This post was contributed by Bella Thomas, a student worker in the Center’s public services unit.

Nestled within the Center's collections is a piece of rare United States history: a Civil War-era Wade and Ford medical kit filled with supplies that were most likely used on civilians who needed medical attention. The kit, something I was completely unfamiliar with, introduced me to a new type of history, and also made me appreciate modern surgical technology! 

During the Civil War, there were several medical achievements that paved the way for modern healthcare, such as the establishment of general hospitals and the safe use of anesthetics. Upon opening the wooden kit, I was greeted with a trephine (pictured below), a tool used to open the skull. The trephine has a sharp metal head that attaches to another wooden tool. These types of Wade and Ford kits were created starting in 1861, when William Ford and George Wade partnered with Dr. James R. Wood, a surgeon who later became one of the founders of Bellevue Hospital Medical College in New York City.  

Laid against the green velvet interior of the kit are several scalpels, including curved bistouries that were used for the dissection of ligaments and tissue. There are large and small amputation tools, such as a metacarpal knife and a long catlin. A traveler folding tenaculum (pictured below) was used to remove bullets or to pull out arteries to tie them off. A saw with a curved handle and serrated edges was used for lifting metacarpals, cutting fingers, and cutting tendons. Small, sharp, hooked instruments most likely used for cataract or other eye surgeries are housed next to the trephine. A lightly used bone brush accompanies these tools, as well as forceps, a straight probe tenotome used for relieving pain in tendons, and a large bone saw. Other tools were used for bullet extraction, picking up blood vessels, and neurosurgery. Only one postmortem instrument was housed in this kit - a simple, small knife.  

This kit allows us to get a glimpse of civilian life during the Civil War. It houses not only medical equipment, but stories of loss and survival. Viewing this kit allows us to appreciate modern medical technology while simultaneously studying tools that were considered revolutionary for the time. History is found in human stories, whether they are bound tightly in a stack of letters, placed in books, or within artifacts that allow for reflection, contemplation, and discovery of those who came before us.  

Special thanks to Dr. Doug Arbittier, Vice President of Atlantic Health System, for helping identify some instruments.

Sources consulted in research:

• “Antique Surgical Instrument Identification” and “Civil War Medical Books/Medical College Index”, American Civil War Surgical Antiques and Medicine, accessed August 2024, American Civil War Surgical Antiques and Medicine.
• Reilly RF. Medical and surgical care during the American Civil War, 1861-1865. Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent). 2016 Apr;29(2):138-42. doi: 10.1080/08998280.2016.11929390. PMID: 27034545; PMCID: PMC4790547.

This post was contributed by Hannah Gaydeski, a student worker in the Center's Public Services unit.

The Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History holds a mysterious manuscript item entitled “Diary (author unknown)” written from 1859 to 1864. I first consulted this diary during the Fall 2025 semester, when I researched Victorian hair jewelry for my final project for the English department’s Victorian Literature class. Given that this diary was labeled as having a significant overlap with the Civil War, I was hopeful that there might be some mention of hair jewelry or hair wreaths, which were connected to the era's mourning practices. I did come across a mention of “wreaths” on January 28, 1859. This was obviously not a focus of the diary, but it did contain some valuable insights. 

The author of the diary was a schoolteacher at the Glen Anna Seminary, and had just arrived for her first semester. The author documents her daily activities. She focuses on irregular but necessary activities, such as laundry or food preservation. My interest quickly expanded to other mentioned instances of material culture, such as wax replicas, painting, and letter-writing. As to the physical properties of the diary, it is bound in a cloth hardcover. The pages have browned and the ruling has faded. Towards the end of the diary there is a small envelope and a poem, with an accompanying dried flower wrapped between the slit envelope. At the very back there is a blotting paper. Some pages at the end of the diary have been cut out, but the final known entry is contained in its entirety on the last page. 

I was curious about the author’s identity and conducted a quick internet search for the school, as the author had not signed her name to the  book. This turned up two digitized Glen Anna Seminary catalogs, one of which dates from 1858-1859, which overlaps with the diary’s creation. The school, a girl’s seminary, was described as “not sectarian. There are nine branches of the christian [sic] church represented, and we have teachers of different denominations." I expanded my research to include instances of the author’s interpersonal relationships at this point, hoping to uncover her identity. The documentation of her friendships and the information in the catalog led me to believe that the author was one “Miss Maggie Clewell.” The diary author could not be P.L. Lathrop, Jennie Jenks, S.T. Ray, nor S.A. Burch, as the author had written about all of these women. This left the two assistant pupils, or Maggie Clewell, the “Teacher of Mathematics and English Branches” as potential authors. Clewell seemed the most likely choice as she had made mention of teaching algebra before. Furthermore, a second search turned up a related collection in our archives! The Clewell Family Collection (MS 365) contains manuscripts relating to Margaret (Maggie) Clewell Jenkins and her brother, Francis Christian Clewell. The diary’s author had mentioned writing to “Frank,” a common nickname for Francis. 

After cross-referencing with the Clewell Family collection, I determined that the diary was definitely connected to this collection. This collection contains a family history entitled Endurin’ The War and a series of letters from Francis (Frank) Christian Clewell written to his family during his service in the Civil War and up until his death in 1867. Frank’s letters are not originals, unlike the diary, but were instead transcribed on a typewriter some time afterwards. Whoever transcribed the letters included notes describing family relations, errors in the accounts, and even physical descriptions of the paper that the letters were written on! This editor confirmed that Maggie taught at the Glen Anna Seminary and was Frank’s sister. The editor also mentioned that she married a Robert Alexander Jenkins, Jr. From this, I was able to successfully cross-reference events between the letters and the diary. It would appear that the diary and letters were separated from each other at some point after being donated to UNCW Library and were never reunited, since connecting the diary to the family collection would require a familiarity with the family. Both collections state the “method and date of acquisition unknown,” but the digitization of other records has happily provided enough evidence to connect the collections back to each other. 

[Update: Thanks to Hannah's research, Special Collections staff were able to reunite this orphaned diary with its parent collection in April 2026. It can now be found as part of MS 365 Clewell Family Collection (finding aid linked below)]

Sources

• MS 365 Clewell Family Collection
• Catalogue of the officers and students of Glen Anna Seminary, at Thomasville, North Carolina 1858/1859

Further Reading

• The Church and Private Schools of North Carolina: A Historical Study, by Charles Lee Raper (1898)
• Transcripts of Clewell family letters posted to the blog Spared and Shared 7
• "Women's Colleges in North Carolina, a Postal History," by Tony L. Crumbley, from the North Carolina Postal Historian vol. 36, no. 3 (Summer 2017)

In October, the Center for Southeast NC Archives and History is excited to host an open house! Mark your calendars for Thursday, October 30, from 4-5:30pm and come join us!

In the Center’s Reading Room (Discovery Hall 2095), we will have items on display related to our collecting areas: government information, manuscript collections, rare and special publications, and University records. Our team will be on hand to chat about the Center’s collections and services – we are available for use by faculty, staff, students, community members, and all kinds of information-seekers looking for information about the history of Southeast North Carolina!

We will also be celebrating the library’s 60th year of being part of the Federal Depository Library Program, which helps the public access federal government information. 

Folks from all around may find this open house helpful: students, faculty, staff, community members of all kinds. Our collections document the University and its history and Southeastern North Carolina encompassing New Hanover County and the surrounding region including Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Duplin, Pender, Onslow, and Sampson counties. 

Off-campus visitors may find this information about visitor parking on campus useful. Please email csencah@uncw.edu with any questions. 

Light refreshments will be served. Please stop by, for 5 minutes or 50 – and bring your research questions! 

Summer has arrived to campus, no matter what the seasonal calendar says! It has been, as it always is, a busy year of processing manuscript collections, staffing our Reading Room, teaching with primary sources and rare books, creating catalog records, growing the Center’s digital collections, navigating technology upgrades, and countless other tasks.

The Center aims to connect the people and communities and Southeast North Carolina to the sources of their history and culture by collecting materials, providing access to those materials, sharing collections with the campus and broader region, encouraging and engaging scholarship on the region, and supporting and partnering with regional cultural heritage groups. You can see some of this history and culture, as well as the work we do to make it accessible, in blog posts completed by the Center across the year, discussing a variety of topics including:  

• Government Information librarian Elisabeth Garner wrote a series of posts about the North Carolina Manual’s history and content, starting here.
• University Archivist Adina Riggins wrote about records management at the University: how employees can tackle their records and the assistance that the University Archivist can provide. Also, if you’re reading this in May, check out June’s State Archives workshop specifically for higher education records management.
• Center specialist Isabella Walker used those University records to write about vocational education and the unexpected history of football on campus.
• Special Collections Specialist Nicole Yatsonsky complied clips from WHQR’s Sounds Local episodes that highlighted interviews with Black artists in honor of February’s Black History Month.
• Special Collections Librarian Rebecca Baugnon highlighted the materials available in Special Collections overall, and graduating student worker Sarah Creel shared holiday cards preserved in scrapbooks from the Reverend Edwin E. Kirton Family Private Papers collection.
• Public Services Archivist Samantha Crisp highlighted all kinds of materials, including two posts of fashion images in honor of Fashion Week on campus and (underrated?) film Muppets from Space, shot in town.

While the blog goes on hiatus for the summer, we will be continuing our work behind the scenes, providing access to collections through the Reading Room - by appointment - and preparing for August. I know it doesn’t seem like it but any academic librarian knows, the first day of classes is right around the corner! 

"USO service books index the military experience" reads the title of a recent article in the Jacksonville Daily Newspaper. The service books, less the current representations, mentioned in the article along with numerous photographs, publications, newspapers and various other forms material related to the the United Service Organization (USO) Jacksonville, are among the manuscript holdings in Randall Library's Special Collections. 

The service books include representation from every U.S. state and date back to the 1960s. Filled with thousands of intimate entries, these notebooks once served as main line of communication for troops to provide status updates during their service. The cardboard covers of older notebooks are often illustrated with doodles, city names, sports team insignia and state pride. The news article quotes Marisa Reeder, Jacksonville Center Assistant Director: 

"Having been to the University of North Carolina Wilmington to see the archives it just took my breath away. The decades-old service books transport readers to the past. The entries also help veterans track their fellow service members and allow them to leave a personal mark on the USO itself."

Special Collections received the archives of the USO Jacksonville center in 2011. The collection is being processed with the aid of UNCW Public History graduate assistants. For researchers interested in viewing the collection, please contact Special Collections staff.

Althouse, John. "USO service books index the military experience." Jacksonville Daily News 08 09 2013, n. pag. Web. 18 Sep. 2013. <http://www.jdnews.com/news/military/uso-service-books-index-the-military experience-1.199642?page=2>.

In 1973, the book collection of the William M. Randall Library of the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) reached 100,000 volumes. To celebrate, the library acquired a first edition Huck Finn by Mark Twain (published in 1885) and held a special ceremony. This first edition is in Special Collections.

An announcement for the Nov. 30 ceremony was in the Seahawk student newspaper.

For comparison, according to 2012/2013 statistics, Randall Library has 481,134 books. 

A couple notes from the library's history:

*Wilmington College Library moved from a few rooms in Alderman Hall to its own building during winter break of 1968. It opened in January of 1969 and the official dedication was March 30.

*Randall Libray began planning an expansion in 1985, which was completed in 1987. 

This model of Randall Library, circa 1985, is in University Archives in Randall Library at UNCW.

In 1973, the book collection of the William M. Randall Library of the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) reached 100,000 volumes. To celebrate, the library acquired a first edition Huck Finn by Mark Twain (published in 1885) and held a special ceremony. This first edition is in Special Collections.

An announcement for the Nov. 30 ceremony was in the Seahawk student newspaper.

For comparison, according to 2012/2013 statistics, Randall Library has 481,134 books. 

A couple notes from the library's history:

*Wilmington College Library moved from a few rooms in Alderman Hall to its own building during winter break of 1968. It opened in January of 1969 and the official dedication was March 30.

*Randall Libray began planning an expansion in 1985, which was completed in 1987. 

This model of Randall Library, circa 1985, is in University Archives in Randall Library at UNCW.

Lauren Love is an intern working in Special Collections.

While reformatting the finding aid for the collection of St. Andrews Covenant Presbyterian Church (also known as MS 180) an excellent piece of Wilmington art history was spotted. The small booklet from 1943 was created for “An Artistic Banquet” held at the Church of the Covenant just before it was merged with St. Andrews in 1944.

                                                    The Church of the Covenant

Before I continue, allow me to introduce myself: my name is Lauren Love and this summer I am interning in the Special Collections department of UNCW Randall Library. So far I have been buried, nose first, in MS 180 only briefly coming up for air to help move furniture and prepare for spring cleaning project which has taken over our domain (more on that in the future!).

Initially I was struck by the hand painted illustration on the cover of the booklet whose colors contrasted so sharply with the stale yellow of ageing paper. To satisfy my curiosity, I brought the find to my supervisor, Rebecca Baugnon. “Claude Howell!” she said excitedly after flipping through to the last page; “Claude Howell?!” came the voice of Jerry Parnell, the Special Collections Coordinator from across the hall. One can imagine how my interest peeked at such reactions. Upon further inspection we found that the pamphlet was an itinerary of sorts for an educational art program where lessons in painting, watercolor, drawing and much more were offered to attendees. The investigation became an eye opening revelation about the history of Art culture in Wilmington and how, unbeknownst to me, I held in my hands a small booklet which contained the names of some local art heroes.

                   Irene Price 1930s, photograph from Two Centuries of Art in New Hanover County
                                                                  by Crockette W. Hewlett

Unassumingly printed are the names of Peggy Hall, Claude Howell, Rosalie Oliver and Winona Gration. The details of how these artists contributed to the booklet is unknown but further research proved that they were students together under Irene Price and Delbert Palmer. Price was a friend of Elisabeth Augusta Chant who is partially responsible for encouraging and cultivating the art scene in Wilmington. Chant and Price both taught art classes in downtown Wilmington during the 1930s and went on to found and direct various programs and institutions while maintaining connections with some of the artists listed above. Simple though it may appear, the booklet shows the efforts of these budding artists to work with the community to foster a love of arts which we still see in our port city today.

                                                Peggy Hall with students 1941 (left), and Claude Howell (right)
                               Photographs from Two Centuries of Art in New Hanover County by Crockette W. Hewlett

Peggy Hall studied under Price and Chant and went on to become the director of the Wilmington Museum of Art, a museum which opened in 1940 and before World War II came to a close. She exhibited her work around the country and possessed a passion for art throughout her life.

Claude Howell would become a very influential artist who taught at UNCW and played a large role in the establishment of the Art Department. Some of his paintings are located on the first floor of the library near Port City Java and a beautiful collection of illustrated holiday cards are housed in the Special Collections Library upstairs.

Rosalie Oliver taught and spoke at the Wilmington Museum of Art.

Unfortunately I could not find any information on Winona Gration.

For more information come ask us about the following collections:
MS 063 – A Balkan Sketchbook by Claude Howell
MS 076 – Claude Howell – Classification of Art Prints
MS 326 – Claude Howell Christmas Cards

For a truly enlightening exploration of art in Wilmington read Two Centuries of Art in New Hanover County by Crockette W. Hewlett, both the pictures used in this blog post as well as the biographical information are from this thorough and entertaining book. 

Sources can be accessed by visiting Randall Library and the Special Collections Library therein:

• An Artistic Banquet. Wilmington:  Church of the Covenant, 1943. Print. Box 10, Folder 3. St. Andrews Covenant Presbyterian Church Collection. Randall Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC. May 21, 2014.
• Hewlett, Crockette W.. Two Centuries of Art in New Hanover County. Durham: Moore Publishing Company, 1976. Print.
• Twenty Fifth Anniversary Celebration. Wilmington: Church of the Covenant, 1943. Print. Box 10, Folder 3. St. Andrews Covenant Presbyterian Church Collection. Randall Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC. May 21, 2014. 

In 1973, the book collection of the William M. Randall Library of the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) reached 100,000 volumes. To celebrate, the library acquired a first edition Huck Finn by Mark Twain (published in 1885) and held a special ceremony. This first edition is in Special Collections.

An announcement for the Nov. 30 ceremony was in the Seahawk student newspaper.

For comparison, according to 2012/2013 statistics, Randall Library has 481,134 books. 

A couple notes from the library's history:

*Wilmington College Library moved from a few rooms in Alderman Hall to its own building during winter break of 1968. It opened in January of 1969 and the official dedication was March 30.

*Randall Libray began planning an expansion in 1985, which was completed in 1987. 

This model of Randall Library, circa 1985, is in University Archives in Randall Library at UNCW.

The City of Wilmington’s roots in the film industry reach back to at least 1983, when producer Frank Capra, Jr., selected several local spots as filming locations for his project, Firestarter. The Center’s collections offer a treasure trove of information on the film industry in North Carolina, featuring documents such as scripts, casting headshots, posters and publicity material, original artwork, and production files for both feature films and television shows.

One of the Center’s most extensive collections related to the film industry is MS 175 Fincannon and Associates Script Collection. Fincannon and Associates, a casting agency based in Wilmington, was founded in 1979 by Craig Fincannon, later assisted by his brother, Mark. The company has been involved with numerous major motion pictures and television shows over its 40-plus years of operation, collaborating with major industry leaders such as Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Dino DeLaurentiis.  

One such project was 1999’s Muppets from Space, filmed locally at Screen Gems Studios in Wilmington, located out near the airport. Shooting began in the fall of 1998. It was the second Jim Henson production to be shot in Wilmington, after Elmo in Grouchland, which wrapped earlier that summer. Muppets from Space centers on the character Gonzo, who discovers his extraterrestrial origins after years of referring to himself as “a whatever.” In addition to Screen Gems Studios, other filming locations included the Dixie Cement Company and Fort Fisher; the house shared by the Muppets in the film was located on North Seventh Street. Stars such as Jeffrey Tambor, Andie MacDowell, and Ray Liotta traveled to Wilmington to shoot scenes alongside local cast members and extras. The film must have been a fun challenge for Fincannon and Associates to cast, due to the large number of cameo appearances made by major celebrities (for which the Muppets franchise is well known).

Below are some samples of documents from the production, all reproduced from the Fincannon and Associates Script Collection. If you’d like to learn more about this region’s connection to the film industry, check out the Center’s subject guide, Hollywood East: Film in Southeast North Carolina. Or you can visit our reading room to view these original documents in person. 

In 1973, the book collection of the William M. Randall Library of the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) reached 100,000 volumes. To celebrate, the library acquired a first edition Huck Finn by Mark Twain (published in 1885) and held a special ceremony. This first edition is in Special Collections.

An announcement for the Nov. 30 ceremony was in the Seahawk student newspaper.

For comparison, according to 2012/2013 statistics, Randall Library has 481,134 books. 

A couple notes from the library's history:

*Wilmington College Library moved from a few rooms in Alderman Hall to its own building during winter break of 1968. It opened in January of 1969 and the official dedication was March 30.

*Randall Libray began planning an expansion in 1985, which was completed in 1987. 

This model of Randall Library, circa 1985, is in University Archives in Randall Library at UNCW.

In mid-century America, beauty pageants were a hit. The golden age of pageants began in the 1950s, when the Miss America competition in Atlantic City, New Jersey was first broadcast live on television to millions of excited viewers. State and local pageants, though smaller in scale, also experienced a streak of popularity. In North Carolina, a Wilmington resident named Hannah Block played a critical role in the pageant world. Block judged and directed numerous pageants across North Carolina and routinely coached and chaperoned pageant contestants to better their chances of success. Block even had a hand in securing the first and only Miss America win for a North Carolina contestant. 

During the 1950s, Hannah Block coached and chaperoned several Miss North Carolina winners, including Faye Arnold of Raleigh and Joan Melton of Albemarle, to compete in the Miss America competition. Although both Arnold and Melton were state winners, neither could snag the Miss America title. Nothing stopped Hannah Block’s enthusiasm, however. Quoted in a 1958 newspaper interview after losing that year’s Miss America, Block said of the pageant: “It is one of the most thrilling things I know of.”

It wasn't until the 1960s that a North Carolina contestant found success on the national level. After Maria Beale Fletcher of Asheville won the Miss North Carolina pageant in 1961, Hannah Block coached Fletcher for the upcoming competition in Atlantic City. Fletcher ultimately won the title of Miss America 1962. As winner, Fletcher received all the benefits of Miss America: an academic scholarship, a full schedule of social appearances, and hearty congratulations from family, friends, and fans. Block’s contributions were also well-applauded. When Special Collections staff organized Hannah Block’s Miss America records, dozens of congratulatory telegrams, cards, and letters were found and preserved. They serve as warm reminders of Block’s efforts, even 65 years later.

Hannah Block was an active figure in the Miss North Carolina and Miss America pageants, but she was also a coach, chaperone, judge, producer, and director at numerous regional and local pageants. The Hannah Solomon Block Collection features materials that show the depth of her involvement, and includes items like correspondence, pageant program books, nametags, newspapers, and photographs. Also present in the collection is evidence of Block's support of the Wilmington community; for example, the Hannah Block Historic USO at 120 South Second Street bears her name to commemorate Block's work coordinating performances for troops during World War II. To view these materials and other items related to Block's life, visit our Reading Room or contact us. 

Sources

• Newspapers, 1952-1967, Folder: 47, Box: 2. Hannah Solomon Block Collection, SC-MS-181, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History.
• Correspondence, 1960-1961, undated, Folder: 5, Box: 3. Hannah Solomon Block Collection, SC-MS-181, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History.

Every year, October marks American Archives Month, an advocacy initiative of the Society of American Archivists. Archival institutions across the country highlight their collections with activities and events to promote awareness of archival materials and the importance of maintaining historical records.

Here in North Carolina, the Society of North Carolina Archivists (SNCA) selects an annual theme for archivists across the state to follow when showcasing the work they do in making primary sources accessible to the public.

This year’s theme is North Carolina’s 250th, in honor of the nation approaching its 250th anniversary in 2026, and celebrates the “different peoples of North Carolina and the part they played in the history of the country” since 1776. Special Collections’ manuscript collections contain primary and secondary material that document significant national moments from the last 250 years. Here are some of the people of southeast North Carolina that have made an impact over the years:

18th Century

The Declaration of Independence was signed by three men from North Carolina: Joseph Hewes, John Penn, and William Hooper (1742-1790). Hooper lived in Wilmington at the time, where he’d been practicing law since 1764, and owned a house [pictured¹] on the Masonboro Sound from 1773-1801. He represented New Hanover County on the first Committee of Correspondence, coordinating patriot opposition to British policies in advance of the American Revolution. This work would lead to his election to both the First and Second Continental Congresses. Though he missed the approval of the Declaration on July 4, 1776, he returned to Philadelphia on August 2 and signed not far below John Hancock.

