University buildings and grounds
In Chapel Hill. 2 dated events, 1903–1956.
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.
Books, articles, records and pictures in the index about Coker Arboretum, found by its names in titles, catalog subjects and the index’s descriptions, and read one by one. Those held at OCPL come first.
Artists' views of the Coker Arboretum, the garden at the heart of Chapel Hill on the University of North Carolina campus, published in 2004 by the Botanical Garden Foundation. 37 unnumbered pages, chiefly color illustrations, 21 cm. Subjects include the volume among toy and movable books, so the plates include pop-up construction. A note records that it was presented by Banks Talley III.
Visitor guide to the Coker Arboretum on the University of North Carolina campus in Chapel Hill, issued by the North Carolina Botanical Garden in 2000. It covers the arboretum's history and William Chambers Coker, the botanist it is named for, who died in 1953. A short orientation piece for people walking the grounds.
Diane G. Birkemo and Ken Moore prepared this 1990 conservation plan for Coker Arboretum, the North Carolina Botanical Garden's planting on the university campus in Chapel Hill. The Botanical Garden Foundation issued it, as the final performance report of a project supported by the Institute of Museum Services, dated 29 June 1990. Plans are laid in pockets.
Arbor at the Coker Arboretum on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus, part of the North Carolina Botanical Garden, in a color transparency by Hugh Morton from about the 1950s.
William Chambers Coker (1872 to 1953), the botanist whose name the campus arboretum carries, wrote this 1946 account of the arboretum at the University of North Carolina. Topics include arboretums, the Coker Arboretum itself and plants at Chapel Hill. Part of UNC's North Carolina Collection.
Real-photo postcard of the Coker Arboretum on the University of North Carolina campus, mailed from Chapel Hill on March 21, 1922. The sender, Bess D. Arrowood, wrote to Irene Tate in Morganton that she had come to town because her sister had influenza and her brother pneumonia. An early view of the arboretum, founded in 1903 by botanist William Chambers Coker.
Coker Arboretum on the UNC campus in 1921, in two photographs: trees and shrubs under snow, and a lawn and trees with a building in view. From the UNC Campus binder, Prints and Photographs Collection (CHHS.002).
Botanist William Chambers Coker (1872-1953) left papers running 1884 to 1956, the bulk between 1914 and 1950: about 29,000 items in 36.5 linear feet, part of the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 3220. Topics include mycology and the teaching of botany, the Coker Arboretum, the Highlands Biological Station, the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society and the Garden Club of North Carolina, along with family social life in North Carolina.
Undated postcard from the Davis News Co. of Burlington showing a garden walk through the Coker Arboretum at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, which the caption says holds more than 500 kinds of native and exotic shrubs, trees and flowers.
Not about Coker Arboretum alone: the architectural surveys that cover its town or the county, and maps drawn while it stood. Several of the surveys can be read free online at NC Digital Collections.
Margaret Ruth Little-Stokes's survey of Chapel Hill's town and campus buildings from 1795 to 1975, published by the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill in 2006. Chapters run from the first campus buildings through David Swain's romantic campus to midcentury modernism, followed by area surveys of the campus, east and west Chapel Hill, downtown, Northside and the suburbs.
M. Ruth Little's 2004 architectural history of Chapel Hill and the university campus from 1795 to 1975, written for the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill. A 99-page survey with a bibliography.
M. B. Gatza's final report of the 1992 Chapel Hill historic sites survey for the town Planning Department, with contributions by Beverly C. Kawalec and Catherine Bishir. It covers historic buildings and districts in Chapel Hill in 80 pages.
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.
Henry Dennis Carter's reconstruction, drawn as a blueprint in 1934, of Chapel Hill as it stood between 1875 and 1885, showing the buildings of the village. A note on the map says the information came from old residents who gave it to Mary L. Thornton.
Dating from 1888 and attributed to Hunter Lee Harris, a map of Chapel Hill and its vicinity, reproduced as a photocopy measuring 22 by 37 centimeters. Harris died in 1893, which brackets the drawing to the late nineteenth century. An early depiction of the streets of the village and the land around it.
Pen-and-ink manuscript map of Chapel Hill dated 1852, with a table of measurements, showing the University campus, the village around it, street widths and layout, and the town limits. Later notes attributed to Kemp P. Battle give the longitude and latitude of landmarks as measured from atop New East Hall in 1880.
Sanborn Map Company fire insurance map of Chapel Hill, June 1925, on eleven sheets, with Carrboro also drawn. Sanborn maps recorded the outline, construction and use of each building for fire insurers, so the set shows both towns block by block in the mid 1920s.
Street and property map of Chapel Hill and the surrounding country, revised to 1 January 1933 and printed in the town. Topics include streets, real property and the historical geography of Chapel Hill along with maps of the University of North Carolina in its 1793 to 1962 period. A useful sheet for tracing lot lines and street names as they stood at the start of the 1930s.
Found a book OCPL doesn’t own? You can often borrow it through interlibrary loan at OCPL.
Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection at the Main Library in Hillsborough whose titles, catalog subjects or descriptions are about this site. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled.
Mary Coker Joslin's essays on her uncle, William Chambers Coker (1872 to 1953), the University of North Carolina botanist who began the Coker Arboretum in Chapel Hill in 1903 and chaired the botany department for 36 years. She presents him as scientist, teacher, landscape designer and editor. Published in Chapel Hill by the Botanical Garden Foundation in 2003, the arboretum's centennial year, with drawings by Sandra Brooks-Mathers and eight pages of plates.
These books don’t necessarily mention Coker Arboretum, but they cover where it stands, its kind of building and the land, family and burial records behind it, and they are where a search for a place like this usually goes next. All are at OCPL, most in the Wall Collection.
Steven Stolpen's pictorial history of Chapel Hill, one of the Donning Company's photographic town histories, published in Norfolk, Virginia in 1978. Photographs and portraits carry the story of the town and the university, including references to Thomas Wolfe's years as a student at Carolina. 156 pages with illustrations.
Elizabeth Shreve Ryan's combined histories and tour guides for Hillsborough, Chapel Hill and Carrboro, the three towns of Orange County, with the University of North Carolina treated alongside Chapel Hill. Each town gets a narrative history and a tour of its streets and buildings. Published by Chapel Hill Press in 2004, 369 pages with illustrations and maps.
Catherine W. Bishir and Michael T. Southern's field guide to the historic buildings of the North Carolina Piedmont, arranged county by county from Wake and Franklin in the east to Mecklenburg and Gaston in the west. The Orange County section takes in Hillsborough, Chapel Hill and Carrboro along with the rural county, with entries on individual buildings and maps for finding them. Published 2003, 596 pages with illustrations and maps.
A pocket-sized guide to the historic buildings and landmarks of Chapel Hill, prepared by the Chapel Hill Historical Society and printed by Creative Printers in 1973. Forty pages with illustrations and maps, 14 by 22 cm. Topics include architecture, historic buildings and historic districts in Chapel Hill, and the guide is useful for a walking tour of the older parts of town.
Maps, surveys, and the ground itself
Newspapers, photographs, and records of the time
Other catalogs, databases, and guides worth searching
Local organizations that preserve the story and can help you go further
Other sources to search and local organizations that can help.
