University Archives holds historic records from all divisions of the University of North Carolina Wilmington. These unique primary source materials document the history of North Carolina’s coastal public university since its founding as Wilmington College. People looking for pertinent information on higher education, Southern U.S. history, student life, athletics, civil rights, the arts, and other areas will find answers in University Archives. Find more information on coming to visit the Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History at UNCW Library, or check out our online resources in UNCW Digital Collections.

At University Archives, we collect official university records with historic and long-term value and provide public access to this information. To build the collection, we rely on the Records Retention and Disposition Schedule for Institutions of the University of North Carolina System. The Records Schedule helps us in University Archives, but it is a tool for everyone. Here are a few records management principles to make 2026 a great year.

Offices with custody of certain records are responsible for managing them. 

According to UNCW’s Public Records Policy, custodians of public records must make records available as soon as possible after receiving a public records request. 

Have you heard that you cannot destroy anything created by UNCW? While that’s true if your office is handling a public records request or is engaged in a litigation hold, it is not the case most of the time. In fact, permanent retention is a rare requirement. (If you are handling a public records request or litigation hold, contact the Office of General Counsel for assistance.)

For everyday management of the information in your office--especially non-current information that your office no longer uses--see the Records Retention and Disposition Schedule linked above. 

The Records Retention and Disposition Schedule for Institutions of the University of North Carolina System (also known as the Records Schedule or the General Schedule) is your go-to resource.

The General Schedule designates the types of records to retain permanently and the types of information to retain for shorter periods of time and then dispose. By NC general statute, this is the document to use to inform records management at UNCW and throughout the UNC system. 

For help interpreting and using the Records Schedule, see the UNCW Records Management Guide. 

If it’s been a while since you’ve had records management training and you know you have files in your office that you no longer need, the Center's UNCW Records Management Guide is a good place to start.  

The UNCW Records Management Guide, maintained by the University Archivist, is an overview to the General Schedule. It includes more details on getting started with records management; reviewing strategies for records management and disposal; and information on managing digital records, records containing sensitive information, and permanent, archival records.

Contact the Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History for help with the records schedule. 

Are you not sure if your information should be retained, destroyed, or archived? Have you found some old media that is perplexing? Contact us! University Archives will help you plan a review strategy and will collect records that should be transferred to the archives.

So long, 2025! After spending nearly two years planning, preparing, and moving Special Collections materials into our new digs in Discovery Hall, it felt great to settle in last year and resume day-to-day collection management activities. This was especially true for the largest collection under the stewardship of Special Collections staff—manuscripts.

Last year, staff spent time catching up on processing new accessions and reprocessing older collections to improve discoverability. We also made significant strides towards processing portions of the largest manuscript collections in our care. This work included:

• Completion of a preliminary inventory of folders (over 25,000!) in the Star-News Image Archive (shout out to student employees Sarah, Hannah, Ry, Bella, and Kenzie for their hard work on this project!)
• Time spent preserving and describing materials in scrapbooks held in the Edwin E. Kirton Family Private Papers.
• Work towards (re)processing materials in the Herman Blizzard Rotary Archive with the assistance of a student funded through a donation from the Wilmington Rotary Club.
• Publication of a digital collection containing descriptions of 457 episodes of WHQR’s long-running program, Sounds Local, which is part of the WHQR Public Radio Archive.

In addition to the work described above, staff also completed processing for the following collections, which are now available for research use in the Center’s reading room. Learn more about how you can access these materials here. 

MS 110 The Hawk’s Eye: This collection contains material relating to "The Hawk's Eye," a regular feature article about Wilmington College published in the Wilmington Star-News during the late 1940s and the 1950s.

MS 211 John Jay Burney Jr. Personal Papers: This collection contains the personal papers of John Jay Burney, Jr. (1924-2010), a Wilmington attorney and former North Carolina state senator. Content represents all aspects of his life--personal, professional, and political--from his time serving in World War II in the 1940s to his North Carolina-based political and legal career that lasted into the early 2000s.

MS 392 St. Stephen A.M.E. Church Records: This collection contains material belonging to St. Stephen A.M.E. Church in Wilmington, North Carolina, from the mid-1800s through 2020. Material includes a poster of the officers of the church in 1896, a photograph of the church's interior, historical ledgers of meeting minutes and conference records, souvenir booklets and programs, newsletters, flyers, calendars, and construction funding paperwork. The majority of the material is focused around regular church services and special events, like Women's Day and Men's Day, from the 1980s to 2020.

