Storyline · 1930–1947
Free monthly clinics for babies, held separately for Black and white children, were opened by Chapel Hill's Junior Service League in 1940 and moved into the new Carrboro Health Center in 1947. An earlier clinic for Black babies had run for several weeks at Rock Hill Baptist Church in 1930. With the district health department, the League held clinics for children under two, for Black babies at the Orange County Training School and for white babies at the Carrboro school. It also began a free training school for Black household workers, with an employment agency. Dr. Robert Barrett Lawson and later Dr. Beryl Mason attended the clinics, and by 1944 Hillsborough had separate clinics of its own.
A clinic for Black babies opened at Rock Hill Baptist Church in Chapel Hill on May 1, 1930 and ran for several weeks. Younger women of Chapel Hill organized the Junior Service League in October 1939. With the district health department it opened free monthly clinics for children under two on February 15, 1940, for Black babies at the Orange County Training School and for white babies at the Carrboro school. On April 8 it began a free training school for Black household workers at the Training School, with first aid taught by county home economics teacher Ruth Pope, and an employment agency. By October 25 Dr. Robert Barrett Lawson, a professor of pediatrics, had agreed to serve as the clinics' physician. The training course began its second year on October 14, 1941. By February 1943 Dr. Beryl Mason attended both clinics, the white one in a former hosiery mill office in Carrboro. By April 1944 the League and the health department held separate monthly clinics for Black and white babies in Hillsborough. The West Hillsboro Civic Organization started a monthly clinic of its own on September 3, 1946. On December 3, 1947 the new Carrboro Health Center became the home of the clinics, which the Carrboro Civic Club and the Chapel Hill Junior League sponsored.
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No indexed work is about this storyline itself yet. These are the most widely held histories of the theme it is filed under, so they may not discuss it. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.
History of the Department of Medicine at the UNC School of Medicine, compiled by William W. McLendon and published by the department in 2012. After a section of historical perspective, the book covers the deans, founding faculty and department chairs, then the subspecialty divisions, offshoot departments, teaching and research, with appendices. Much of it is biographical, profiling the physicians who built clinical medicine in Chapel Hill. 478 pages with illustrations.
Alice Noble's history of the School of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina, published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1961. It runs 237 pages with illustrations and portraits.
Mary Jane Kagarise's history of the Department of Surgery at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill across its first four decades, 1952 to 1993, with biographies of the surgeons on its faculty. Published by the department in 1997 in a first edition of 461 pages with illustrations, some in color. Topics include surgery and medical colleges in Chapel Hill and biography of the department's faculty.
Reviewed in The American Journal of Surgery (1998).
Robert Korstad's history of the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina over its first fifty years, 1939 to 1989, published by the university in 1990. It runs 192 pages with illustrations.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Two volumes collecting the Norma Berryhill Lectures, an annual address at the UNC School of Medicine named for the wife of its long-serving dean, W. Reece Berryhill. Volume one gathers the lectures from 1985 to 1999, edited by Floyd W. Denny, Jr., William B. Blythe and William W. McLendon; volume two, edited by McLendon and Elizabeth B. Dreesen, continues through 2008. Published by the Medical Foundation of North Carolina, with illustrations and portraits.
Departmental history of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill covering its first fifty years, published by the department in 2000. The history covers medical schools, medical education and the teaching of obstetrics in North Carolina. First edition, xvii and 366 pages with illustrations and portraits.
Annie Sutton Cameron compiled this account of Orange County's part in the First World War in 1919 as historian for the county's Council of Defense, at the request of its chairman J.S. Webb. It covers the Council and the Home Guard, drives for war bonds and overseas relief, Red Cross work, patriotic observances, the influenza epidemic and women's war work, with registers of the county's soldiers. Published online in 2002 by the UNC library in Documenting the American South's North Carolinians and the Great War.
Summary of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's twelve-volume institutional self-study, edited by C. Hugh Holman and dated January 15, 1974, issued in 1975. Topics include the university's accreditation, history and statistics, including the School of Public Health. ix and 546 pages with charts, some folded.
William Fred Mayes traces the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and its response to a changing society, with emphasis on the 1960s. The title page describes the account as selective and interpretive rather than complete. Published by the school in 1975, 68 pages with illustrations. Topics include schools of public health in Chapel Hill and their history.
Selections from the essays and addresses of William de Berniere MacNider, pharmacologist and physician at the University of North Carolina, published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1953, two years after his death. Includes a portrait and a list of his publications.
An illustrated online timeline of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing, issued by the school in 2025. One page with portraits.
Lynn Roundtree covers the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill between 1957 and 1972 through its three chancellors, William Brantley Aycock, Paul F. Sharp and J. Carlyle Sitterson, set against the student movements of those years. Part of the Coates university leadership series, published by the author in 2024 and running to 926 pages. It is twentieth century campus history.
Each dated event above names its source, the place to start. For finding more on an event across newspapers, records and histories, see the research guide Follow an event across several accounts. Ask at the North Carolina Room of the Orange County Public Library for help with local sources.
Friends of the Orange County Public Library. “Baby clinics and the Junior Service League, 1930–1947.” Orange County Indexed, https://focplnc.org/orange-county-books/storylines/junior-service-league-storyline-1930/. Accessed October 22, 2026.