19th Century

The World's Columbian Exposition, commonly referred to as the World’s Fair, was held in Chicago in 1893 and was one of the largest of the fairs, with more than 27 million visitors from across the globe. Florence Hill Kidder (1850-1917) was appointed a "lady manager" for the state of North Carolina by the World's Columbian Commission and helped with the many North Carolina exhibits that were displayed in the subject-specific halls. Her colonial exhibit won an award [pictured²], and upon her return to North Carolina, she established the North Carolina chapter of the National Society for the Colonial Dames of America in 1894. Kidder lived with her husband, George, at 308 Dock Street in downtown Wilmington, where the home, known as the Kidder House, still stands today.

20th Century

Amidst the national civil rights movement, the New Hanover County school system faced community pressure and legal action for its lack of progress towards desegregating schools, as mandated by the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown V. Board of Education of Topeka in 1954. Integration finally happened in 1968 and included the closure of the Black high school, Williston, where long-time educator and community leader Bertha Boykin Todd (1929-) [pictured³] worked as a librarian before moving to an administrative role at Hoggard High School. Racial tensions post desegregation ultimately led to violence and riots in 1971, when ten individuals, known as the Wilmington Ten, were accused of setting a grocery store on fire. Todd worked to sow peace and amity within the schools during this tumultuous time and later helped to exonerate the Wilmington Ten, all part of her ongoing activism and efforts to build multicultural relationships in New Hanover County. You can learn more about her life in the Bertha Boykin Todd Papers. 

Sources

1. MS 418 Relvin Vaughn (R.V.) Asbury, Jr. Papers, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History

2. MS 083 Kidder Award and Certificate of Membership, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History

3. MS 408 Star-News Image Archive, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History

This post was contributed by Bella Thomas, a student worker in the Center’s public services unit.

Nestled within the Center's collections is a piece of rare United States history: a Civil War-era Wade and Ford medical kit filled with supplies that were most likely used on civilians who needed medical attention. The kit, something I was completely unfamiliar with, introduced me to a new type of history, and also made me appreciate modern surgical technology! 

During the Civil War, there were several medical achievements that paved the way for modern healthcare, such as the establishment of general hospitals and the safe use of anesthetics. Upon opening the wooden kit, I was greeted with a trephine (pictured below), a tool used to open the skull. The trephine has a sharp metal head that attaches to another wooden tool. These types of Wade and Ford kits were created starting in 1861, when William Ford and George Wade partnered with Dr. James R. Wood, a surgeon who later became one of the founders of Bellevue Hospital Medical College in New York City.  

Laid against the green velvet interior of the kit are several scalpels, including curved bistouries that were used for the dissection of ligaments and tissue. There are large and small amputation tools, such as a metacarpal knife and a long catlin. A traveler folding tenaculum (pictured below) was used to remove bullets or to pull out arteries to tie them off. A saw with a curved handle and serrated edges was used for lifting metacarpals, cutting fingers, and cutting tendons. Small, sharp, hooked instruments most likely used for cataract or other eye surgeries are housed next to the trephine. A lightly used bone brush accompanies these tools, as well as forceps, a straight probe tenotome used for relieving pain in tendons, and a large bone saw. Other tools were used for bullet extraction, picking up blood vessels, and neurosurgery. Only one postmortem instrument was housed in this kit - a simple, small knife.  

This kit allows us to get a glimpse of civilian life during the Civil War. It houses not only medical equipment, but stories of loss and survival. Viewing this kit allows us to appreciate modern medical technology while simultaneously studying tools that were considered revolutionary for the time. History is found in human stories, whether they are bound tightly in a stack of letters, placed in books, or within artifacts that allow for reflection, contemplation, and discovery of those who came before us.  

Special thanks to Dr. Doug Arbittier, Vice President of Atlantic Health System, for helping identify some instruments.

Sources consulted in research:

• “Antique Surgical Instrument Identification” and “Civil War Medical Books/Medical College Index”, American Civil War Surgical Antiques and Medicine, accessed August 2024, American Civil War Surgical Antiques and Medicine.
• Reilly RF. Medical and surgical care during the American Civil War, 1861-1865. Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent). 2016 Apr;29(2):138-42. doi: 10.1080/08998280.2016.11929390. PMID: 27034545; PMCID: PMC4790547.

Wilmington has been synonymous with the East Coast film industry for over four decades now, since producer Frank Capra, Jr. (1934-2007) [pictured¹] arrived in southeast North Carolina in the fall of 1983 to shoot Firestarter (1984), based on the 1980 novel by Stephen King and starring a young Drew Barrymore.

Capra, Jr. eventually decided to form a Wilmington-based company, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, with Universal Pictures’ production head Dino De Laurentiis (1919-2010). The company would work out of their newly built Carolco Studios, better known as EUE/Screen Gems Studios after its acquisition in 1996. At the same time, Capra, Jr. was named the President of EUE/Screen Gems in Wilmington. The studio facility would change its name again in 2023, when it was bought by Cinespace Studios.

Beyond work, Capra Jr. took quickly to the Port City, buying a house in the Hancock Park area of town and marrying a local, Deborah Ann Sprunt, who had previously been married to Kenneth Sprunt, Jr. of the Sprunt family. Capra, Jr. also joined the Wilmington Rotary Club [pictured²] in March 1997...

...though per this memo [pictured³] from January 4, 1999, his attendance in the two years since was lax, leading the Attendance Committee to note he should be dropped from the club's membership. However, he was listed again on the club's 1999-2000 roster for that next membership year and did not fall off until 2000-2001.

Capra, Jr. was the son of famed Golden Age director Frank Capra (1897-1991), best known for films like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) and It’s A Wonderful Life (1946). For many years, Capra, Jr. held an annual screening of his father’s holiday classic in town. To learn more about the filming of Firestarter and Capra, Jr.’s time in Wilmington, take a look at the Frank Capra, Jr. Collection.

Sources:

1. MS 250 Frank Capra, Jr. Collection, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History
2. MS 215 Herman Blizzard Rotary Archive, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History
3. MS 215 Herman Blizzard Rotary Archive, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History

The City of Wilmington’s roots in the film industry reach back to at least 1983, when producer Frank Capra, Jr., selected several local spots as filming locations for his project, Firestarter. The Center’s collections offer a treasure trove of information on the film industry in North Carolina, featuring documents such as scripts, casting headshots, posters and publicity material, original artwork, and production files for both feature films and television shows.

One of the Center’s most extensive collections related to the film industry is MS 175 Fincannon and Associates Script Collection. Fincannon and Associates, a casting agency based in Wilmington, was founded in 1979 by Craig Fincannon, later assisted by his brother, Mark. The company has been involved with numerous major motion pictures and television shows over its 40-plus years of operation, collaborating with major industry leaders such as Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Dino DeLaurentiis.  

One such project was 1999’s Muppets from Space, filmed locally at Screen Gems Studios in Wilmington, located out near the airport. Shooting began in the fall of 1998. It was the second Jim Henson production to be shot in Wilmington, after Elmo in Grouchland, which wrapped earlier that summer. Muppets from Space centers on the character Gonzo, who discovers his extraterrestrial origins after years of referring to himself as “a whatever.” In addition to Screen Gems Studios, other filming locations included the Dixie Cement Company and Fort Fisher; the house shared by the Muppets in the film was located on North Seventh Street. Stars such as Jeffrey Tambor, Andie MacDowell, and Ray Liotta traveled to Wilmington to shoot scenes alongside local cast members and extras. The film must have been a fun challenge for Fincannon and Associates to cast, due to the large number of cameo appearances made by major celebrities (for which the Muppets franchise is well known).

Below are some samples of documents from the production, all reproduced from the Fincannon and Associates Script Collection. If you’d like to learn more about this region’s connection to the film industry, check out the Center’s subject guide, Hollywood East: Film in Southeast North Carolina. Or you can visit our reading room to view these original documents in person. 

This post was contributed by Sarah Creel, a student employee in the Center's Special Collections unit. Sarah is working to preserve and describe scrapbooks held in the Edwin E. Kirton Family Private Papers this academic year. 

Holiday cards are a way for us to connect with those we care for in our lives  —  to remind them of our appreciation or to simply say, “I was thinking of you.” Additionally, holiday cards are often saved by people as special mementos, and they can make their way into the archive. The Edwin E. Kirton Family scrapbooks, full of personal newspaper clippings, correspondence, and ephemera, provide a sneak peek into this holiday tradition during the mid-twentieth century in Wilmington. 

For Rev. Edwin Kirton and Mrs. Eunice Kirton, Christmas was a busy yet special time for them. Both Edwin and Eunice belonged to the Episcopal tradition, and Edwin served as the Rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in downtown Wilmington for over twenty years. The card below displays an illustration of a Christmas nativity scene, an image that would have resonated with the Kirton family as well as many in their community. 

The Kirton Family Scrapbooks also contain examples of homemade holiday cards with some creative flair. The card below was sent to the Kirtons by the Bluethenthal family, and it is constructed with white card stock and a piece of dried seaweed from Kure Beach attached to it. While quite different from the “typical” holiday card, it was a unique way for the Bluethenthal family to send their season’s greetings. 

Lastly, other holiday cards in the Edwin E. Kirton Family scrapbooks display the family’s connections outside of Wilmington. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Rev. Edwin E. Kirton was a member of the Governor’s Committee on Employment of the Handicapped. His active involvement in this state commission gave him a relationship with North Carolina Governor Dan Moore and his family. The card below is from the Governor who wishes the Kirton family a happy New Year. 

Overall, the Edwin E. Kirton Family scrapbooks contain a variety of holiday cards from the twentieth century. These cards show the different relationships the Kirton family had within and outside Wilmington, as well as the different types of holiday cards one could encounter in twentieth-century Wilmington. Finally, their preservation in the family scrapbooks also demonstrate the sentimental nature of holiday cards. 

Sources: MS 042 Edwin E. Kirton Family Private Papers, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History.

Summer has arrived to campus, no matter what the seasonal calendar says! It has been, as it always is, a busy year of processing manuscript collections, staffing our Reading Room, teaching with primary sources and rare books, creating catalog records, growing the Center’s digital collections, navigating technology upgrades, and countless other tasks.

The Center aims to connect the people and communities and Southeast North Carolina to the sources of their history and culture by collecting materials, providing access to those materials, sharing collections with the campus and broader region, encouraging and engaging scholarship on the region, and supporting and partnering with regional cultural heritage groups. You can see some of this history and culture, as well as the work we do to make it accessible, in blog posts completed by the Center across the year, discussing a variety of topics including:  

• Government Information librarian Elisabeth Garner wrote a series of posts about the North Carolina Manual’s history and content, starting here.
• University Archivist Adina Riggins wrote about records management at the University: how employees can tackle their records and the assistance that the University Archivist can provide. Also, if you’re reading this in May, check out June’s State Archives workshop specifically for higher education records management.
• Center specialist Isabella Walker used those University records to write about vocational education and the unexpected history of football on campus.
• Special Collections Specialist Nicole Yatsonsky complied clips from WHQR’s Sounds Local episodes that highlighted interviews with Black artists in honor of February’s Black History Month.
• Special Collections Librarian Rebecca Baugnon highlighted the materials available in Special Collections overall, and graduating student worker Sarah Creel shared holiday cards preserved in scrapbooks from the Reverend Edwin E. Kirton Family Private Papers collection.
• Public Services Archivist Samantha Crisp highlighted all kinds of materials, including two posts of fashion images in honor of Fashion Week on campus and (underrated?) film Muppets from Space, shot in town.

While the blog goes on hiatus for the summer, we will be continuing our work behind the scenes, providing access to collections through the Reading Room - by appointment - and preparing for August. I know it doesn’t seem like it but any academic librarian knows, the first day of classes is right around the corner! 

Flashback to a hundred years ago—it's the summer of 1926 and you’re riding the trolley from downtown Wilmington to Wrightsville Beach. The car rattles along the tracks, the air thick and humid, a warm breeze reaching you every now and again. As you cross Bradley Creek, the sun sets in the west behind you. You can hardly tell, though, as a second sun seems to rise from the ocean in the darkening distance.

But that’s no sun—that's Lumina [pictured¹].

When Lumina opened near the end of the Wrightsville Beach electric trolley line in 1905, over a thousand incandescent bulbs lit up the new entertainment pavilion. Built by Hugh MacRae, owner of the local electric utility, he hoped its brightness would encourage more people to use electricity. It did allow ships to navigate by it and was soon nicknamed "The Palace of Light."

Lumina had three levels of recreational activities for white leisure-seekers, like bowling at the ground floor lanes, dancing in the second-floor ballroom [pictured²], or taking in the sweeping ocean views from the top-level promenade. From there, you could also watch movies on the large, over-water screen [pictured³] or look down upon the dance floor below. The pavilion also featured restaurants, dressing rooms, and a dress code for the ballroom that staff enforced diligently.

After 1940, the pavilion faced several difficulties, like the closure of the trolley, increased automobile access to the beach, and newer entertainment options. It was damaged by Hurricane Hazel in 1954 and continued to decline through the 1960s, until it was finally condemned in 1972 and later demolished in 1973. The pavilion was located near what is now the Sandpeddler Inn & Suites on S. Lumina Avenue.

Though gone for over 50 years, Lumina continues to be a fond memory for those who once visited "The Palace of Light." A North Carolina historical marker (D-97) for Lumina, dedicated in 1992, can be found on Waynick Boulevard between Nathan Street and Iula Street.

For more information on Lumina and Wrightsville Beach history, visit the CSENCAH reading room to view these published works:

• Wrightsville Beach: A Pictorial History by Greg Watkins, 1997
• Cape Fear Lost by Susan Taylor Block, 1999
• Hometown Memories--Wilmington Tales: A Treasury of 20th Century Memories by Bob Lasley and Sallie Holt, 2002
• Lumina: Illuminating the Forgotten Past by the UNCW Department of Sociology, 2003

Image Sources:

Teaser: "Lumina" Wrightsville Beach, N.C., James Evans Postcard Collection

1. Lumina by Moonlight, Wrightsville Beach, Wilmington, N.C., James Evans Postcard Collection
2. Interior of Lumina Dancing Pavilion at Night, Wrightsville Beach Near Wilmington, N.C., James Evans Postcard Collection
3. Movies "Over the Waves" at Lumina, Wrightsville Beach, N.C., James Evans Postcard Collection

You can view these images and more in the digital collection of the James Evans Postcard Collection.

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) 

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 October 1954, Hurricane Hazel struck near Calabash, North Carolina, and lashed its way up the coast, creating 100 mph wind gusts and a storm surge that destroyed thousands of homes and other beach structures. The damage was so significant that the area around the Cape Fear coast was given the nickname “Hurricane Alley.” To this day, Hazel remains the strongest hurricane in North Carolina history and is the only Category 4 hurricane to have made landfall in the state. 

Though hurricane season runs from June through November, it peaks late August into September, so it's no surprise that September has historically been the busiest hurricane month for coastal North Carolinians. While recent storms like Florence in 2018 are still in recent memory, the pain of September hurricanes goes back decades. 

Let’s travel back in time via the WWAY Television News Archive to look at some you may have forgotten (or weren’t alive for yet!)... 

HURRICANE FRAN - 1996 

Not yet fully recovered from Hurricane Bertha in July, the Cape Fear coast took another hit on September 5, 1996, when Hurricane Fran landed as a Category 3. At the time, Fran was the costliest hurricane for North Carolina since Hurricane Hazel in 1954, due largely to a 10+ foot storm surge that destroyed homes and businesses from Kure Beach to Emerald Isle. Famously, Fran swept away the temporary North Topsail Beach police station. 

This clip shows trees being replaced in Downtown Wilmington three months after the storm destroyed many:

Source: "Wilmington Downtown Tree Planting to Repair Damage after Hurricane Fran," WWAY Television News Archive, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History

HURRICANE HUGO – 1989

On September 22, 1989, Hurricane Hugo—a Category 4 with winds as high as 140 mph—made landfall just north of Charleston, South Carolina, before moving up through North Carolina. The storm's intensity produced hurricane-force gusts that reached as far as western North Carolina and a historic storm tide nearing 20 feet. At the time, it was one of the strongest and costliest hurricanes to hit the East Coast. 

This clip shows the storm’s damage to Yaupon Beach in Oak Island just three days after: 

Source: "Yaupon Beach Damage from Hurricane Hugo," WWAY Television News Archive, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History

HURRICANE DIANA - 1984 

Hurricane Diana was the first hurricane to strike Southeast North Carolina since Hurricane Donna in 1960 and the first major hurricane since Hurricane Hazel in 1954. As the strongest hurricane of the 1984 season, Diana hit along the coast on September 13 as a Category 2, making landfall at Bald Head Island. Both New Hanover County and Brunswick County were met with flooding and overflowing lakes, the result of over a foot of rainfall. 

This clip shows residents of Bald Head Island who took shelter in the Old Baldy Lighthouse rather than evacuate the island: 

Source: "Bald Head Island Residents Evacuate during Hurricane Diana while Some Take Shelter in Lighthouse," WWAY Television News Archive, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History

As a final fun fact, all three hurricanes were severe enough that their names were retired from the official hurricane name list, which is maintained by the Hurricane Committee of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). 

You can search the WWAY Television News Archive digital collection for more hurricane-related videos, or check out the Calhoun Collection of Hurricane Preparedness Research and the North Carolina Coastal Federation Papers for guides and research on hurricane mitigation, evacuation plans, and recovery steps. 

In 1999, Dr. H. William Gillen donated a collection of over 1,500 texts on the history of medicine to Randall Library’s Special Collections department, which is now part of the Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History. Dr. Gillen was especially interested in neurology, and as a result of this interest, there are a surprising number of books in our collections focusing on sexually transmitted diseases and their effects on the brain. One of the more fascinating titles from this part of the collection is Corky the Killer: A Story of Syphilis, written and illustrated by Dr. Harry A. Wilmer and published by the American Social Hygiene Association in 1945.

At the time this book was published, World War II had resulted in a surge in sexually transmitted diseases among American servicemembers. Psychiatrist Harry A. Wilmer, a gifted artist and humorist and a pioneer in the advent of group therapy, had recently experienced some success with his illustrated book Huber the Tuber, which aimed to explain the disease of tuberculosis in plain language that anyone could understand. Believing that he could build on this success to help meet the critical public health crisis of venereal disease, Dr. Wilmer partnered with an organization known as the American Social Hygiene Association (ASHA), a national nonprofit that aimed to, among other things, “advocate the highest standards of private and public morality; to organize the defense of the community by every available means against the disease of vice; and to conduct on request inquiries into prostitution and venereal disease.”

Corky the Killer is presented one passage at a time, with each passage accompanied by a relevant illustration by Dr. Wilmer and a paragraph of medical commentary by Wilmer and/or the ASHA. The villain of the story is Corky, an anthropomorphized syphilis spirochete, who accompanies an army of his brethren on a mass invasion attempt in “Man-World,” with towns and villages representing the various parts of the human body that syphilis is known to attack.  The leader of the spirochete army is General Paresis, a commander known for delusions of grandeur.  

The “good guys” consist of the Foreign Body Investigators (FBI), aka the “G-Men,” as well as the Bloodhounds, a tactical police force dispatched to eradicate the invaders. Corky is ultimately captured by the bloodhounds, and the book ends with Corky’s execution in the “Soap and Water Chamber of Torture.”

Corky the Killer is a unique piece of World War II propaganda, particularly because of its heavy reliance on patriotic rhetoric. This isn’t surprising, given the fact that the U.S. government was engaged in a targeted public health campaign to combat venereal disease during the war. Posters like the one below portrayed spreading venereal disease as being tantamount to sabotage and treason.  

In keeping with this spirit, Dr. Wilmer and the ASHA take care to draw a direct connection between preventing the spread of syphilis and winning the war. Sometimes this is done through symbolism. For instance, this quote on page 8 regarding effective treatment for syphilis: “It is just as useless to treat the sore as it is to barricade a bomb-pitted road after the invading army has passed over it.”  Other passages draw a more explicit connection between STD prevention and the war effort, such as this snippet from page 18 of the book:

The book helps improve sexual hygiene, but its misogynistic rhetoric is overt – and worthy of study. The ASHA and the U.S. government certainly were not shy about targeting sexually active women in their STD prevention propaganda - a quick internet search will reveal dozens of examples of WWII-era posters and leaflets that objectified women and blamed them for both the spread of disease and hampering the war effort. It’s important to note that even though there are no female characters, and especially no sex workers, depicted in Corky the Killer, the ASHA has clearly chosen to use the book’s medical commentary as a platform to promote their anti-prostitution agenda. See, for instance, this quote from the last page of the book:

The Center’s public services unit assists students and faculty in a wide variety of disciplines who are working on projects related to some aspect of local history or engaging in research with primary sources. Primary sources like Corky the Killer can be incorporated into a variety of courses, because they illustrate the interdisciplinary applications of historical research – in this example, drawing connections between public health, political science, gender and sexuality studies, communication studies, biology, and medicine. Reach out to us if you’d like to brainstorm some ways that the Center’s collections can support your research or teaching! 

For decades, Southeast North Carolina has had a diverse and culturally rich community of artists that call the region home—or ones that just stopped by to say hello! From 1984-1998, WHQR Public Radio’s program Sounds Local featured interviews with musicians, painters, actors, and more, highlighting local exhibits, area performances, and new creations. 

In honor of Black History Month this month, Special Collections has chosen a selection of Sounds Local episodes that include segments with Black artists talking about their work and lived experiences. The audio of each episode can be accessed by clicking on the hyperlinked date. 

January 17, 1986 – Minnie Evans (1892-1987)

Interview with artist Minnie Evans, North Carolina Museum of Art Curator Mitchell Kahan, and former St. John's Museum of Art Director Alan Aiches regarding Evans, her work, and an exhibit on display at the North Carolina Museum of Art. 

October 13, 1989 – Nnenna Freelon (1954- )

WHQR's Saturday morning jazz host, Maggie Pate, interviews vocalist Nnenna Freelon about her background and career as a singer, during her year-long residency at Brunswick Community College. 

October 11, 1991 – Jawole Zollar (1950- )

Interview with artistic director Jawole Zollar about the performance by Urban Bush Women dance troupe of Praise House, a tribute based on the life of Minnie Evans as part of "In Praise of Minnie Evans: A Community Celebration" held in Wilmington. 

