The University of North Carolina at Greensboro: A Brief history to 1945
by James Stewart, UNCG 2014
______________________________________________________________________________________
The Growing Education Movement and the Foundations of a New School.
Following the American Civil War, several political and social movements developed which greatly favored
the education of women by a statebased
institution in North Carolina. The women’s movement for
education and political empowerment, the Southern Reconstruction, and the growth of compulsory public
education for male, female, white and black pupils were all established to rebuild the nation on a foundation
of education.
It was also generally agreed that illiteracy as well as the need for more teachers was a substantial problem
nationwide and particularly in North Carolina, which had an illiteracy rate of 1 out of 3 citizens.1 The
creation of a new state normal college, or a college for the training of teachers, was proposed by education
professionals at the North Carolina Teacher’s Assembly in 1886. Of these individuals the most outspoken
was Charles Duncan McIver. McIver, born in 1860, was the son of Sanford, N.C. area farmers of Scottish
descent and a 1881 graduate of the University of North Carolina.2 His desire for the education of women
was very personal; his sister desired to attend college and his wife, the former Lula Martin, was a graduate of
Salem Academy.
The education of women was a strong focus of McIver and his colleagues Edwin Alderman, Marcus Cicero
Stephens Noble and James Y. Joyner, all graduates of the University of North Carolina who later became a
1 Trelease, p. 3
2 Trelease p. 4
teacher and an administrator. McIver was aware of the low literacy rate of young women 3 in the South and
believed it to be a direct threat to the future of Southern women and children. He famously stated, “Educate
a man and you educate an individual; educate a woman and you educate a family.” As of 1887 there were
only three statesupported
schools in North Carolina; one for the AfricanAmericans
was coeducational,
and the other two were for white males.4 All college options for white females in North Carolina at the time
were denominational colleges. McIver and his colleagues believed that in order for overall education in the
state to advance, that a state college for young white females was needed to train more women teachers.
A bill from the North Carolina state legislature for the construction of such a school was defeated twice.
However during the second defeat in 1889, institutes for the education of teachers in all counties were
established. These teacher institutions made the 96 counties at the time a giant North Carolina classroom for
the “gospel of public education.”5 McIver and Alderman were selected to conduct the institutes, which
required many trips across the state. Alderman was the tall, mustached, refined speaker. McIver was the
slightly burly, folksy presenter with a good sense of humor.6 The two men attracted large crowds and on
several occasions they lectured on the subjects of women’s education and illiteracy, as well as the need for a
state normal college. Alderman and McIver became well known to education and government professionals
throughout the nation; some who would later contribute financially to the proposed normal school, especially
George Foster Peabody.7
An Act to Establish A New School and Where It Should Be Located.
Many groups throughout the state petitioned for the creation of an industrial school for girls. Such a school
for young ladies at that time would specialize in the teaching of bookkeeping, stenography, typewriting and
home economics. These groups passed resolutions for the state to aid in the higher education of women. As
3 Trelease, p.4
4 These colleges today are respectively Fayetteville State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and
North Carolina State University.
5 Ibid., p. 5
6 Trelease, p.4-7.
7 Peabody contributed $5,000 to develop a park on the north section of campus now known as Peabody Park.
a result, on February 18th, 1891, the General Assembly passed “An Act to Establish a Normal and Industrial
School for White Girls” under the corporate name “The Normal and Industrial School.” This created the
first public institution in North Carolina with the sole purpose of higher education of women.
After much debate and searching the city of Greensboro was chosen as the site for the school, based on its
central location and the more than $30,000 in bonds pledged by the city. State superintendent Major Sidney
M. Finger predicted that one day the school would be a learning center for both men and women.8 The site
consisted of over 10 acres of cornfields purchased from R.S. Pullen and R.T. Gray of Raleigh. A board of
directors was selected and Dr. McIver was appointed to be the institution’s first president. His duties also
included instruction on the principles and art of teaching.
