Download exhibit poster (pdf)

A new exhibition in the North Carolina Collection Gallery of Wilson Library explores the long history of free speech controversies at UNC.

A Right to Speak and to Hear: Academic Freedom and Free Expression at UNC will use original letters, documents and photographs to examine some of the University’s most contentious moments from the nineteenth century to the present.

It marks the fiftieth anniversary of the passage of the Speaker Ban. The controversial 1963 law forbade known members of the Communist party or those who advocated the overthrow of the federal or state government from speaking on campus. The Ban was overturned in 1968.

Visitors to the exhibit will see original materials from the Library’s North Carolina Collection, Southern Historical Collection, and University Archives and Records Management Services. Highlights include:

• A page from the early 19^th century “Laws of the University of North Carolina” barring students from delivering “indecent, profane, or immoral” speeches.

• The November 1939 “Sex Issue” of the Buccaneer. The student council ordered this issue of the student humor magazine burned. The Buccaneer had frequent run-ins with campus authorities and was banned from campus at one point.

• Video of UNC police chief Arthur Beaumont ordering Herbert Aptheker, a member of the Communist Party, off the campus in March 1966 during the Speaker Ban.

• A letter from David Duke, Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, to the Daily Tar Heel. Students shouted down Duke when he attempted to speak on campus in January 1975. He criticized the protesting students for “suppressing” his right to speak and for limiting their classmates’ right to hear.

• Postcards sent to Chancellor James Moeser as part of the Family Policy Council’s organized protest of the University’s summer reading selection for 2002, Approaching the Qu’ran: The Early Revelations by Michael Sells.

On April 11, former UNC student body president Robert Spearman (’65) will deliver the annual Gladys Hall Coates University History Lecture in conjunction with the exhibition.

Spearman—now an attorney in Raleigh—will recall student efforts to repeal the Speaker Ban, including his own testimony before a state commission tasked with revising the law.

• Joel Williamson Visiting Scholar Grant ($1200 award) – For projects examining African Americans or race relations in the American South
• Guion Griffis Johnson Visiting Scholar Grant ($1000 award) – For projects examining women in the American South
• John Eugene and Barbara Hilton Cay Visiting Scholar Grant ($1000 award) – For projects examining the literary culture or traditions of the American South
• J. Carlyle Sitterson Visiting Scholar Grant ($1000 award) – For projects examining the antebellum period in the American South
• Parker-Dooley Visiting Scholar Grant ($1000 award) – For projects examining North Carolina history

Graduate students, faculty, and independent scholars who plan to use resources available in the Southern Historical Collection are eligible. Each award recipient must make at least one in-person research visit to the SHC between Sept. 1, 2013, and July 1, 2014.

All applications must be postmarked or time stamped no later than March 31, 2013.

Further requirements and application instructions are available here.

Related Links

• 2013 Visiting Scholars Grant Information from the Southern Historical Collection

Download event flier (pdf)

Help Me to Find My People
Book Talk by Heather Williams
Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2012
Wilson Special Collections Library
5 p.m. | Document display
5:30 p.m. | Program
Free and open to the public
Information: Liza Terll, Friends of the Library, (919) 548-1203

Author Heather Williams will discuss her book Help Me to Find My People: The African American Search for Family Lost in Slavery on Nov. 13 in Wilson Library.

Williams uses slave narratives, letters, interviews, and diaries—including materials from the Southern Historical Collection in Wilson Library—to tell the story of enslaved and free African Americans who sought to reunite with their families before and after Emancipation.

The free public program will begin at 5:30 p.m. in the Pleasants Family Assembly Room. Starting at 5 p.m., visitors can view a display of documents from the Southern Historical Collection, including letters from enslaved men and women.

Williams is an associate professor of history at UNC. The New York Times Book Review named Help Me to Find My People an Editor’s Choice and called Williams “the rare scholar who writes history with such tenderness that her words can bring a reader to tears.”

The Southern Historical Collection, Friends of the Library, and the Stone Center Library for Black Culture and History are jointly sponsoring the program.

Related Links

• Help Me to Find My People book website

Ben Taylor Concert

Singer-songwriter Ben Taylor and his band will perform Wednesday, Oct. 24 at 8 p.m. at The ArtsCenter in Carrboro. The Southern Historical Collection in the Wilson Special Collections Library is sponsoring the evening.

Concert tickets are $16 for UNC students and ArtsCenter Friends; $20 for all others ($22 on day of show). Purchase tickets from the ArtsCenter box office: (919) 929-2787 or online.

Taylor is the son of rock icons James Taylor and Carly Simon. His performance will help celebrate the 90^th birthday of his grandmother, Trudy Taylor, and the placement of Taylor family materials with the Southern Historical Collection.

Taylor recently released Listening, his first record in four years. Joining Taylor in concert will be his aunt, Kate Taylor.