October 18, 1991 – Jimmy Heath (1926-2020)

Interview with jazz saxophonist Jimmy Heath about his career as a musician and composer ahead of the celebration of his 65th birthday with the Heath Brothers Quartet in Thalian Hall. 

August 03, 1996 – Cynthia Tyson (1954-2004)

Interview with writer Cynthia Tyson on her jazz musical, Bessie, Billie and Me, directed by Tyhm Kennedy and sponsored by the Wilmington Jazz Collective, on stage at Kenan Auditorium at UNC Wilmington.

October 17, 1998 – Doug (1936-2006) and Frankie (1937-2024) Quimby

Interview with Doug and Frankie Quimby, The Sea Island Singers, ahead of their Gullah performance at UNC Wilmington's Kenan Auditorium for a Tapestry Theatre Company benefit.

Additional episodes featuring Black artists can be found by browsing the WHQR Public Radio Archive finding aid and listened to online via the WHQR Public Radio Archive Digital Collection. 

To learn more about artist collections held by Special Collections, browse the following subject guides: 

• The Arts in Southeast North Carolina
• Hollywood East: Film in Southeast North Carolina
• Southeast North Carolina Writers

As anyone who has spent time in the secluded, closed stacks of a university archive will know, boxes upon boxes of sometimes-unorganized, sometimes-processed collections are interspersed within the shelves of special and rare books. Since September, I have been assisting with reprocessing the Herman Blizzard Rotary Archive, the archive of the Wilmington Rotary Club, which was established in Wilmington in 1915 as the first Rotary club in the area.

Prior to last semester, I knew vaguely of Rotary clubs, in that I knew they existed, but that was where my knowledge of the subject ended. Thanks to my work on the collection these last several months, I can now say that I am well-versed in their organizational functions and humanitarian causes.

My role with Special Collections has focused primarily on identifying what's contained in certain segments of the collection, and then organizing that information in a way that will make it accessible to someone who is not as familiar with it as I now am. Basically, that means I have spent an extraordinary amount of time working in Microsoft Excel spreadsheets the last six months, as you can see here:

There’s a lot of variety in the contents of the collection; most of it being various types of paper goods, but also a lot of artifacts. Particularly, there are numerous trading banners from Rotary clubs all over the world. I think this is one of my favorite parts of the collection, and of Rotary as a whole. As someone who studies and works with material culture, I love the tangible nature of giving a banner to a guest. Two people might not speak the same language, but Rotary connects them and allows them to experience the other’s culture, carrying a little piece of it home.

While here, I've also worked with the club's minutes, newsletters, handbooks, rosters, photographs, and material related to District 7730 and Rotary International. Because the collection is so broad, I’ve stumbled across many memorable items. Personal favorites have included a file folder containing three different books about the Uruguayan beef industry, a trading banner declaring Fremont, Michigan, to be “the baby food capital of the world” (pictured below), and many humorous, occasionally gossipy letters between members.

After all of this time spent with the collection, I now feel invested in the continued success of the Wilmington Rotary Club. However, as one might expect from the kind of person who happily spends hours out of their week typing notes into Excel, I’m not much of a socializer. My current plan is to get my dad to join and then report back. Wish me luck!

To learn more about the Wilmington Rotary Club, be sure to check out the Herman Blizzard Rotary Archive finding aid, or view digitized collection material in the Herman Blizzard Rotary Archive digital collection.

If you're looking for inspiration for UNCW Fashion Week, check out some of these historical resources from the Center's Special Collections. This post highlights images from our book and periodical collections. Part 2 of this series features resources from the Center's manuscript and archival collections. 

Want to see any of these resources in person? You can find them in the CSENCAH reading room on the 2nd floor of the library. Contact us for more info!

Engravings from Godey's Lady's Book, 1850 (more info)

Color woodblock prints depicting Japanese dignitaries from an 1823 book of Japanese court costumes (more info)

Costume designs from Butterick's Masquerade and Carnival: Their Customs and Costumes, 1892 (more info)

Color engravings from Petit Courrier des Dames, Journal des Modes, Paris, 1839 (more info)

If you're looking for inspiration for UNCW Fashion Week, check out these images of historical resources from the Center's Special Collections. This post highlights our manuscript and archival collections. Part 1 of this series features inspiration images from the Center's book and periodical collections. 

Want to see any of these resources in person? You can find them in the CSENCAH reading room on the 2nd floor of the library. Contact us for more info!

Original costume designs from MS 181 Hannah Solomon Block Collection

Foundational costume corset worn by actress Linda Darnell in The Walls of Jericho, 1948

WWAY news clips related to the fashion industry in the 1980s

Wilmington Downtown Riverfront Modeling of Gowns from Fashion Designer Tim Cobb, 1983 (more info)

Southeast North Carolina Clothing Retailer Discusses Fall Fashions, 1985 (more info)

Fashion icons from the Lower Cape Fear Historical Society Photograph Collection, presented courtesy of the LCFHS

This post was contributed by Hannah Gaydeski, a student worker in the Center's Public Services unit.

The Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History holds a mysterious manuscript item entitled “Diary (author unknown)” written from 1859 to 1864. I first consulted this diary during the Fall 2025 semester, when I researched Victorian hair jewelry for my final project for the English department’s Victorian Literature class. Given that this diary was labeled as having a significant overlap with the Civil War, I was hopeful that there might be some mention of hair jewelry or hair wreaths, which were connected to the era's mourning practices. I did come across a mention of “wreaths” on January 28, 1859. This was obviously not a focus of the diary, but it did contain some valuable insights. 

The author of the diary was a schoolteacher at the Glen Anna Seminary, and had just arrived for her first semester. The author documents her daily activities. She focuses on irregular but necessary activities, such as laundry or food preservation. My interest quickly expanded to other mentioned instances of material culture, such as wax replicas, painting, and letter-writing. As to the physical properties of the diary, it is bound in a cloth hardcover. The pages have browned and the ruling has faded. Towards the end of the diary there is a small envelope and a poem, with an accompanying dried flower wrapped between the slit envelope. At the very back there is a blotting paper. Some pages at the end of the diary have been cut out, but the final known entry is contained in its entirety on the last page. 

I was curious about the author’s identity and conducted a quick internet search for the school, as the author had not signed her name to the  book. This turned up two digitized Glen Anna Seminary catalogs, one of which dates from 1858-1859, which overlaps with the diary’s creation. The school, a girl’s seminary, was described as “not sectarian. There are nine branches of the christian [sic] church represented, and we have teachers of different denominations." I expanded my research to include instances of the author’s interpersonal relationships at this point, hoping to uncover her identity. The documentation of her friendships and the information in the catalog led me to believe that the author was one “Miss Maggie Clewell.” The diary author could not be P.L. Lathrop, Jennie Jenks, S.T. Ray, nor S.A. Burch, as the author had written about all of these women. This left the two assistant pupils, or Maggie Clewell, the “Teacher of Mathematics and English Branches” as potential authors. Clewell seemed the most likely choice as she had made mention of teaching algebra before. Furthermore, a second search turned up a related collection in our archives! The Clewell Family Collection (MS 365) contains manuscripts relating to Margaret (Maggie) Clewell Jenkins and her brother, Francis Christian Clewell. The diary’s author had mentioned writing to “Frank,” a common nickname for Francis. 

After cross-referencing with the Clewell Family collection, I determined that the diary was definitely connected to this collection. This collection contains a family history entitled Endurin’ The War and a series of letters from Francis (Frank) Christian Clewell written to his family during his service in the Civil War and up until his death in 1867. Frank’s letters are not originals, unlike the diary, but were instead transcribed on a typewriter some time afterwards. Whoever transcribed the letters included notes describing family relations, errors in the accounts, and even physical descriptions of the paper that the letters were written on! This editor confirmed that Maggie taught at the Glen Anna Seminary and was Frank’s sister. The editor also mentioned that she married a Robert Alexander Jenkins, Jr. From this, I was able to successfully cross-reference events between the letters and the diary. It would appear that the diary and letters were separated from each other at some point after being donated to UNCW Library and were never reunited, since connecting the diary to the family collection would require a familiarity with the family. Both collections state the “method and date of acquisition unknown,” but the digitization of other records has happily provided enough evidence to connect the collections back to each other. 

[Update: Thanks to Hannah's research, Special Collections staff were able to reunite this orphaned diary with its parent collection in April 2026. It can now be found as part of MS 365 Clewell Family Collection (finding aid linked below)]

Sources

• MS 365 Clewell Family Collection
• Catalogue of the officers and students of Glen Anna Seminary, at Thomasville, North Carolina 1858/1859

Further Reading

• The Church and Private Schools of North Carolina: A Historical Study, by Charles Lee Raper (1898)
• Transcripts of Clewell family letters posted to the blog Spared and Shared 7
• "Women's Colleges in North Carolina, a Postal History," by Tony L. Crumbley, from the North Carolina Postal Historian vol. 36, no. 3 (Summer 2017)

In October, the Center for Southeast NC Archives and History is excited to host an open house! Mark your calendars for Thursday, October 30, from 4-5:30pm and come join us!

In the Center’s Reading Room (Discovery Hall 2095), we will have items on display related to our collecting areas: government information, manuscript collections, rare and special publications, and University records. Our team will be on hand to chat about the Center’s collections and services – we are available for use by faculty, staff, students, community members, and all kinds of information-seekers looking for information about the history of Southeast North Carolina!

We will also be celebrating the library’s 60th year of being part of the Federal Depository Library Program, which helps the public access federal government information. 

Folks from all around may find this open house helpful: students, faculty, staff, community members of all kinds. Our collections document the University and its history and Southeastern North Carolina encompassing New Hanover County and the surrounding region including Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Duplin, Pender, Onslow, and Sampson counties. 

Off-campus visitors may find this information about visitor parking on campus useful. Please email csencah@uncw.edu with any questions. 

Light refreshments will be served. Please stop by, for 5 minutes or 50 – and bring your research questions! 

Lauren Love is an intern working in Special Collections.

While reformatting the finding aid for the collection of St. Andrews Covenant Presbyterian Church (also known as MS 180) an excellent piece of Wilmington art history was spotted. The small booklet from 1943 was created for “An Artistic Banquet” held at the Church of the Covenant just before it was merged with St. Andrews in 1944.

                                                    The Church of the Covenant

Before I continue, allow me to introduce myself: my name is Lauren Love and this summer I am interning in the Special Collections department of UNCW Randall Library. So far I have been buried, nose first, in MS 180 only briefly coming up for air to help move furniture and prepare for spring cleaning project which has taken over our domain (more on that in the future!).

Initially I was struck by the hand painted illustration on the cover of the booklet whose colors contrasted so sharply with the stale yellow of ageing paper. To satisfy my curiosity, I brought the find to my supervisor, Rebecca Baugnon. “Claude Howell!” she said excitedly after flipping through to the last page; “Claude Howell?!” came the voice of Jerry Parnell, the Special Collections Coordinator from across the hall. One can imagine how my interest peeked at such reactions. Upon further inspection we found that the pamphlet was an itinerary of sorts for an educational art program where lessons in painting, watercolor, drawing and much more were offered to attendees. The investigation became an eye opening revelation about the history of Art culture in Wilmington and how, unbeknownst to me, I held in my hands a small booklet which contained the names of some local art heroes.

                   Irene Price 1930s, photograph from Two Centuries of Art in New Hanover County
                                                                  by Crockette W. Hewlett

Unassumingly printed are the names of Peggy Hall, Claude Howell, Rosalie Oliver and Winona Gration. The details of how these artists contributed to the booklet is unknown but further research proved that they were students together under Irene Price and Delbert Palmer. Price was a friend of Elisabeth Augusta Chant who is partially responsible for encouraging and cultivating the art scene in Wilmington. Chant and Price both taught art classes in downtown Wilmington during the 1930s and went on to found and direct various programs and institutions while maintaining connections with some of the artists listed above. Simple though it may appear, the booklet shows the efforts of these budding artists to work with the community to foster a love of arts which we still see in our port city today.

                                                Peggy Hall with students 1941 (left), and Claude Howell (right)
                               Photographs from Two Centuries of Art in New Hanover County by Crockette W. Hewlett

Peggy Hall studied under Price and Chant and went on to become the director of the Wilmington Museum of Art, a museum which opened in 1940 and before World War II came to a close. She exhibited her work around the country and possessed a passion for art throughout her life.

Claude Howell would become a very influential artist who taught at UNCW and played a large role in the establishment of the Art Department. Some of his paintings are located on the first floor of the library near Port City Java and a beautiful collection of illustrated holiday cards are housed in the Special Collections Library upstairs.

Rosalie Oliver taught and spoke at the Wilmington Museum of Art.

Unfortunately I could not find any information on Winona Gration.

For more information come ask us about the following collections:
MS 063 – A Balkan Sketchbook by Claude Howell
MS 076 – Claude Howell – Classification of Art Prints
MS 326 – Claude Howell Christmas Cards

For a truly enlightening exploration of art in Wilmington read Two Centuries of Art in New Hanover County by Crockette W. Hewlett, both the pictures used in this blog post as well as the biographical information are from this thorough and entertaining book. 

Sources can be accessed by visiting Randall Library and the Special Collections Library therein:

• An Artistic Banquet. Wilmington:  Church of the Covenant, 1943. Print. Box 10, Folder 3. St. Andrews Covenant Presbyterian Church Collection. Randall Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC. May 21, 2014.
• Hewlett, Crockette W.. Two Centuries of Art in New Hanover County. Durham: Moore Publishing Company, 1976. Print.
• Twenty Fifth Anniversary Celebration. Wilmington: Church of the Covenant, 1943. Print. Box 10, Folder 3. St. Andrews Covenant Presbyterian Church Collection. Randall Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC. May 21, 2014. 

In 1973, the book collection of the William M. Randall Library of the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) reached 100,000 volumes. To celebrate, the library acquired a first edition Huck Finn by Mark Twain (published in 1885) and held a special ceremony. This first edition is in Special Collections.

An announcement for the Nov. 30 ceremony was in the Seahawk student newspaper.

For comparison, according to 2012/2013 statistics, Randall Library has 481,134 books. 

A couple notes from the library's history:

*Wilmington College Library moved from a few rooms in Alderman Hall to its own building during winter break of 1968. It opened in January of 1969 and the official dedication was March 30.

*Randall Libray began planning an expansion in 1985, which was completed in 1987. 

This model of Randall Library, circa 1985, is in University Archives in Randall Library at UNCW.

Hello! My name is Tess Will, and I am a master's student at UNCW in the Public History Department. For my last year of graduate school, I have been a Processing Intern here in Special Collections at Randall Library, where I am learning archival processing methods, engaging with professional texts in the field, and learning lots of new skills! I have been working in museums, libraries, and archives for over five years, starting when I was an undergraduate student at East Carolina University. As a history major at ECU, I was first introduced to the world of archives and museums through my own historical research, where I became enamored with the "stuff" of history. While I loved the research, I found myself drawn to the care and management of historical archives and artifacts, which led me to pursue a minor in public history. My first public history position was as a tour guide at the Country Doctor Museum in Bailey, North Carolina, where I interpreted medical history to the public and dipped my toes into collections care. Before I graduated, I was lucky enough to work as an intern in the History Collections of Laupus Library and as a State of North Carolina Intern at the Queen Anne's Revenge Conservation Lab.

 I chose to pursue a graduate degree in public history because it encompassed the fields that I love and would prepare me for a variety of different positions. I was thrilled when I was accepted into the program here at UNCW because of Wilmington's rich (though at times difficult) history and the many cultural/historical institutions I could engage with while a master's student. Something I found important in a master's program was an emphasis on practical experience, and UNCW had just that. Students in the public history program are required to complete a practicum as one of their final credits to graduate, and I was lucky enough to do that work here in Special Collections!

During my time here at UNCW and in Wilmington, I have learned a lot about caring for the past, both physically and intellectually. I love my position here in Special Collections because of the skills and competencies I have learned, but I also find the work to be incredibly fulfilling. I enjoy creating order from chaos and making the past accessible to researchers and the public alike through my work. During the course of my practicum, I hope to accomplish the following goals:

1. ArchivesSpace: As I continue my work here in Special Collections, I would like to become more familiar with our software ArchivesSpace. Data entry and navigating different types of software are incredibly important in the positions I hope to find myself gainfully employed! I would like to become more competent with different aspects of ArchivesSpace because it is a commonly used software in many archives and libraries.
2. Engage More with Professional Texts: As a public history student, I have become very well-rounded but lack the specialized training that archivists and librarians get while completing degrees in Library Science. As a part of my practicum, I will be reading and discussing texts as assigned by my practicum supervisor (Thank you, Nicole!). I hope that this work, built upon readings I completed last fall, will help me be better prepared for a potential position in an archive.
3. Be More Aware of Archival Silences: Archives and museum collections to this day are overwhelmingly filled with the voices of the wealthy, white, educated elite. As a public history professional and (hopefully!) future archivist or collections manager, I want to continue the work started by others and become more aware of how to make collections more equitable. I hope to join the good work of erasing the silences within archives.

Upon graduating in May, I hope to gain a full-time position as an Archivist, Collections Manager, or Registrar. In these positions, I would be able to interact with the "stuff" of history daily through careful care and organization. I look forward to spending my last months of graduate school here in Special Collections and can't wait to see what I learn next!

Time flies when you're having fun! Over the course of the last month, I have worked closely with MS 058 Rabbi Samuel Mendelsohn Papers. This collection was donated back in 1989 by the Temple of Israel and had been previously processed. Since its merge into ArchiveSpace, some data needed to be reviewed and updated for accuracy. The collection also required new archival-grade folders in order to best preserve the papers within. Because most of the intellectual work was already completed, it has been my duty to pay close attention to the details to ensure everything is in tip-top shape! To be fair, Dr. Mendelsohn made it much easier for us because he labeled each of his manuscripts with a designation (sermon, lecture, address, etc.) that became the series in which the collection is organized.

My first duty was to physically rearrange the collection to make sure it matched the record in ArchiveSpace. While I did that, I typed up brand new labels, which will be attached to the new folders. The document I produced for the labels has also had the added benefit of acting as a quick reference list for the contents of the collections without having to go into ArchiveSpace, which can take a bit longer to peruse. After this, I replaced the old folders with new acid-free folders, which are used broadly across archives and museums to keep documents safe. It is a very simple act but can extend the life and usability of a record by many years. As strange as it may sound, this is typically one of my favorite parts of the process, not just because it helps the object but is one of the only times I will get to engage with every object. I found it so cool that Dr. Mendelsohn wrote on ruled paper in the 1870s, just as we do today!

After replacing the folders, I carefully updated the finding aid to make sure the names were correctly reflected, and then updated the main collection fields in ArchiveSpace to make sure the finding aid was as complete as possible. Much of archival work is detail-oriented, which is certainly a skill I have honed during my internship here. I certainly used this skill as I reviewed scans of the over 200 objects within the collection to check for imperfections and made notes of which ones would need to be rescanned. I will start rescanning the documents soon!

Overall, I have begun to make progress in meeting my learning goals for my practicum. I am becoming more familiar with ArchivesSpace through careful combing of data. I have engaged with many new professional texts that have reinforced basic archival principles, such as provenance and original order, but also have increased my knowledge of current professional discourse within the archival community. This relates to my last goal: to become more aware of archival silences. I recently read "Moving Toward a Reparative Archive: A Roadmap for a Holistic Approach to Disrupting Homogenous Histories in Academic Repositories and Creating Inclusive Spaces for Marginalized Voices" by Lae'l Hughes-Watkins which discussed why archives need to reexamine their collections, collecting practices, and their relationship with their communities. Hughes-Watkins identifies archives (and other institutions of higher learning) as places that have contributed to oppressive archival practices that contributed to archival silences.

Through engaging with that text and others like UNC Chapel Hill's "A Guide to Conscious Editing at Wilson Special Collections Library," I am becoming more aware of how I can help erase silences and strive for a more inclusive archive. This does not just mean changing collecting missions, but also the way we talk and write about collections. In reference to Dr. Mendelsohn's collection, reading "Removing the Invisible Norm of Protestant Christianity" in "A Guide to Conscious Editing" revealed the way that our vocabulary is inherently influenced by Protestant Christianity. Being aware of verbiage and how I describe collections can help me better represent existing collections and start to eliminate silences within the archive.

Last week, I said goodbye to Dr. Samuel Mendelsohn and his wonderful collection. Sometimes in life, things do not go to plan, and I can say with certainty that was the case with Dr. Mendelsohn’s collection. I mentioned in my last blog post that attention to detail is critical to the work of an archivist, and MS 058 surely required a careful eye.

Since my last update, I have scanned over 500 pages of Dr. Mendelsohn’s sermons, lectures, addresses, and more. Digitization is something I am quite familiar with, having worked previously under Digital Initiatives here at Randall Library. I find the process of scanning to be meditative in a way! I am performing a function that will create better access to a collection, but I can also listen to music or audiobooks as I do so. As a grad student, I’ll take any peaceful moment I can get! Unfortunately, Scanning MS 058 took me much longer than anticipated because of how the original scans were ordered. From what I was able to piece together, it appears that most of the original scans were organized entirely chronologically rather than in their series groups and then chronologically within their series. This was further complicated because the files were not named in a way that identified them. So, that meant I first had to spend a lot of time noting what digital file corresponded to each physical file in the collection. This became complicated when I realized they were not ordered the same way as their record in ArchivesSpace.

Imagine Dr. Mendelsohn’s collection is physically and digitally organized in ArchivesSpace in the example below:

Sermon A - Box 1, Folder 1

Sermon B - Box 1, Folder 2

Sermon C - Box 1, Folder 3

Sermon D - Box 1, Folder 4

Address A - Box 2, Folder 1

Address B - Box 2, Folder 2

Address C - Box 2, Folder 3

Etc.,

BUT, it turns out that the digital files were organized like this:

Sermon A - Box 1, Folder 1

Sermon B - Box 1, Folder 2

Sermon C - Box 1, Folder 3

Lecture G - Box 3, Folder 24

Lecture H - Box 3, Folder 25

Sermon D - Box 1, Folder 4

Etc.,

Then, imagine that they were not actually named as suggested above but actually look like the following:

Spc_ms058_1_1.pdf

Spc_ms058_1_2.pdf

Spc_ms058_1_3.pdf

Spc_ms058_1_4.pdf

Spc_ms058_1_5.pdf

Spc_ms058_1_6.pdf

Since they didn’t quite follow the order in ArchivesSpace, it required me to open each digital file and compare them with the contents of their physical file to ensure I was rescanning the correct document. If I had not, I would have rescanned the wrong files, and when they were reuploaded into ArchivesSpace, the incorrect scan would have been linked to the digital record.

