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Key local figure

Cornelia Phillips Spencer

Cornelia Phillips Spencer (1825–1908) grew up in Chapel Hill, where her father taught mathematics at the university. Her articles and letters to state leaders helped win the reopening of the University of North Carolina in 1875, and in 1895 it gave her its first honorary degree for a woman.

Source: UNC Libraries: Cornelia Phillips Spencer Papers, 1833-1975 (#00683), finding aid

Also found in catalogs as Cornelia Spencer, Cornellia Phillips Spencer.

1825–1908 as the Library of Congress records it · On the Friends’ Local Authors roster → · Library of Congress authority record ↗

29 indexed works are connected with this person. 1 held at OCPL →

Search these works Research sources View indexed works ↓
Cornelia Phillips Spencer, 1907
Cornelia Phillips Spencer, 1907

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.

Narrow these works. Each link opens the search already limited to this person. Counts are indexed works, not copies on a shelf; a work can carry more than one period or place.

Material

Histories 14Biography 11Letters & correspondence 2Diaries 2Periodicals 2other types 5

Period

19th century 9Civil War (1861–1865) 3Reconstruction (1865–1877) 120th century 3World War I era 121st century 1

Place

Chapel Hill 27North Carolina (statewide) 17Orange County 10Hillsborough 2Research Triangle 2

Selected Papers of Cornelia Phillips Spencer

Spencer, Cornelia Phillips · 1953

Selected writings of Cornelia Phillips Spencer (1825 to 1908), the Chapel Hill writer who campaigned for the university's reopening after Reconstruction, published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1953. The 753 pages touch on Chapel Hill life, education and the university in the nineteenth century.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the Durham record: Spencer, Cornelia Phillips, 1825-1908.

Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (1954).

NC Cardinal Durham Chapel Hill PL NCCU CH Historical Society Library of Congress

The Woman Who Rang the Bell: The Story of Cornelia Spencer Phillips

Russell, Charles Phillips · 1949

Charles Phillips Russell's biography of Cornelia Phillips Spencer (1825-1908), the Chapel Hill writer remembered for ringing the bell of South Building when the university reopened in 1875 after its closure during Reconstruction. It doubles as a history of Chapel Hill and the university. Published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1949, 293 pages with illustrations.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the Library of Congress record: Spencer, Cornelia Phillips, 1825-1908.

Reviewed in Journal of American History (1949).

NC Cardinal UNC Duke NC State Durham Chapel Hill PL NCCU Wingate CH Historical Society Library of Congress

Old Days in Chapel Hill

Chamberlain, G. Hope Summerell · 1926

Hope Summerell Chamberlain's life and letters of Cornelia Phillips Spencer (1825 to 1908), published in 1926, which doubles as a picture of Chapel Hill and the university in the nineteenth century. It runs 325 pages with illustrations and portraits.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the Chapel Hill PL record: Spencer, Cornelia Phillips, 1825-1908.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC BIO SPENCER CHA NC Cardinal UNC NCCU Durham Chapel Hill PL Wingate CH Historical Society

Oral history interview with Cornelia Spencer Love, January 26, 1975 interview G-0032, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007).

Love, Cornelia Spencer · 2008 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Cornelia Spencer Love (1892-1981), whose grandmother was Cornelia Phillips Spencer, interviewed by Lee Kessler on January 26, 1975 for the Southern Oral History Program. Love, a librarian at UNC, recalls her family, including James Spencer Love (1896-1962), her childhood and youth in Chapel Hill, university life in earlier decades, and her dealings with the town's Black community. One hour forty minutes. Electronic edition 2008.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Spencer, Cornelia Phillips, 1825-1908.

NC Cardinal UNC

The last ninety days of the war in North-Carolina

Spencer, Cornelia Phillips · 2005 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Cornelia Phillips Spencer's account of the closing weeks of the Civil War in North Carolina, reissued in 2005 as an electronic edition by the University Library at UNC-Chapel Hill. Topics include the 1865 campaigns, Sherman's march through the Carolinas, Stoneman's raid, and the history of Chapel Hill and the university in the nineteenth century, where Spencer, 1825 to 1908, spent her working life.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the Durham record: Spencer, Cornelia Phillips, 1825-1908.