The Taylors have deep ties to Chapel Hill and Carolina. James Taylor and his musical siblings grew up in Chapel Hill, where their father, Isaac, was dean of the UNC School of Medicine from 1964 to 1971. Isaac Taylor graduated from UNC in 1942. In 1989, the medical school’s Taylor Hall was named in his honor.

Related Links

• Ben Taylor concert information from The ArtsCenter
• Ben Taylor website

Download event flier (pdf)

Chancellor Holden Thorp Interviews Rufus Edmisten
Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012
Wilson Special Collections Library
5 p.m. Display viewing | Lobby
5:30 p.m. Program | Pleasants Family Assembly Room
Free and open to the public
Information: Liza Terll, Friends of the Library, (919) 548-1203

A piece of Watergate history will have a new home at UNC, thanks to a donation by Raleigh attorney Rufus Edmisten. It was Edmisten, Deputy Chief Counsel to the Watergate Committee, who served the subpoena to President Richard Nixon for the Watergate tapes on July 23, 1973.

That original subpoena, along with Edmisten’s personal archive, will now be part of the Southern Historical Collection in the Wilson Special Collections Library.

To mark the donation of his papers, Edmisten will speak about his Watergate experience on Sept. 20 at Wilson Library. UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp will interview Edmisten and moderate questions from the audience. The free public program will begin at 5:30 p.m.

Starting at 5 p.m., attendees can view selections from the Edmisten archive in the Wilson Library lobby.

Included will be the subpoena that Edmisten delivered, along with Nixon’s letter of refusal. Nixon’s response is part of the Sam Ervin papers, also in the Southern Historical Collection.

The Rufus Edmisten Papers document Edmisten’s role in the Watergate hearings and his thirty-year career of public service in Washington and in North Carolina. They arrive at UNC 40 years after the Watergate break-in whose discovery in 1972 launched the investigation that led to Nixon’s resignation.

After graduating from UNC in 1963, Edmisten attended law school at George Washington University. He served for 10 years on Ervin’s staff, eventually becoming Deputy Chief Counsel to the Watergate Committee.

The native of Boone, N.C., then returned to the Tar Heel state, where he served as Attorney General and Secretary of State. He is a partner in the law firm of Edmisten, Webb & Moore in Raleigh.

Related Links

• Southern Historical Collection
• Sam J. Ervin Papers (Collection guide from the Southern Historical Collection)

Download event flier (pdf)

“To Gain Attention to Their Various Claims”: Historic Political Campaigns in North Carolina
Conference: Sept. 14-15 in Wilson Library
Dinner with political consultants Carter Wrenn and Gary Pearce: Sept. 14 at the Carolina Inn
Registration required

North Carolina political junkies can immerse themselves in Tar Heel politics past and present during a conference Sept. 14 and 15 at Wilson Library.

The event will feature talks about ten political campaigns in the state from the 19^th and 20^th centuries.

During a reception and dinner at the Carolina Inn on Sept. 14, political consultants Carter Wrenn, a Republican, and Gary Pearce, a Democrat, will share strategic insights on current campaigns and war stories from past races. The pair currently collaborates on the blog Talking About Politics.

Advance registration is required for both the conference ($10 per person) and the dinner ($50 per person).

The full program and registration instructions are available at: www.bit.ly/nccampaigns.

The North Carolina Collection in Wilson Library is the organizer of the two-day event, “‘To Gain Attention to Their Various Claims’: Historic Political Campaigns in North Carolina.” The Southern Historical Collection is a co-sponsor.

Exhibit

The related exhibit Who May Vote?: Disenfranchisement in North Carolina, 1865-1900 will be on view in the Grand Reading Room of Wilson Library during the conference and until Dec. 28.

Using campaign literature, letters, and political cartoons from the Wilson Library collections, the exhibit will examine attempts through both legislation and intimidation to restrict the vote in North Carolina in the decades following the Civil War.

Related Links

• Political campaigns conference registration and information

For event information, contact Liza Terll, Friends of the Library, liza_terll@unc.edu, (919) 548-1203.

August 25, 2012
The Banjo: Southern Roots, American Branches (read more)
Symposium and concert inaugurating the Southern Folklife Collection’s Instrument Series. The concert will feature Tony Trischka; Riley Baugus with Kirk Sutphin; and Dom Flemons of the Carolina Chocolate Drops.
10 a.m. – 4 p.m. – Symposium
7:30 p.m. – Concert
Concert in Memorial Hall. Free tickets required from the Memorial Hall box office: 919-843-3333.

