Jan Blodgett – Page 2

Altered Plans

September 27, 2016 By Jan Blodgett Leave a Comment

Each new academic year brings new faces to campus. This fall brought a new classroom building, the E. Craig Wall Academic Center. Faculty, staff and students are getting used to new classrooms, labs and offices. What once was plans on paper and computer screens is now a 3-dimensional space reshaping the look of the campus.

Not all building proposals have come into being as originally designed. Beginning with the original Chambers building, initial ideas shifted -altered by budgets and continued conversations about the best use of spaces.

Original plans for the Chambers building

In the case of Chambers, the building constructed was about 1/8 of the planned structure. The vision included a grand quad with spaces for Laundry Court and a Steward’s Court linked by a garden.

Schemata for quad

Chambers as built.

With the completion of the Wall Academic Center, work has begun on Martin Chemical building. Like Chambers, the current Martin is the second iteration of the building. Plans for the first Martin Chemical Laboratory were published in the class of 1899’s yearbook Narrative of the Nines (note: This only yearbook not to use the title Quips and Cranks. It only contains information about the senior class. )

Original design for the college’s first science building.

The building constructed in 1901 looked a little different.

The entrance design remained but the roof line changed.

The plans for Johnston Gymnasium underwent similar smaller changes. The college produced a 16-page fund-raising booklet for the “New Gymnasium” focusing on the inadequacies of the existing gym facilities and the failure of 19 recent graduates to pass the the Marine Corps physical test. The building design was featured on a page that quoted an 28 March 1942 Atlanta Journal editorial under a headline “Davidson Will Be Next:”

Vanderbilt is following the lead of Harvard, Yale and other great Eastern universities in prescribing a mandatory course of physical training for the student body. Beginning Monday every matriculate, unless crippled or the victim of an organic weakness, must participate in calisthenics or competitive action. The program is similar to that which Harvard has worked out and will start on April 6.

This sketch was described as a tentative suggestion

Revised plans c1948

Johnston Gym as built.

Very different designs were on the table as the college looked to build a new library in the 1970s. The general footprint remained the same as architects played with arches and columns.

Illustration of what someone wanted the new library to look like

Sketch of the proposed new library

Library as built in 1974.

In the 1990s, the fund-raising prospectus for a new visual arts building imagined as a more of a complex.

Drawn view of proposed visual arts building from Main Street.

View of proposed visual arts building from Griffith Street.

The final version incorporated elements into one space.

View of the Visual Arts building from Main Street looking toward Griffith Street.

View from Main Street looking toward Griffith Street.

Some plans, such as a garden near the Carolina Inn have never made it from sketches to revisions to construction so we can only imagine how they might look.

This garden would have been directly behind the building.

Filed Under: College buildings

Panoramic Views

September 6, 2016 By Jan Blodgett Leave a Comment

This week’s mail brought a new gift to the Archives — panoramic photographs from 1943 of a class of airmen taking training at Davidson College. They were class 7 of the Army Special Training Program (ASTRP). We can only identify one of the men in the photograph but we have the names of all the men who participated in the training courses.

panoramic photograph from 1943 of a class of airmen taking training at Davidson College. William Randolph is on the front row, fifth from the right.

William Randolph is on the front row, fifth from the right.

The photos are in good condition but showing one of the hazards of oversize photographs – some fold lines. We are grateful to have these photos as we do not have much documentation for the Army trainees who spent came to campus for 12 week sessions. Some of their courses were taught by Davidson faculty, others by military personnel.

The earliest panoramic photograph in our collection dates from 1917.

Davidson student body in 1917.

We haven’t done a headcount to see if all 394 students made it to the photo shoot that day. The buildings behind the students include Old Chambers and the YCMA/Morrison Hall. Both buildings are gone from campus. The camera technology of the era distorts the geography but still gives a good sense of the look of the college.

Most of our panoramic photos come from the 1917-1929 period and many of them are of student-soldiers.

G Company of the Davidson’s ROTC students, pose for a picture in uniform in front of their tents at Camp McClellan in Alabama in 1923.

We have more images of SATC and ROTC activities through yearbooks and student scrapbooks taken both on campus and at summer camps.

Our one athletic panoramic was made off-campus – at a college with a larger stadium. The original image isn’t clear enough to read all the information on the scoreboard beyond the advertisement for the Howard Theater. The team played games at Georgia Tech, Richmond, Va, Greenville, SC and at Wearn field in Charlotte – any guesses which place this is?