NC Cardinal UNC Durham

More than petticoats

Cohn, Scotti · 2000 · TwoDot

Scotti Cohn's short biographies of notable North Carolina women, including Harriet Jacobs, Charlotte Hawkins Brown, Annie Lowrie Alexander and Cornelia Phillips Spencer of Chapel Hill. Published by Twodot in 2000, 198 pages with illustrations.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Spencer, Cornelia Phillips, 1825-1908.

NC Cardinal CH Historical Society Library of Congress
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When Chapel Hill was a village

Love, Cornelia Spencer, 1892-1981 · 1976 · Chapel Hill Historical Society

Cornelia Spencer Love's recollections of Chapel Hill as a village, published by the Chapel Hill Historical Society in 1976 with drawings by John V. Allcott. Love lived from 1892 to 1981, and the book covers Chapel Hill biography, the town's social life and customs, and the faculty of the university before 1962. viii and 87 pages with illustrations.

Why this is here: Listed as its creator.

UNC Library of Congress CH Historical Society NC Cardinal

Selected pepers of Cornelia Phillips Spencer

Wilson, Louis Round · 1953 · University of NC Press

Louis Round Wilson's selection from the papers of Cornelia Phillips Spencer, the Chapel Hill writer whose life ran from 1825 to 1908, published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1953. Topics include American women authors in North Carolina and the social life and customs of Chapel Hill.

Why this is here: Its title names this person.

NC Cardinal

Mrs. Cornelia Phillips Spencer

Cobb, Collier, 1862-1934 · 1908 · Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies

Collier Cobb's memorial sketch of Cornelia Phillips Spencer, the Chapel Hill writer who died in 1908, reprinted that year from the April number of the University of North Carolina Magazine and issued by the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies. Pages 261 to 269 with a portrait plate. Topics include women of Chapel Hill and the town's social life and customs.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Spencer, Cornelia Phillips, 1825-1908.

UNC

[Cornelia Phillips Spencer]

Material concerning Cornelia Phillips Spencer (1825-1908), a Chapel Hill writer long associated with the University of North Carolina.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Spencer, Cornelia Phillips, 1825-1908.

NC Cardinal

Records of the Women's Concerns Coalition, 1988-1996.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Women's Concerns Coalition · 1988

Organizational records of the Women's Concerns Coalition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1988 to 1996, about 250 items in 1.5 linear feet, University Archives 40206. Topics include the status of women faculty, affirmative action, employer supported day care, family and sick leave, mentoring, and sexual harassment policy on campus, along with commemoration of Cornelia Phillips Spencer.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Spencer, Cornelia Phillips, 1825-1908.

UNC

Men, movements, and incidents in the history of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Wilson, Louis Round, 1876-1979 · 1974

Typescript articles by Louis Round Wilson on people and episodes in the history of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, among them Cornelia Phillips Spencer, the university presidents, the Morehead-Patterson Memorial Tower, the Ackland art center, the North Carolina Symphony and Research Triangle Park. A note records that the typescript was later published in part as Historical Sketches in 1976. One volume, various pagings.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Spencer, Cornelia Phillips, 1825-1908.

UNC

Search all 29 indexed works →

Start at OCPL

Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection whose titles, catalog subjects, or descriptions match this person. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled.

  • Rebecca Wall Collection · NC BIO SPENCER CHA Old Days in Chapel Hill: Being the Life and Letters of Cornelia Phillips Spencer Chamberlain, Hope Summerell · 1926

    Hope Summerell Chamberlain's life and letters of Cornelia Phillips Spencer (1825 to 1908), published in 1926, which doubles as a picture of Chapel Hill and the university in the nineteenth century. It runs 325 pages with illustrations and portraits.

Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, earliest first. Each has its own page.