The McIver Years, 1892 1906
On October 5th 1892, the State Normal and Industrial School opened its doors to 176 students. The first
registered student was Miss Mary Dail of Snow Hill, North Carolina. Miss Dail, like most of those young
ladies arrived by locomotive or coach, was greeted by Dr. McIver at the train station and arrived onto a
newly constructed campus. There were three departments organized for academic study: the Normal
Department for the profession of teaching, the Commercial Department that developed the skills of
stenography, typewriting, telegraphy and bookkeeping, and the Domestic Science Department.9
The original three academic departments grew to become a large college campus of several disciplines and
courses within a decade. By 1896 the school was called the State Normal and Industrial College. There
were publications of yearbooks and newsletters, camera clubs, the Athletic Association, literary societies,
and campus regalia by 1902.10 The Young Women’s Christian Association also had a strong presence on
the campus for decades. Within its first quarter century The State Normal and Industrial College created
8 Bowles, p.7. This would happen in 1964.
9 State Normal and Industrial School Annual Catalogue, 1892.
10 Ibid.,
significant landmarks for North Carolina women and education in general. Dr. Miriam Bitting and Dr. Anna
M. Gove, the first college physicians, were two of the first women to practice medicine in the state11. Annie
Petty, who operated the original college library, became the first trained librarian in North Carolina following
a oneyear
leave of absence in 189812. In addition many of the women employed on the campus in those
early years, including Gertrude Mendenhall, Laura M. Coit, and Harriet Elliott, made lasting impacts and are
the namesakes for many of the buildings currently on campus.
Early Tragedies to the State Normal and Industrial College
The greatest setbacks to the college during those early times were the typhoid epidemic of 1899, which
claimed the lives of 13 students and one staff members, and the Brick Dormitory fire of 1904.13 In each
instance the support of the students by the community was unceasing. Dr. McIver and the growing campus
continued their dedication to the development of the state public schools and women’s education throughout
the South. Just a year after the epidemic, the Women’s Association for the Betterment of Public School
Houses, the first such organization in the state, was founded in order to interest parents in the welfare of the
schools.14 Graduates from State Normal were in demand by county superintendents to fill teaching positions.
Growth of the college continued, but in 1906, State Normal met another unexpected tragedy. On
September 17th, while on a train ride with William Jennings Bryan from Raleigh on route to Greensboro, Dr.
McIver died from complication of an apoplexy, or what now is referred to as a stroke.15 He was ten days
shy of his 46th birthday. Within hours of his death, the news was conveyed to the campus, and Dr. Julius I.
Foust was eventually appointed to be the new president.
11 Ibid., p.14
12 Trelease, p. 24, also Timeline of UNCG History. Annie Petty studied at the Drexel Institute Library in Philadelphia
during her leave of absence. Miss Petty was also a pioneer in the state’s library association and later the state library
commission.
13 This dormitory was replaced by Spencer Hall, which has been hailed through the decades as the finest looking
building on campus.
14 Lathrop.
15 William Jennings Bryan had been the commencement speaker for the State and Normal College in 1894, and had
returned for a campaign trip.
Continued Growth, World War I, “Farmerettes”, “Carpenterettes” and Suffragettes. 1906 1918
Following McIver’s death, Dr. Julius I. Foust served as the president until 1934. He is remembered for
increasing the appropriations to the school, and the physical campus grew tremendously under his leadership.
The student body also grew, from 784 women in 1920 to 1,880 by 1930. Many new buildings, 16 including
the McIver Memorial Building, were constructed.
When the United States entered World War I in 1917, the State Normal campus contributed to the war
effort. In the hot summer of 1918 the “Farmerettes,” a group of students who chose to work the campus
farm during their summer break, harvested 3,000 gallons of beans, 2,000 bushels of corn and enough
tomatoes to can 4,000 gallons for the war efforts1718. Students were trained in Red Cross work and
canning, and many took classes in nutrition and studied world affairs19. There were campus wide rationing
and the State Normal students supported Greensboro loan drives. Leftright
militaristic drills were practiced
on the Curry athletic field. In 1918 the overallsclad
“Carpenterettes,” another voluntary student group
working over summer break, constructed the fondlyremembered
YWCA Hut, which would serve the
student body for the next thirty years.
