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Theme

Health, Medicine & Care

From patent medicines and country doctors to hospitals, clinics, and the public-health campaigns that changed the county.

In briefCountry doctors and patent medicines gave way to a district health department, midwife classes, polio vaccination and, from 1952, North Carolina Memorial Hospital and the medical center at Chapel Hill. The storylines follow the 1918 influenza, segregation in medical care, rural public health, COVID-19 and health care across languages.

1,109 indexed works are connected with this theme. 1 held at OCPL →

Search these works Research sources View indexed works ↓
Men gathered around a table.

Events and storylines

Named events and episodes the index follows in detail. Each has its own page.

The 1918 influenza pandemic in Orange CountyThe autumn of 1918 in the county and at the university, where the epidemic met a campus full of Student Army Training Corps recruits North Carolina Memorial Hospital and the medical center, from 1952The state’s Good Health Plan built a teaching hospital at Chapel Hill; it admitted its first patients on 2 September 1952, and the hospitals and School of Medicine that grew around it made the town a medical center Polio and vaccinationThe epidemic summers, the county’s clinics, and the vaccine campaigns of the 1950s and after Segregation and access to medical careDurham’s Lincoln Hospital, separate clinics and hospital floors, and the steps to the desegregation of North Carolina Memorial Hospital in 1965 Public health in rural Orange CountyCounty nurses, clinics, the health department, and sanitation work from the 1920s: public health’s reach into the countryside COVID-19 in Orange County, 2020–2022Closures, schools, the county health department’s response, mutual aid, and the pandemic’s unequal weight
Show all 7 events and episodes
Health care across language and immigrationClinics, interpreters, traditional medicine, and the barriers between newcomers and care

Indexed works

Related works found in catalogs and archives across North Carolina, the most widely held first, novels aside. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it.

Narrow these works. Each link opens the search already limited to this theme. Counts are indexed works, not copies on a shelf; a work can carry more than one period or place.

Material

Periodicals 280Histories 238Letters & correspondence 75Photographs & portraits 37Biography 34other types 185

Period

18th century 24Revolution (1775–1783) 1119th century 74Civil War (1861–1865) 3020th century 84World War I era 10World War II era 1021st century 6

Place

North Carolina (statewide) 583Chapel Hill 414Orange County 337Hillsborough 41Carrboro 21Research Triangle 15

Widely held

Medicine at Chapel Hill

McLendon, William Woodard · 2012 · Dept. of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina

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.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Medical colleges.

NC Cardinal UNC Duke NC State Chapel Hill PL Library of Congress

The School of Pharmacy of the University of North Carolina

Noble, Alice · 1961

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.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Pharmacy colleges.

NC Cardinal Duke Durham CH Historical Society Library of Congress UNC

Legends and Legacies

Kagarise, Mary Jane · 1997 · Dept. of Surgery, UNC School of Medicine

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.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Surgery.

Reviewed in The American Journal of Surgery (1998).

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 617.097 KAGARISE NC Cardinal UNC Duke Library of Congress

Dreaming of a time: the School of Public Health : the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1939-1989

Korstad, Robert Rodgers · 1990

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.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: History of Medicine.

NC Cardinal UNC NC Digital Collections DPLA Library of Congress

NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Norma Berryhill Lectures

Blythe, William Brevard ; Denny, Jr., Floyd W. ; McLendon, William Woodard · 2000 · Medical Foundation of North Carolina, Inc.

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.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the Duke record: Schools, Medical -- History.

NC Cardinal Duke UNC Library of Congress

Obstetrics and gynecology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill : the first half century

2000

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.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC State record: Schools, Medical -- history -- North Carolina.

UNC NC State Library of Congress
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A record of the war activities in Orange County, North Carolina, 1917-1919

Cameron, Annie Sutton · 2002 · Academic Affairs Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Influenza.

NC Cardinal UNC

Self-study summary report

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill · 1975

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.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Public health.

NC Cardinal UNC

Recently indexed: The ... report of the North Carolina Memorial Hospital (1981) · 25th anniversary (1975) · 50 years of change and challenge, 1940-1990 (1989) · A.M. Wednesday (1984) · Accreditation as one force in professionalization : the accreditation of schools of public health by the American Public Health Association (1973) · Adolescent health issues : what is our role? (1990)

Search all 1,109 indexed works →

Start at OCPL

Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection whose titles, catalog subjects, or descriptions match this theme. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled. Books marked Wider context cover the broader subject rather than this theme itself.