Did that make sense?... Yeah, it took me a while to wrap my brain around too.

Some other minor organizational issues appeared during my work with Dr. Mendelsohn’s collection, but I believe it has all been resolved. Even if I made an error, I feel better knowing that the collection is now in better shape so that researchers can easily find what they need, even if they don’t physically visit Special Collections. After scanning, the digital files were uploaded and assigned to the correct archival record. I then completed the final details on the finding aid, and 058 was done!

I got right to work on my new collection, MS 254 Anchram and Elizabeth Evans Civil War Letters. I am reviewing this collection for correctness of order, interesting content (related to life in Wilmington, notable figures, and yellow fever), and duplicated transcriptions. After my review, I will work on transferring the transcriptions of the letters, done originally by Evans’s grandson(!), from .html format to .doc and eventually into .pdf. Then I will carefully rescan each delicate document and attach the transcript to the scanned document so all the digital files will be in one place.

I have just begun my initial review of MS 254, and during this process, I am checking that the physical files are in the correct chronological order. At the same time, I am replacing the old plastic protectors that the letters were in with archival-grade sleeves. I’ve already found a few letters that were folded to fit in the letter-size folder, which is definitely not ideal for maintaining their physical condition. Leaving documents folded creates points of weakness and stress on the document, which can adversely affect their life within the archive.

My next blog post will be the final one before the semester ends and I graduate! I look forward to updating you all on my practicum experience then.

While my semester is nearing its end, I still have a few more weeks to squeeze in the last bit of work on the Evans’s letters! When I last checked in, I had just begun my work with the Anchram H. and Elizabeth K. Evans Civil War Letters collection.

As a recap, this collection mostly comprises correspondence between Anchram and Elizabeth Evans during Anchram’s time in the army during the Civil War. The Evans lived in Brunswick County in a small town named Town Creek and were a farming family before and after the war. From what I gathered from the letters and some brief research on Ancestry.com, Elizabeth and Anchram got married in February of 1861 when she was just 16 and he was 22. Marriage at a young age was much more common in the nineteenth century, but it still blows my mind to think about how young Elizabeth was. Anchram enlisted in the army in early 1862, and the couple had their first daughter in October of the same year. From what I could put together from the letters, it seemed like Elizabeth lived with Anchram’s family while he was away.

            I was assigned several tasks for this collection, but I began by reviewing their letters for content related to yellow fever, notable Wilmington families, and information about life at the time. I did this by reviewing the existing transcripts and the letters themselves. Consulting both was necessary because the original transcripts weren’t quite reliable. Reading cursive handwriting on aging and damaged paper is very difficult, especially when dealing with spelling errors, unfamiliar turns of phrases, and references to unfamiliar people and places. By reading every letter, I could put together information for what became the scope and content notes for the finding aid. For this collection, I provided a very brief description of every letter that will hopefully lead researchers to the collection. This is called “Item Level Description,” and it is not performed for every archival collection because it is a very time-consuming task.

            Reading through the collection helped me form a better picture of the Evans family and their lives, and it helped immensely with reorganizing. For the most part, there was not much to be done to reorganize the collection because they would be kept in chronological order, but there were a number that were either undated, partially dated, or even dated incorrectly. By being familiar with the letters' content, I could help ascribe dates to those partially dated or correct those that weren’t quite right. While my practicum is technically just about complete, I should have time to wrap up the collection before the semester ends and I graduate! As I type this blog post, the finding aid is live on Randall Library’s website and can be accessed by researchers. I hope I will have time to digitize the letters in the collection, as they are quite fragile. By providing digital copies online, the collection will be available to a wider range of researchers and reduce the time they have to be pulled for onsite researchers, extending their lives in the archive.

            This semester, I’ve learned a lot and honed many important skills, including my attention to detail. I only spent ten hours a week in Special Collections, so it was important to be organized and leave myself notes on what I completed the week prior and what to start on for the next week. Making mistakes in a workplace that deals with many moving pieces is very easy. I’ve caught mistakes from previous archive staff in my collections and made a few myself, but I catch them when I can and fix them. If I can’t fix them or need assistance, I seek support from my supervisors. I haven't been afraid to ask for help for a long time, and I think I would advise everyone to work on that.

            As for my learning goals for the semester, I think I’ve made substantial progress in them all. I feel more comfortable working with ArchivesSpace and feel that I could use these skills to navigate other types of cataloging software for archives or museums. I’ve also engaged with many professional texts thanks to the readings put together by my supervisors. I read a number of articles and book chapters on all sorts of topics, including climate change, copyright, digitization, outreach, and more! I believe I also made progress in working to identify and eliminate archival silences. For example, while reading the Evans’s letters, I was able to identify a letter that referenced the transfer of three enslaved persons from father to son. While I can’t tell their stories or even record their names, I am happy to bring them to light, even if it's just in the scope notes of my finding aid. I still can’t believe how quickly this semester has gone by but I am proud of what I have accomplished. I hope that my work will be helpful to future researchers and inspires others to join a field that brings me so much joy. 

            Well, I guess this is farewell for now. I’ve got more work to do!

Introduction

UNCW Library’s Special Collections unit is housed within the Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History, located on the second floor of Discovery Hall. Special Collections focuses on collecting cultural and historical materials pertaining to the eight-county region known as southeast North Carolina (SENC), including Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Duplin, New Hanover, Onslow, Pender, and Sampson counties. The Center is also home to federal and state government resources and records documenting the history of the University.

When thinking about archival materials, what comes to mind first is most likely old things – whether that’s rare books or letters and deeds from generations past – and it is true, we do collect those items; however, our collections especially reflect the contemporary growth of the SENC region during the 20th and 21st centuries. They trace economic development, environmental concerns and coastal area management, and politics at all levels of government, as well as the cultural output that uniquely defines the Cape Fear area. Special Collections staff curate, process, describe, and provide access to a wide variety of materials falling into two primary categories – Rare Books and Manuscripts Collections.  

Rare Books

There are four primary collections of published materials held in Special Collections. 

The Southeast North Carolina Collection consists of books and other published items pertaining to our eight-county region. From church histories and broadsides to county records and scientific reports, this collection contains a wide variety of rare and unique items that document all historical aspects of this region.

The Local Authors Collection contains the creative output of SENC writers, including works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and more. You might recognize names such as Clyde Edgerton, Philip Gerard, and Nina de Gramont.

Special Collections also collects locally published magazines, newsletters, newspapers, and other similar publications – a group of materials that libraries collectively call periodicals. This collection includes out-of-print titles such as Encore and Life Around Wilmington, as well as active titles, including current regional newspapers. The unit collaborates with the Library’s Digital Initiatives team and state and local partners to digitize and make available newspapers such as Carolina Beach’s Island Gazette and Columbus County’s News Reporter. 

Finally, the Special Books Collection contains publications that meet one or more of the following criteria: items pertaining to North Carolina history, items published before 1850, and rare items owned by less than 50 libraries. An additional (and very neat!) sub-collection within Special Books is a collection of miniature books measuring less than 5 inches by width or height.

Pictured here is a selection of rare books ranging in size from Mark Catesby’s 23-inch folio, Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands, to the miniature book, Lute & Lyre and Other Musical Instruments of the 6th Century A.D., a generous 1 inch in height. 

Manuscripts and Archives

Manuscript collections differentiate the Center’s Special Collections unit from other libraries and archival repositories due to their inherently unique character; manuscript collections reflect their creators and owners and often contain materials that were not kept or organized by anyone else. As mentioned previously, the Special Collections unit collects and documents the cultural and historical output of the SENC region. Our collecting scope includes subjects such as the arts, business, development, education, environmental history, faculty research, local history, politics, religion, and war and military history. Researchers can discover physical items such as diaries, letters, and photographs, as well as digital items including electronic documents, audiovisual content, and more.

The Center's collections document the lives and careers of individuals such as Dr. Hubert Eaton, Sr., and Hannah Block, the operations of organizations such as the local USO chapter and the North Carolina Coastal Federation, and events such as the USS North Carolina battleship homecoming and the Southport 4th of July Festival.

Items pictured include a letter from James R. Womble to his father describing the fall of Fort Fisher during the Civil War; a button Wilmington citizens wore while advocating for funding for a new bridge over the Cape Fear River during the 1950s and prior to the construction of the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge; and marines stationed at Camp Lejeune during the 1960s enjoying a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Access and Research

All of the materials mentioned here and more are available to be explored by researchers near and far. Visit the Center’s website to learn more about finding materials, planning a visit, or requesting research assistance. 

"USO service books index the military experience" reads the title of a recent article in the Jacksonville Daily Newspaper. The service books, less the current representations, mentioned in the article along with numerous photographs, publications, newspapers and various other forms material related to the the United Service Organization (USO) Jacksonville, are among the manuscript holdings in Randall Library's Special Collections. 

The service books include representation from every U.S. state and date back to the 1960s. Filled with thousands of intimate entries, these notebooks once served as main line of communication for troops to provide status updates during their service. The cardboard covers of older notebooks are often illustrated with doodles, city names, sports team insignia and state pride. The news article quotes Marisa Reeder, Jacksonville Center Assistant Director: 

"Having been to the University of North Carolina Wilmington to see the archives it just took my breath away. The decades-old service books transport readers to the past. The entries also help veterans track their fellow service members and allow them to leave a personal mark on the USO itself."

Special Collections received the archives of the USO Jacksonville center in 2011. The collection is being processed with the aid of UNCW Public History graduate assistants. For researchers interested in viewing the collection, please contact Special Collections staff.

Althouse, John. "USO service books index the military experience." Jacksonville Daily News 08 09 2013, n. pag. Web. 18 Sep. 2013. <http://www.jdnews.com/news/military/uso-service-books-index-the-military experience-1.199642?page=2>.

Introduction

UNCW Library’s Special Collections unit is housed within the Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History, located on the second floor of Discovery Hall. Special Collections focuses on collecting cultural and historical materials pertaining to the eight-county region known as southeast North Carolina (SENC), including Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Duplin, New Hanover, Onslow, Pender, and Sampson counties. The Center is also home to federal and state government resources and records documenting the history of the University.

When thinking about archival materials, what comes to mind first is most likely old things – whether that’s rare books or letters and deeds from generations past – and it is true, we do collect those items; however, our collections especially reflect the contemporary growth of the SENC region during the 20th and 21st centuries. They trace economic development, environmental concerns and coastal area management, and politics at all levels of government, as well as the cultural output that uniquely defines the Cape Fear area. Special Collections staff curate, process, describe, and provide access to a wide variety of materials falling into two primary categories – Rare Books and Manuscripts Collections.  

Rare Books

There are four primary collections of published materials held in Special Collections. 

The Southeast North Carolina Collection consists of books and other published items pertaining to our eight-county region. From church histories and broadsides to county records and scientific reports, this collection contains a wide variety of rare and unique items that document all historical aspects of this region.

The Local Authors Collection contains the creative output of SENC writers, including works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and more. You might recognize names such as Clyde Edgerton, Philip Gerard, and Nina de Gramont.

Special Collections also collects locally published magazines, newsletters, newspapers, and other similar publications – a group of materials that libraries collectively call periodicals. This collection includes out-of-print titles such as Encore and Life Around Wilmington, as well as active titles, including current regional newspapers. The unit collaborates with the Library’s Digital Initiatives team and state and local partners to digitize and make available newspapers such as Carolina Beach’s Island Gazette and Columbus County’s News Reporter. 

Finally, the Special Books Collection contains publications that meet one or more of the following criteria: items pertaining to North Carolina history, items published before 1850, and rare items owned by less than 50 libraries. An additional (and very neat!) sub-collection within Special Books is a collection of miniature books measuring less than 5 inches by width or height.

Pictured here is a selection of rare books ranging in size from Mark Catesby’s 23-inch folio, Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands, to the miniature book, Lute & Lyre and Other Musical Instruments of the 6th Century A.D., a generous 1 inch in height. 

Manuscripts and Archives

Manuscript collections differentiate the Center’s Special Collections unit from other libraries and archival repositories due to their inherently unique character; manuscript collections reflect their creators and owners and often contain materials that were not kept or organized by anyone else. As mentioned previously, the Special Collections unit collects and documents the cultural and historical output of the SENC region. Our collecting scope includes subjects such as the arts, business, development, education, environmental history, faculty research, local history, politics, religion, and war and military history. Researchers can discover physical items such as diaries, letters, and photographs, as well as digital items including electronic documents, audiovisual content, and more.

The Center's collections document the lives and careers of individuals such as Dr. Hubert Eaton, Sr., and Hannah Block, the operations of organizations such as the local USO chapter and the North Carolina Coastal Federation, and events such as the USS North Carolina battleship homecoming and the Southport 4th of July Festival.

Items pictured include a letter from James R. Womble to his father describing the fall of Fort Fisher during the Civil War; a button Wilmington citizens wore while advocating for funding for a new bridge over the Cape Fear River during the 1950s and prior to the construction of the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge; and marines stationed at Camp Lejeune during the 1960s enjoying a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Access and Research

All of the materials mentioned here and more are available to be explored by researchers near and far. Visit the Center’s website to learn more about finding materials, planning a visit, or requesting research assistance. 

Summer has arrived to campus, no matter what the seasonal calendar says! It has been, as it always is, a busy year of processing manuscript collections, staffing our Reading Room, teaching with primary sources and rare books, creating catalog records, growing the Center’s digital collections, navigating technology upgrades, and countless other tasks.

The Center aims to connect the people and communities and Southeast North Carolina to the sources of their history and culture by collecting materials, providing access to those materials, sharing collections with the campus and broader region, encouraging and engaging scholarship on the region, and supporting and partnering with regional cultural heritage groups. You can see some of this history and culture, as well as the work we do to make it accessible, in blog posts completed by the Center across the year, discussing a variety of topics including:  

• Government Information librarian Elisabeth Garner wrote a series of posts about the North Carolina Manual’s history and content, starting here.
• University Archivist Adina Riggins wrote about records management at the University: how employees can tackle their records and the assistance that the University Archivist can provide. Also, if you’re reading this in May, check out June’s State Archives workshop specifically for higher education records management.
• Center specialist Isabella Walker used those University records to write about vocational education and the unexpected history of football on campus.
• Special Collections Specialist Nicole Yatsonsky complied clips from WHQR’s Sounds Local episodes that highlighted interviews with Black artists in honor of February’s Black History Month.
• Special Collections Librarian Rebecca Baugnon highlighted the materials available in Special Collections overall, and graduating student worker Sarah Creel shared holiday cards preserved in scrapbooks from the Reverend Edwin E. Kirton Family Private Papers collection.
• Public Services Archivist Samantha Crisp highlighted all kinds of materials, including two posts of fashion images in honor of Fashion Week on campus and (underrated?) film Muppets from Space, shot in town.

While the blog goes on hiatus for the summer, we will be continuing our work behind the scenes, providing access to collections through the Reading Room - by appointment - and preparing for August. I know it doesn’t seem like it but any academic librarian knows, the first day of classes is right around the corner! 

If you're looking for inspiration for UNCW Fashion Week, check out some of these historical resources from the Center's Special Collections. This post highlights images from our book and periodical collections. Part 2 of this series features resources from the Center's manuscript and archival collections. 

Want to see any of these resources in person? You can find them in the CSENCAH reading room on the 2nd floor of the library. Contact us for more info!

Engravings from Godey's Lady's Book, 1850 (more info)

Color woodblock prints depicting Japanese dignitaries from an 1823 book of Japanese court costumes (more info)

Costume designs from Butterick's Masquerade and Carnival: Their Customs and Costumes, 1892 (more info)

Color engravings from Petit Courrier des Dames, Journal des Modes, Paris, 1839 (more info)

In 1999, Dr. H. William Gillen donated a collection of over 1,500 texts on the history of medicine to Randall Library’s Special Collections department, which is now part of the Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History. Dr. Gillen was especially interested in neurology, and as a result of this interest, there are a surprising number of books in our collections focusing on sexually transmitted diseases and their effects on the brain. One of the more fascinating titles from this part of the collection is Corky the Killer: A Story of Syphilis, written and illustrated by Dr. Harry A. Wilmer and published by the American Social Hygiene Association in 1945.

At the time this book was published, World War II had resulted in a surge in sexually transmitted diseases among American servicemembers. Psychiatrist Harry A. Wilmer, a gifted artist and humorist and a pioneer in the advent of group therapy, had recently experienced some success with his illustrated book Huber the Tuber, which aimed to explain the disease of tuberculosis in plain language that anyone could understand. Believing that he could build on this success to help meet the critical public health crisis of venereal disease, Dr. Wilmer partnered with an organization known as the American Social Hygiene Association (ASHA), a national nonprofit that aimed to, among other things, “advocate the highest standards of private and public morality; to organize the defense of the community by every available means against the disease of vice; and to conduct on request inquiries into prostitution and venereal disease.”

Corky the Killer is presented one passage at a time, with each passage accompanied by a relevant illustration by Dr. Wilmer and a paragraph of medical commentary by Wilmer and/or the ASHA. The villain of the story is Corky, an anthropomorphized syphilis spirochete, who accompanies an army of his brethren on a mass invasion attempt in “Man-World,” with towns and villages representing the various parts of the human body that syphilis is known to attack.  The leader of the spirochete army is General Paresis, a commander known for delusions of grandeur.  

The “good guys” consist of the Foreign Body Investigators (FBI), aka the “G-Men,” as well as the Bloodhounds, a tactical police force dispatched to eradicate the invaders. Corky is ultimately captured by the bloodhounds, and the book ends with Corky’s execution in the “Soap and Water Chamber of Torture.”

Corky the Killer is a unique piece of World War II propaganda, particularly because of its heavy reliance on patriotic rhetoric. This isn’t surprising, given the fact that the U.S. government was engaged in a targeted public health campaign to combat venereal disease during the war. Posters like the one below portrayed spreading venereal disease as being tantamount to sabotage and treason.  

In keeping with this spirit, Dr. Wilmer and the ASHA take care to draw a direct connection between preventing the spread of syphilis and winning the war. Sometimes this is done through symbolism. For instance, this quote on page 8 regarding effective treatment for syphilis: “It is just as useless to treat the sore as it is to barricade a bomb-pitted road after the invading army has passed over it.”  Other passages draw a more explicit connection between STD prevention and the war effort, such as this snippet from page 18 of the book:

The book helps improve sexual hygiene, but its misogynistic rhetoric is overt – and worthy of study. The ASHA and the U.S. government certainly were not shy about targeting sexually active women in their STD prevention propaganda - a quick internet search will reveal dozens of examples of WWII-era posters and leaflets that objectified women and blamed them for both the spread of disease and hampering the war effort. It’s important to note that even though there are no female characters, and especially no sex workers, depicted in Corky the Killer, the ASHA has clearly chosen to use the book’s medical commentary as a platform to promote their anti-prostitution agenda. See, for instance, this quote from the last page of the book:

The Center’s public services unit assists students and faculty in a wide variety of disciplines who are working on projects related to some aspect of local history or engaging in research with primary sources. Primary sources like Corky the Killer can be incorporated into a variety of courses, because they illustrate the interdisciplinary applications of historical research – in this example, drawing connections between public health, political science, gender and sexuality studies, communication studies, biology, and medicine. Reach out to us if you’d like to brainstorm some ways that the Center’s collections can support your research or teaching! 

In 1973, the book collection of the William M. Randall Library of the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) reached 100,000 volumes. To celebrate, the library acquired a first edition Huck Finn by Mark Twain (published in 1885) and held a special ceremony. This first edition is in Special Collections.

An announcement for the Nov. 30 ceremony was in the Seahawk student newspaper.

For comparison, according to 2012/2013 statistics, Randall Library has 481,134 books. 

A couple notes from the library's history:

*Wilmington College Library moved from a few rooms in Alderman Hall to its own building during winter break of 1968. It opened in January of 1969 and the official dedication was March 30.

*Randall Libray began planning an expansion in 1985, which was completed in 1987. 

This model of Randall Library, circa 1985, is in University Archives in Randall Library at UNCW.

In 1973, the book collection of the William M. Randall Library of the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) reached 100,000 volumes. To celebrate, the library acquired a first edition Huck Finn by Mark Twain (published in 1885) and held a special ceremony. This first edition is in Special Collections.

An announcement for the Nov. 30 ceremony was in the Seahawk student newspaper.

For comparison, according to 2012/2013 statistics, Randall Library has 481,134 books. 

A couple notes from the library's history:

*Wilmington College Library moved from a few rooms in Alderman Hall to its own building during winter break of 1968. It opened in January of 1969 and the official dedication was March 30.

*Randall Libray began planning an expansion in 1985, which was completed in 1987. 

This model of Randall Library, circa 1985, is in University Archives in Randall Library at UNCW.

Lauren Love is an intern working in Special Collections.

While reformatting the finding aid for the collection of St. Andrews Covenant Presbyterian Church (also known as MS 180) an excellent piece of Wilmington art history was spotted. The small booklet from 1943 was created for “An Artistic Banquet” held at the Church of the Covenant just before it was merged with St. Andrews in 1944.

                                                    The Church of the Covenant

Before I continue, allow me to introduce myself: my name is Lauren Love and this summer I am interning in the Special Collections department of UNCW Randall Library. So far I have been buried, nose first, in MS 180 only briefly coming up for air to help move furniture and prepare for spring cleaning project which has taken over our domain (more on that in the future!).

Initially I was struck by the hand painted illustration on the cover of the booklet whose colors contrasted so sharply with the stale yellow of ageing paper. To satisfy my curiosity, I brought the find to my supervisor, Rebecca Baugnon. “Claude Howell!” she said excitedly after flipping through to the last page; “Claude Howell?!” came the voice of Jerry Parnell, the Special Collections Coordinator from across the hall. One can imagine how my interest peeked at such reactions. Upon further inspection we found that the pamphlet was an itinerary of sorts for an educational art program where lessons in painting, watercolor, drawing and much more were offered to attendees. The investigation became an eye opening revelation about the history of Art culture in Wilmington and how, unbeknownst to me, I held in my hands a small booklet which contained the names of some local art heroes.

