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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 as the Library of Congress records it · Library of Congress authority record ↗

8 indexed works are connected with this person, and the index includes one work by John Motley Morehead III.

Indexed works

Works in the index that concern this person directly, or were written by them. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it; background reading with wider context sits further down.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. 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 GardnerSearch the index · Documenting the American South, Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina: Morehead-Patterson Bell Tower, UNC (Chapel Hill)
  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.Search 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.Search 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 IIISearch the index · Morehead Planetarium
  5. The first Morehead scholars are selected The scholarship Morehead endowed at Chapel Hill made its first selections in 1951.Search the index · Morehead-Cain Foundation: History
  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.Search the index · UNC, Names in Brick and Stone: Morehead Planetarium

Places in this person’s story

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows them all.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.

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The index lists works with an Orange County connection. To find everything else about John Motley Morehead III, search these catalogs.

Books about John Motley Morehead III

Books by John Motley Morehead III

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Photographs, papers, and newspapers

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