Founding women’s studies at UNC, 1974–1977

In 1974 a UNC committee on minorities recommended a women's studies curriculum, and the Faculty Council called for a study. A committee under Richard L. Simpson heard students and faculty in 1975, and that September the council approved its plan for a program. A search for a director followed, and in 1977 the University approved the program with Mary Turner Lane as director.

The events, date by date

Every statement above comes from these dated entries in the chronology. Each links to its source.

January 23, 1974 The chancellor's committee on minorities and the disadvantaged recommends a women's studies curriculum The Chancellor's Committee on the Status of Minorities and the Disadvantaged passed seven recommendations for the Faculty Council, among them a women's studies curriculum and help for handicapped students. Chairman David Kleinbaum and vice chairman James H. Brewer said most of the previous year's recommendations, including more Black faculty and a vice chancellor for minority affairs, had not been acted on. Place: University, Chapel Hill · Also named: David G. Kleinbaum, James H. BrewerThe Daily Tar Heel, January 25, 1974, p. 1

March 22, 1974 The Faculty Council adopts its minorities committee's report, including a study of a women's studies curriculum The Faculty Council approved with little debate the annual report and six resolutions of its Committee on the Status of Minority and Disadvantaged, which judged the University's progress for minority students negligible beside what was still needed. The resolutions urged a committee to study a women's studies curriculum, a full-time staff member for handicapped students, minority graduate recruiting with a report back in the fall, a Black associate director of financial aid, a permanent race relations committee and stronger counseling for Black students. People: Blyden Jackson Place: Hamilton Hall, University, Chapel HillThe Daily Tar Heel, March 25, 1974, p. 1

March 4, 1975 A chancellor's committee hears support for a women's studies curriculum at UNC At an open meeting in the Union, students and faculty told the Chancellor's Committee to consider a curriculum in women's studies that such a program should be formed, though they differed over its size and whether it needed its own coordinator. Committee chairman Richard L. Simpson said existing courses might be gathered into a curriculum the next year, with a coordinator probably a few years away; the committee was to report to the Faculty Council at the end of the semester. Place: Carolina Union, University, Chapel Hill · Also named: Richard L. SimpsonSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, March 5, 1975, p. 1

September 19, 1975 UNC's Faculty Council approves a plan to establish a women's studies program The Faculty Council approved the recommendations of an ad hoc committee chaired by sociology chairman Richard L. Simpson for a women's studies program, ending a study the council had called for in March 1974. The plan set guidelines rather than a curriculum, left details to a director yet to be appointed, and proposed no degree for five years while the field proved itself. Place: Hamilton Hall, University, Chapel Hill · Also named: Richard L. SimpsonSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, September 23, 1975, p. 3

by October 31, 1975 UNC names a committee to find a director for a women's studies program Arts and Sciences Dean James R. Gaskin appointed a committee of five faculty members and two students, chaired by historian Joan Scott, to find a director for the University's women's studies program by July 1976. The program was to follow ten recommendations of the Faculty Council's ad hoc committee on women's studies, presented in September, including new courses and a resource center. Place: College of Arts and Sciences, University, Chapel Hill · Also named: James R. Gaskin, Joan ScottSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, October 31, 1975, p. 2

1977 The university approves a women's studies program with Mary Turner Lane as director An ad hoc committee named in March 1974 recommended the program, which became a major within interdisciplinary studies. Lane served as half-time director and built the first course, Women's Studies 50, with Joan Scott. People: Mary Turner Lane Place: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill · Also named: Joan ScottSearch the index · Pamela Dean, Women on the Hill: A History of Women at the University of North Carolina (1987), scan p. 30 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, April 21, 1977, p. 2; The Daily Tar Heel, February 1, 1979, p. 3

Sydney Nathans's biography of Mary Walker, an enslaved woman from Orange County who escaped to the North in the mid nineteenth century and spent the following decades in Cambridge, Massachusetts, working to free the family she had left behind. Chapter titles trace her flight, her years among Northern friends, a rescue plot, a long silence, and the reunion that gives the book its close. Published 2012 by Harvard University Press, 330 pages with 20 pages of plates, illustrations and maps.