Varsity football team in 1921.

The oldest of the panoramics in our collection is from 1955.

Davidson students and faculty on 8 March 1955.

If everyone is present, there are 845 students and 63 faculty arranged in front of the Chambers Building. College staff are not included in the photograph. One year later, and one woman could have been included as a faculty member — Carolyn MacBrayer. It’s hard to imagine such a formal portrait today of students and faculty -the number of ties worn regularly to campus has dropped considerably in the last decades. Even with ties and suits, today’s wide-angle lens would capture find a much less homogeneous group.

Filed Under: Faculty, Student Life

Orientations Past

August 23, 2016 By Jan Blodgett Leave a Comment

The Class of 2020 is on campus. Another academic year is launched so what better time to look back at the beginnings of the classes of 1870, 1920, 1970, and 1995.

Class of 1870

In the fall of 1866, only 3 students enrolled as freshman raising the total enrollment to 27. Unlike many classes, the class of 1870 grew over the next for years, ending with 13 seniors at graduation. For those 3 and the 10 that joined them, there was no formal orientation. Students were expected to find their way to the college and to a faculty member who could help them find their dormitory room and classrooms.

Class of 1920

By the fall of 1916, the 129 entering new students were not left so adrift. The YMCA had begun regularly publishing a handbook full of useful information in 1904.

Title page for 1916-17 student handbook, not yet known as the Wildcat Handbook.

Today’s class might find the phrasing of the 1916 advice a little odd:

– To the man who is just entering upon his college course the transition from High or Preparatory School to College is filled with possibilities for either good or evil. The effect which a four year’s residence in a college is going to have upon a man is largely determined by the ideas which he absorbs, the standards which he sets, and the companions whom he selects within a short time after the opening of the session.

Description of honor code in handbook.

The handbook also provided a “Definition of Provoking Hazing”:

Provoking hazing is any willful act by any Freshman toward any upperclassman contrary to the existing traditions for the conduct of Freshmen on the campus, such as: jibing, making slighting, objectionable remarks, treating with undue disrespect upperclassmen, giving class yells, making Freshman numerals conspicuous, etc.

The reference to making “Freshmen numerals conspicuous” shows that memories of the Freshman Riot of 1903 had yet to fade. Perhaps because the class of 1920 was another large class – 129 new students to 48 seniors (394 students total).

Class of 1920 in 1917

The college administration took more of an interest in orientation that fall, launching a new initiative of mandatory “Freshman Lectures.” The first speaker was college president William Martin who also had proper conduct and hazing on his mind. His talk was described (by an upperclassman Davidsonian reporter) as “a strong appeal to the Freshmen to realize that they are expected to conduct themselves in a manly way and abide by the traditions of the campus in regard to their attitude toward the older students.”

Faculty in 1916. President Martin is seated, second from the right.

The 1916-17 class schedule from the Davidsonian

The 1916-17 class schedule could fit on one page in the Davidsonian.

Class of 1970

Although the class of 1920 was a large class, the overall enrollment numbers by class were closer in the fall of 1966: 279 freshman out of 1008 students total.

The Wildcat Handbook was no longer published by the YMCA but continued to provide useful information with a few editorial comments and warnings added in:

Dear Freshman, You will enter a “New Davidson” this fall. It had its “face lifted” this past year through the combined efforts of students and faculty., in some cases. With some of the new liberties that you will enjoy must come some new responsibility. The “drinking rule” was eliminated from the Student Body Regulations, but the faculty still have a rule against it. Unless you are willing to suffer the consequences, it is not advisable to drink on campus. If you are caught you have only yourself to blame.

The “gambling rule” was also repealed. This has led to a great deal of “reactionary” gambling. It has also led to some richer and poorer Davidson students. This is still against the ruling of the faculty. Do not get into these games so early in your college career. They can cause you more worry than they could possibly be worth and will take away from your study time tremendously.

Text about the Honor System and the Honor Court Trial Procedure in 1966

Honor System in 1966

Gone were the mandatory lectures, instead the college offered a 2 day orientation camp and the YMCA started a series of freshman “talks” in the residence halls.

16 September 1966 Davidsonian article praising the new class and raising questions about orientation length.

Davidson faculty in 1966

Class of 1995

Between the fall of 1966 and 1991, total enrollment grew by 500 students. The class of 1995 made up 395 of the 1,500 students on campus with 218 men and 177 women.

Davidsonian article describing orientation 90s style.

