North Carolina |
North Carolina has a long and respected history of higher education. The first public university was chartered here and North Carolina scholars have thoroughly documented the state’s educational past. The North Carolina Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has collected ephemeral material for 164 North Carolina scholarly institutions. Many of these materials pertain to schools and colleges which are now defunct. These institutions are an important part of the state’s history, as they document the early educational landscape and also the ideals and philosophies of the state’s early leaders. Statesmen such as John Motley Morehead and William R. Davie had a hand in shaping North Carolina’s educational tradition, and thus its future. Among the items preserved in the College Ephemera Collection are college catalogs, commencement programs, literary society invitations, year books and literary magazines, broadsides, published testimonials, and brochures. A selection of these items pertaining to defunct institutions have been digitized and are presented on this website along with a historical sketch of the institution and external links for further research. For more information about North Carolina's educational past, please see "Education in North Carolina: A Pathfinder", which was created by the staff of the North Carolina Collection and is designed to assist in research on public education in North Carolina while using North Carolina Collection materials. Also see the Documenting the American South collection "The First Century of the First State University" for materials that document the creation and growth of the University of North Carolina during the period 1776-1875. |