  • Foundational · NC 617.097 KAGARISE Legends and Legacies: A Look Inside : Four Decades of Surgery at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1952-1993 Kagarise, Mary Jane · 1997

    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.

  • Wider context · NC 610.711 CAR The Story of Medicine at Wake Forest University Carpenter, Coy Cornelius · 1970

    Coy C. Carpenter (1900 to 1971), the dean who in 1939 helped arrange the Bowman Gray gift that moved Wake Forest's medical school, tells its history from the two-year school opened on the college campus at Wake Forest in 1902 to the Bowman Gray School of Medicine, opened beside North Carolina Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem in 1941. Published in 1970 by the University of North Carolina Press; 79 pages with portraits.

  • Wider context · NC 615.321 BOU Herbal Remedies of the Lumbee Indians Boughman, Arvis Locklear · 2003

    Arvis Locklear Boughman and Loretta O. Oxendine, both Lumbee, describe more than a hundred plants and herbs that Lumbee people in Robeson County have used as teas, poultices and salves for ailments from asthma to high blood pressure. A glossary, a table of ailments and treatments, and interviews with healers and elders on health and memory follow, and the authors warn against treating oneself. McFarland, 2003; 181 pages with a bibliography and index.

Show 3 more

In the chronology

Dated events connected with this theme: sixteen of 319, the highlights and a sample of the rest spread across the years, in date order. See all 319 dated events in the chronology →

Earliest first. Scroll sideways, or use the arrows.

16 dated events

  1. Tryon's army camps on the south bank of the Eno opposite Hillsborough

    Violence or armed conflict · Eno River opposite Hillsborough

    Marching west from New Bern, Tryon's army entered Orange by an old road past Patterson's and camped across the Eno from the town on May 9. A hospital and a supply depot were set up at Hillsborough, and on May 11 the army marched through town and west along the later Graham road.

    Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 90 events

    People: William Tryon · Edmund Fanning · John Ashe

  2. Dr. Pride Jones serves as Orange County clerk of superior court

    Hillsborough

    Dr. Pride Jones followed George Laws, clerk for thirty years, as clerk of the superior court of Orange County and held the office from 1883 to 1888, when Samuel M. Gattis succeeded him.

  3. Chapel Hill Red Cross treasurer Dr. J. M. Bullitt resigns to enlist in the Army Medical Corps

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill

    In the spring of 1918 Dr. J. M. Bullitt, who had set up the chapter's monthly subscription plan, resigned as treasurer to enlist in the Medical Corps of the United States Army. Dr. J. M. Bell succeeded him, and after about a month Dr. W. M. Dey took over when Bell went to Washington for government work.

    People: William Morton Dey

  4. Influenza epidemic strikes Chapel Hill

    Disaster or outbreak · Carrboro

    Spanish influenza swept the University in early October 1918, putting the campus and its student soldiers under a three-week quarantine. By October 23 about 300 students had been ill and three had died, and President Edward Kidder Graham died of influenza and pneumonia on October 26.

    Part of The 1918 influenza pandemic in Orange County

  5. Herman G. Baity serves as dean of UNC's School of Engineering

    Chapel Hill

    Baity, head of sanitary engineering since 1928, was dean of the School of Engineering from 1930 until 1936, when the sanitary engineering department moved to the School of Public Health. He chaired it there until 1955.

    Subject: UNC School of Public Health

  6. District health department holds midwife classes across Orange County

    Health or relief action · Orange County

    Classes for midwives were held at Efland and Hillsboro and began for those in and near Chapel Hill at the health department offices, with attendance required before a permit to practice would be issued. Health officer W. P. Richardson said 17 percent of births in the county were attended by midwives, against 31 percent statewide.

    Part of Public health in rural Orange County · 26 events

  7. William Picard Jacocks retires to Chapel Hill

    Chapel Hill

    After about thirty years of public health work for the Rockefeller Foundation, much of it against hookworm in India and Ceylon, Jacocks retired and moved back to Chapel Hill, where he was active in alumni affairs.

