Storyline · 1897–1931
An earlier College of Pharmacy, begun in 1880, had been short-lived, and in March 1897 the university trustees set up a chair of pharmacy and elected Edward Vernon Howell, beginning the department that became the School of Pharmacy. In 1901 the department, with Howell as dean, was formally incorporated into the university and its laboratory and lecture space was doubled. Howell died on February 14, 1931 after seventeen days of pneumonia, and the Weekly's editor, his neighbor, wrote of the Halloween parties he gave the village children. J. Grover Beard, a 1909 graduate long on the pharmacy faculty, was named acting dean, and the trustees' executive committee ratified his appointment on March 19, 1931.
An earlier College of Pharmacy under Dr. T. W. Harris, begun in 1880, had been short-lived. In March 1897 the university trustees set up a chair of pharmacy and elected Edward Vernon Howell, beginning the department that became the School of Pharmacy. In 1901 the department of pharmacy, with Howell as dean, was formally incorporated into the university, and its laboratory and lecture space was doubled. In 1921 Alice Noble was hired as assistant secretary of the school, the start of a decades-long tenure in which she was later its librarian and secretary to Dean Edward Brecht. Howell, who had come to Chapel Hill in the 1890s and was the pharmacy school's founder and dean, died on February 14, 1931 after seventeen days of pneumonia. Former students came from across the state during his illness, and the Weekly's editor, his neighbor, wrote of the Halloween parties he gave the village children and of his collections of old furniture, books and papers. J. Grover Beard, a 1909 graduate long on the pharmacy faculty and a past president of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, was named acting dean. On March 19, 1931 the executive committee of the trustees, meeting in Raleigh, ratified his appointment along with that of Ira Rose of Rocky Mount as a teacher of pharmacy.
Every statement above comes from these dated entries in the chronology. Each links to its source.
Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first.
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 about the sites and people its dated events name, those named most often first, so they may discuss the storyline only in part. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.
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.
A two-page illustrated leaflet on pharmacy education, produced in 1990 by the North Carolina Area Health Education Centers Program at Chapel Hill. It includes the School of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina and the training of pharmacists in the state.
Mary T. Roth, Russell J. Mumper, Scott F. Singleton and Craig R. Lee describe curricular change in pharmacy education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in the North Carolina Medical Journal dated 2014. Topics include curriculum, trends in pharmacy education, models of education and program development at schools of pharmacy on the Chapel Hill campus.
PubMed record courtesy of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
Memoir of Boka W. Hadzija, a faculty member in the School of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It concerns North Carolina biography and pharmacy school faculty biography, so the account centers on her own life and career on campus. Published in 2013 by Renata Smith and Branka Agg.
Account ledger of Patterson's General Store in Chapel Hill for 1910 to 1911, recording what customers owed. Accounts run from townspeople and the university Athletic Association to figures such as Kemp Plummer Battle, Edward Kidder Graham, Collier Cobb, Horace Williams and Louis Round Wilson, and firms including the Bank of Chapel Hill, Odell Hardware, Standard Oil and the Southern Railway. Part of North Carolina Memory.
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.
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. “The UNC pharmacy school under Howell and Beard, 1897–1931.” Orange County Indexed, https://focplnc.org/orange-county-books/storylines/unc-pharmacy-howell-beard-storyline-1897/. Accessed October 22, 2026.