During the war an entirely different battle fought by the girls at on campus was the right of women to vote.
Many national leaders on the subject of women’s suffrage came to the campus as early as 1913. One of the
women would came stayed for over thirty years. Harriet Elliott, a recent graduate of Columbia University,
was appointed to teach political science. At Columbia she had associated with many people in the
movement for the women’s vote. One of Elliott’s protégées at her new position in Greensboro was Gladys
Avery Tillett, who, as student, started the first women's suffrage group in the American South20. A year
16 Lathrop, p. 64
17 Lathrop p. 55
18 Bowles p. 130
19 Ibid., p. 58
20 Tillett interview 1974. Gladys Avery Tillett ‘15 organized the Guilford county chapter of the League of Women
Voters. She served as president and later as president of a state organization. She later became the U.S.
Representative to United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women.
after the war ended in 1919, the school, now renamed the North Carolina College for Women, faced the
progressive 1920s.
The Roaring Twenties, The Great Depression, Walter Clinton Jackson and World War II.
19191945
Following the Great War, opportunities for young women on the campus continued to grow and many of the
nowstanding
buildings were erected. In 1921 the N.C.C.W. became accredited by the Southern
Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools . The Schools of Music and the School 21 of Education were
founded that same year22. Miss May Minerva Meador earned the school’s first master’s degree. The
Bailey, Coit, Cotten, Mary Foust, and Jamison Residence Halls were constructed. The Aycock Auditorium
opened in 1928 and the landmark Library Science program, the first in North Carolina, began that same year
. 23
Development of the college slowed somewhat during the Great Depression, although while enrollment
increased. And in 1932, for a single year, men were admitted to college for the first time as day students to
help with costs for the University24. That same year the college became the Woman’s College of the
University of North Carolina or “WC.” Dr. Walter Clinton Jackson became president of the college in
1934, and enrollment continued to increase to over 3,000 students by the end of the decade.
World War II 1940 – 1945: Harriet Elliott, “Greensboro’s First Lady”
“For the first time in history women are today equally responsible with men, not only in a crisis, but
in all the affairs of the nation” – Dean Harriet Elliot, shortly after her .. mentioned appointment by
President Franklin Roosevelt.
21 Timeline of UNCG History
22 Ibid.,
23 Ibid.,
24 Ibid.,
A year before the December 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Harriet Elliott, the dean of women at
the Woman’s College, was summoned to Washington, D.C. There, on Tuesday, May 28th, she was
appointed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt to be the only female member of the Advisory 25 Commission to the
National Defense Council. As head of the council’s consumer division, Elliott led the creation of a prewar
defense program on campus in the fall of that year26.
At the time this appointment was considered the highest honor ever bestowed upon a woman from
Greensboro, and the local papers christened her “Greensboro’s First Lady”27. By the time her appointment
ended in January of 1942, the United States was at war again and academic and nonacademic
training
groups on the Woman’s College campus went to work for the war effort. Elliott continued to serve her
country and in 1942 became an advisor in the formation of the WAVES, “the women’s naval auxiliary”.
The Woman’s College Campus in an Army Town.
Nationwide many science, industrial and agricultural departments at college campuses joined the war effort,
and the biology department at the W.C. was no exception, becoming a testing group for the Home Line of
Defense. Young women were trained to work in munitions plants, as laboratory technicians and other
defense industries. The home economics department instructed students in home nursing and child care
courses under the home line of defense28.
When B.T.C. #10 (Basic Training Center) was constructed off of Summit Avenue in 1942, Greensboro
suddenly had thousands of additional allmale
guests. The visitor’s guides for the soldiers promoted
Greensboro’s college campuses. For an allfemale
institute just a few miles from the B.T.C., there was an
initial alarm about these young men visiting the campus. Fears eventually subsided and the War Service
25 Harriet Elliott was also a delegate-at-large for the Roosevelt Administration since 1932 and had attended several
Democratic National Conventions prior to her appointment. Miss Elliott also served during this time as the national
chairman of the legislation of the American Association of University Women. The title was “chairman” at the time.