Reviewed in Choice Reviews Online (2012), Civil War Book Review (2012).

✓ Held at OCPL · BIO WALKER NAT NC Cardinal UNC Duke NC State NCCU Durham Chapel Hill PL Library of Congress Davidson Methodist Wingate UNCSA

Miss Mary's Money

Jones, H. G. · 2014 · McFarland & Co.

H. G. Jones follows the fortune of Mary Ruffin Smith (1814-1885), the unmarried heiress whose Orange and Chatham County lands passed at her death to the University of North Carolina and the Episcopal Church. Chapters profile her grandfather Francis Jones, then trace the bequest through a quarrel among Episcopalians over Price Creek, the Chapel of the Cross and the university's buildings. A December 1885 New York Times report called the gift money; Jones shows it was land. Published by McFarland in 2014, 231 pages.

✓ Held at OCPL NC Cardinal UNC Duke NC State NCCU Durham Library of Congress Wake Forest Davidson Methodist CH Historical Society

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.

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.

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

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.

Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (1954).

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

Jane Crow: The Life of Pauli Murray

Rosenberg, Rosalind · 2017

Rosalind Rosenberg's 2017 biography of Pauli Murray (1910-1985), lawyer, poet and Episcopal priest, raised in Durham. Its six parts follow a Southern childhood, the move to New York, the 1938 application to the University of North Carolina that was refused because Murray was Black (the chapter is titled 'Members of your race are not admitted'), law school and the coining of the phrase Jane Crow, the Cold War years, the push toward 'an NAACP for women', and a late-life ordination. 494 pages with portraits.

Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (2018).

✓ Held at OCPL · BIO MURRAY ROS Duke NC Cardinal Durham Chapel Hill PL

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Well worth a shindy : the architectural and philosophical history of the Old Well at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Madry, Sarah Brandes · 2003 · iUniverse

Sarah Brandes Madry's history of the Old Well at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, treating both its architecture and the ideas attached to it. It takes in drinking fountains and water use in Chapel Hill and the university's history, with a chapter on Edwin Anderson Alderman, the president under whom the well took its present form in 1897, and one on water at the university. Published by iUniverse in 2003, 399 pages with illustrations.

NC Cardinal UNC Durham Chapel Hill PL CH Historical Society

Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly: The Remarkable Story of the Friendship Between a First Lady and a Former Slave

Fleischner, Jennifer · 2003 · Broadway Books

Jennifer Fleischner's double biography of Mary Todd Lincoln and Elizabeth Keckley, the dressmaker who had been enslaved, including years in Hillsborough, before buying her freedom and becoming the First Lady's confidante. Published by Broadway Books in New York in 2003, 372 pages with illustrations and a map. Topics include enslaved women in Hillsborough and the United States, dressmakers and women's friendships in the nineteenth century.

✓ Held at OCPL · 973.7 FLEISCHN NC Cardinal Library of Congress UNC

The Book of Burwell Students

Engstrom, Mary Claire · 1979 · Historic Hillsborough Commission

Mary Claire Engstrom's biographical register of the young women who attended the Burwell School in Hillsborough, subtitled lives of educated women in the antebellum South. The school was kept by Margaret Anna Burwell and her husband, and the book bears on women's education in nineteenth-century North Carolina. Published by the Historic Hillsborough Commission, 1979, 256 pages with illustrations and portraits.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 371.82 ENG NC Cardinal UNC Durham

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.

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.

NC Cardinal CH Historical Society Library of Congress

First Women of Orange County

1994 · Orange County Women's History Month Committee

A Women's History Month project of 1993 and 1994 from the Orange County Women's History Month Committee, profiling women who were firsts in the county. Published in Chapel Hill in 1994, 13 pages plus unnumbered leaves with illustrations, facsimiles and portraits.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 305.409 FIR UNC Durham