                   Irene Price 1930s, photograph from Two Centuries of Art in New Hanover County
                                                                  by Crockette W. Hewlett

Unassumingly printed are the names of Peggy Hall, Claude Howell, Rosalie Oliver and Winona Gration. The details of how these artists contributed to the booklet is unknown but further research proved that they were students together under Irene Price and Delbert Palmer. Price was a friend of Elisabeth Augusta Chant who is partially responsible for encouraging and cultivating the art scene in Wilmington. Chant and Price both taught art classes in downtown Wilmington during the 1930s and went on to found and direct various programs and institutions while maintaining connections with some of the artists listed above. Simple though it may appear, the booklet shows the efforts of these budding artists to work with the community to foster a love of arts which we still see in our port city today.

                                                Peggy Hall with students 1941 (left), and Claude Howell (right)
                               Photographs from Two Centuries of Art in New Hanover County by Crockette W. Hewlett

Peggy Hall studied under Price and Chant and went on to become the director of the Wilmington Museum of Art, a museum which opened in 1940 and before World War II came to a close. She exhibited her work around the country and possessed a passion for art throughout her life.

Claude Howell would become a very influential artist who taught at UNCW and played a large role in the establishment of the Art Department. Some of his paintings are located on the first floor of the library near Port City Java and a beautiful collection of illustrated holiday cards are housed in the Special Collections Library upstairs.

Rosalie Oliver taught and spoke at the Wilmington Museum of Art.

Unfortunately I could not find any information on Winona Gration.

For more information come ask us about the following collections:
MS 063 – A Balkan Sketchbook by Claude Howell
MS 076 – Claude Howell – Classification of Art Prints
MS 326 – Claude Howell Christmas Cards

For a truly enlightening exploration of art in Wilmington read Two Centuries of Art in New Hanover County by Crockette W. Hewlett, both the pictures used in this blog post as well as the biographical information are from this thorough and entertaining book. 

Sources can be accessed by visiting Randall Library and the Special Collections Library therein:

• An Artistic Banquet. Wilmington:  Church of the Covenant, 1943. Print. Box 10, Folder 3. St. Andrews Covenant Presbyterian Church Collection. Randall Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC. May 21, 2014.
• Hewlett, Crockette W.. Two Centuries of Art in New Hanover County. Durham: Moore Publishing Company, 1976. Print.
• Twenty Fifth Anniversary Celebration. Wilmington: Church of the Covenant, 1943. Print. Box 10, Folder 3. St. Andrews Covenant Presbyterian Church Collection. Randall Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC. May 21, 2014. 

Lauren Love is an intern working in Special Collections.

While reformatting the finding aid for the collection of St. Andrews Covenant Presbyterian Church (also known as MS 180) an excellent piece of Wilmington art history was spotted. The small booklet from 1943 was created for “An Artistic Banquet” held at the Church of the Covenant just before it was merged with St. Andrews in 1944.

                                                    The Church of the Covenant

Before I continue, allow me to introduce myself: my name is Lauren Love and this summer I am interning in the Special Collections department of UNCW Randall Library. So far I have been buried, nose first, in MS 180 only briefly coming up for air to help move furniture and prepare for spring cleaning project which has taken over our domain (more on that in the future!).

Initially I was struck by the hand painted illustration on the cover of the booklet whose colors contrasted so sharply with the stale yellow of ageing paper. To satisfy my curiosity, I brought the find to my supervisor, Rebecca Baugnon. “Claude Howell!” she said excitedly after flipping through to the last page; “Claude Howell?!” came the voice of Jerry Parnell, the Special Collections Coordinator from across the hall. One can imagine how my interest peeked at such reactions. Upon further inspection we found that the pamphlet was an itinerary of sorts for an educational art program where lessons in painting, watercolor, drawing and much more were offered to attendees. The investigation became an eye opening revelation about the history of Art culture in Wilmington and how, unbeknownst to me, I held in my hands a small booklet which contained the names of some local art heroes.

                   Irene Price 1930s, photograph from Two Centuries of Art in New Hanover County
                                                                  by Crockette W. Hewlett

Unassumingly printed are the names of Peggy Hall, Claude Howell, Rosalie Oliver and Winona Gration. The details of how these artists contributed to the booklet is unknown but further research proved that they were students together under Irene Price and Delbert Palmer. Price was a friend of Elisabeth Augusta Chant who is partially responsible for encouraging and cultivating the art scene in Wilmington. Chant and Price both taught art classes in downtown Wilmington during the 1930s and went on to found and direct various programs and institutions while maintaining connections with some of the artists listed above. Simple though it may appear, the booklet shows the efforts of these budding artists to work with the community to foster a love of arts which we still see in our port city today.

                                                Peggy Hall with students 1941 (left), and Claude Howell (right)
                               Photographs from Two Centuries of Art in New Hanover County by Crockette W. Hewlett

Peggy Hall studied under Price and Chant and went on to become the director of the Wilmington Museum of Art, a museum which opened in 1940 and before World War II came to a close. She exhibited her work around the country and possessed a passion for art throughout her life.

Claude Howell would become a very influential artist who taught at UNCW and played a large role in the establishment of the Art Department. Some of his paintings are located on the first floor of the library near Port City Java and a beautiful collection of illustrated holiday cards are housed in the Special Collections Library upstairs.

Rosalie Oliver taught and spoke at the Wilmington Museum of Art.

Unfortunately I could not find any information on Winona Gration.

For more information come ask us about the following collections:
MS 063 – A Balkan Sketchbook by Claude Howell
MS 076 – Claude Howell – Classification of Art Prints
MS 326 – Claude Howell Christmas Cards

For a truly enlightening exploration of art in Wilmington read Two Centuries of Art in New Hanover County by Crockette W. Hewlett, both the pictures used in this blog post as well as the biographical information are from this thorough and entertaining book. 

Sources can be accessed by visiting Randall Library and the Special Collections Library therein:

• An Artistic Banquet. Wilmington:  Church of the Covenant, 1943. Print. Box 10, Folder 3. St. Andrews Covenant Presbyterian Church Collection. Randall Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC. May 21, 2014.
• Hewlett, Crockette W.. Two Centuries of Art in New Hanover County. Durham: Moore Publishing Company, 1976. Print.
• Twenty Fifth Anniversary Celebration. Wilmington: Church of the Covenant, 1943. Print. Box 10, Folder 3. St. Andrews Covenant Presbyterian Church Collection. Randall Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC. May 21, 2014. 

Lauren Love is an intern working in Special Collections.

While reformatting the finding aid for the collection of St. Andrews Covenant Presbyterian Church (also known as MS 180) an excellent piece of Wilmington art history was spotted. The small booklet from 1943 was created for “An Artistic Banquet” held at the Church of the Covenant just before it was merged with St. Andrews in 1944.

                                                    The Church of the Covenant

Before I continue, allow me to introduce myself: my name is Lauren Love and this summer I am interning in the Special Collections department of UNCW Randall Library. So far I have been buried, nose first, in MS 180 only briefly coming up for air to help move furniture and prepare for spring cleaning project which has taken over our domain (more on that in the future!).

Initially I was struck by the hand painted illustration on the cover of the booklet whose colors contrasted so sharply with the stale yellow of ageing paper. To satisfy my curiosity, I brought the find to my supervisor, Rebecca Baugnon. “Claude Howell!” she said excitedly after flipping through to the last page; “Claude Howell?!” came the voice of Jerry Parnell, the Special Collections Coordinator from across the hall. One can imagine how my interest peeked at such reactions. Upon further inspection we found that the pamphlet was an itinerary of sorts for an educational art program where lessons in painting, watercolor, drawing and much more were offered to attendees. The investigation became an eye opening revelation about the history of Art culture in Wilmington and how, unbeknownst to me, I held in my hands a small booklet which contained the names of some local art heroes.

                   Irene Price 1930s, photograph from Two Centuries of Art in New Hanover County
                                                                  by Crockette W. Hewlett

Unassumingly printed are the names of Peggy Hall, Claude Howell, Rosalie Oliver and Winona Gration. The details of how these artists contributed to the booklet is unknown but further research proved that they were students together under Irene Price and Delbert Palmer. Price was a friend of Elisabeth Augusta Chant who is partially responsible for encouraging and cultivating the art scene in Wilmington. Chant and Price both taught art classes in downtown Wilmington during the 1930s and went on to found and direct various programs and institutions while maintaining connections with some of the artists listed above. Simple though it may appear, the booklet shows the efforts of these budding artists to work with the community to foster a love of arts which we still see in our port city today.

                                                Peggy Hall with students 1941 (left), and Claude Howell (right)
                               Photographs from Two Centuries of Art in New Hanover County by Crockette W. Hewlett

Peggy Hall studied under Price and Chant and went on to become the director of the Wilmington Museum of Art, a museum which opened in 1940 and before World War II came to a close. She exhibited her work around the country and possessed a passion for art throughout her life.

Claude Howell would become a very influential artist who taught at UNCW and played a large role in the establishment of the Art Department. Some of his paintings are located on the first floor of the library near Port City Java and a beautiful collection of illustrated holiday cards are housed in the Special Collections Library upstairs.

Rosalie Oliver taught and spoke at the Wilmington Museum of Art.

Unfortunately I could not find any information on Winona Gration.

For more information come ask us about the following collections:
MS 063 – A Balkan Sketchbook by Claude Howell
MS 076 – Claude Howell – Classification of Art Prints
MS 326 – Claude Howell Christmas Cards

For a truly enlightening exploration of art in Wilmington read Two Centuries of Art in New Hanover County by Crockette W. Hewlett, both the pictures used in this blog post as well as the biographical information are from this thorough and entertaining book. 

Sources can be accessed by visiting Randall Library and the Special Collections Library therein:

• An Artistic Banquet. Wilmington:  Church of the Covenant, 1943. Print. Box 10, Folder 3. St. Andrews Covenant Presbyterian Church Collection. Randall Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC. May 21, 2014.
• Hewlett, Crockette W.. Two Centuries of Art in New Hanover County. Durham: Moore Publishing Company, 1976. Print.
• Twenty Fifth Anniversary Celebration. Wilmington: Church of the Covenant, 1943. Print. Box 10, Folder 3. St. Andrews Covenant Presbyterian Church Collection. Randall Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC. May 21, 2014. 

Lauren Love is an intern working in Special Collections.

While reformatting the finding aid for the collection of St. Andrews Covenant Presbyterian Church (also known as MS 180) an excellent piece of Wilmington art history was spotted. The small booklet from 1943 was created for “An Artistic Banquet” held at the Church of the Covenant just before it was merged with St. Andrews in 1944.

                                                    The Church of the Covenant

Before I continue, allow me to introduce myself: my name is Lauren Love and this summer I am interning in the Special Collections department of UNCW Randall Library. So far I have been buried, nose first, in MS 180 only briefly coming up for air to help move furniture and prepare for spring cleaning project which has taken over our domain (more on that in the future!).

Initially I was struck by the hand painted illustration on the cover of the booklet whose colors contrasted so sharply with the stale yellow of ageing paper. To satisfy my curiosity, I brought the find to my supervisor, Rebecca Baugnon. “Claude Howell!” she said excitedly after flipping through to the last page; “Claude Howell?!” came the voice of Jerry Parnell, the Special Collections Coordinator from across the hall. One can imagine how my interest peeked at such reactions. Upon further inspection we found that the pamphlet was an itinerary of sorts for an educational art program where lessons in painting, watercolor, drawing and much more were offered to attendees. The investigation became an eye opening revelation about the history of Art culture in Wilmington and how, unbeknownst to me, I held in my hands a small booklet which contained the names of some local art heroes.

                   Irene Price 1930s, photograph from Two Centuries of Art in New Hanover County
                                                                  by Crockette W. Hewlett

Unassumingly printed are the names of Peggy Hall, Claude Howell, Rosalie Oliver and Winona Gration. The details of how these artists contributed to the booklet is unknown but further research proved that they were students together under Irene Price and Delbert Palmer. Price was a friend of Elisabeth Augusta Chant who is partially responsible for encouraging and cultivating the art scene in Wilmington. Chant and Price both taught art classes in downtown Wilmington during the 1930s and went on to found and direct various programs and institutions while maintaining connections with some of the artists listed above. Simple though it may appear, the booklet shows the efforts of these budding artists to work with the community to foster a love of arts which we still see in our port city today.

                                                Peggy Hall with students 1941 (left), and Claude Howell (right)
                               Photographs from Two Centuries of Art in New Hanover County by Crockette W. Hewlett

Peggy Hall studied under Price and Chant and went on to become the director of the Wilmington Museum of Art, a museum which opened in 1940 and before World War II came to a close. She exhibited her work around the country and possessed a passion for art throughout her life.

Claude Howell would become a very influential artist who taught at UNCW and played a large role in the establishment of the Art Department. Some of his paintings are located on the first floor of the library near Port City Java and a beautiful collection of illustrated holiday cards are housed in the Special Collections Library upstairs.

Rosalie Oliver taught and spoke at the Wilmington Museum of Art.

Unfortunately I could not find any information on Winona Gration.

For more information come ask us about the following collections:
MS 063 – A Balkan Sketchbook by Claude Howell
MS 076 – Claude Howell – Classification of Art Prints
MS 326 – Claude Howell Christmas Cards

For a truly enlightening exploration of art in Wilmington read Two Centuries of Art in New Hanover County by Crockette W. Hewlett, both the pictures used in this blog post as well as the biographical information are from this thorough and entertaining book. 

Sources can be accessed by visiting Randall Library and the Special Collections Library therein:

• An Artistic Banquet. Wilmington:  Church of the Covenant, 1943. Print. Box 10, Folder 3. St. Andrews Covenant Presbyterian Church Collection. Randall Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC. May 21, 2014.
• Hewlett, Crockette W.. Two Centuries of Art in New Hanover County. Durham: Moore Publishing Company, 1976. Print.
• Twenty Fifth Anniversary Celebration. Wilmington: Church of the Covenant, 1943. Print. Box 10, Folder 3. St. Andrews Covenant Presbyterian Church Collection. Randall Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC. May 21, 2014. 

Lauren Love is an intern working in Special Collections.

While reformatting the finding aid for the collection of St. Andrews Covenant Presbyterian Church (also known as MS 180) an excellent piece of Wilmington art history was spotted. The small booklet from 1943 was created for “An Artistic Banquet” held at the Church of the Covenant just before it was merged with St. Andrews in 1944.

                                                    The Church of the Covenant

Before I continue, allow me to introduce myself: my name is Lauren Love and this summer I am interning in the Special Collections department of UNCW Randall Library. So far I have been buried, nose first, in MS 180 only briefly coming up for air to help move furniture and prepare for spring cleaning project which has taken over our domain (more on that in the future!).

Initially I was struck by the hand painted illustration on the cover of the booklet whose colors contrasted so sharply with the stale yellow of ageing paper. To satisfy my curiosity, I brought the find to my supervisor, Rebecca Baugnon. “Claude Howell!” she said excitedly after flipping through to the last page; “Claude Howell?!” came the voice of Jerry Parnell, the Special Collections Coordinator from across the hall. One can imagine how my interest peeked at such reactions. Upon further inspection we found that the pamphlet was an itinerary of sorts for an educational art program where lessons in painting, watercolor, drawing and much more were offered to attendees. The investigation became an eye opening revelation about the history of Art culture in Wilmington and how, unbeknownst to me, I held in my hands a small booklet which contained the names of some local art heroes.

                   Irene Price 1930s, photograph from Two Centuries of Art in New Hanover County
                                                                  by Crockette W. Hewlett

Unassumingly printed are the names of Peggy Hall, Claude Howell, Rosalie Oliver and Winona Gration. The details of how these artists contributed to the booklet is unknown but further research proved that they were students together under Irene Price and Delbert Palmer. Price was a friend of Elisabeth Augusta Chant who is partially responsible for encouraging and cultivating the art scene in Wilmington. Chant and Price both taught art classes in downtown Wilmington during the 1930s and went on to found and direct various programs and institutions while maintaining connections with some of the artists listed above. Simple though it may appear, the booklet shows the efforts of these budding artists to work with the community to foster a love of arts which we still see in our port city today.

                                                Peggy Hall with students 1941 (left), and Claude Howell (right)
                               Photographs from Two Centuries of Art in New Hanover County by Crockette W. Hewlett

Peggy Hall studied under Price and Chant and went on to become the director of the Wilmington Museum of Art, a museum which opened in 1940 and before World War II came to a close. She exhibited her work around the country and possessed a passion for art throughout her life.

Claude Howell would become a very influential artist who taught at UNCW and played a large role in the establishment of the Art Department. Some of his paintings are located on the first floor of the library near Port City Java and a beautiful collection of illustrated holiday cards are housed in the Special Collections Library upstairs.

Rosalie Oliver taught and spoke at the Wilmington Museum of Art.

Unfortunately I could not find any information on Winona Gration.

For more information come ask us about the following collections:
MS 063 – A Balkan Sketchbook by Claude Howell
MS 076 – Claude Howell – Classification of Art Prints
MS 326 – Claude Howell Christmas Cards

For a truly enlightening exploration of art in Wilmington read Two Centuries of Art in New Hanover County by Crockette W. Hewlett, both the pictures used in this blog post as well as the biographical information are from this thorough and entertaining book. 

Sources can be accessed by visiting Randall Library and the Special Collections Library therein:

• An Artistic Banquet. Wilmington:  Church of the Covenant, 1943. Print. Box 10, Folder 3. St. Andrews Covenant Presbyterian Church Collection. Randall Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC. May 21, 2014.
• Hewlett, Crockette W.. Two Centuries of Art in New Hanover County. Durham: Moore Publishing Company, 1976. Print.
• Twenty Fifth Anniversary Celebration. Wilmington: Church of the Covenant, 1943. Print. Box 10, Folder 3. St. Andrews Covenant Presbyterian Church Collection. Randall Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC. May 21, 2014. 

Lauren Love is an intern working in Special Collections.

While reformatting the finding aid for the collection of St. Andrews Covenant Presbyterian Church (also known as MS 180) an excellent piece of Wilmington art history was spotted. The small booklet from 1943 was created for “An Artistic Banquet” held at the Church of the Covenant just before it was merged with St. Andrews in 1944.

                                                    The Church of the Covenant

Before I continue, allow me to introduce myself: my name is Lauren Love and this summer I am interning in the Special Collections department of UNCW Randall Library. So far I have been buried, nose first, in MS 180 only briefly coming up for air to help move furniture and prepare for spring cleaning project which has taken over our domain (more on that in the future!).

Initially I was struck by the hand painted illustration on the cover of the booklet whose colors contrasted so sharply with the stale yellow of ageing paper. To satisfy my curiosity, I brought the find to my supervisor, Rebecca Baugnon. “Claude Howell!” she said excitedly after flipping through to the last page; “Claude Howell?!” came the voice of Jerry Parnell, the Special Collections Coordinator from across the hall. One can imagine how my interest peeked at such reactions. Upon further inspection we found that the pamphlet was an itinerary of sorts for an educational art program where lessons in painting, watercolor, drawing and much more were offered to attendees. The investigation became an eye opening revelation about the history of Art culture in Wilmington and how, unbeknownst to me, I held in my hands a small booklet which contained the names of some local art heroes.

                   Irene Price 1930s, photograph from Two Centuries of Art in New Hanover County
                                                                  by Crockette W. Hewlett

Unassumingly printed are the names of Peggy Hall, Claude Howell, Rosalie Oliver and Winona Gration. The details of how these artists contributed to the booklet is unknown but further research proved that they were students together under Irene Price and Delbert Palmer. Price was a friend of Elisabeth Augusta Chant who is partially responsible for encouraging and cultivating the art scene in Wilmington. Chant and Price both taught art classes in downtown Wilmington during the 1930s and went on to found and direct various programs and institutions while maintaining connections with some of the artists listed above. Simple though it may appear, the booklet shows the efforts of these budding artists to work with the community to foster a love of arts which we still see in our port city today.

                                                Peggy Hall with students 1941 (left), and Claude Howell (right)
                               Photographs from Two Centuries of Art in New Hanover County by Crockette W. Hewlett

Peggy Hall studied under Price and Chant and went on to become the director of the Wilmington Museum of Art, a museum which opened in 1940 and before World War II came to a close. She exhibited her work around the country and possessed a passion for art throughout her life.

Claude Howell would become a very influential artist who taught at UNCW and played a large role in the establishment of the Art Department. Some of his paintings are located on the first floor of the library near Port City Java and a beautiful collection of illustrated holiday cards are housed in the Special Collections Library upstairs.

Rosalie Oliver taught and spoke at the Wilmington Museum of Art.

Unfortunately I could not find any information on Winona Gration.

For more information come ask us about the following collections:
MS 063 – A Balkan Sketchbook by Claude Howell
MS 076 – Claude Howell – Classification of Art Prints
MS 326 – Claude Howell Christmas Cards

For a truly enlightening exploration of art in Wilmington read Two Centuries of Art in New Hanover County by Crockette W. Hewlett, both the pictures used in this blog post as well as the biographical information are from this thorough and entertaining book. 

Sources can be accessed by visiting Randall Library and the Special Collections Library therein:

• An Artistic Banquet. Wilmington:  Church of the Covenant, 1943. Print. Box 10, Folder 3. St. Andrews Covenant Presbyterian Church Collection. Randall Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC. May 21, 2014.
• Hewlett, Crockette W.. Two Centuries of Art in New Hanover County. Durham: Moore Publishing Company, 1976. Print.
• Twenty Fifth Anniversary Celebration. Wilmington: Church of the Covenant, 1943. Print. Box 10, Folder 3. St. Andrews Covenant Presbyterian Church Collection. Randall Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC. May 21, 2014. 

Lauren Love is an intern working in Special Collections.

While reformatting the finding aid for the collection of St. Andrews Covenant Presbyterian Church (also known as MS 180) an excellent piece of Wilmington art history was spotted. The small booklet from 1943 was created for “An Artistic Banquet” held at the Church of the Covenant just before it was merged with St. Andrews in 1944.

                                                    The Church of the Covenant

Before I continue, allow me to introduce myself: my name is Lauren Love and this summer I am interning in the Special Collections department of UNCW Randall Library. So far I have been buried, nose first, in MS 180 only briefly coming up for air to help move furniture and prepare for spring cleaning project which has taken over our domain (more on that in the future!).

Initially I was struck by the hand painted illustration on the cover of the booklet whose colors contrasted so sharply with the stale yellow of ageing paper. To satisfy my curiosity, I brought the find to my supervisor, Rebecca Baugnon. “Claude Howell!” she said excitedly after flipping through to the last page; “Claude Howell?!” came the voice of Jerry Parnell, the Special Collections Coordinator from across the hall. One can imagine how my interest peeked at such reactions. Upon further inspection we found that the pamphlet was an itinerary of sorts for an educational art program where lessons in painting, watercolor, drawing and much more were offered to attendees. The investigation became an eye opening revelation about the history of Art culture in Wilmington and how, unbeknownst to me, I held in my hands a small booklet which contained the names of some local art heroes.

