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Dr. John H. Cook: A Progressive Advocate for North Carolina’s Teachers

On March 25, 1936, North Carolina Republican Chairman William C. Meekins expressed his disappointment that Woman’s College’s dean of the department of education Dr. John H. Cook would not accept the party’s nomination as candidate for the state superintendent of public instruction. Cook declared that while he was “tremendously interested in public education and [he] […]

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Starting Classes at State Normal

The institution now known as UNC Greensboro was originally chartered by the State of North Carolina in February 1891. The school was founded to train female teachers and instruct them in “drawing, telegraphy, type-writing, stenography, and such other industrial arts as may be suitable to their sex and conducive to their support and usefulness.” Leading […]

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Spartan Pets: Faculty and their Dogs in UNCG History

Mary Channing Coleman and Bonnie In an oral history interview conducted in 2006, Celeste Ulrich (Woman’s College class of 1946 and professor in the School of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation from 1956-1979) discussed her life-long love of dogs and her extensive time spent training animals. She noted that, when she arrived at Woman’s College […]

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The Birth of the North Carolina State High School Music Contest-Festival

Over the next two weeks, UNC Greensboro will play host to hundreds of students attending Summer Music Camp. The Summer Music Camp, which began in 1983, has grown to be the largest university music camp in America. In two one-week sessions, students are instructed in band, mixed chorus, orchestra, and piano. But the Summer Music […]

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1932: The Year of the Co-eds at Woman’s College

Until it was made co-educational in 1964, Woman’s College (now UNCG) was pretty clear in the fact that it was a single-gender institution. Male students were allowed to enroll in summer school courses and graduate programs (at least until the 1950s and 1960s when the UNC system asserted limitations over male enrollment at the school), […]

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State Normal Students and the Push to Improve North Carolina’s Public Schools

In the late 1800s, the state of education in North Carolina was bleak. The illiteracy rate was 36% (compared to 14% nationwide). Per pupil spending on education was one of the lowest in the nation, and the average teacher’s salary was less than $24 per month – about half the national average. The school year […]

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Piney Lake: The Country Club of W.C.

“Tired of studying? Tired of going to classes, of going to the dining hall, of going to Aycock? Tired of your roommate? Your counselor? Yourself? … Pack up a pair of blue jeans and an old shirt, throw in a beat-up pair of sneakers, and take off to the Country Club of W.C., Piney Lake.” […]

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Chancellor Patricia A. Sullivan: Encoded in the DNA of UNCG

UNCG opened its doors in 1892 as a publicly-supported school for women from across North Carolina (and beyond) to receive a higher education. But it would not be until the 103rd year of the school’s existence that a woman would serve as the university’s highest-ranking administrator. On January 1, 1995, Dr. Patricia A. Sullivan officially […]

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Hidden History: African American Employees at State Normal

While African American students were banned from enrolling at the school now known as UNC Greensboro prior to 1956, the campus during its earlier years operated primarily on the labor of African American men and women who served as cooks, janitors, handymen, and others who worked behind the scenes. Ezekiel “Zeke” Robinson Little is known […]

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Happy Holidays!!

The staff of the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives wishes everyone a happy holiday season! We’re taking a break this week, but please join us on Monday, January 7th for a new Spartan Story. Charlotte Holder Clinger (class of 1965) sits on a desk with a miniature artificial Christmas tree in the […]

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