Davie and the University's Founding
The creation of the University of North Carolina, with information on the life of its principal founder, William Richardson Davie.

Architectural Highlights of Carolina's Historic Campus
Descriptions of buildings on historic McCorkle and Polk Places dating from Old East (1793), the first building erected on a public university campus, to the designs of Alexander Jackson Davis and the Beaux-Arts Wilson Library of 1929.

Carolina's Early Benefactors
Role of early benefactors in strengthening the university from its founding during the 1790s to the critical donation by Mary Lily Kenan Flagler Bingham in 1917 that established the Kenan Professorships.

Antebellum College Life
Student and faculty life before the Civil War, including the classical curriculum and faculty struggles to maintain student discipline.

Slavery and the University
The roles of African American slaves in early university life, from constructing the physical campus to serving students and faculty.

Women in the Early Years
Women's efforts to support and advance the university's mission, work that began long before the first female students were admitted.

The Civil War Years
Campus debates about slavery and secession and the military experience of students and faculty who fought in the Civil War.

Reconstruction
The university's struggles to survive in the aftermath of the Civil War and its role in the racial and political conflicts that swept the state and the region during that era.

The New South
Late nineteenth-century efforts to move the university beyond sectional disputes with a new mission and a new curriculum, designed to drive industrial development, urban growth, and educational progress.

African Americans and Segregation
The emergence of separate educational institutions for blacks and whites and faculty efforts to begin the serious and objective study of southern race relations.

Women and Coeducation
Women's progress from a marginal to a central role in campus life and the achievements of the university's first female students, faculty, and administrators.

Building a Research University
Carolina's early twentieth-century transformation from a small local college to a true university with highly trained professors, improved libraries and laboratories, and a university press.

Carolina’s Literary History
Influence of drama professor Frederick Koch, novelist Thomas Wolfe, and English professor Louis Rubin on campus writers and the emergence of George Moses Horton, Walker Percy, Doris Betts, and Charles Frazier.

Frank Porter Graham
The career of one of the university's most memorable presidents, who sustained the university during the Great Depression and World War II, elevated its reputation through distinguished national service, and demonstrated a lifelong commitment to progressive social change.

The University in Crisis: The Great Depression and World War II
Effects of the Great Depression and World War II on the university including severe budget cuts, consolidation of the state’s public universities, military training on campus, and the G.I. Bill.

Jewish Life at Carolina
Experience of Jews on campus including refugee scholars, student political activists, anti-Semitism, and the role of President Frank Porter Graham.

American Indians and Chapel Hill
The university's collection of American Indian artifacts and documents, its interest in Indian folk culture, and the emergence of American Indian studies on campus.

African Americans and Integration
The Civil Rights Movement both on and off campus and the university's first black students and faculty.

The Legacy of William C. Friday
The work of the respected university leader known for his national leadership in higher education and his ability to resolve conflict during turbulent times.

Medical and Health Education
The expansion of professional health training from small, semi-private programs to a sophisticated health affairs complex at the heart of the educational mission of the university and the health care system of the state.

Public Service and Professional Schools at Carolina
Creation of professional schools beginning with law, medicine, and pharmacy in the nineteenth century and the emergence of the modern public service ethos shaped by President Edward Kidder Graham.

Names across the Landscape
The stories of the individuals for whom some of the university's historic buildings are named.