MS 393 Earl Sheridan Papers: This collection contains materials relating to Dr. Earl Sheridan, a former Wilmington City Council member, UNC Wilmington professor, and NAACP chapter president. Much of this collection consists of newspapers and newspaper clippings (1981-2009) of articles written by or about Dr. Sheridan. Many articles discuss local and national civil rights issues for African Americans. Of note are stories that report on the NAACP’s opposition of the 1994 New Hanover County school bond referendum and on the police shooting of John Franklin Jones in 1989.

MS 399 Wilmington and New Hanover County Naval Affairs Committee Collection: This collection contains the materials of the Wilmington-New Hanover County Naval Affairs Committee, a City of Wilmington subcommittee responsible for coordinating the visits of foreign and American military ships to Wilmington during the 1980s to the early 2000s. Much of the records in this collection document the visits of military vessels to the Wilmington area between 1983 and 2000. Although most of these records center on the visits of foreign ships, especially British Royal Navy vessels, a small number focus on the arrival of American ships.

MS 400 Larry Kessler's Research Papers on Charlie Soong: This collection contains the research materials of Dr. Lawrence "Larry" D. Kessler (1936-2020), an author, researcher, and professor of East Asian and Chinese history. Part of Dr. Kessler's research papers focuses on China-North Carolina history, including certain significant individuals like Charlie Soong and Dr. Ma Haide. Other records include Kessler's research papers on the American missionary site of Jiangyin Mission Station and two missionary families.

MS 402 Gilbert H. Burnett Papers: This collection contains the papers of Gilbert H. Burnett (1925-2020), the Chief Judge of the 5th Judicial District of North Carolina from 1970 to 1991. This collection consists of materials related to Judge Burnett’s judicial career and community service advocacy, his publications and local television show, and his personal life, including life history, hobbies and interests, and military experience. Of note are newspaper clippings and correspondence documenting Burnett’s role as the preliminary hearing judge in the Wilmington Ten case.

MS 406 Bellamy Mansion Collection: This collection contains historical records from the mid-1800s to mid-1900s of members of the Bellamy family, down the Dr. John D. Bellamy (1817-1896) line, and related family members. A large portion of these records are related to the business dealings and financial matters of the Hargrove family, connected via Emma May Hargrove Bellamy, wife of John D. Bellamy, Jr. (1854-1942). Material also pertains to the Bellamy family home, the Bellamy Mansion on Market Street in Historic Downtown Wilmington.

MS 413 Marsden Bellamy Family Collection: This collection contains material related to members of the Bellamy family, mainly down the Marsden Bellamy (1843-1909) line, including photographs, correspondence, newspaper clippings, ephemera, and two family Bibles. Content largely relates to major life events, such as marriages and deaths, as well as Bellamy family ancestry, with an emphasis on material related to Chesley Calhoun Bellamy (1887-1957), son of Marsden, and Chesley's wife, Caroline Louise Mallett Bellamy (1891-1978). 

MS 420 Harry Bethea World War II Papers: This collection contains documents pertaining to the World War II service of Harry E. Bethea of Wilmington, North Carolina. Bethea served as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force as a bomber pilot in both the European and Pacific theaters. Included are documents from 1944 pertaining to his training and service in the United States before deploying to the European Theater. 

MS 423 Tolis Vardakis Collection of World War II Photographs: This collection contains approximately 165 photographs from World War II. Photographs document the European and Pacific Theaters, with emphasis on the invasion of Poland, Greece, and France, as well as on various types of bomber aircraft used during the war. Most photographs credit the Associated Press or International News Photos Inc. and are stamped as being part of "The Evening Bulletin Reference Library," the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania newspaper from which they were originally generated. Photographs date from 1939 to 1945.

Lower Cape Fear Historical Society Photograph Collection: This collection, on loan to the Center by the Historical Society, contains photographs of the Lower Cape Fear area around Wilmington, dating from approximately 1860 to 2007. The images capture people, places, artworks of Wilmington and its inhabitants, and notable area landmarks across that time. They also document members of and activities undertaken by the Lower Cape Fear Historical Society, with particular emphasis during the 1980s-1990s. This collection is also available to view through its digital collection counterpart. 

In 2018, the Center acquired the WWAY Television News Archive, a massive collection of over 6,000 items (mostly U-matic and DVC Pro tapes and DVDS) primarily consisting of news segments and b-roll footage produced by the WWAY television news station, a long-time ABC affiliate station. The recordings contain footage spanning the period from 1982 through 2012 that was created for local news broadcast. With grant funding received from the Council on Library and Information Resources’ Recordings at Risk program, approximately 8,000 local news clips dating from 1982 to 1997 have been made viewable and searchable in the WWAY Television News Archive Digital Collection.  