The editors of the Wildcat Handbook took a lighter tone then their predecessors and promoted a balance of work and play.

Self-discipline is one phrase that you’ve probably heard many more times than you wish. At Davidson, it’s imperative that you possess this virtue. Using your time wisely is a skill you quickly need to acquire because a typical day here is nothing like your 8:30 to 3:30 high school schedule. . . . Of course, Davidson is not all study and no play. Recreation and just goofing off are essential to our physical and mental health. It is humanly impossible to study all day and night, and with so much going on at school, who would really want to, anyway? Naturally, you wouldn’t want to spend your study breaks down at Patterson Court every night, for these seem to last well past your intended time, and in many cases you never make it back to the library. But some time “on the court” or the Union does have a tendency to relieve tension.

The keys to surviving your freshman year are self-discipline and time-management. But aside from that, enjoy! Study, work hard and spend your time wisely, but remember, to do all this, you’ve got to mix in some fun, too.

By time class of 1995 graduated, the college had expanded orientation to include special events for parents and even more events for students.

Filed Under: Campus traditions, Student Life

Dogs of Davidson

August 2, 2016 By Jan Blodgett Leave a Comment

In some parts of the world, the dog star Sirius shows up in the night sky about this time leading to the phrase Dog Days of Summer. This seems an appropriate time to highlight campus pups.

Although the college mascot is a wildcat, dogs have had a fair representation on campus over the years. The earliest image comes from the class of 1889.

From the John Hunter Grey photograph collection. A photo of 28 men with suits, some having hats and canes, with a dog in the front

From the John Hunter Grey photograph collection. The image came with identification for all the students, but not the dog.

The 1916 Quips and Cranks included a little canine humor in its pages.

1916 Quips and Cranks – joke from yearbook’s Campus Calendar section. Note: the professor is a made-up name.

During the WWI years, when students found themselves in uniform, they were adopted by at least one dog.

Student Army Training Corps members laying down next to a tree

Before ROTC, there was the Student Army Training Corps program. Perhaps these students & pup are resting after drills?

Spaniels appear to have been a popular choice into the 1940s – this pup joined students at a music summer camp.

A boy playing a clarinet on the steps of chambers next to a spaniel

Musical pup circa 1943

During the 1950s, Mike Meyers ’53, of Bill Edward‘s fame, chronicled the life and times of several Davidson dogs.

26 November 1951 Davidsonian story

In February 1952, students created a snow sculpture honoring a dog.

Mike Meyers doggie exclusive in newspaper with an image of a spoted black and white dog with the heading, "George Bares All In Exclusive Story"

Another Mike Meyers doggie exclusive from March 1952

Full article on George.

Outdoing the 1916 Quips and Cranks, the 1974 yearbook featured a full piece on Davidson’s Dog Life.

1974 editorial titled, "Davidson's Dog Life" about the defense of campus dogs.

1974 defense of campus dogs.

A phot of a dog looking up like he/she is about to get a treat, 1974

One of the dogs of 1974

1976 yearbook photo

Students at Davidson from 1980 to 1983 documented dogs waiting by the Post Office, lounging around, and providing comfort to students.

A man with just shorts no spraying a jumping black dog with water from a sprinkler

Cooling off in 1980

1981 yearbook photo of two dogs playing, one biting the other's ear

1981 yearbook photo of playful pups

1981 yearbook page with a poem titled, "'Dog Days' Is No DC Cliche"

1981 yearbook doggie ode

A dog in front of the Davidson Admissions office building

On duty at PO crosswalk

An image from a newspaper of a woman sitting next to a tree with a white dog and a black dog with the caption, "While Studying Outside, Kathy Kooken makes two new friends of the campus dogs"

Puppy love (1981)

1982 yearbookpage for dogs titled, "Dogs move to greener pastures" with an image of a man holding a dog sitting in a chair and another image of two woman, one dancing with the dog holding its two paws in the air while the other woman watches, it is snowing

1982 yearbook dog page

A man with a sweater and a flannel on underneath sitting next to a white dog with a brown spot on the left side of his/her head

Pete in 1982

An image of a dog laying down in the grass with leaves all around and a caption that says, "Dog Days Persist at Davidson year-round. The Union paid tribute to its canine friends by naming the unofficial Homecoming theme in their honor."

Dog days in 1983

We don’t have a date for this commencement and we don’t think the dog got a diploma.

Students in the gowns(only one picutred has their cap on) sitting in chairs on the lawn waiting to graduate

Just waiting to retrieve tossed hats.