The university closes and reopens1868 to 1875 · 46 events · Reconstruction Republicans took control of the trustees in 1868 and dismissed the old faculty; Solomon Pool's presidency drew almost no students, and the university closed in February 1871. The legislature revived it in March 1875, Cornelia Phillips Spencer rang the bell, and it reopened in September under a rebuilt faculty.

Dated events connected with this person: sixteen of 25, the highlights and a sample of the rest spread across the years, in date order. See all 25 dated events in the chronology →

Earliest first. Scroll sideways, or use the arrows.

16 dated events

  1. The Phillips family, with infant Cornelia, moves to Chapel Hill

    Life event · Chapel Hill

    James Phillips moved his family from New York to Chapel Hill in 1826 when he became professor of mathematics at the University of North Carolina, where he taught until his death in 1867. His daughter Cornelia, born in Harlem in March 1825, grew up in the village.

    People: James Phillips

  2. Women organize Ladies Aid Societies in Hillsborough and Chapel Hill

    Health or relief action · Orange County

    Soon after secession women in the two towns formed aid societies, later joined by others, that made clothing and bandages, gathered food and money, met troop trains and nursed the sick and wounded until the war ended.

    People: Cornelia Phillips Spencer

  3. Cornelia Phillips Spencer publishes The Last Ninety Days of the War in North-Carolina

    Publication, speech or performance · Chapel Hill

    Encouraged by her friend, former governor David L. Swain, Spencer published her first book, an account of the war's last months in North Carolina that describes Wheeler's Confederate cavalry passing through Chapel Hill and the town's occupation by Union cavalry in April 1865.

    People: David L. Swain

  4. Bodies of Junius and Wesley Lewis Battle brought home for burial

    Naming or commemoration · Chapel Hill

    The bodies of Corporal Junius C. Battle, mortally wounded at South Mountain, and Lieutenant Wesley Lewis Battle, killed at Gettysburg, sons of Judge William H. Battle and former students, were brought home to Chapel Hill. The village turned out to meet them, and they lay side by side in the Episcopal church before burial.

    People: Cornelia Phillips Spencer · William Horn Battle

    Subject: Chapel of the Cross

  5. Cornelia Phillips Spencer moves into Sam Phillips's house and takes in boarders

    Migration or settlement · Sam Phillips house, 407 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill

    After her father's death the family had to leave their university-owned home, so Spencer, her widowed mother and her daughter moved into her brother Sam's empty house on East Franklin and took boarders to make ends meet.

  6. Lightning strikes the Davie Poplar

    Disaster or outbreak · Davie Poplar, Chapel Hill

    Lightning split the Old Poplar's bark from top to bottom while the university was closed, and its friends took it as an omen, but the tree survived. It then measured 14 feet 6 inches around at two feet above the ground, and Cornelia Phillips Spencer wrote a lament for it in a Raleigh paper.

    People: Cornelia Phillips Spencer

    Subject: McCorkle Place (with the Davie Poplar)

  7. Nancy Hilliard, longtime Chapel Hill hotel keeper, dies

    Life event · Chapel Hill

    Nancy Segur Hilliard, whose family moved to Chapel Hill in 1817 and who fed students and stage travelers for decades, died on November 8, 1873. Cornelia Phillips Spencer appealed to alumni to help her in her last illness and to pay for her burial and a modest monument.

    People: Cornelia Phillips Spencer · Nancy Hilliard

  8. Women's groups give scientific apparatus to the reopened university

    Property or economic transaction · Chapel Hill

    At the board's request Cornelia Phillips Spencer gathered gifts of instruments from women around the state, including Plateau's apparatus from the pupils of the Nash and Kollock school in Hillsborough. The women of Hillsborough gave a Holtz electrical machine in memory of William A. Graham, which Paul C. Cameron presented at the 1877 commencement.

    People: Cornelia Phillips Spencer · Paul C. Cameron · William A. Graham

    Subject: Nash and Kollock School

  9. Cornelia Phillips Spencer learns on her fiftieth birthday that the university will reopen

    Law, policy or court · South Building, UNC campus, Chapel Hill

    A telegram from Raleigh on March 20, 1875, reported that the legislature had passed a bill letting the closed University of North Carolina reorganize with some state support. Spencer, whose letters to state leaders had pressed for the reopening, and a few friends entered South Building and tolled the college bell to celebrate.