                   Irene Price 1930s, photograph from Two Centuries of Art in New Hanover County
                                                                  by Crockette W. Hewlett

Unassumingly printed are the names of Peggy Hall, Claude Howell, Rosalie Oliver and Winona Gration. The details of how these artists contributed to the booklet is unknown but further research proved that they were students together under Irene Price and Delbert Palmer. Price was a friend of Elisabeth Augusta Chant who is partially responsible for encouraging and cultivating the art scene in Wilmington. Chant and Price both taught art classes in downtown Wilmington during the 1930s and went on to found and direct various programs and institutions while maintaining connections with some of the artists listed above. Simple though it may appear, the booklet shows the efforts of these budding artists to work with the community to foster a love of arts which we still see in our port city today.

                                                Peggy Hall with students 1941 (left), and Claude Howell (right)
                               Photographs from Two Centuries of Art in New Hanover County by Crockette W. Hewlett

Peggy Hall studied under Price and Chant and went on to become the director of the Wilmington Museum of Art, a museum which opened in 1940 and before World War II came to a close. She exhibited her work around the country and possessed a passion for art throughout her life.

Claude Howell would become a very influential artist who taught at UNCW and played a large role in the establishment of the Art Department. Some of his paintings are located on the first floor of the library near Port City Java and a beautiful collection of illustrated holiday cards are housed in the Special Collections Library upstairs.

Rosalie Oliver taught and spoke at the Wilmington Museum of Art.

Unfortunately I could not find any information on Winona Gration.

For more information come ask us about the following collections:
MS 063 – A Balkan Sketchbook by Claude Howell
MS 076 – Claude Howell – Classification of Art Prints
MS 326 – Claude Howell Christmas Cards

For a truly enlightening exploration of art in Wilmington read Two Centuries of Art in New Hanover County by Crockette W. Hewlett, both the pictures used in this blog post as well as the biographical information are from this thorough and entertaining book. 

Sources can be accessed by visiting Randall Library and the Special Collections Library therein:

• An Artistic Banquet. Wilmington:  Church of the Covenant, 1943. Print. Box 10, Folder 3. St. Andrews Covenant Presbyterian Church Collection. Randall Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC. May 21, 2014.
• Hewlett, Crockette W.. Two Centuries of Art in New Hanover County. Durham: Moore Publishing Company, 1976. Print.
• Twenty Fifth Anniversary Celebration. Wilmington: Church of the Covenant, 1943. Print. Box 10, Folder 3. St. Andrews Covenant Presbyterian Church Collection. Randall Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC. May 21, 2014. 

In October, the Center for Southeast NC Archives and History is excited to host an open house! Mark your calendars for Thursday, October 30, from 4-5:30pm and come join us!

In the Center’s Reading Room (Discovery Hall 2095), we will have items on display related to our collecting areas: government information, manuscript collections, rare and special publications, and University records. Our team will be on hand to chat about the Center’s collections and services – we are available for use by faculty, staff, students, community members, and all kinds of information-seekers looking for information about the history of Southeast North Carolina!

We will also be celebrating the library’s 60th year of being part of the Federal Depository Library Program, which helps the public access federal government information. 

Folks from all around may find this open house helpful: students, faculty, staff, community members of all kinds. Our collections document the University and its history and Southeastern North Carolina encompassing New Hanover County and the surrounding region including Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Duplin, Pender, Onslow, and Sampson counties. 

Off-campus visitors may find this information about visitor parking on campus useful. Please email csencah@uncw.edu with any questions. 

Light refreshments will be served. Please stop by, for 5 minutes or 50 – and bring your research questions! 

Summer has arrived to campus, no matter what the seasonal calendar says! It has been, as it always is, a busy year of processing manuscript collections, staffing our Reading Room, teaching with primary sources and rare books, creating catalog records, growing the Center’s digital collections, navigating technology upgrades, and countless other tasks.

The Center aims to connect the people and communities and Southeast North Carolina to the sources of their history and culture by collecting materials, providing access to those materials, sharing collections with the campus and broader region, encouraging and engaging scholarship on the region, and supporting and partnering with regional cultural heritage groups. You can see some of this history and culture, as well as the work we do to make it accessible, in blog posts completed by the Center across the year, discussing a variety of topics including:  

• Government Information librarian Elisabeth Garner wrote a series of posts about the North Carolina Manual’s history and content, starting here.
• University Archivist Adina Riggins wrote about records management at the University: how employees can tackle their records and the assistance that the University Archivist can provide. Also, if you’re reading this in May, check out June’s State Archives workshop specifically for higher education records management.
• Center specialist Isabella Walker used those University records to write about vocational education and the unexpected history of football on campus.
• Special Collections Specialist Nicole Yatsonsky complied clips from WHQR’s Sounds Local episodes that highlighted interviews with Black artists in honor of February’s Black History Month.
• Special Collections Librarian Rebecca Baugnon highlighted the materials available in Special Collections overall, and graduating student worker Sarah Creel shared holiday cards preserved in scrapbooks from the Reverend Edwin E. Kirton Family Private Papers collection.
• Public Services Archivist Samantha Crisp highlighted all kinds of materials, including two posts of fashion images in honor of Fashion Week on campus and (underrated?) film Muppets from Space, shot in town.

While the blog goes on hiatus for the summer, we will be continuing our work behind the scenes, providing access to collections through the Reading Room - by appointment - and preparing for August. I know it doesn’t seem like it but any academic librarian knows, the first day of classes is right around the corner! 

"USO service books index the military experience" reads the title of a recent article in the Jacksonville Daily Newspaper. The service books, less the current representations, mentioned in the article along with numerous photographs, publications, newspapers and various other forms material related to the the United Service Organization (USO) Jacksonville, are among the manuscript holdings in Randall Library's Special Collections. 

The service books include representation from every U.S. state and date back to the 1960s. Filled with thousands of intimate entries, these notebooks once served as main line of communication for troops to provide status updates during their service. The cardboard covers of older notebooks are often illustrated with doodles, city names, sports team insignia and state pride. The news article quotes Marisa Reeder, Jacksonville Center Assistant Director: 

"Having been to the University of North Carolina Wilmington to see the archives it just took my breath away. The decades-old service books transport readers to the past. The entries also help veterans track their fellow service members and allow them to leave a personal mark on the USO itself."

Special Collections received the archives of the USO Jacksonville center in 2011. The collection is being processed with the aid of UNCW Public History graduate assistants. For researchers interested in viewing the collection, please contact Special Collections staff.

Althouse, John. "USO service books index the military experience." Jacksonville Daily News 08 09 2013, n. pag. Web. 18 Sep. 2013. <http://www.jdnews.com/news/military/uso-service-books-index-the-military experience-1.199642?page=2>.

In October, the Center for Southeast NC Archives and History is excited to host an open house! Mark your calendars for Thursday, October 30, from 4-5:30pm and come join us!

In the Center’s Reading Room (Discovery Hall 2095), we will have items on display related to our collecting areas: government information, manuscript collections, rare and special publications, and University records. Our team will be on hand to chat about the Center’s collections and services – we are available for use by faculty, staff, students, community members, and all kinds of information-seekers looking for information about the history of Southeast North Carolina!

We will also be celebrating the library’s 60th year of being part of the Federal Depository Library Program, which helps the public access federal government information. 

Folks from all around may find this open house helpful: students, faculty, staff, community members of all kinds. Our collections document the University and its history and Southeastern North Carolina encompassing New Hanover County and the surrounding region including Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Duplin, Pender, Onslow, and Sampson counties. 

Off-campus visitors may find this information about visitor parking on campus useful. Please email csencah@uncw.edu with any questions. 

Light refreshments will be served. Please stop by, for 5 minutes or 50 – and bring your research questions! 

Summer has arrived to campus, no matter what the seasonal calendar says! It has been, as it always is, a busy year of processing manuscript collections, staffing our Reading Room, teaching with primary sources and rare books, creating catalog records, growing the Center’s digital collections, navigating technology upgrades, and countless other tasks.

The Center aims to connect the people and communities and Southeast North Carolina to the sources of their history and culture by collecting materials, providing access to those materials, sharing collections with the campus and broader region, encouraging and engaging scholarship on the region, and supporting and partnering with regional cultural heritage groups. You can see some of this history and culture, as well as the work we do to make it accessible, in blog posts completed by the Center across the year, discussing a variety of topics including:  

• Government Information librarian Elisabeth Garner wrote a series of posts about the North Carolina Manual’s history and content, starting here.
• University Archivist Adina Riggins wrote about records management at the University: how employees can tackle their records and the assistance that the University Archivist can provide. Also, if you’re reading this in May, check out June’s State Archives workshop specifically for higher education records management.
• Center specialist Isabella Walker used those University records to write about vocational education and the unexpected history of football on campus.
• Special Collections Specialist Nicole Yatsonsky complied clips from WHQR’s Sounds Local episodes that highlighted interviews with Black artists in honor of February’s Black History Month.
• Special Collections Librarian Rebecca Baugnon highlighted the materials available in Special Collections overall, and graduating student worker Sarah Creel shared holiday cards preserved in scrapbooks from the Reverend Edwin E. Kirton Family Private Papers collection.
• Public Services Archivist Samantha Crisp highlighted all kinds of materials, including two posts of fashion images in honor of Fashion Week on campus and (underrated?) film Muppets from Space, shot in town.

While the blog goes on hiatus for the summer, we will be continuing our work behind the scenes, providing access to collections through the Reading Room - by appointment - and preparing for August. I know it doesn’t seem like it but any academic librarian knows, the first day of classes is right around the corner! 

In 1999, Dr. H. William Gillen donated a collection of over 1,500 texts on the history of medicine to Randall Library’s Special Collections department, which is now part of the Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History. Dr. Gillen was especially interested in neurology, and as a result of this interest, there are a surprising number of books in our collections focusing on sexually transmitted diseases and their effects on the brain. One of the more fascinating titles from this part of the collection is Corky the Killer: A Story of Syphilis, written and illustrated by Dr. Harry A. Wilmer and published by the American Social Hygiene Association in 1945.

At the time this book was published, World War II had resulted in a surge in sexually transmitted diseases among American servicemembers. Psychiatrist Harry A. Wilmer, a gifted artist and humorist and a pioneer in the advent of group therapy, had recently experienced some success with his illustrated book Huber the Tuber, which aimed to explain the disease of tuberculosis in plain language that anyone could understand. Believing that he could build on this success to help meet the critical public health crisis of venereal disease, Dr. Wilmer partnered with an organization known as the American Social Hygiene Association (ASHA), a national nonprofit that aimed to, among other things, “advocate the highest standards of private and public morality; to organize the defense of the community by every available means against the disease of vice; and to conduct on request inquiries into prostitution and venereal disease.”

Corky the Killer is presented one passage at a time, with each passage accompanied by a relevant illustration by Dr. Wilmer and a paragraph of medical commentary by Wilmer and/or the ASHA. The villain of the story is Corky, an anthropomorphized syphilis spirochete, who accompanies an army of his brethren on a mass invasion attempt in “Man-World,” with towns and villages representing the various parts of the human body that syphilis is known to attack.  The leader of the spirochete army is General Paresis, a commander known for delusions of grandeur.  

The “good guys” consist of the Foreign Body Investigators (FBI), aka the “G-Men,” as well as the Bloodhounds, a tactical police force dispatched to eradicate the invaders. Corky is ultimately captured by the bloodhounds, and the book ends with Corky’s execution in the “Soap and Water Chamber of Torture.”

Corky the Killer is a unique piece of World War II propaganda, particularly because of its heavy reliance on patriotic rhetoric. This isn’t surprising, given the fact that the U.S. government was engaged in a targeted public health campaign to combat venereal disease during the war. Posters like the one below portrayed spreading venereal disease as being tantamount to sabotage and treason.  

In keeping with this spirit, Dr. Wilmer and the ASHA take care to draw a direct connection between preventing the spread of syphilis and winning the war. Sometimes this is done through symbolism. For instance, this quote on page 8 regarding effective treatment for syphilis: “It is just as useless to treat the sore as it is to barricade a bomb-pitted road after the invading army has passed over it.”  Other passages draw a more explicit connection between STD prevention and the war effort, such as this snippet from page 18 of the book:

The book helps improve sexual hygiene, but its misogynistic rhetoric is overt – and worthy of study. The ASHA and the U.S. government certainly were not shy about targeting sexually active women in their STD prevention propaganda - a quick internet search will reveal dozens of examples of WWII-era posters and leaflets that objectified women and blamed them for both the spread of disease and hampering the war effort. It’s important to note that even though there are no female characters, and especially no sex workers, depicted in Corky the Killer, the ASHA has clearly chosen to use the book’s medical commentary as a platform to promote their anti-prostitution agenda. See, for instance, this quote from the last page of the book:

The Center’s public services unit assists students and faculty in a wide variety of disciplines who are working on projects related to some aspect of local history or engaging in research with primary sources. Primary sources like Corky the Killer can be incorporated into a variety of courses, because they illustrate the interdisciplinary applications of historical research – in this example, drawing connections between public health, political science, gender and sexuality studies, communication studies, biology, and medicine. Reach out to us if you’d like to brainstorm some ways that the Center’s collections can support your research or teaching! 

This post was contributed by Bella Thomas, a student worker in the Center’s public services unit.

Nestled within the Center's collections is a piece of rare United States history: a Civil War-era Wade and Ford medical kit filled with supplies that were most likely used on civilians who needed medical attention. The kit, something I was completely unfamiliar with, introduced me to a new type of history, and also made me appreciate modern surgical technology! 

During the Civil War, there were several medical achievements that paved the way for modern healthcare, such as the establishment of general hospitals and the safe use of anesthetics. Upon opening the wooden kit, I was greeted with a trephine (pictured below), a tool used to open the skull. The trephine has a sharp metal head that attaches to another wooden tool. These types of Wade and Ford kits were created starting in 1861, when William Ford and George Wade partnered with Dr. James R. Wood, a surgeon who later became one of the founders of Bellevue Hospital Medical College in New York City.  

Laid against the green velvet interior of the kit are several scalpels, including curved bistouries that were used for the dissection of ligaments and tissue. There are large and small amputation tools, such as a metacarpal knife and a long catlin. A traveler folding tenaculum (pictured below) was used to remove bullets or to pull out arteries to tie them off. A saw with a curved handle and serrated edges was used for lifting metacarpals, cutting fingers, and cutting tendons. Small, sharp, hooked instruments most likely used for cataract or other eye surgeries are housed next to the trephine. A lightly used bone brush accompanies these tools, as well as forceps, a straight probe tenotome used for relieving pain in tendons, and a large bone saw. Other tools were used for bullet extraction, picking up blood vessels, and neurosurgery. Only one postmortem instrument was housed in this kit - a simple, small knife.  

This kit allows us to get a glimpse of civilian life during the Civil War. It houses not only medical equipment, but stories of loss and survival. Viewing this kit allows us to appreciate modern medical technology while simultaneously studying tools that were considered revolutionary for the time. History is found in human stories, whether they are bound tightly in a stack of letters, placed in books, or within artifacts that allow for reflection, contemplation, and discovery of those who came before us.  

Special thanks to Dr. Doug Arbittier, Vice President of Atlantic Health System, for helping identify some instruments.

Sources consulted in research:

• “Antique Surgical Instrument Identification” and “Civil War Medical Books/Medical College Index”, American Civil War Surgical Antiques and Medicine, accessed August 2024, American Civil War Surgical Antiques and Medicine.
• Reilly RF. Medical and surgical care during the American Civil War, 1861-1865. Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent). 2016 Apr;29(2):138-42. doi: 10.1080/08998280.2016.11929390. PMID: 27034545; PMCID: PMC4790547.

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 post was contributed by Hannah Gaydeski, a student worker in the Center's Public Services unit.

The Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History holds a mysterious manuscript item entitled “Diary (author unknown)” written from 1859 to 1864. I first consulted this diary during the Fall 2025 semester, when I researched Victorian hair jewelry for my final project for the English department’s Victorian Literature class. Given that this diary was labeled as having a significant overlap with the Civil War, I was hopeful that there might be some mention of hair jewelry or hair wreaths, which were connected to the era's mourning practices. I did come across a mention of “wreaths” on January 28, 1859. This was obviously not a focus of the diary, but it did contain some valuable insights. 

The author of the diary was a schoolteacher at the Glen Anna Seminary, and had just arrived for her first semester. The author documents her daily activities. She focuses on irregular but necessary activities, such as laundry or food preservation. My interest quickly expanded to other mentioned instances of material culture, such as wax replicas, painting, and letter-writing. As to the physical properties of the diary, it is bound in a cloth hardcover. The pages have browned and the ruling has faded. Towards the end of the diary there is a small envelope and a poem, with an accompanying dried flower wrapped between the slit envelope. At the very back there is a blotting paper. Some pages at the end of the diary have been cut out, but the final known entry is contained in its entirety on the last page. 

I was curious about the author’s identity and conducted a quick internet search for the school, as the author had not signed her name to the  book. This turned up two digitized Glen Anna Seminary catalogs, one of which dates from 1858-1859, which overlaps with the diary’s creation. The school, a girl’s seminary, was described as “not sectarian. There are nine branches of the christian [sic] church represented, and we have teachers of different denominations." I expanded my research to include instances of the author’s interpersonal relationships at this point, hoping to uncover her identity. The documentation of her friendships and the information in the catalog led me to believe that the author was one “Miss Maggie Clewell.” The diary author could not be P.L. Lathrop, Jennie Jenks, S.T. Ray, nor S.A. Burch, as the author had written about all of these women. This left the two assistant pupils, or Maggie Clewell, the “Teacher of Mathematics and English Branches” as potential authors. Clewell seemed the most likely choice as she had made mention of teaching algebra before. Furthermore, a second search turned up a related collection in our archives! The Clewell Family Collection (MS 365) contains manuscripts relating to Margaret (Maggie) Clewell Jenkins and her brother, Francis Christian Clewell. The diary’s author had mentioned writing to “Frank,” a common nickname for Francis. 

After cross-referencing with the Clewell Family collection, I determined that the diary was definitely connected to this collection. This collection contains a family history entitled Endurin’ The War and a series of letters from Francis (Frank) Christian Clewell written to his family during his service in the Civil War and up until his death in 1867. Frank’s letters are not originals, unlike the diary, but were instead transcribed on a typewriter some time afterwards. Whoever transcribed the letters included notes describing family relations, errors in the accounts, and even physical descriptions of the paper that the letters were written on! This editor confirmed that Maggie taught at the Glen Anna Seminary and was Frank’s sister. The editor also mentioned that she married a Robert Alexander Jenkins, Jr. From this, I was able to successfully cross-reference events between the letters and the diary. It would appear that the diary and letters were separated from each other at some point after being donated to UNCW Library and were never reunited, since connecting the diary to the family collection would require a familiarity with the family. Both collections state the “method and date of acquisition unknown,” but the digitization of other records has happily provided enough evidence to connect the collections back to each other. 

[Update: Thanks to Hannah's research, Special Collections staff were able to reunite this orphaned diary with its parent collection in April 2026. It can now be found as part of MS 365 Clewell Family Collection (finding aid linked below)]

Sources

• MS 365 Clewell Family Collection
• Catalogue of the officers and students of Glen Anna Seminary, at Thomasville, North Carolina 1858/1859

Further Reading

• The Church and Private Schools of North Carolina: A Historical Study, by Charles Lee Raper (1898)
• Transcripts of Clewell family letters posted to the blog Spared and Shared 7
• "Women's Colleges in North Carolina, a Postal History," by Tony L. Crumbley, from the North Carolina Postal Historian vol. 36, no. 3 (Summer 2017)

In October 1954, Hurricane Hazel struck near Calabash, North Carolina, and lashed its way up the coast, creating 100 mph wind gusts and a storm surge that destroyed thousands of homes and other beach structures. The damage was so significant that the area around the Cape Fear coast was given the nickname “Hurricane Alley.” To this day, Hazel remains the strongest hurricane in North Carolina history and is the only Category 4 hurricane to have made landfall in the state. 

Though hurricane season runs from June through November, it peaks late August into September, so it's no surprise that September has historically been the busiest hurricane month for coastal North Carolinians. While recent storms like Florence in 2018 are still in recent memory, the pain of September hurricanes goes back decades. 

Let’s travel back in time via the WWAY Television News Archive to look at some you may have forgotten (or weren’t alive for yet!)... 

HURRICANE FRAN - 1996 

Not yet fully recovered from Hurricane Bertha in July, the Cape Fear coast took another hit on September 5, 1996, when Hurricane Fran landed as a Category 3. At the time, Fran was the costliest hurricane for North Carolina since Hurricane Hazel in 1954, due largely to a 10+ foot storm surge that destroyed homes and businesses from Kure Beach to Emerald Isle. Famously, Fran swept away the temporary North Topsail Beach police station. 

This clip shows trees being replaced in Downtown Wilmington three months after the storm destroyed many:

Source: "Wilmington Downtown Tree Planting to Repair Damage after Hurricane Fran," WWAY Television News Archive, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History

HURRICANE HUGO – 1989

On September 22, 1989, Hurricane Hugo—a Category 4 with winds as high as 140 mph—made landfall just north of Charleston, South Carolina, before moving up through North Carolina. The storm's intensity produced hurricane-force gusts that reached as far as western North Carolina and a historic storm tide nearing 20 feet. At the time, it was one of the strongest and costliest hurricanes to hit the East Coast. 

This clip shows the storm’s damage to Yaupon Beach in Oak Island just three days after: 

Source: "Yaupon Beach Damage from Hurricane Hugo," WWAY Television News Archive, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History

HURRICANE DIANA - 1984 

Hurricane Diana was the first hurricane to strike Southeast North Carolina since Hurricane Donna in 1960 and the first major hurricane since Hurricane Hazel in 1954. As the strongest hurricane of the 1984 season, Diana hit along the coast on September 13 as a Category 2, making landfall at Bald Head Island. Both New Hanover County and Brunswick County were met with flooding and overflowing lakes, the result of over a foot of rainfall. 

This clip shows residents of Bald Head Island who took shelter in the Old Baldy Lighthouse rather than evacuate the island: 

Source: "Bald Head Island Residents Evacuate during Hurricane Diana while Some Take Shelter in Lighthouse," WWAY Television News Archive, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History

As a final fun fact, all three hurricanes were severe enough that their names were retired from the official hurricane name list, which is maintained by the Hurricane Committee of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). 