"Wilmington Family of Michael Jordan Watches National Basketball Association Draft at Home," 1984 (more info)

The digital collection contains a wealth of video footage and coverage of major local and national events. Several clips dating from 1983 show the fallout of “Operation Gateway,” a two-year joint investigation by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and the federal Drug Enforcement Agency that uncovered a major drug smuggling ring in southeast North Carolina involving several prominent Brunswick County citizens. Coverage of local campaign activity for several United States presidential elections is also featured. Users can view clips documenting the early days of Wilmington’s film industry, particularly the productions of 1984’s Firestarter and 1985’s Cat’s Eye, alongside footage of high school and college commencement ceremonies, local sports match-ups, and county commissioners’ meetings. 

"New Hanover County Trial of Brunswick County Sheriff Herman Strong, Hoyle Varnam, and Steve Jackson Varnam for Smuggling Marijuana During Operation Gateway," 1983 (more info)

To view the collection for yourself, browse the available clips through the digital collection or use the keyword search box in the top right corner of the page to search for specific people, events, or topics. The digital collection currently only includes about 15% of the collection's news footage for the years 1982-1997, so if you’re having trouble finding coverage of something, contact the Center’s archivists for assistance in locating additional clips.

"Wilmington Independence Mall Back-to-School Shopping, Featuring Boy Who Wants to Dress Like Michael Jackson," 1984 (more info) 

This edition of the Center's blog focuses on the North Carolina state publication entitled Fostering Perspectives. As the title suggests, it offers a variety of articles related to the perspectives of those who work within the state's foster care system. This publication is published twice per year, generally in spring and fall.  Its publication is sponsored by the NC Department of Health and Human Services and the Family and Children’s Resource Program.  Here at the Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives & History, we receive it in print and electronic form.  The following paragraphs summarize information from the May 2025 edition, specifically from Dr. Sarah Norris, Ed.D, MBA, M.Ed. Chief Program Officer with Crossnore Communities for Children, based out of Winston-Salem and Crossnore, NC, about the current state of foster care in North Carolina and the Bridging Families Program which is a "family-focused and team-based model of care designed to directly address the obstacles to family reunification."

In Dr. Norris’ article, “Bridging Families©, The Way Home-One Step Toward Child Welfare Transformation,” she begins by stating that “the child welfare system is in deep crisis.” Essentially, the system as it is currently set up was never meant to face the overwhelming challenges that are presented today, regarding the foster care system.  The Bridging Families© program came to light in 2021 after much thought and reflection, being “grounded in research and practical application…” Quite rapidly, funders began donating money to the program that expanded across three of Crossnore’s primary locations in the western part of North Carolina.  The model was formally adopted by the NC DHHS as “the state’s only endorsed professional foster parenting model with the support of a 2-year, $1.8 million state contract, alongside an additional $3.75 million investment from the Leon Levine Foundation.”

The Bridging Families© approach “positions (foster parents) as full-time, professional partners working alongside the birth families and their children throughout the process.” Since the goal for children in foster care is reunification with their birth parent(s), the program seeks to support families by removing “common structural barriers like fragmented services, inconsistent and limited visitation, and adversarial co-parenting dynamics by embedding professional parenting within a therapeutic, team-driven framework.” Bridge Family parents are fully compensated and act as “an extension of the case-planning team,” along with DSS social workers.  Additionally, “over the next several years, the Bridging Families© model will expand across North Carolina through the work of the Bridging Families© Institute, which provides training, coaching, consultation, and readiness support to child placement agencies committed to implementing the model with fidelity.”

Additionally, the Fostering Perspectives publication typically includes a section entitled "Writing Contest" where questions are asked by the editors and children in foster care are free to write in with their responses. For this edition the question asked the children how they were able to speak up and advocate for themselves at a time when they needed to. One child, aged 9, spoke about how when he gets mad, his “foster mother Christina will always help me by telling me to get to the ‘calm down’ corner or take deep breaths. After I calm down sometimes, we play a board game or do fun things…. whenever I am sad, my foster mother will always ask me what’s wrong and I will tell her what happened so she can understand and help me out.” There are several more responses included in this edition, from various children currently in foster care, at different ages with differing stories to tell.

Overall, Fostering Perspectives is an important publication that the state of North Carolina provides to citizens, specifically those who are interested in or currently navigating the intricacies and challenges of foster care.  The Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives & History currently has editions of this publication in print dating back to 2012. It is also available online from our library catalog: Fostering Perspectives. If you are interested in reading through these editions in person, please feel free to visit the Center’s Reading Room during open hours, Monday-Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.