  8. North Carolina Memorial Hospital opens

    Founding or opening · Chapel Hill

    North Carolina Memorial Hospital opened to patients on Tuesday, September 2, 1952, without a formal ceremony, as the core of the new University Medical Center. Its opening allowed the UNC School of Medicine to grow from a two-year program into a four-year school.

    Part of North Carolina Memorial Hospital and the medical center, from 1952 · 24 events

    Subject: UNC Medical Center (N.C. Memorial Hospital) · UNC School of Medicine

  9. The Hospital Savings Association moves from East Franklin into a large new building on West Franklin

    Founding or opening · Hospital Savings Association, 436-440 West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill

    The association left its two-bay store on East Franklin for big new quarters on West Franklin. By the late 1960s it had become Blue Cross and Blue Shield.

  10. Berryhill Hall is completed and named for W. Reece Berryhill

    Naming or commemoration · UNC School of Medicine, Chapel Hill

    The University completed a medical school building in Chapel Hill in 1970 and named it for W. Reece Berryhill, who had been dean of the School of Medicine since 1941.

    Subject: UNC School of Medicine

  11. James Cates is killed outside the UNC Student Union

    Violence or armed conflict · Chapel Hill

    James Lewis Cates Jr., 22, a Black Chapel Hill resident, was stabbed outside the UNC Student Union shortly before 2 a.m. during an all-night dance, in a clash with members of Durham's Storm Troopers motorcycle gang, and died at North Carolina Memorial Hospital. Three white men charged in his death were acquitted by an all-white jury in 1971.

    Part of Killing of James Cates, 1970 · 18 events

  12. Severe drought creates a local water crisis

    Disaster or outbreak · Chapel Hill

    A drought from August 1976 to January 1977 forced Chapel Hill and UNC to buy more water from Durham, ban unnecessary water use and cut campus services. By August 1977 University Lake was lower still, and the new Orange Water and Sewer Authority kept conservation rules and used federal drought aid to buy Durham water.

    Part of Water for the towns: University Lake, the 1976–77 drought, and OWASA · 31 events

  13. New community house opens

    Founding or opening · Chapel Hill

    The men’s shelter moved to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

    Subject: Inter-Faith Council for Social Service

  14. Deah Barakat, Yusor Abu-Salha and Razan Abu-Salha are killed in Chapel Hill

    Violence or armed conflict · Chapel Hill

    On February 10, 2015, neighbor Craig Hicks shot and killed Deah Barakat, 23, his wife Yusor Abu-Salha, 21, and her sister Razan Abu-Salha, 19, in the couple's Chapel Hill condominium. Hicks pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder in June 2019 and received three consecutive life sentences without parole.

    Part of Deah Barakat, Yusor Abu-Salha and Razan Abu-Salha, 2015

    People: Deah Barakat

  15. COVID-19 transforms Orange County

    Disaster or outbreak · Chapel Hill

    Orange County, Chapel Hill and Carrboro declared states of emergency on March 13, 2020, and the county and its three towns ordered residents to stay home from March 27. UNC moved undergraduate classes online in August 2020 after campus clusters. The county emergency, extended more than a dozen times, expired on May 1, 2022.

    Part of COVID-19 in Orange County, 2020–2022 · 31 events

  16. El Futuro launches Mentes Fuertes, a Spanish-language mental health program in Orange County

    Health or relief action · Orange County

    Four Spanish-speaking community health workers began leading free ten-session psychoeducation groups at the Orange County Rape Crisis Center, St. Thomas More and Holy Family Catholic Church. By March 2024, 48 participants had enrolled.

Places in this theme

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows the 27 with a known location.

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.

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All places and the county map →

Research sources

Background context 11

Background from selected state and local sources

Show all 11

Read contemporary evidence 3

Newspapers, photographs, and records of the time

Search beyond the index 9

Other catalogs, databases, and guides worth searching

Show all 9

Additional research sources

Other catalogs to search and local organizations that can help.

Related themes

UNC & Campus Life →Schools & Education →Work, Labor & Industry →Women's Lives & History →Black Life & Civil Rights →

Picture: Farm Security Administration photographs, 1939–1940, Library of Congress; public domain. Image credits →

More to discover

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