You can search the WWAY Television News Archive digital collection for more hurricane-related videos, or check out the Calhoun Collection of Hurricane Preparedness Research and the North Carolina Coastal Federation Papers for guides and research on hurricane mitigation, evacuation plans, and recovery steps. 

Introduction

UNCW Library’s Special Collections unit is housed within the Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History, located on the second floor of Discovery Hall. Special Collections focuses on collecting cultural and historical materials pertaining to the eight-county region known as southeast North Carolina (SENC), including Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Duplin, New Hanover, Onslow, Pender, and Sampson counties. The Center is also home to federal and state government resources and records documenting the history of the University.

When thinking about archival materials, what comes to mind first is most likely old things – whether that’s rare books or letters and deeds from generations past – and it is true, we do collect those items; however, our collections especially reflect the contemporary growth of the SENC region during the 20th and 21st centuries. They trace economic development, environmental concerns and coastal area management, and politics at all levels of government, as well as the cultural output that uniquely defines the Cape Fear area. Special Collections staff curate, process, describe, and provide access to a wide variety of materials falling into two primary categories – Rare Books and Manuscripts Collections.  

Rare Books

There are four primary collections of published materials held in Special Collections. 

The Southeast North Carolina Collection consists of books and other published items pertaining to our eight-county region. From church histories and broadsides to county records and scientific reports, this collection contains a wide variety of rare and unique items that document all historical aspects of this region.

The Local Authors Collection contains the creative output of SENC writers, including works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and more. You might recognize names such as Clyde Edgerton, Philip Gerard, and Nina de Gramont.

Special Collections also collects locally published magazines, newsletters, newspapers, and other similar publications – a group of materials that libraries collectively call periodicals. This collection includes out-of-print titles such as Encore and Life Around Wilmington, as well as active titles, including current regional newspapers. The unit collaborates with the Library’s Digital Initiatives team and state and local partners to digitize and make available newspapers such as Carolina Beach’s Island Gazette and Columbus County’s News Reporter. 

Finally, the Special Books Collection contains publications that meet one or more of the following criteria: items pertaining to North Carolina history, items published before 1850, and rare items owned by less than 50 libraries. An additional (and very neat!) sub-collection within Special Books is a collection of miniature books measuring less than 5 inches by width or height.

Pictured here is a selection of rare books ranging in size from Mark Catesby’s 23-inch folio, Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands, to the miniature book, Lute & Lyre and Other Musical Instruments of the 6th Century A.D., a generous 1 inch in height. 

Manuscripts and Archives

Manuscript collections differentiate the Center’s Special Collections unit from other libraries and archival repositories due to their inherently unique character; manuscript collections reflect their creators and owners and often contain materials that were not kept or organized by anyone else. As mentioned previously, the Special Collections unit collects and documents the cultural and historical output of the SENC region. Our collecting scope includes subjects such as the arts, business, development, education, environmental history, faculty research, local history, politics, religion, and war and military history. Researchers can discover physical items such as diaries, letters, and photographs, as well as digital items including electronic documents, audiovisual content, and more.

The Center's collections document the lives and careers of individuals such as Dr. Hubert Eaton, Sr., and Hannah Block, the operations of organizations such as the local USO chapter and the North Carolina Coastal Federation, and events such as the USS North Carolina battleship homecoming and the Southport 4th of July Festival.

Items pictured include a letter from James R. Womble to his father describing the fall of Fort Fisher during the Civil War; a button Wilmington citizens wore while advocating for funding for a new bridge over the Cape Fear River during the 1950s and prior to the construction of the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge; and marines stationed at Camp Lejeune during the 1960s enjoying a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Access and Research

All of the materials mentioned here and more are available to be explored by researchers near and far. Visit the Center’s website to learn more about finding materials, planning a visit, or requesting research assistance. 

Every year, October marks American Archives Month, an advocacy initiative of the Society of American Archivists. Archival institutions across the country highlight their collections with activities and events to promote awareness of archival materials and the importance of maintaining historical records.

Here in North Carolina, the Society of North Carolina Archivists (SNCA) selects an annual theme for archivists across the state to follow when showcasing the work they do in making primary sources accessible to the public.

This year’s theme is North Carolina’s 250th, in honor of the nation approaching its 250th anniversary in 2026, and celebrates the “different peoples of North Carolina and the part they played in the history of the country” since 1776. Special Collections’ manuscript collections contain primary and secondary material that document significant national moments from the last 250 years. Here are some of the people of southeast North Carolina that have made an impact over the years:

18th Century

The Declaration of Independence was signed by three men from North Carolina: Joseph Hewes, John Penn, and William Hooper (1742-1790). Hooper lived in Wilmington at the time, where he’d been practicing law since 1764, and owned a house [pictured¹] on the Masonboro Sound from 1773-1801. He represented New Hanover County on the first Committee of Correspondence, coordinating patriot opposition to British policies in advance of the American Revolution. This work would lead to his election to both the First and Second Continental Congresses. Though he missed the approval of the Declaration on July 4, 1776, he returned to Philadelphia on August 2 and signed not far below John Hancock.

19th Century

The World's Columbian Exposition, commonly referred to as the World’s Fair, was held in Chicago in 1893 and was one of the largest of the fairs, with more than 27 million visitors from across the globe. Florence Hill Kidder (1850-1917) was appointed a "lady manager" for the state of North Carolina by the World's Columbian Commission and helped with the many North Carolina exhibits that were displayed in the subject-specific halls. Her colonial exhibit won an award [pictured²], and upon her return to North Carolina, she established the North Carolina chapter of the National Society for the Colonial Dames of America in 1894. Kidder lived with her husband, George, at 308 Dock Street in downtown Wilmington, where the home, known as the Kidder House, still stands today.

20th Century

Amidst the national civil rights movement, the New Hanover County school system faced community pressure and legal action for its lack of progress towards desegregating schools, as mandated by the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown V. Board of Education of Topeka in 1954. Integration finally happened in 1968 and included the closure of the Black high school, Williston, where long-time educator and community leader Bertha Boykin Todd (1929-) [pictured³] worked as a librarian before moving to an administrative role at Hoggard High School. Racial tensions post desegregation ultimately led to violence and riots in 1971, when ten individuals, known as the Wilmington Ten, were accused of setting a grocery store on fire. Todd worked to sow peace and amity within the schools during this tumultuous time and later helped to exonerate the Wilmington Ten, all part of her ongoing activism and efforts to build multicultural relationships in New Hanover County. You can learn more about her life in the Bertha Boykin Todd Papers. 

Sources

1. MS 418 Relvin Vaughn (R.V.) Asbury, Jr. Papers, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History

2. MS 083 Kidder Award and Certificate of Membership, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History

3. MS 408 Star-News Image Archive, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History

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. 

If you're looking for inspiration for UNCW Fashion Week, check out these images of historical resources from the Center's Special Collections. This post highlights our manuscript and archival collections. Part 1 of this series features inspiration images from the Center's book and periodical collections. 

Want to see any of these resources in person? You can find them in the CSENCAH reading room on the 2nd floor of the library. Contact us for more info!

Original costume designs from MS 181 Hannah Solomon Block Collection

Foundational costume corset worn by actress Linda Darnell in The Walls of Jericho, 1948

WWAY news clips related to the fashion industry in the 1980s

Wilmington Downtown Riverfront Modeling of Gowns from Fashion Designer Tim Cobb, 1983 (more info)

Southeast North Carolina Clothing Retailer Discusses Fall Fashions, 1985 (more info)

Fashion icons from the Lower Cape Fear Historical Society Photograph Collection, presented courtesy of the LCFHS

This post was contributed by Sarah Creel, a student employee in the Center's Special Collections unit. Sarah is working to preserve and describe scrapbooks held in the Edwin E. Kirton Family Private Papers this academic year. 

Holiday cards are a way for us to connect with those we care for in our lives  —  to remind them of our appreciation or to simply say, “I was thinking of you.” Additionally, holiday cards are often saved by people as special mementos, and they can make their way into the archive. The Edwin E. Kirton Family scrapbooks, full of personal newspaper clippings, correspondence, and ephemera, provide a sneak peek into this holiday tradition during the mid-twentieth century in Wilmington. 

For Rev. Edwin Kirton and Mrs. Eunice Kirton, Christmas was a busy yet special time for them. Both Edwin and Eunice belonged to the Episcopal tradition, and Edwin served as the Rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in downtown Wilmington for over twenty years. The card below displays an illustration of a Christmas nativity scene, an image that would have resonated with the Kirton family as well as many in their community. 

The Kirton Family Scrapbooks also contain examples of homemade holiday cards with some creative flair. The card below was sent to the Kirtons by the Bluethenthal family, and it is constructed with white card stock and a piece of dried seaweed from Kure Beach attached to it. While quite different from the “typical” holiday card, it was a unique way for the Bluethenthal family to send their season’s greetings. 

Lastly, other holiday cards in the Edwin E. Kirton Family scrapbooks display the family’s connections outside of Wilmington. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Rev. Edwin E. Kirton was a member of the Governor’s Committee on Employment of the Handicapped. His active involvement in this state commission gave him a relationship with North Carolina Governor Dan Moore and his family. The card below is from the Governor who wishes the Kirton family a happy New Year. 

Overall, the Edwin E. Kirton Family scrapbooks contain a variety of holiday cards from the twentieth century. These cards show the different relationships the Kirton family had within and outside Wilmington, as well as the different types of holiday cards one could encounter in twentieth-century Wilmington. Finally, their preservation in the family scrapbooks also demonstrate the sentimental nature of holiday cards. 

Sources: MS 042 Edwin E. Kirton Family Private Papers, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History.

This post was contributed by Sarah Creel, a student employee in the Center's Special Collections unit. Sarah is working to preserve and describe scrapbooks held in the Edwin E. Kirton Family Private Papers this academic year. 

Holiday cards are a way for us to connect with those we care for in our lives  —  to remind them of our appreciation or to simply say, “I was thinking of you.” Additionally, holiday cards are often saved by people as special mementos, and they can make their way into the archive. The Edwin E. Kirton Family scrapbooks, full of personal newspaper clippings, correspondence, and ephemera, provide a sneak peek into this holiday tradition during the mid-twentieth century in Wilmington. 

For Rev. Edwin Kirton and Mrs. Eunice Kirton, Christmas was a busy yet special time for them. Both Edwin and Eunice belonged to the Episcopal tradition, and Edwin served as the Rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in downtown Wilmington for over twenty years. The card below displays an illustration of a Christmas nativity scene, an image that would have resonated with the Kirton family as well as many in their community. 

The Kirton Family Scrapbooks also contain examples of homemade holiday cards with some creative flair. The card below was sent to the Kirtons by the Bluethenthal family, and it is constructed with white card stock and a piece of dried seaweed from Kure Beach attached to it. While quite different from the “typical” holiday card, it was a unique way for the Bluethenthal family to send their season’s greetings. 

Lastly, other holiday cards in the Edwin E. Kirton Family scrapbooks display the family’s connections outside of Wilmington. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Rev. Edwin E. Kirton was a member of the Governor’s Committee on Employment of the Handicapped. His active involvement in this state commission gave him a relationship with North Carolina Governor Dan Moore and his family. The card below is from the Governor who wishes the Kirton family a happy New Year. 

Overall, the Edwin E. Kirton Family scrapbooks contain a variety of holiday cards from the twentieth century. These cards show the different relationships the Kirton family had within and outside Wilmington, as well as the different types of holiday cards one could encounter in twentieth-century Wilmington. Finally, their preservation in the family scrapbooks also demonstrate the sentimental nature of holiday cards. 

Sources: MS 042 Edwin E. Kirton Family Private Papers, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History.

In October 1954, Hurricane Hazel struck near Calabash, North Carolina, and lashed its way up the coast, creating 100 mph wind gusts and a storm surge that destroyed thousands of homes and other beach structures. The damage was so significant that the area around the Cape Fear coast was given the nickname “Hurricane Alley.” To this day, Hazel remains the strongest hurricane in North Carolina history and is the only Category 4 hurricane to have made landfall in the state. 

Though hurricane season runs from June through November, it peaks late August into September, so it's no surprise that September has historically been the busiest hurricane month for coastal North Carolinians. While recent storms like Florence in 2018 are still in recent memory, the pain of September hurricanes goes back decades. 

Let’s travel back in time via the WWAY Television News Archive to look at some you may have forgotten (or weren’t alive for yet!)... 

HURRICANE FRAN - 1996 

Not yet fully recovered from Hurricane Bertha in July, the Cape Fear coast took another hit on September 5, 1996, when Hurricane Fran landed as a Category 3. At the time, Fran was the costliest hurricane for North Carolina since Hurricane Hazel in 1954, due largely to a 10+ foot storm surge that destroyed homes and businesses from Kure Beach to Emerald Isle. Famously, Fran swept away the temporary North Topsail Beach police station. 

This clip shows trees being replaced in Downtown Wilmington three months after the storm destroyed many:

Source: "Wilmington Downtown Tree Planting to Repair Damage after Hurricane Fran," WWAY Television News Archive, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History

HURRICANE HUGO – 1989

On September 22, 1989, Hurricane Hugo—a Category 4 with winds as high as 140 mph—made landfall just north of Charleston, South Carolina, before moving up through North Carolina. The storm's intensity produced hurricane-force gusts that reached as far as western North Carolina and a historic storm tide nearing 20 feet. At the time, it was one of the strongest and costliest hurricanes to hit the East Coast. 

This clip shows the storm’s damage to Yaupon Beach in Oak Island just three days after: 

Source: "Yaupon Beach Damage from Hurricane Hugo," WWAY Television News Archive, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History

HURRICANE DIANA - 1984 

Hurricane Diana was the first hurricane to strike Southeast North Carolina since Hurricane Donna in 1960 and the first major hurricane since Hurricane Hazel in 1954. As the strongest hurricane of the 1984 season, Diana hit along the coast on September 13 as a Category 2, making landfall at Bald Head Island. Both New Hanover County and Brunswick County were met with flooding and overflowing lakes, the result of over a foot of rainfall. 

This clip shows residents of Bald Head Island who took shelter in the Old Baldy Lighthouse rather than evacuate the island: 

Source: "Bald Head Island Residents Evacuate during Hurricane Diana while Some Take Shelter in Lighthouse," WWAY Television News Archive, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History

As a final fun fact, all three hurricanes were severe enough that their names were retired from the official hurricane name list, which is maintained by the Hurricane Committee of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). 

You can search the WWAY Television News Archive digital collection for more hurricane-related videos, or check out the Calhoun Collection of Hurricane Preparedness Research and the North Carolina Coastal Federation Papers for guides and research on hurricane mitigation, evacuation plans, and recovery steps. 

In mid-century America, beauty pageants were a hit. The golden age of pageants began in the 1950s, when the Miss America competition in Atlantic City, New Jersey was first broadcast live on television to millions of excited viewers. State and local pageants, though smaller in scale, also experienced a streak of popularity. In North Carolina, a Wilmington resident named Hannah Block played a critical role in the pageant world. Block judged and directed numerous pageants across North Carolina and routinely coached and chaperoned pageant contestants to better their chances of success. Block even had a hand in securing the first and only Miss America win for a North Carolina contestant. 

During the 1950s, Hannah Block coached and chaperoned several Miss North Carolina winners, including Faye Arnold of Raleigh and Joan Melton of Albemarle, to compete in the Miss America competition. Although both Arnold and Melton were state winners, neither could snag the Miss America title. Nothing stopped Hannah Block’s enthusiasm, however. Quoted in a 1958 newspaper interview after losing that year’s Miss America, Block said of the pageant: “It is one of the most thrilling things I know of.”

It wasn't until the 1960s that a North Carolina contestant found success on the national level. After Maria Beale Fletcher of Asheville won the Miss North Carolina pageant in 1961, Hannah Block coached Fletcher for the upcoming competition in Atlantic City. Fletcher ultimately won the title of Miss America 1962. As winner, Fletcher received all the benefits of Miss America: an academic scholarship, a full schedule of social appearances, and hearty congratulations from family, friends, and fans. Block’s contributions were also well-applauded. When Special Collections staff organized Hannah Block’s Miss America records, dozens of congratulatory telegrams, cards, and letters were found and preserved. They serve as warm reminders of Block’s efforts, even 65 years later.

Hannah Block was an active figure in the Miss North Carolina and Miss America pageants, but she was also a coach, chaperone, judge, producer, and director at numerous regional and local pageants. The Hannah Solomon Block Collection features materials that show the depth of her involvement, and includes items like correspondence, pageant program books, nametags, newspapers, and photographs. Also present in the collection is evidence of Block's support of the Wilmington community; for example, the Hannah Block Historic USO at 120 South Second Street bears her name to commemorate Block's work coordinating performances for troops during World War II. To view these materials and other items related to Block's life, visit our Reading Room or contact us. 

Sources

• Newspapers, 1952-1967, Folder: 47, Box: 2. Hannah Solomon Block Collection, SC-MS-181, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History.
• Correspondence, 1960-1961, undated, Folder: 5, Box: 3. Hannah Solomon Block Collection, SC-MS-181, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History.

Every year, October marks American Archives Month, an advocacy initiative of the Society of American Archivists. Archival institutions across the country highlight their collections with activities and events to promote awareness of archival materials and the importance of maintaining historical records.

Here in North Carolina, the Society of North Carolina Archivists (SNCA) selects an annual theme for archivists across the state to follow when showcasing the work they do in making primary sources accessible to the public.

This year’s theme is North Carolina’s 250th, in honor of the nation approaching its 250th anniversary in 2026, and celebrates the “different peoples of North Carolina and the part they played in the history of the country” since 1776. Special Collections’ manuscript collections contain primary and secondary material that document significant national moments from the last 250 years. Here are some of the people of southeast North Carolina that have made an impact over the years:

18th Century

The Declaration of Independence was signed by three men from North Carolina: Joseph Hewes, John Penn, and William Hooper (1742-1790). Hooper lived in Wilmington at the time, where he’d been practicing law since 1764, and owned a house [pictured¹] on the Masonboro Sound from 1773-1801. He represented New Hanover County on the first Committee of Correspondence, coordinating patriot opposition to British policies in advance of the American Revolution. This work would lead to his election to both the First and Second Continental Congresses. Though he missed the approval of the Declaration on July 4, 1776, he returned to Philadelphia on August 2 and signed not far below John Hancock.

19th Century

The World's Columbian Exposition, commonly referred to as the World’s Fair, was held in Chicago in 1893 and was one of the largest of the fairs, with more than 27 million visitors from across the globe. Florence Hill Kidder (1850-1917) was appointed a "lady manager" for the state of North Carolina by the World's Columbian Commission and helped with the many North Carolina exhibits that were displayed in the subject-specific halls. Her colonial exhibit won an award [pictured²], and upon her return to North Carolina, she established the North Carolina chapter of the National Society for the Colonial Dames of America in 1894. Kidder lived with her husband, George, at 308 Dock Street in downtown Wilmington, where the home, known as the Kidder House, still stands today.

20th Century

Amidst the national civil rights movement, the New Hanover County school system faced community pressure and legal action for its lack of progress towards desegregating schools, as mandated by the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown V. Board of Education of Topeka in 1954. Integration finally happened in 1968 and included the closure of the Black high school, Williston, where long-time educator and community leader Bertha Boykin Todd (1929-) [pictured³] worked as a librarian before moving to an administrative role at Hoggard High School. Racial tensions post desegregation ultimately led to violence and riots in 1971, when ten individuals, known as the Wilmington Ten, were accused of setting a grocery store on fire. Todd worked to sow peace and amity within the schools during this tumultuous time and later helped to exonerate the Wilmington Ten, all part of her ongoing activism and efforts to build multicultural relationships in New Hanover County. You can learn more about her life in the Bertha Boykin Todd Papers. 

Sources

1. MS 418 Relvin Vaughn (R.V.) Asbury, Jr. Papers, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History

2. MS 083 Kidder Award and Certificate of Membership, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History

3. MS 408 Star-News Image Archive, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History

Summer has arrived to campus, no matter what the seasonal calendar says! It has been, as it always is, a busy year of processing manuscript collections, staffing our Reading Room, teaching with primary sources and rare books, creating catalog records, growing the Center’s digital collections, navigating technology upgrades, and countless other tasks.

The Center aims to connect the people and communities and Southeast North Carolina to the sources of their history and culture by collecting materials, providing access to those materials, sharing collections with the campus and broader region, encouraging and engaging scholarship on the region, and supporting and partnering with regional cultural heritage groups. You can see some of this history and culture, as well as the work we do to make it accessible, in blog posts completed by the Center across the year, discussing a variety of topics including:  

• Government Information librarian Elisabeth Garner wrote a series of posts about the North Carolina Manual’s history and content, starting here.
• University Archivist Adina Riggins wrote about records management at the University: how employees can tackle their records and the assistance that the University Archivist can provide. Also, if you’re reading this in May, check out June’s State Archives workshop specifically for higher education records management.
• Center specialist Isabella Walker used those University records to write about vocational education and the unexpected history of football on campus.
• Special Collections Specialist Nicole Yatsonsky complied clips from WHQR’s Sounds Local episodes that highlighted interviews with Black artists in honor of February’s Black History Month.
• Special Collections Librarian Rebecca Baugnon highlighted the materials available in Special Collections overall, and graduating student worker Sarah Creel shared holiday cards preserved in scrapbooks from the Reverend Edwin E. Kirton Family Private Papers collection.
• Public Services Archivist Samantha Crisp highlighted all kinds of materials, including two posts of fashion images in honor of Fashion Week on campus and (underrated?) film Muppets from Space, shot in town.

While the blog goes on hiatus for the summer, we will be continuing our work behind the scenes, providing access to collections through the Reading Room - by appointment - and preparing for August. I know it doesn’t seem like it but any academic librarian knows, the first day of classes is right around the corner! 

Wilmington has been synonymous with the East Coast film industry for over four decades now, since producer Frank Capra, Jr. (1934-2007) [pictured¹] arrived in southeast North Carolina in the fall of 1983 to shoot Firestarter (1984), based on the 1980 novel by Stephen King and starring a young Drew Barrymore.

Capra, Jr. eventually decided to form a Wilmington-based company, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, with Universal Pictures’ production head Dino De Laurentiis (1919-2010). The company would work out of their newly built Carolco Studios, better known as EUE/Screen Gems Studios after its acquisition in 1996. At the same time, Capra, Jr. was named the President of EUE/Screen Gems in Wilmington. The studio facility would change its name again in 2023, when it was bought by Cinespace Studios.