Students haven’t been the only dog-loving wildcats on campus. Grier Martin, Davidson president, 1958-1968, and his wife Louise entertained students with their talented pet.

Presidential pup Jezebel jumping through a hoop held by a woman while a man watches

Presidential pup Jezebel going through her paces.

Visiting Philosophy professor Gordon Michalson pampered his pet.

Are we there yet?

And College Communications writer extraordinaire John Syme’s canine friends are campus legends.

John Syme and Oscar(a dog) laying on th grass in front of campus in 2002

John Syme and Oscar enjoy front campus in 2002

Filed Under: Campus traditions

Teachers & Lake Norman

July 13, 2016 By Jan Blodgett Leave a Comment

What do you get when you bring 5 public school teachers to the archives?

An amazing amount of energy and a wonderful set of lesson plans designed around Lake Norman topics. Working with Dr. Hilton Kelly, professor of Sociology and chair of Educational Studies, the archives staff reached out to teachers to help us add a collection of learning activities to the Under the Lake site.

Celia Arch presenting her lesson plans

Along with gathering photos and stories about the lake, the we wanted the website to be a source for research and teaching. How better to bring the lake into the classroom than by having practicing teachers design and create online lessons? Supported by the Duke Energy Foundation, we recruited local teachers. The 5 finalists were an amazing group and covered the full range of education – kindergarten to high school, mathematics to ESL to social studies and earth sciences. Together they created 11 different lesson plans, some with multiple activities.

Erik Dykes convincing fellow teachers and Little Library staff that maps and math can work tofgether.

The teachers are Celia Arch, Eric Dykes, JoCelyn Roundtree, Carolyn Singleton, Erika Williams. In one intense week, they learned about Lake Norman, explored the website, learned WordPress and built their lessons. On Friday afternoon they presented their work to their peers and members of the library staff. The instruction librarians came away with a great respect for the teachers grasp of pedagogy and some new ideas to try out on our students.

As part of the project, the archives team added a collection of digitized area maps to the website. Included are Lake Norman maps, county maps, town of Davidson maps and college campus maps.

1963 map of newly created lake.

While the activities are geared toward classroom learning, anyone can test them out. Try brushing up on your math skills or write your own essay, draw a cartoon, share a rainy summer afternoon with a child learning together or explore the history the maps show us.

The lesson plan creation team: Eric Dykes, Celia Arch, JoCelyn Roundtree, Erika Williams, and Carolyn Singleton

Filed Under: Behind the Scenes, Lake Norman

Fresh Burgess Arrived at D. C.

June 7, 2016 By Jan Blodgett Leave a Comment

“Fresh” Burgess is Alfred F. Burgess, class of 1928. He arrived at Davidson on September 8, 1924 having already begun writing in his college scrapbook. His scrapbook just came back to Davidson – a wonderful new addition to our collections. Burgess included fewer photographs than some of his classmates but kept his diary longer than most.

Senior entry in Quips and Cranks.

Alongside his senior photograph, the editors of the yearbook described him as “a brilliant student, a discriminate patron of the fine arts, a staunch friend, and above all, a typical Southern Gentleman.” It went on to say:

If you want to get a unique conception of a subject, get Al into a conversation. He will intelligently discuss any phase of art with you. Ask him for his opinion of Maugham’s play ‘The Constant Wife;’ Jertiza’s voice; Poiret’s sketches; Menjou’s acting. He will give you an enlightening criticism, and he will make you think! He is a friend of everyone–his, the most enviable of dispositions. Always, a cheery smile on his face, a cordial handclasp, a sincere pat on the back.

As a testament to his gift of friendship, within a few months he was collecting signatures and jokes. The scrapbooks of the day came with pages ready for friends to provide names, birthdays, nicknames, ambitions, and happy thoughts. The space provided for photos was very small — his friends substituted sketches that look not unlike the online avatars used by 21st century students.

One of the signature pages from the scrapbook.

The signatures are from classmates, girl friends and even the supervisor of dormitories (Mrs. N. T. Smith- 3rd row). Ambitions included “not to become a preacher, to live and eat, to grow a mustache, to learn to dance, to teach Latin any d___ place, and to be ‘Prince of Wails.” Note: Arthur Dean Cromartie ’24 did teach high school from 1924 to 1931 earning his ambition, we don’t know if William Cox ’26 ever got his wailing crowned –or if Melba Johnston accomplished her desire “to come back to Davidson!!”

