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Searched the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–43.Back to highlights
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Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865
- 1850s
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James Phillips keeps weather records at Chapel Hill
From 1854 to 1862 Professor James Phillips kept weather records at Chapel Hill. They survive in the Southern Historical Collection alongside Chapel Hill records kept from December 1879 to 1882 by Professors W. B. Phillips and Francis Preston Venable.
Reconstruction and the New South · 1866–1899
- 1880s
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Francis P. Venable is offered the chair of chemistry at the university
Venable, a University of Virginia chemistry graduate then studying in Germany, was offered the university's chair of chemistry in 1880. He taught at Chapel Hill until he retired in 1930.
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Venable co-founds the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society
Venable was a co-founder and the first president of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society, a society of university scientists named for the geologist Elisha Mitchell.
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Francis P. Venable brings tennis to Chapel Hill
Venable laid out a tennis court in the grove south of his house about 1884, when sport at the university was otherwise limited to casual baseball and an old-style kicking football.
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Students hold the first of a series of gymnastic contests
On Thanksgiving Day students competed on the horizontal and parallel bars, ladders, Indian clubs and swings and in a half-mile race, a tug of war and a high jump, with Francis P. Venable calling the events. It was the first of a series of such contests.
- 1890s
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Venable and student William R. Kenan Jr. demonstrate calcium carbide in Person Hall
Chemistry professor Francis P. Venable and student William R. Kenan Jr. demonstrated the industrial uses of calcium carbide, the source of acetylene gas, in Person Hall.
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The university lays off a new athletic field with a grandstand
President Venable's report of February 1902 lists a new athletic field with a stand among the improvements of the previous three years.
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The university starts a course in dyeing and bleaching
A course in dyeing and bleaching was added to chemistry, with Thomas Clarke, who had studied the subject for two years in Germany, running the laboratory and Francis P. Venable giving the lectures.
Early twentieth century · 1900–1944
- 1900s
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Charles Baskerville heads UNC's chemistry department
When Francis P. Venable became university president in 1900, Baskerville succeeded him as chairman of the chemistry department, Smith Professor and director of the chemical laboratory, posts he held until 1904.
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Eben Alexander becomes the university's first dean of the faculty
Back from diplomatic service in Greece, Eben Alexander was named the first dean of the faculty under President Francis P. Venable in 1900, heading the College of Liberal Arts and graduate studies and supervising the library until poor health forced a leave in 1909.
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Francis P. Venable serves as president of the university
Elected president in 1900, Venable enlarged the student body, faculty and campus and built an administration for a growing institution. He asked for leave in 1913 and resigned in 1914, returning to teaching and research.
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The university opens its first summer term of regular courses
For the first time the university offered a twelve-week summer term of regular courses that counted toward a degree, opening on June 12, 1900, alongside the four-week Summer School for Teachers. Tuition was twenty dollars.
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Orange County teachers are offered the university summer school and pay tied to exam scores
The board accepted Dr. Venable's offer to admit county teachers to the University Summer School and set pay by the July examination: $35 a month for an average of 95 and $40 for 98.
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The General Assembly votes $50,000 for a chemistry building
After Professor Charles Baskerville described the crowded chemistry laboratories, the legislature raised the university's yearly appropriation to $45,000 and gave $50,000 for a chemical laboratory. Venable called the building grant a new departure.
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Judge W. P. Bynum gives the university a gymnasium
Judge William Preston Bynum paid for a gymnasium on the campus in memory of his grandson and namesake, a student who died before graduating, and presented it to the trustees by letter in May 1905. Dr. Richard H. Lewis accepted it at commencement.
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A new president's house is completed
The university finished a new residence for its president in 1907 at a cost of about $15,000, on high ground in Chapel Hill.
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Kemp P. Battle and Thomas Hume retire on Carnegie pensions
At the 1907 commencement President Venable announced the resignations of Kemp P. Battle, professor of history and former president, and Thomas Hume, professor of English, both placed on the Carnegie Foundation pension list.
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UNC trustees approve the United Daughters of the Confederacy's request to build a Confederate monument on the campus
The board of trustees approved a request from the North Carolina Division of the UDC for a monument on the campus. President Francis P. Venable took part in the planning and fund-raising and later committed university money when UDC and alumni contributions fell short.
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The university creates a School of Applied Science with Charles H. Herty as dean
At the 1908 commencement President Venable announced that the trustees had made Charles H. Herty dean of the School of Applied Science and James E. Latta professor of electrical engineering.
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Gerrard Hall is refitted and daily chapel resumes for every undergraduate
With money Venable got from the legislature, Gerrard Hall's interior was renovated so that all undergraduates fit, and Dean Graham set a half-hour program before noon with ministers, faculty, trustees and other guest speakers. Upperclassmen had been excused from chapel for want of seats.
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Venable names Edward Kidder Graham dean of the College of Liberal Arts
At 32 the youngest of the senior faculty, Graham took over the English department and replaced Eben Alexander, who was given a year's leave, as dean, with first responsibility for student discipline.
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Woodrow Wilson speaks in Gerrard Hall on Robert E. Lee's centennial
On January 19, 1909, the university marked the hundredth birthday of Robert E. Lee in Gerrard Hall, with Princeton president Woodrow Wilson as the speaker.