Beyond work, Capra Jr. took quickly to the Port City, buying a house in the Hancock Park area of town and marrying a local, Deborah Ann Sprunt, who had previously been married to Kenneth Sprunt, Jr. of the Sprunt family. Capra, Jr. also joined the Wilmington Rotary Club [pictured²] in March 1997...

...though per this memo [pictured³] from January 4, 1999, his attendance in the two years since was lax, leading the Attendance Committee to note he should be dropped from the club's membership. However, he was listed again on the club's 1999-2000 roster for that next membership year and did not fall off until 2000-2001.

Capra, Jr. was the son of famed Golden Age director Frank Capra (1897-1991), best known for films like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) and It’s A Wonderful Life (1946). For many years, Capra, Jr. held an annual screening of his father’s holiday classic in town. To learn more about the filming of Firestarter and Capra, Jr.’s time in Wilmington, take a look at the Frank Capra, Jr. Collection.

Sources:

1. MS 250 Frank Capra, Jr. Collection, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History
2. MS 215 Herman Blizzard Rotary Archive, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History
3. MS 215 Herman Blizzard Rotary Archive, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History

Flashback to a hundred years ago—it's the summer of 1926 and you’re riding the trolley from downtown Wilmington to Wrightsville Beach. The car rattles along the tracks, the air thick and humid, a warm breeze reaching you every now and again. As you cross Bradley Creek, the sun sets in the west behind you. You can hardly tell, though, as a second sun seems to rise from the ocean in the darkening distance.

But that’s no sun—that's Lumina [pictured¹].

When Lumina opened near the end of the Wrightsville Beach electric trolley line in 1905, over a thousand incandescent bulbs lit up the new entertainment pavilion. Built by Hugh MacRae, owner of the local electric utility, he hoped its brightness would encourage more people to use electricity. It did allow ships to navigate by it and was soon nicknamed "The Palace of Light."

Lumina had three levels of recreational activities for white leisure-seekers, like bowling at the ground floor lanes, dancing in the second-floor ballroom [pictured²], or taking in the sweeping ocean views from the top-level promenade. From there, you could also watch movies on the large, over-water screen [pictured³] or look down upon the dance floor below. The pavilion also featured restaurants, dressing rooms, and a dress code for the ballroom that staff enforced diligently.

After 1940, the pavilion faced several difficulties, like the closure of the trolley, increased automobile access to the beach, and newer entertainment options. It was damaged by Hurricane Hazel in 1954 and continued to decline through the 1960s, until it was finally condemned in 1972 and later demolished in 1973. The pavilion was located near what is now the Sandpeddler Inn & Suites on S. Lumina Avenue.

Though gone for over 50 years, Lumina continues to be a fond memory for those who once visited "The Palace of Light." A North Carolina historical marker (D-97) for Lumina, dedicated in 1992, can be found on Waynick Boulevard between Nathan Street and Iula Street.

For more information on Lumina and Wrightsville Beach history, visit the CSENCAH reading room to view these published works:

• Wrightsville Beach: A Pictorial History by Greg Watkins, 1997
• Cape Fear Lost by Susan Taylor Block, 1999
• Hometown Memories--Wilmington Tales: A Treasury of 20th Century Memories by Bob Lasley and Sallie Holt, 2002
• Lumina: Illuminating the Forgotten Past by the UNCW Department of Sociology, 2003

Image Sources:

Teaser: "Lumina" Wrightsville Beach, N.C., James Evans Postcard Collection

1. Lumina by Moonlight, Wrightsville Beach, Wilmington, N.C., James Evans Postcard Collection
2. Interior of Lumina Dancing Pavilion at Night, Wrightsville Beach Near Wilmington, N.C., James Evans Postcard Collection
3. Movies "Over the Waves" at Lumina, Wrightsville Beach, N.C., James Evans Postcard Collection

You can view these images and more in the digital collection of the James Evans Postcard Collection.

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) 

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) 

Every year, October marks American Archives Month, an advocacy initiative of the Society of American Archivists. Archival institutions across the country highlight their collections with activities and events to promote awareness of archival materials and the importance of maintaining historical records.

Here in North Carolina, the Society of North Carolina Archivists (SNCA) selects an annual theme for archivists across the state to follow when showcasing the work they do in making primary sources accessible to the public.

This year’s theme is North Carolina’s 250th, in honor of the nation approaching its 250th anniversary in 2026, and celebrates the “different peoples of North Carolina and the part they played in the history of the country” since 1776. Special Collections’ manuscript collections contain primary and secondary material that document significant national moments from the last 250 years. Here are some of the people of southeast North Carolina that have made an impact over the years:

18th Century

The Declaration of Independence was signed by three men from North Carolina: Joseph Hewes, John Penn, and William Hooper (1742-1790). Hooper lived in Wilmington at the time, where he’d been practicing law since 1764, and owned a house [pictured¹] on the Masonboro Sound from 1773-1801. He represented New Hanover County on the first Committee of Correspondence, coordinating patriot opposition to British policies in advance of the American Revolution. This work would lead to his election to both the First and Second Continental Congresses. Though he missed the approval of the Declaration on July 4, 1776, he returned to Philadelphia on August 2 and signed not far below John Hancock.

19th Century

The World's Columbian Exposition, commonly referred to as the World’s Fair, was held in Chicago in 1893 and was one of the largest of the fairs, with more than 27 million visitors from across the globe. Florence Hill Kidder (1850-1917) was appointed a "lady manager" for the state of North Carolina by the World's Columbian Commission and helped with the many North Carolina exhibits that were displayed in the subject-specific halls. Her colonial exhibit won an award [pictured²], and upon her return to North Carolina, she established the North Carolina chapter of the National Society for the Colonial Dames of America in 1894. Kidder lived with her husband, George, at 308 Dock Street in downtown Wilmington, where the home, known as the Kidder House, still stands today.

20th Century

Amidst the national civil rights movement, the New Hanover County school system faced community pressure and legal action for its lack of progress towards desegregating schools, as mandated by the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown V. Board of Education of Topeka in 1954. Integration finally happened in 1968 and included the closure of the Black high school, Williston, where long-time educator and community leader Bertha Boykin Todd (1929-) [pictured³] worked as a librarian before moving to an administrative role at Hoggard High School. Racial tensions post desegregation ultimately led to violence and riots in 1971, when ten individuals, known as the Wilmington Ten, were accused of setting a grocery store on fire. Todd worked to sow peace and amity within the schools during this tumultuous time and later helped to exonerate the Wilmington Ten, all part of her ongoing activism and efforts to build multicultural relationships in New Hanover County. You can learn more about her life in the Bertha Boykin Todd Papers. 

Sources

1. MS 418 Relvin Vaughn (R.V.) Asbury, Jr. Papers, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History

2. MS 083 Kidder Award and Certificate of Membership, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History

3. MS 408 Star-News Image Archive, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History

As anyone who has spent time in the secluded, closed stacks of a university archive will know, boxes upon boxes of sometimes-unorganized, sometimes-processed collections are interspersed within the shelves of special and rare books. Since September, I have been assisting with reprocessing the Herman Blizzard Rotary Archive, the archive of the Wilmington Rotary Club, which was established in Wilmington in 1915 as the first Rotary club in the area.

Prior to last semester, I knew vaguely of Rotary clubs, in that I knew they existed, but that was where my knowledge of the subject ended. Thanks to my work on the collection these last several months, I can now say that I am well-versed in their organizational functions and humanitarian causes.

My role with Special Collections has focused primarily on identifying what's contained in certain segments of the collection, and then organizing that information in a way that will make it accessible to someone who is not as familiar with it as I now am. Basically, that means I have spent an extraordinary amount of time working in Microsoft Excel spreadsheets the last six months, as you can see here:

There’s a lot of variety in the contents of the collection; most of it being various types of paper goods, but also a lot of artifacts. Particularly, there are numerous trading banners from Rotary clubs all over the world. I think this is one of my favorite parts of the collection, and of Rotary as a whole. As someone who studies and works with material culture, I love the tangible nature of giving a banner to a guest. Two people might not speak the same language, but Rotary connects them and allows them to experience the other’s culture, carrying a little piece of it home.

While here, I've also worked with the club's minutes, newsletters, handbooks, rosters, photographs, and material related to District 7730 and Rotary International. Because the collection is so broad, I’ve stumbled across many memorable items. Personal favorites have included a file folder containing three different books about the Uruguayan beef industry, a trading banner declaring Fremont, Michigan, to be “the baby food capital of the world” (pictured below), and many humorous, occasionally gossipy letters between members.

After all of this time spent with the collection, I now feel invested in the continued success of the Wilmington Rotary Club. However, as one might expect from the kind of person who happily spends hours out of their week typing notes into Excel, I’m not much of a socializer. My current plan is to get my dad to join and then report back. Wish me luck!

To learn more about the Wilmington Rotary Club, be sure to check out the Herman Blizzard Rotary Archive finding aid, or view digitized collection material in the Herman Blizzard Rotary Archive digital collection.

For decades, Southeast North Carolina has had a diverse and culturally rich community of artists that call the region home—or ones that just stopped by to say hello! From 1984-1998, WHQR Public Radio’s program Sounds Local featured interviews with musicians, painters, actors, and more, highlighting local exhibits, area performances, and new creations. 

In honor of Black History Month this month, Special Collections has chosen a selection of Sounds Local episodes that include segments with Black artists talking about their work and lived experiences. The audio of each episode can be accessed by clicking on the hyperlinked date. 

January 17, 1986 – Minnie Evans (1892-1987)

Interview with artist Minnie Evans, North Carolina Museum of Art Curator Mitchell Kahan, and former St. John's Museum of Art Director Alan Aiches regarding Evans, her work, and an exhibit on display at the North Carolina Museum of Art. 

October 13, 1989 – Nnenna Freelon (1954- )

WHQR's Saturday morning jazz host, Maggie Pate, interviews vocalist Nnenna Freelon about her background and career as a singer, during her year-long residency at Brunswick Community College. 

October 11, 1991 – Jawole Zollar (1950- )

Interview with artistic director Jawole Zollar about the performance by Urban Bush Women dance troupe of Praise House, a tribute based on the life of Minnie Evans as part of "In Praise of Minnie Evans: A Community Celebration" held in Wilmington. 

October 18, 1991 – Jimmy Heath (1926-2020)

Interview with jazz saxophonist Jimmy Heath about his career as a musician and composer ahead of the celebration of his 65th birthday with the Heath Brothers Quartet in Thalian Hall. 

August 03, 1996 – Cynthia Tyson (1954-2004)

Interview with writer Cynthia Tyson on her jazz musical, Bessie, Billie and Me, directed by Tyhm Kennedy and sponsored by the Wilmington Jazz Collective, on stage at Kenan Auditorium at UNC Wilmington.

October 17, 1998 – Doug (1936-2006) and Frankie (1937-2024) Quimby

Interview with Doug and Frankie Quimby, The Sea Island Singers, ahead of their Gullah performance at UNC Wilmington's Kenan Auditorium for a Tapestry Theatre Company benefit.

Additional episodes featuring Black artists can be found by browsing the WHQR Public Radio Archive finding aid and listened to online via the WHQR Public Radio Archive Digital Collection. 

To learn more about artist collections held by Special Collections, browse the following subject guides: 

• The Arts in Southeast North Carolina
• Hollywood East: Film in Southeast North Carolina
• Southeast North Carolina Writers

In October 1954, Hurricane Hazel struck near Calabash, North Carolina, and lashed its way up the coast, creating 100 mph wind gusts and a storm surge that destroyed thousands of homes and other beach structures. The damage was so significant that the area around the Cape Fear coast was given the nickname “Hurricane Alley.” To this day, Hazel remains the strongest hurricane in North Carolina history and is the only Category 4 hurricane to have made landfall in the state. 

Though hurricane season runs from June through November, it peaks late August into September, so it's no surprise that September has historically been the busiest hurricane month for coastal North Carolinians. While recent storms like Florence in 2018 are still in recent memory, the pain of September hurricanes goes back decades. 

Let’s travel back in time via the WWAY Television News Archive to look at some you may have forgotten (or weren’t alive for yet!)... 

HURRICANE FRAN - 1996 

Not yet fully recovered from Hurricane Bertha in July, the Cape Fear coast took another hit on September 5, 1996, when Hurricane Fran landed as a Category 3. At the time, Fran was the costliest hurricane for North Carolina since Hurricane Hazel in 1954, due largely to a 10+ foot storm surge that destroyed homes and businesses from Kure Beach to Emerald Isle. Famously, Fran swept away the temporary North Topsail Beach police station. 

This clip shows trees being replaced in Downtown Wilmington three months after the storm destroyed many:

Source: "Wilmington Downtown Tree Planting to Repair Damage after Hurricane Fran," WWAY Television News Archive, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History

HURRICANE HUGO – 1989

On September 22, 1989, Hurricane Hugo—a Category 4 with winds as high as 140 mph—made landfall just north of Charleston, South Carolina, before moving up through North Carolina. The storm's intensity produced hurricane-force gusts that reached as far as western North Carolina and a historic storm tide nearing 20 feet. At the time, it was one of the strongest and costliest hurricanes to hit the East Coast. 

This clip shows the storm’s damage to Yaupon Beach in Oak Island just three days after: 

Source: "Yaupon Beach Damage from Hurricane Hugo," WWAY Television News Archive, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History

HURRICANE DIANA - 1984 

Hurricane Diana was the first hurricane to strike Southeast North Carolina since Hurricane Donna in 1960 and the first major hurricane since Hurricane Hazel in 1954. As the strongest hurricane of the 1984 season, Diana hit along the coast on September 13 as a Category 2, making landfall at Bald Head Island. Both New Hanover County and Brunswick County were met with flooding and overflowing lakes, the result of over a foot of rainfall. 

This clip shows residents of Bald Head Island who took shelter in the Old Baldy Lighthouse rather than evacuate the island: 

Source: "Bald Head Island Residents Evacuate during Hurricane Diana while Some Take Shelter in Lighthouse," WWAY Television News Archive, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History

As a final fun fact, all three hurricanes were severe enough that their names were retired from the official hurricane name list, which is maintained by the Hurricane Committee of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). 

You can search the WWAY Television News Archive digital collection for more hurricane-related videos, or check out the Calhoun Collection of Hurricane Preparedness Research and the North Carolina Coastal Federation Papers for guides and research on hurricane mitigation, evacuation plans, and recovery steps. 

Wilmington has been synonymous with the East Coast film industry for over four decades now, since producer Frank Capra, Jr. (1934-2007) [pictured¹] arrived in southeast North Carolina in the fall of 1983 to shoot Firestarter (1984), based on the 1980 novel by Stephen King and starring a young Drew Barrymore.

Capra, Jr. eventually decided to form a Wilmington-based company, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, with Universal Pictures’ production head Dino De Laurentiis (1919-2010). The company would work out of their newly built Carolco Studios, better known as EUE/Screen Gems Studios after its acquisition in 1996. At the same time, Capra, Jr. was named the President of EUE/Screen Gems in Wilmington. The studio facility would change its name again in 2023, when it was bought by Cinespace Studios.

Beyond work, Capra Jr. took quickly to the Port City, buying a house in the Hancock Park area of town and marrying a local, Deborah Ann Sprunt, who had previously been married to Kenneth Sprunt, Jr. of the Sprunt family. Capra, Jr. also joined the Wilmington Rotary Club [pictured²] in March 1997...

...though per this memo [pictured³] from January 4, 1999, his attendance in the two years since was lax, leading the Attendance Committee to note he should be dropped from the club's membership. However, he was listed again on the club's 1999-2000 roster for that next membership year and did not fall off until 2000-2001.

Capra, Jr. was the son of famed Golden Age director Frank Capra (1897-1991), best known for films like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) and It’s A Wonderful Life (1946). For many years, Capra, Jr. held an annual screening of his father’s holiday classic in town. To learn more about the filming of Firestarter and Capra, Jr.’s time in Wilmington, take a look at the Frank Capra, Jr. Collection.

Sources:

1. MS 250 Frank Capra, Jr. Collection, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History
2. MS 215 Herman Blizzard Rotary Archive, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History
3. MS 215 Herman Blizzard Rotary Archive, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History

Wilmington has been synonymous with the East Coast film industry for over four decades now, since producer Frank Capra, Jr. (1934-2007) [pictured¹] arrived in southeast North Carolina in the fall of 1983 to shoot Firestarter (1984), based on the 1980 novel by Stephen King and starring a young Drew Barrymore.

Capra, Jr. eventually decided to form a Wilmington-based company, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, with Universal Pictures’ production head Dino De Laurentiis (1919-2010). The company would work out of their newly built Carolco Studios, better known as EUE/Screen Gems Studios after its acquisition in 1996. At the same time, Capra, Jr. was named the President of EUE/Screen Gems in Wilmington. The studio facility would change its name again in 2023, when it was bought by Cinespace Studios.

Beyond work, Capra Jr. took quickly to the Port City, buying a house in the Hancock Park area of town and marrying a local, Deborah Ann Sprunt, who had previously been married to Kenneth Sprunt, Jr. of the Sprunt family. Capra, Jr. also joined the Wilmington Rotary Club [pictured²] in March 1997...

...though per this memo [pictured³] from January 4, 1999, his attendance in the two years since was lax, leading the Attendance Committee to note he should be dropped from the club's membership. However, he was listed again on the club's 1999-2000 roster for that next membership year and did not fall off until 2000-2001.

Capra, Jr. was the son of famed Golden Age director Frank Capra (1897-1991), best known for films like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) and It’s A Wonderful Life (1946). For many years, Capra, Jr. held an annual screening of his father’s holiday classic in town. To learn more about the filming of Firestarter and Capra, Jr.’s time in Wilmington, take a look at the Frank Capra, Jr. Collection.

Sources:

1. MS 250 Frank Capra, Jr. Collection, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History
2. MS 215 Herman Blizzard Rotary Archive, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History
3. MS 215 Herman Blizzard Rotary Archive, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History

As anyone who has spent time in the secluded, closed stacks of a university archive will know, boxes upon boxes of sometimes-unorganized, sometimes-processed collections are interspersed within the shelves of special and rare books. Since September, I have been assisting with reprocessing the Herman Blizzard Rotary Archive, the archive of the Wilmington Rotary Club, which was established in Wilmington in 1915 as the first Rotary club in the area.

Prior to last semester, I knew vaguely of Rotary clubs, in that I knew they existed, but that was where my knowledge of the subject ended. Thanks to my work on the collection these last several months, I can now say that I am well-versed in their organizational functions and humanitarian causes.

My role with Special Collections has focused primarily on identifying what's contained in certain segments of the collection, and then organizing that information in a way that will make it accessible to someone who is not as familiar with it as I now am. Basically, that means I have spent an extraordinary amount of time working in Microsoft Excel spreadsheets the last six months, as you can see here:

There’s a lot of variety in the contents of the collection; most of it being various types of paper goods, but also a lot of artifacts. Particularly, there are numerous trading banners from Rotary clubs all over the world. I think this is one of my favorite parts of the collection, and of Rotary as a whole. As someone who studies and works with material culture, I love the tangible nature of giving a banner to a guest. Two people might not speak the same language, but Rotary connects them and allows them to experience the other’s culture, carrying a little piece of it home.

While here, I've also worked with the club's minutes, newsletters, handbooks, rosters, photographs, and material related to District 7730 and Rotary International. Because the collection is so broad, I’ve stumbled across many memorable items. Personal favorites have included a file folder containing three different books about the Uruguayan beef industry, a trading banner declaring Fremont, Michigan, to be “the baby food capital of the world” (pictured below), and many humorous, occasionally gossipy letters between members.

After all of this time spent with the collection, I now feel invested in the continued success of the Wilmington Rotary Club. However, as one might expect from the kind of person who happily spends hours out of their week typing notes into Excel, I’m not much of a socializer. My current plan is to get my dad to join and then report back. Wish me luck!

To learn more about the Wilmington Rotary Club, be sure to check out the Herman Blizzard Rotary Archive finding aid, or view digitized collection material in the Herman Blizzard Rotary Archive digital collection.

For decades, Southeast North Carolina has had a diverse and culturally rich community of artists that call the region home—or ones that just stopped by to say hello! From 1984-1998, WHQR Public Radio’s program Sounds Local featured interviews with musicians, painters, actors, and more, highlighting local exhibits, area performances, and new creations. 

In honor of Black History Month this month, Special Collections has chosen a selection of Sounds Local episodes that include segments with Black artists talking about their work and lived experiences. The audio of each episode can be accessed by clicking on the hyperlinked date. 

January 17, 1986 – Minnie Evans (1892-1987)

Interview with artist Minnie Evans, North Carolina Museum of Art Curator Mitchell Kahan, and former St. John's Museum of Art Director Alan Aiches regarding Evans, her work, and an exhibit on display at the North Carolina Museum of Art. 

October 13, 1989 – Nnenna Freelon (1954- )

WHQR's Saturday morning jazz host, Maggie Pate, interviews vocalist Nnenna Freelon about her background and career as a singer, during her year-long residency at Brunswick Community College. 

October 11, 1991 – Jawole Zollar (1950- )

Interview with artistic director Jawole Zollar about the performance by Urban Bush Women dance troupe of Praise House, a tribute based on the life of Minnie Evans as part of "In Praise of Minnie Evans: A Community Celebration" held in Wilmington. 

October 18, 1991 – Jimmy Heath (1926-2020)

Interview with jazz saxophonist Jimmy Heath about his career as a musician and composer ahead of the celebration of his 65th birthday with the Heath Brothers Quartet in Thalian Hall. 

August 03, 1996 – Cynthia Tyson (1954-2004)

Interview with writer Cynthia Tyson on her jazz musical, Bessie, Billie and Me, directed by Tyhm Kennedy and sponsored by the Wilmington Jazz Collective, on stage at Kenan Auditorium at UNC Wilmington.

October 17, 1998 – Doug (1936-2006) and Frankie (1937-2024) Quimby

Interview with Doug and Frankie Quimby, The Sea Island Singers, ahead of their Gullah performance at UNC Wilmington's Kenan Auditorium for a Tapestry Theatre Company benefit.

Additional episodes featuring Black artists can be found by browsing the WHQR Public Radio Archive finding aid and listened to online via the WHQR Public Radio Archive Digital Collection. 

To learn more about artist collections held by Special Collections, browse the following subject guides: 

• The Arts in Southeast North Carolina
• Hollywood East: Film in Southeast North Carolina
• Southeast North Carolina Writers