August 29, 2012
The Carolina Parakeet and Relatives: A Look at Some Natural, Un-natural, and Cultural Histories (read more)
A talk about the exotic extinct bird, with scientists from the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. In conjunction with the exhibit The Carolina Parakeet in Art: Images from the Powell Collection.
5:15 p.m. – Exhibit viewing; reception for Friends of the Library and guests
5:45 p.m. – Program

Sept. 6, 2012
Preserving Your Intellectual Legacy at UNC: An Information Session for Faculty and Staff Nearing Retirement (read more)
Retiring faculty and staff members can get answers to the question “What do I do with my books and papers?” Spouses and guests are welcome.
4 p.m. – Program followed by reception

September 13, 2012
Two Captains from Carolina: Moses Grandy, John Newland Maffitt, and the Coming of the Civil War (read more)
UNC professor Bland Simpson shares a grand tale of race and maritime culture in the antebellum South.
5 p.m. – Reception for Friends of the Library and guests
5:30 p.m. – Program

September 14-15, 2012
“To Gain Attention to Their Various Claims”: Historic Political Campaigns in North Carolina (read more)
An examination of significant North Carolina campaigns from the 19^th and 20^th centuries. Dinner will feature a moderated discussion between Republican strategist Carter Wrenn and Democratic political consultant Gary Pearce. (Conference: $10 per person. Dinner: $50 per seat.)
Visit the conference website for schedule information.

September 20, 2012
Rufus Edmisten Watergate Materials (read more)
Chancellor Holden Thorp interviews Rufus Edmisten, Deputy Chief Counsel to the Watergate Committee, honoring the donation of Edmisten’s papers to the Southern Historical Collection.
5 p.m. – Display of selected materials from the Edmisten papers and related collections; reception for Friends of the Library and guests
5:30 p.m. – Program

October 2, 2012
First Amendment Day: Banned and in the Rare Book Collection (read more)
Readings from original editions of banned and rare books.
5 p.m. – Display of rare editions; reception for Friends of the Library and guests
5:30 p.m. – Program

October 7, 2012
Honoring Doris Betts
A remembrance of the beloved North Carolina writer and UNC professor, sponsored with the Department of Creative Writing.
3 p.m.
Program in Alumni Hall, Hill Alumni Center

October 11, 2012
Knowledge Capital and Human Flourishing: Educating North Carolinians, 1865-1970 (read more)
Yale historian Glenda Gilmore delivers the keynote address for the second New Voyages to Carolina conference, organized by the North Carolina Office of Archives and History.
5 p.m. – Reception for Friends of the Library and guests
5:30 p.m. – Program

October 25-26, 2012
13 Bak’tun: New Maya Perspectives in 2012 (read more)
A symposium on Maya civilization in recognition of the end of the current great cycle in the Maya Long Count calendar. Programs and exhibits in Wilson Library, the FedEx Global Education Center, and the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center.
Symposium website: http://maya2012.unc.edu/.

October 27, 2012
Gridiron Glory at Carolina (read more)
An encore presentation of archival videos, along with photographs, programs, and memorabilia.
Begins three hours before kickoff.

November 1, 2012
Photojournalist James Wallace (read more)
The James A. Hutchins Lecture, sponsored by the Center for the Study of the American South. In conjunction with the exhibit Photographic Angles: News Photography in the North Carolina Collection.
5 p.m. – Exhibit viewing; reception for Friends of the Library and guests
5:30 p.m. – Program

November 13, 2012
Help Me to Find My People
Heather Williams, associate professor of history at UNC, will discuss and read from her new book about the African American search for family lost in slavery.
5:30 p.m. – Program

December 6, 2012
20^th Annual Winter Stories for Children of All Ages
Special anniversary presentation of a beloved Chapel Hill tradition.
5 p.m. – Cookies and juice
5:30 p.m. – Program

John Smalls (right), chair of the Penn Center Board of Trustees, presents the Center's 1862 Circle award to Tim West, curator of the Southern Historical Collection. (Photo: Bob Sofaly)

The Penn Center of St. Helena Island, S.C., has named the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill a member of its 1862 Circle. The Center presented the award on April 29 to recognize the University’s stewardship of the Penn School papers at the Southern Historical Collection in the Wilson Special Collections Library.

The Penn School began in 1862 as an experimental program to educate and provide services to thousands of African Americans who had been freed by U.S. troops early in the Civil War. The Center today preserves and serves as a resource for the history, culture, and environment of the Sea Islands.

The Center deposited the Penn School papers with the Southern Historical Collection in 1962. The collection contains more than 32,000 letters, journals, and official documents from the school’s history. The diary of Laura Towne, a Philadelphia abolitionist and one of the school’s founders, is among them.

The collection also includes approximately 3,000 photos, some dating to the 1860s. Oral history interviews and later documents relate to the Penn Community Services Center, which opened in 1948 after the school closed.

“The Penn papers document a groundbreaking effort to help newly freed people,” said Tim West, curator of the Southern Historical Collection. “Eventually, it became an effort of the people themselves. Researchers use these papers to study topics ranging from the Gullah culture of the region, to African American education, to race relations.”