26 Lathrop p. 107
27 Craig, Neil. “Miss Elliott’s Appointment As Advisor Her Major Honor”. The Greensboro Record. May 29th, 1940
28 Lathrop, p. 108
League was established on campus giving students opportunities to serve visiting troops; tightly chaperoned
by male faculty members. There were dances and other recreational oncampus
events. Some of the
students in the league visited the O.R.D. base hospitals to encourage and support ill and wounded
servicemen. Money was raised for war bonds, and overseas support and causes in Britain and Japan29.
Items of clothing were knitted, bandages were rolled and the girls undertook extra duties because of the war
labor shortage. By November of 1943 more than 300 girls in the League had contributed over 5,700 hours
of service to the war effort30.
Textiles, Teachers, and….. More Textiles.
The Woman’s College was also a leader in postwar
preparedness for the textile industry. Prior to the war
the Woman’s College included more liberal arts programs. Those disciplines began to have a stronger role
outside the campus to support the war effort. The newly formed Weatherspoon Art Gallery sponsored the
first international textile exhibition to encourage textile design in 194431. Over 225 textile designers from
around the world were enrolled that first year32. The exhibition was needed according to the sponsors
because of the perceived unprecedented changes and demand the textile industry would have following the
war33. International textile exhibitions were also held at the W.C. in 1945, 1946 and 1948.
A Continuing Legacy
There was much more ahead for the Woman’s College, which by 1949 had become the largest college for
women in the United States. It had moved far beyond its original intention of training young women in
teaching and business courses. In the coming decades, the vision of Dr. McIver and early supporters of
women's education in North Carolina continued to expand and evolve with the school's growth. With new
29 Trelease pp.196-197.
30 “Janice Hooke Heads…” The Greensboro Record. November 16, 1943.
31 Timeline of UNCG History.
32 “Over 200 Entries Made For Textile Exhibition Here”. Greensboro Daily News, Vol. LXV., No. 34., February 20, 1944., pg.
30
33 “Exhibition of Textile Designing is Announced”. The Greensboro Record. Vol. LII., No. 273., November 15th, 1943. Page
4.
academic programs, development of facilities, and university status (granted in 1963), The University of
North Carolina at Greensboro today continues to build upon its strong foundations.
________________________________________________________________________________
Works Cited
Bowles, E. A. (1967). A good beginning: The first four decades of the university of north carolina at
greensboro. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.
Craig, Nell. “Miss Elliott's appointment as advisor her major honor.” The Greensboro Record. May 29,
1940. Vol. L, No.128, p.1
"Exhibition of textile design is announced.” The Greensboro Record. November 15, 1943. Vol. LII, No.
273, p.4.
“Janice Hooke heads war service league at Woman's College.” The Greensboro Record. November 16,
1943. Vol. LII, No. 274, p.14
Lathrop, V. T. (1942). Educate a woman: Fifty years of life at the woman's college of the university of
north carolina. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.
Lathrop, V. L. (1940, June 06). “Miss Elliott's appointment brings equal responsibility to women.” The
Greensboro Daily News. June 6, 1940. Vol. LVII No. 137, p.6a
State Normal and Industrial School. (1892). Annual catalogue. Greensboro, NC: Retrieved from
https://archive.org/details/annualcatalogue18921893
State Normal and Industrial School. (1893). Annual catalogue. Greensboro, NC: Retrieved from
https://archive.org/details/annualcatalogue18931894
Timeline of UNCG history. Greensboro, NC. The University of North Carolina at Greensboro: Retrieved
from https://library.uncg.edu/info/depts/scua/exhibits/timeline/pages/acknow.htm
Tillett, G. A. (1974, March 20). Interview by J. Hall []. Oral history interview with gladys avery tillett, march
20, 1974. interview g0061.
Southern Oral History Program Collection
Trelease, A. W. (2004). Making north carolina literate. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.
Textiles, Teachers, and Troops - Greensboro 1880-1945