    Part of The university closes and reopens · 46 events

    Subject: South Building

  10. Kemp Battle's subscription drive raises $20,167 and Paul Cameron repairs the campus for the reopening

    Property or economic transaction · Chapel Hill

    After the trustees on May 5, 1875, appointed a committee to seek gifts for the revival, Kemp P. Battle canvassed Raleigh, Goldsboro, Rocky Mount and Tarboro in person and the rest of the state by letter, reporting $18,787 in six weeks and $20,167 in twelve, at a total expense of $62.66; Zebulon B. Vance and Charles W. Broadfoot collected in Charlotte and Fayetteville, and women's groups sent scientific apparatus through Cornelia Phillips Spencer. Paul C. Cameron, without contractor or pay, spent the summer at Chapel Hill directing the repairs and reported on August 31 that he had spent $10,677.76 on the buildings and $2,249.09 on gas works and apparatus.

    People: Kemp Plummer Battle · Paul C. Cameron · Cornelia Phillips Spencer · Zebulon B. Vance · Washington Caruthers Kerr · Rufus Lenoir Patterson

  11. Cornelia Phillips Spencer edits the Chapel Hill Weekly Ledger

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill

    For some months in 1879 Cornelia Phillips Spencer edited the Chapel Hill Weekly Ledger, with students R. P. Pell and Francis D. Winston as assistants. The book calls her the county's only woman editor; Charles B. Aycock took over from her.

    People: Charles B. Aycock

  12. Old students start a subscription for a monument over Nancy Hilliard's grave

    Chapel Hill

    E. T. McKethan of Fayetteville began collecting money from former Chapel Hill students to put a plain stone over Nancy Hilliard's neglected grave, and Cornelia Phillips Spencer endorsed the plan. The stone records the alumni's gratitude for her kindness and hospitality.

    People: Cornelia Phillips Spencer

  13. Cornelia Phillips Spencer compiles a catalogue of every student since

    Publication, speech or performance · Chapel Hill

    For the 1889 centennial the university issued a general catalogue of students from 1795 to 1889, prepared by Cornelia Phillips Spencer after long correspondence and checked by Eben Alexander. It held 5,422 names, with Battle's sketches of the university's history.

    People: Eben Alexander · Kemp Plummer Battle

  14. James Lee Love leaves Chapel Hill for Harvard

    Chapel Hill

    Love left the university with his family in 1889 to teach mathematics at Harvard. His mother-in-law, Cornelia Phillips Spencer, stayed on in his East Franklin Street house.

    People: Cornelia Phillips Spencer

  15. Chapel Hill holds a memorial service for Cornelia Phillips Spencer

    Naming or commemoration · Gerrard Hall

    Cornelia Phillips Spencer died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on March 11, 1908. On May 17 the university held a service in her memory in Gerrard Hall, opening with the hymn she wrote for the 1875 reopening.

    People: Collier Cobb · Kemp Plummer Battle

    Subject: Gerrard Hall

  16. UNC retires the Cornelia Phillips Spencer Bell Award after Yonni Chapman's campaign

    Closing or ending · UNC-Chapel Hill

    Chancellor James Moeser retired the Bell Award, given yearly since 1994 to a woman for outstanding contributions to the university, after graduate student Yonni Chapman led a campaign against it over Spencer's white supremacist and sexist views.

    People: James Moeser · Cornelia Phillips Spencer

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.

All places and the county map →

Named with them in the chronology

People named in the same dated entries as Cornelia Phillips Spencer, 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.

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Search further

The index lists works with an Orange County connection. To find everything else about Cornelia Phillips Spencer, search these catalogs.

Books about Cornelia Phillips Spencer

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Research sources

Background context 3

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Read contemporary evidence 3

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Picture: Cornelia Phillips Spencer, 1907. Public domain. archive.org History of the University of North Carolina by Kemp P. Battle, 1907, p. 97.; via Wikimedia Commons

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