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Local figure

John Motley Morehead III

Morehead graduated from the university at Chapel Hill in 1891 and paid for the planetarium dedicated there on May 10, 1949, as well as the Morehead-Patterson Bell Tower and the Morehead Scholarships. He made his money as a chemist and a founder of Union Carbide.

Source: Morehead Planetarium and Science Center: History

Also found in catalogs as John Motley Morehead.

1870–1965 · Dates from the Library of Congress · Library of Congress authority record ↗

8 works about John Motley Morehead III are indexed here, as is one work by Morehead.

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 6 dated events in the chronology →

  1. The Morehead-Patterson Bell Tower is dedicated at UNC The bell tower given by John Motley Morehead III and Rufus Lenoir Patterson II was dedicated to the university on Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 1931, with Governor O. Max Gardner giving the dedication address. Morehead had proposed a tower to President Harry Woodburn Chase in the 1920s and been turned down on three sites. People: Harry Woodburn Chase, O. Max Gardner Place: Chapel Hill, Morehead-Patterson Bell Tower · Also named: Rufus Lenoir Patterson IISearch the index · Documenting the American South, Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina: Morehead-Patterson Bell Tower, UNC (Chapel Hill) · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, November 27, 1931, p. 1; The Daily Tar Heel, November 19, 1985, p. 1
  2. Morehead creates the foundation behind his Chapel Hill gifts In 1945 Morehead created the Morehead Foundation to pay for the Morehead Building on the campus at Chapel Hill and to establish the scholarship that carries his name. Place: Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Morehead Foundation, Morehead BuildingSearch the index · Morehead-Cain Foundation: History
  3. Morehead gives the university a million dollars for a planetarium In 1946 Morehead presented the university with one million dollars to build a planetarium and put the proposal to the Board of Trustees. The building opened in 1949. Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · Carolina Story, Virtual Museum of University History: John Motley Morehead III (1870-1965) and Morehead Planetarium
  4. Morehead Planetarium is dedicated Morehead Planetarium was dedicated at UNC on May 10, 1949. People: John Motley Morehead III Place: Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Morehead PlanetariumSearch the index · Morehead Planetarium
  5. The first Morehead scholars are selected The scholarship Morehead endowed at Chapel Hill made its first selections in 1951. Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · Morehead-Cain Foundation: History · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, March 16, 1994, p. 4
  6. Morehead gives the sundial in front of the planetarium In 1956 Morehead funded the sundial set in front of the planetarium building in Chapel Hill. Place: Chapel Hill, Morehead PlanetariumSearch the index · UNC, Names in Brick and Stone: Morehead Planetarium

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as John Motley Morehead III, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.

Indexed works

Works about or by John Motley Morehead III. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it. Background reading appears below.

By John Motley Morehead III

John Motley Morehead III papers, 1914-1988

Morehead, John Motley, III, 1870-1965 · 1914

Fifteen linear feet of papers from John Motley Morehead III (1870-1965), approximately 8,000 items covering 1914 to 1988, part of the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 70156. The papers concern the Morehead Planetarium, the John Motley Morehead Foundation, Union Carbide Corporation and buildings and structures in Chapel Hill.

UNC

About John Motley Morehead III

The sundial, man's first keeper of time, a present precious possession of the university, given by John Motley Morehead

Graham, Frank Porter, 1886-1972 · 1956

An article centered on Frank Porter Graham's speech at the ceremony where John Motley Morehead, who lived from 1870 to 1965, presented a sundial to the University of North Carolina, published in 1956. It also touches on sundials in Chapel Hill and the Morehead Planetarium.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Morehead, John Motley, III, 1870-1965.

UNC

The Morehead Awards

1956

Short film from about 1956 to 1958 on the founding of the Morehead Awards, the merit scholarships for University of North Carolina students named for John Motley Morehead III and later renamed the Morehead-Cain program. Robert A. Fetzer and William C. Friday figure among the people shown. From the North Carolina Sights and Sounds collection.

Included because: Catalog heading in the DPLA record: Morehead, John Motley, 1870-1965.

The Morehead Building, University of North Carolina.

John Motley Morehead Foundation · 1947

The John Motley Morehead Foundation issued this account of the Morehead Building at Chapel Hill in 1947, twenty two unnumbered pages with illustrations, portraits and plans. Copies carry an attached program and invitation to the exercises at the laying of the cornerstone. Subjects include John Motley Morehead III and the Morehead Planetarium along with the college buildings of the university.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Morehead, John Motley, III, 1870-1965.

UNC

News and Observer Photograph Collection: News and Observer Negative File (State Archives series)

News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.) · 1938

Twenty-nine Orange County negatives from the Raleigh News and Observer's photograph files, 1938 to 1954. Most show the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: football and other sports, commencement, student drama, the Morehead Planetarium and its donor John Motley Morehead.

Included because: Their name appears in the record.

The Morehead Planetarium, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Ruth, C. H. · Aerial Photography Services, Charlotte, N.C

Aerial view of the Morehead Planetarium at the University of North Carolina, a postcard by C. H. Ruth for Aerial Photography Services of Charlotte. The caption credits the building to the engineer and industrialist John Motley Morehead and notes the Zeiss projector under its 68-foot dome. Undated.

Included because: Their name appears in the record.

A Crafted Legacy: The Self-Memorialization of John Motley Morehead III

Oliver Lindsay · 2019

Oliver Lindsay's honors thesis on how John Motley Morehead III shaped his own memory through his gifts to UNC: the Morehead-Patterson Bell Tower, the Morehead Planetarium and Sundial, and the Morehead-Cain Foundation.

Included because: Catalog heading in the OpenAlex record: Morehead, John Motley, III, 1870-1965.

Show 1 more about John Motley Morehead III

Morehead, John Motley: photographs (Chapel Hill Historical Society)

1949

John Motley Morehead at the cornerstone ceremony for what became the Morehead Planetarium in Chapel Hill, dated 1949. From the UNC Faculty and Administration photographs in the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Prints and Photographs Collection.

Included because: Their name appears in the record.

Places in this person’s story

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Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

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