, and jewelry are often prominently featured and can help date paintings that have no provenance.

This exhibit will be featured in the Hodges Reading Room from May 12 until August 28. The Reading Room is open from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m., Monday through Friday

New Exhibit in EUC Connector

A new exhibit in the EUC connector focuses on the university's dual personality. Namely, Minerva and the Spartan.

The two part exhibit explains the origins of our patron goddess, Minerva, and how she grew to become the symbol of the university. You'll also find out why the Spartan was picked as the mascot for our athletic teams (a hint-it happened after we became co-educational!), while showing some of the changes the mascot has undergone through the years. The exhibit will be up through August 30th and we hope it helps with any confusion our SOAR students may be having in reconciling UNCG's split personalities.

Dust Jackets to Die For

Stories of murder, suspense, and horror fill the shelves of the American Women’s Detective Fiction Collection in the Martha Blakeney Special Collections & University Archives. It is the dust jacket artists’ struggle to convey the authors’ foreboding tales of intrigue and vengeance in book covers enticing to potential readers. Sometimes, these attempts fall short of their intended purpose. From ice skating skeletons to murder by baking soda, this exhibit features the best of the worst dust jacket art of the collection. The exhibit can be found in the displays next to the the Jackson Library reference desk from June 8th to September 1st.

Darlinettes on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday

On Saturday, May 30, NPR listeners around the country were treated to a story about the Darlinettes, a big band composed of students from Woman's College (now UNCG) in the 1940s and early 1950s. The piece aired as part of NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday. WFDD's David Ford used resources in University Archives (as well as interviews with Darlinettes members and Steve Haines of UNCG's Jazz Studies Program) to discuss the issues the Darlinettes faced as an all-woman jazz band during the 1940s and 1950s.

You can listen to the NPR piece online at http://www.npr.org/2015/05/30/410531268/a-band-of-their-own. The site also includes some photographs and a link to a recording of the Darlinettes' original song "You Don't Get it from Books."

You can learn even more about the Darlinettes in this Spartan Stories blog post from September 2014: http://uncghistory.blogspot.com/2014/09/darlinettes-and-rhythmettes-big-band.html.