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Alumni pledge forty-one endowed scholarships
At the 1909 alumni luncheon, classes and local alumni groups promised to endow forty-one scholarships of $1,000 each. Julian S. Carr gave five named for J. Johnston Pettigrew for sons of Confederate soldiers, and Edgar Love two named for Cornelia Phillips Spencer.
- 1910s
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John Wilson begins designing UNC's Confederate monument
After the monument committee weighed competing designs, it chose Canadian sculptor John Wilson's design for the Confederate soldier statue planned for the UNC campus. Wilson began the work in 1910, using sixteen-year-old Harold Langlois of Boston as his model.
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Graham proposes a faculty committee on university extension
The committee formed at Graham's urging started a high school debating contest and a statewide high school track meet that drew hundreds of students to Chapel Hill by 1913. President Venable gave it little support, seeing extension as a drain on teaching at home.
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The Peabody Fund gives $40,000 for an education building
At the 1911 commencement Venable announced a $40,000 gift from the Peabody Fund trustees for a School of Education building. The legislature that year gave $87,000 a year for upkeep and $50,000 a year for four years for improvements.
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Governor Woodrow Wilson gives the commencement address
Woodrow Wilson, governor of New Jersey, spoke at the alumni luncheon and gave the 1911 commencement address in Memorial Hall, and the university made him a Doctor of Laws.
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The medical building, Caldwell Hall, is dedicated
On May 8, 1912, the university opened its new medical building and named it Caldwell Hall for its first president. Dr. Richard H. Lewis presented it for the trustees, and Venable and Dean Isaac H. Manning accepted it.
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Freshman Isaac William Rand dies in a hazing incident on the athletic field
Taken from his Old East room near midnight by sophomores, the Smithfield freshman was made to stand on a barrel behind Bynum Gymnasium, fell onto broken glass that cut his carotid artery, and died within minutes on the gymnasium steps. Four students were arrested for manslaughter that day after a coroner's inquest, and Governor W. W. Kitchin demanded a full public investigation.
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Venable's faculty committee reports on the Rand death and the spring hazing
After questioning nearly fifty students, the committee gave the trustees a full account of the night Rand died and of the March attack on the freshman cottage. Sixteen more students were punished, four dismissed and twelve suspended for a year, and the trustees' executive committee in Raleigh turned down fathers' appeals.
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Edward Kidder Graham serves as acting president while Venable is in Europe
Graham, head of the English department and dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Chapel Hill, acted as president in 1913 during President Francis P. Venable's absence in Europe.
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Smallpox breaks out on the campus
In the last weeks of the 1912-13 term President Venable had to deal with an outbreak of smallpox at the university, one of the worries of the year that led him to seek leave.
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The new School of Education building is dedicated
Before the 1913 commencement Venable presided at the dedication of the building for the university's new School of Education, later called the Peabody Building.
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Edward Kidder Graham is elected president of the university
The board of trustees elected Graham president by unanimous vote in 1914, succeeding Francis P. Venable. He had been at Chapel Hill since 1899, first as librarian and then through the English department to the deanship.
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Francis P. Venable resigns the presidency from London
Writing to the trustees from London, Venable resigned on his doctor's warning against another breakdown and asked to return to teaching chemistry. His letter reached board secretary Richard H. Lewis about the same time Graham got a personal note, which Graham called a great shock.
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The University Gymnasium Association votes to give Old Commons Hall to the university
Stockholders of the association that had owned the old ballroom, gymnasium and dining hall since 1885 voted at a meeting in Dr. R. H. Lewis's office to deed the building to the university. It was then used for class basketball games and, in 1917, for military drill.
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Edward Kidder Graham is inaugurated president in Memorial Hall
A procession of about 1,400 marched to Memorial Hall, where Chief Justice Walter Clark gave Graham the oath and Governor Locke Craig presided. Graham's address cast the state university as the instrument of democracy. Three former presidents walked with him in the procession.
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Trustees name the first five Kenan professors
The trustees adopted President Edward Kidder Graham's recommendations for the new Kenan professorships, funded under the will of Mary Lily Kenan Flagler Bingham. Venable was named Kenan Professor of Chemistry, with H. V. Wilson, Edwin Greenlaw, William MacNider and William Cain.
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Gerrard Hall memorial service for Marvin H. Stacy
Students, faculty and friends met in Gerrard Hall to remember Stacy, who had died of influenza on January 21. Former president Francis P. Venable, a childhood friend, and Albert Coates for the students spoke.
- 1920s
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The new chemistry building, Venable Hall, is dedicated
The university dedicated its new chemistry building in 1925 and named it Venable Hall while Venable was still teaching there.
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University Day marks fifty years since the 1875 reopening
More than ninety representatives of American colleges joined a procession from the Alumni Building to Memorial Hall, where former commissioner of education Philander P. Claxton spoke. In his first address to the university, Governor McLean called it the head of the state's school system and asked it to help smooth religious and social divisions.
- 1930s
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Commencement is held outdoors at the Davie Poplar, and Chase receives an honorary degree
With Memorial Hall torn down, the 339 graduates received diplomas at a stage by the Davie Poplar, seated on the old hall's benches as loudspeakers in the trees carried John H. Finley's address. Honorary degrees went to Ellen Glasgow, Martha Berry, Francis P. Venable and Governor Gardner, and Gardner conferred one on Chase that the trustees had voted without consulting the faculty.
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Former university president Francis Preston Venable is buried in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery
Francis Preston Venable (1856-1934), the chemist and university president under whom UNC gained national standing, was buried in the cemetery.
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