Storyline · 1916–1931
The university and the North Carolina Press Association brought the state's editors to Chapel Hill for Newspaper Institutes, beginning in December 1916 with what the printed report called the first such institute in the state and the South. That session heard former President William Howard Taft, and the editors put out a daily, the Press Institute News, on a borrowed linotype. In January 1926 more than a hundred editors met at the Carolina Inn for a three-day institute run with the University's extension division. The seventh annual institute, in January 1931, heard Governor Gardner speak on the state's affairs in Gerrard Hall, with Mark Sullivan among the speakers.
On December 7 to 9, 1916 the North Carolina Press Association held its midwinter session as a Newspaper Institute at the university. Former President William Howard Taft, Dean Walter Williams of Missouri, Dean Talcott Williams of Columbia and Don Seitz of the New York World gave addresses. The editors put out a daily, the Press Institute News, on a borrowed linotype, and the printed report called it the first such institute in the state and the South. On January 13 to 15, 1926 more than a hundred North Carolina editors met at the Carolina Inn for a three-day Newspaper Institute run with the University's extension division. Speakers from outside the state included Douglas S. Freeman of the Richmond News-Leader, Robert Lathan of the Charleston News and Courier and Ole Buck of the Nebraska Press Association. On January 14, 1931 editors from across the state met at the Carolina Inn for the seventh annual Newspaper Institute of the University and the North Carolina Press Association, which ran through January 16. Governor Gardner spoke on the state's affairs in Gerrard Hall, and Mark Sullivan, Fred Fuller Shedd and W. W. Ball were among the speakers.
Every statement above comes from these dated entries in the chronology. Each links to its source.
People with a page of their own whom the dated events above name, those named most often first.
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.
Thomas A. Bowers's history of a century of journalism and mass communication teaching at the University of North Carolina, published by the School of Journalism and Mass Communication in 2009. It runs 282 pages with illustrations and portraits.
Robert E. Seymour's columns for the Chapel Hill News, gathered into a 192-page book by Chapel Hill Press in 2003. The short pieces offer anecdotes and reflections on Chapel Hill history, local manners and customs, and North Carolina life. Seymour (1925 to 2020) was the longtime pastor of Olin T. Binkley Memorial Baptist Church.
Anniversary booklet for the first twenty-five years of WCHL, the Chapel Hill radio station at 1360 on the AM dial, published in 1978. Topics include radio broadcasting and Chapel Hill history, with advertisements included. 20 unnumbered pages with illustrations and portraits.
Anniversary booklet marking fifty years of WCHL 1360, the Chapel Hill radio station, with profiles of fifty people from Chapel Hill and Carrboro. Published in 2003, 36 pages with portraits. Contributors include Roland Giduz, Jim Heavner, Jonathan Howes, Neil Offen and Rosemary Waldorf.
Thomas A. Bowers gave this talk on the beginnings of journalism teaching at the University of North Carolina on October 15, 2009 in Wilson Library, part of the Gladys Hall Coates university history lecture series. It was printed the same year.
Richard Hunter Simpson filmed this seven minute farewell to Howell Hall in 1999. The film concerns the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication, its buildings and its history, and the teaching of journalism in Chapel Hill. One videocassette, color with black and white sequences.
Centennial edition of the Daily Tar Heel, the University of North Carolina student newspaper, produced at Chapel Hill in 1993 to mark one hundred years of publication. Jen Pilla is named as centennial edition editor. Topics include the paper's history along with college student newspapers and periodicals in Chapel Hill, which makes the issue a source for the paper's own record.
An illustrated volume, with portraits, published by Village Sports in 1993 to mark forty years of WCHL, Chapel Hill's radio station at 1360 on the dial. Its writers were Jim Heavner, Roland Giduz, Jim Shumaker, Zora Rashkis, Dan Dunlop, George McCall, Lee Pace, Beth Tatum and Larry Stone.
A television news report of three minutes and fifty six seconds by Kenley Jones, broadcast on NBC Nightly News in 1975, on the spelling and grammar test journalism students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill had to pass for the major. John Adams, a former dean of the journalism school, is interviewed.
Stuart Willis traces the history of the North Carolina University Magazine, the student periodical published at Chapel Hill since 1844. His article was detached from the magazine itself in 1914 and printed by the Dialectic and Philanthropic Literary Societies, which ran it.
Holland Thompson's history of the North Carolina University Magazine at fifty years, written while he was a student of the class of 1895. It ran in the magazine for March and April 1894 and was issued separately at Chapel Hill by the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies.
Leaflet on the southern broadcast media history initiative of the Southern Historical and Folklife Collections at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, printed in 1995. The project concerned the history of broadcasting in the Southern states and the business records that document it. Five pages on one folded sheet with illustrations.
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. “The Newspaper Institute at Chapel Hill, 1916–1931.” Orange County Indexed, https://focplnc.org/orange-county-books/storylines/newspaper-institute-storyline-1916/. Accessed October 22, 2026.
