Political cartoonist John Branch will speak about his career in a lecture titled “A Tar Heel Cartoonist in Texas: Drawing the Line in the Lone Star State” on April 17 at 5:45 p.m. in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Branch has been the editorial cartoonist of the San Antonio Express-News since 1981. He graduated in 1976 from UNC, where he launched his cartooning career at the The Daily Tar Heel. Branch’s work has been reprinted in The New York Times, USA Today, and Newsweek, and he has published two collections of his work: Out on a Limb (1976) and Would You Buy a Used Cartoon from this Man? (1979).

A reception and viewing of the exhibition “Lines of Humor, Shades of Controversy: A Century of Student Cartooning at UNC” will begin at 5 p.m. in the North Carolina Collection Gallery of Wilson Library. The event is free and open to the public.

“Lines of Humor, Shades of Controversy” presents 177 cartoons from undergraduate publications at UNC between 1907 and 2006. The earliest cartoons appeared in yearbooks around the turn of the twentieth century and student humor magazines by the 1920s. The Daily Tar Heel first introduced student-drawn cartoons on its editorial page in the late 1950s. Many of the topics—freshmen, campus food, athletics—are quite consistent over time; however, many of the older cartoons provide a window on attitudes that would today be considered racist, sexist, or otherwise offensive.

Exhibit highlights include two original cartoons by Jeff MacNelly, Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist and creator of the comic strip Shoe. MacNelly attended UNC from 1965 to 1969. One cartoon depicts the student strikes and boycotts of the University’s dining services in 1969. The other is a watercolor painting featuring Shoe characters in front of Howell Hall to commemorate UNC’s bicentennial in 1993.

In addition to cities such as New York, Paris, and London, the renowned nineteenth-century conjoined twins, Chang and Eng Bunker, also toured the American South. The “United Twin Brothers” visited Chapel Hill and nearby Hillsborough in October 1834.

There have been numerous stories, books, plays, and even a musical written about the two and their extraordinary lives. The most recent addition is a documentary film by Josh Gibson, The Siamese Connection, which premiered at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival on Thursday, April 3. The North Carolina Collection provided some of the images and artifacts used in the film. To learn more about the Bunkers, visit the North Carolina Collection Gallery’s exhibit and the University Library’s digital project.

Raymond Jefferies, UNC class of 1947, recently made this donation of student organization charms to the North Carolina Collection Gallery. The charms, which were intended for placement on a key chain, were awarded to Mr. Jefferies while he attended UNC and afterwards as an employee in the Office of the Dean of Students. The Gallery did not have examples of any of these charms, and they are important additions to our collection of University-related items.

Student organization charms, 1947-49, clockwise from top: Order of the Grail; Order of the Old Well; Student Legislature; Interdormitory Council; Student Council; UNC Dance Committee; and at center, Order of the Golden Fleece.

In December 2007, Lew Powell of Charlotte donated 2,698 North Carolina-related pin-back buttons, badges, ribbons, cloth swatches, promotional cards, and stickers to the North Carolina Collection. These items cover a variety of topics, including politics, sports, clubs and organizations, and controversial causes. While the origin of most of the buttons in this collection is clear, a couple of the buttons are untraced to any cause or organization.

This 1918 button from Asheboro remains a puzzle. Mr. Powell purchased the button along with another from Randolph County, and suggests that one possibility is that the button advertised the Randolph County Sunday School Association. On the other hand, the flag motif suggests it might have something to do with World War I.
Any ideas?