University of North Carolina Papers, 1757-1935 (bulk 1789-1930)

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Summary

Creator:
University of North Carolina (1793-1962).
Abstract:

The University of North Carolina was chartered by the state's General Assembly in 1789. Its first student was admitted in 1795. The governing body of the University, from its founding until 1932, was a forty-member Board of Trustees elected by the General Assembly. The Board met twice a year; at other times the business of the University was carried on by the Board's secretary-treasurer and by the presiding professor (called president beginning in 1804). Other faculty members later assumed the responsibilities of registrar and bursar. The administrative structure of the University remained essentially the same until the twentieth century.

The collection consists of routine administrative correspondence and miscellaneous financial papers of the University of North Carolina as well as miscellaneous student and faculty records. Papers prior to 1874 are mainly those of the Secretary-Treasurer of the Board of Trustees; post-1874 papers are largely those of the President of the University. Twenty-three letterpress volumes contain the correspondence of Presidents Alderman and Venable, 1898-1904. The records also contain a number of early plats and other documents pertaining to University lands. Also included are numerous papers related to the University Normal School, a summer program for public school teacher training that began in 1877. The records also contain the correspondence, regulations and pay records of the World War I Student Army Training Corps. There is also a group of documents collected by President Swain for a proposed history of the University and a partial narrative written by Swain. The records in this group constitute most of the surviving eighteenth-, nineteenth-, and early twentieth-century records of the University. Individuals figuring prominently include Edwin Anderson Alderman; Kemp P. Battle; Joseph Caldwell; Robert H. Chapman; Harry Woodburn Chase; James Smiley Gillespie; Edward Kidder Graham; Charles Wilson Harris; Elisha Mitchell; Charles Phillips; Solomon Pool; Marvin Hendrix Stacy; David L. Swain; F. P. Venable; and George Tayloe Winston.

Extent:
61300 items (72.0 linear feet)
Language:
Materials in English
Library Catalog Link:
View UNC library catalog record for this item

Background

Biographical / historical:

The University of North Carolina was chartered by the state's General Assembly in 1789. Its first student was admitted in 1795. The University's governing body was its Board of Trustees. The original Board, composed of forty members, was named in the Charter; after 1804 Board members were elected by the General Assembly (except during the period of Reconstruction). The Board met twice a year; at other times the business of the University was carried on by the Board's Secretary-Treasurer and by the presiding professor (called President beginning in 1804). Other faculty members later assumed the responsibilities of registrar and bursar. The administrative structure of the University remained essentially the same until the twentieth century.

Many of the University's eighteenth- and nineteenth-century records have not survived. No doubt some were removed by departing faculty, who viewed them as personal rather than public documents. Others were lost during the period 1868-1875, when the University suspended operations and records were removed from the campus for supposed safekeeping.

The records known as the University Papers and described here consitute most of the extant records of the University from its founding to 1930. Exceptions are the minutes of the Board of Trustees, minutes of the faculty, and certain financial records, which will be found in other records groups in the University Archives. Additional information on the early University and its faculty will be found in the personal papers of various presidents and professors in the Southern Historical Collection. A chronological list of presiding professors and Presidents is provided below.

Presiding Professor:

Date Event
1794-1796
David Ker
July-December 1796
Charles W. Harris
1796-1797
Joseph Caldwell
1797-1799
James S. Gillaspie
1799-1804
Joseph Caldwell

President (inlcudes Acting Presidents and Chairs of the Faculty who acted as senior administrator of the University):

Date Event
11 July 1804-December 1812
Joseph Caldwell
1813-November 1816
Robert Hett Chapman
December 1816-January 1835
Joseph Caldwell
February-December 1835
Elisha Mitchell, Acting
December 1835-1867 and June-July 1868
David Lowry Swain
8 January 1869-9 April 1874
Solomon Pool
August 1875-17 June 1876
Charles Phillips, Chair of the Faculty
17 June 1876-June 1891
Kemp Plummer Battle
15 August 1891-15 August 1896
George Tayloe Winston
15 August 1896-15 June 1900
Edwin Anderson Alderman
15 June 1900-31 August 1914
Francis Preston Venable
3 June 1913-31 August 1914
Edward Kidder Graham, Acting
31 August 1914-26 October 1918
Edward Kidder Graham
October 1918-21 January 1919
Marvin Hendrix Stacy, Chair of the Faculty
28 January 1919-16 June 1919
Harry Woodburn Chase, Chair of the Faculty
16 June 1919-20 February 1930
Harry Woodburn Chase
9 June 1930-1932
Frank Porter Graham
Scope and content:

The collection consists of routine administrative correspondence and miscellaneous financial papers of the University of North Carolina as well as miscellaneous student and faculty records. Papers prior to 1874 are mainly those of the Secretary-Treasurer of the Board of Trustees; post-1874 papers are largely those of the President of the University. Twenty-three letterpress volumes contain the correspondence of Presidents Alderman and Venable, 1898-1904. The records also contain a number of early plats and other documents pertaining to University lands. Also included are numerous papers related to the University Normal School, a summer program for public school teacher training that began in 1877. The records also contain the correspondence, regulations and pay records of the World War I Student Army Training Corps. There is also a group of documents collected by President Swain for a proposed history of the University and a partial narrative written by Swain. The records in this group constitute most of the surviving eighteenth-, nineteenth- , and early twentieth-century records of the University. Individuals figuring prominently include Edwin Anderson Alderman; Kemp P. Battle; Joseph Caldwell; Robert H. Chapman; Harry Woodburn Chase; James Smiley Gillespie; Edward Kidder Graham; Charles Wilson Harris; Elisha Mitchell; Charles Phillips; Solomon Pool; Marvin Hendrix Stacy; David L. Swain; F. P. Venable; and George Tayloe Winston.

Acquisition information:

Transferred to University Archives, 1972-2006. One item dated 12 August 1896 added in April 2014 (Records transfer 20140225.1, gift of Phyllis Creech of Goldsboro, N.C.).

Processing information:

Processed by: University Archives Staff, December 1997 and September 2010

Encoded by: Peter Hymas, May 2005

Updated by: Kathryn Michaelis, July 2010; Nancy Kaiser, October 2020; Dawne Howard Lucas, May 2021; Rebecca Stubbs and Laura Smith, May 2022; Nancy Kaiser, January 2023

Funding from the State Library of North Carolina supported the encoding of this finding aid.

Sensitive materials statement:

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Access and use

Restrictions to access:

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to use:

No usage restrictions.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], in the University of North Carolina Papers #40005, University Archives, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Location of this collection:
Louis Round Wilson Library
200 South Road
Chapel Hill, NC 27515
Contact:
(919) 962-3765
wilsonlibrary@unc.edu