As part of its citation, the Penn Center recognized the ongoing active partnership that it maintains with UNC. As a result of these efforts, more than 10,000 pages of the Penn School papers are now available online through the Southern Historical Collection.

Related Links

• Penn School Papers finding aid
• Digitized Penn School content
• Penn Center

Download event flier (pdf)

Saturday, May 12, 2012
1 p.m. – 5 p.m.
Free and open to the public
Information: (919) 962-0104

The Wilson Special Collections Library will take Commencement visitors to UNC’s past with an open house on Saturday, May 12, from 1 to 5 p.m.

A selection of yearbooks and other materials from Wilson Library’s historic collections will be on display.

The exhibits are free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

Special archival exhibits in the lobby will include:

• A photographic slide show with music, highlighting the class of 1962, in honor of the class’s 50th reunion;
• Yearbooks and other memorabilia from the classes of 1952, ’57, ’62, ’67, and ’72;
• “Treasures from Alumni,” a Rare Book Collection exhibit of early printing and significant literary editions;
• A collection of University-related materials from the Southern Historical Collection

In addition to the lobby display, visitors are also invited to view the following exhibitions in Wilson and Davis libraries:

• A Dialogue Between Old and New: Notable Buildings on the UNC Campus (North Carolina Collection Gallery, main floor)
• Nature and the Unnatural in Shakespeare’s Age (Melba Remig Saltarelli Exhibit Room, 3rd floor)
• Southern Roots, Enduring Bonds: African American Families in North Carolina (Southern Historical Collection, 4th floor)
• Knowledge Building(s): The Libraries at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Davis Library Gallery, 1st floor)

Wilson Library is located on the south side of Polk Place, opposite South Building. It is home to the North Carolina Collection and North Carolina Collection Gallery; the Rare Book Collection; the Southern Historical and Southern Folklife collections; and University Archives and Records Management Services.

The exhibits are sponsored by the Wilson Special Collections Library and Friends of the Library.

Tuesday, Apr. 24, 2012
Wilson Special Collections Library
5:30 p.m. Pleasants Family Assembly Room
Free and open to the public
Information: Liza Terll, Friends of the Library, (919) 548-1203

When Professor Heidi Kim began researching Japanese American incarcerations on the west coast during World War II, she did not expect to find a UNC connection.

Then her research in the Wilson Special Collections Library turned up the papers of Sally Lucas Jean, who worked at the Poston camp in Arizona.

On Apr. 24, a free public program in Wilson Library will feature:

• Joanne Iritani, who spent three years in Poston beginning at age twelve;
• Eric L. Muller, professor of law at UNC, who will discuss the legal and scholarly issues of incarceration; and
• Members of  Kim’s first-year English class, who will exhibit documents from the collection and describe their own research about Jean and Poston.

For program information, contact Liza Terll, Friends of the Library, liza_terll@unc.edu, (919) 548-1203.

“I want these students to be historians, not simply read history,” said Kim. “Twenty first-years just spent a semester reconstructing the perspective and experience of Jean, a worker in the camps. Now they will hear first-hand from another amazing woman who lived through Poston on very different terms.”

The Poston camp, known officially as the Colorado River Relocation Center, opened in 1942 on the Colorado Indian Reservation. President Franklin Roosevelt had permitted the imprisonment of more than 110,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry on Feb. 19 of that year. At its peak, Poston held as many as 17,000 people, making it one of the largest camps.

Iritani was incarcerated at Poston from May 1942 until Aug. 1945. She writes and speaks frequently about the camps. She and her husband, the late Frank Iritani, wrote the book Ten Visits: Accounts of Visits to All the Japanese American Relocation Centers to chronicle the remains of each camp. Her granddaughter Marisa Iritani is a biology and Asian studies major at UNC (class of 2014).

Jean, a health educator and public health professional, worked at Poston in 1942 and 1943. She also held positions as director of the Child Health Organization of American, supervisor of health education for the U.S. Indian Service, and with other domestic and international health organizations. Jean died in 1971 at age 93.

Muller is the Dan K. Moore Distinguished Professor in Jurisprudence and Ethics and the Faculty Director of the Center for Faculty Excellence at UNC. His most recent book, Colors of Confinement: Rare Color Photographs of Japanese American Incarceration in World War II is forthcoming from UNC Press.

Kim has taught at UNC since 2010 with a focus on American literature and Asian American studies. She is preparing an edited memoir and correspondence of a Hawaiian family incarcerated during WWII.

The program is sponsored by the First Year Seminar program, the Institute for the Arts & Humanities, and the Friends of the Library.

Related Links

• Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library
• Sally Lucas Jean papers (finding aid with selected digitized items)
• Heidi Kim faculty page, UNC Department of English and Comparative Literature
• Eric Muller faculty page, UNC School of Law
• Ten Visits book information