Course catalogs, student handbooks, and other campus publications from a number of institutions — including Brevard College, Campbell University, Chowan University, the College of the Albemarle, Davidson College, Elizabeth City State University, North Carolina Wesleyan College, and St. Andrews University — have been added to the North Carolina College and University Yearbooks collection. These materials, many of which date back to the nineteenth century, aren’t just about the course offerings and descriptions – they often include detailed information about admissions, tuition, campus policies, institutional history and mission, and student life.
I’ve especially enjoyed reading the various rules and regulations laid out in these volumes. Most of them apply to female students, and seem to be aimed at thwarting “improper” behavior. Some of my favorites are below.
I found this application for admission in the Flora Macdonald College catalog for 1959-60. Looks like applying to college used to be a whole lot easier than it is today. This catalog is shared online by St. Andrews University.
These valentines are from scrapbooks kept by Elon College students in the 1920s, from the collections of the Belk Library Archives and Special Collections at Elon University. Click on each image to see the full scrapbook.
Issues of the Charlotte News from 1911 are now available through the North Carolina Newspapers project. The Charlotte News was a daily paper published throughout most of the 20th century. It’s the first urban daily papers we’ve worked on, and the amount and variety of stories covered here are fascinating. It looks a lot like a modern newspaper in that it includes national and international news, sports coverage, classifieds, and even some comic strips.
This morning I looked through the North Carolina Newspapers collection to see how early I could find a mention of Groundhog Day. The oldest piece I found is this one, from the Sylvan Valley News in Brevard, published on February 5, 1904:
This blog is maintained by the staff of the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center and features the latest news and highlights from the collections at DigitalNC, an online library of primary sources from organizations across North Carolina.