Many people standing in lines on the football field wearing black pants and white shirts

Half-time show?

We also don’t know quite what is going on in this photo. It appears alongside images of a football game and only has the word “Lenoir” written on the back. The Lenoir High School Band did sometimes play at Davidson games but there are no instruments, just a line of men and boys marching.

A business card from classmate Alvin Sullivan ’36 adds to our documentation of student entrepreneurs. Sullivan used his dorm room (301 West Hall) to sell shoes for the Walk-Over Shoe Company.

Business advertisement for A.N. Sullivan

Burgess’ diary runs from September 1924 to August 1925. The June 1925 entries start with a mention of receiving birthday candy from home and a trip into Charlotte for a baseball game (with a final score of Charlotte 22, Columbia 0) and a Keith’s Vaudeville production.

June 1925 diary portion from scrapbook

Other entries include:

“Fire” in Hall – Ece and Smittie came up at 11 o’clock. Looked over Davidson. To Hickory this P.M. Date with “Sally Brice” slept in car. To Links for dinner. Date with “Lib” Williams. Dance at “Lib.” Note: Fire = girls

Start home at midnight. Slept at Gaffney – Home once more tired and sleepy. Catch shut eye all afternoon.

To Greenville and got a suit. People took me up to Paris Mt. on house party. Met bunch of sweet ole girls. Late date with M. Barr–All up in the air with “Spitfire” Miller.”

Along with meeting girls, Burgess spent June hiking, enjoying big bull sessions, telling jokes, working (he earned $2.25) one Saturday, playing tennis, attending church and Sunday School, going to movies, and playing golf. The last entry in August has him building a stool for his dorm room at Davidson. Small events but what a wonderful look into the daily life of a young man in Greer, SC.

His alumni file shows that he did live up to his classmates’ high opinion and keeping up his interest in the arts. He earned a law degree at the University of Virginia and began practicing in 1931. He served as a special Circuit Judge four times and was a Special Hearing Officer for the Department of Justice in 1956. He was active in his community serving on the boards of the Greenville Community Youth Commission, Greenville Children’s Center, Community Concert Association, St. Francis Community Hospital, Shriner’s Hospital, Community Relations Bi-Racial Commission, Little Theatre and the Metropolitan Arts Council among others. Two of his grandchildren have attended Davidson and now he has added another legacy, sharing the small moments that make up a part of the Davidson experience.

Filed Under: Alumni, Student Life

Leisure

May 24, 2016 By Jan Blodgett Leave a Comment

With the campus moving into summer mode, the idea –if not the reality–of leisure beckons. The reality is that much of campus stays busy behind the scenes and that leisure has been an important topic for the archives all spring.

Once again, Professor Shireen Campbell found a creative way to introduce first-year writing students to the joys and perplexities of archival research. Her WRI 101 class became contributors to the Davidson Encyclopedia through the topic of Leisure and Play. The class explored the theme in many ways looking at “who has been given or had the right to leisure and play as well as how these concepts are defined or constrained by age, class, race, and/or gender.” The course description continues:

Readings will range from Plato and Aristotle to Thorstein Veblen and scenes from Parks and Recreation. Major projects will consider commercial representations of leisure, visions for and structures of local parks, analysis of student leisure at the college in the early 20^th century, and non-profit attempts to “organize” leisure.

For the analysis of student leisure at Davidson, we picked a small range of topics and let the students delve into exploring and defining specific activities. They focused on the years between the 1860s and 1940s. Starting with sports, social events, religious life and clubs as the general topics, the final encyclopedia entries ended up being Arts and Communication Clubs, Dating at Davidson, Intramural Baseball, and the YMCA.

Within these entries, the class discovered the first student singers and the role that ROTC (decidedly not a leisure activity) played in developing more extracurricular activities such as concert and pep bands.

Early ROTC band – precursor to concert and football band

In an “only at Davidson” twist, one member of this group came across a continuous novel titled Caldwell Pharr Johnston, only then to discover that the title used the name of a real Davidson student, class of 1925 who was a grandfather of another member of the group.

Caldwell Pharr Johnston, class of 1925 and grandfather to a member of the class of 1919

The student working on early visual arts needed to get creative since artists were slow to organize -but quick to contribute sketches to yearbooks and newspapers. On the other hand, the religion group found so much material in the archives YMCA records that they focused on all the roles that group played on campus from orientation to scout troops to religious life and even finding ways to get young women on campus.

The first student handbook, "The Students' Handbook of Davidson College Davidson, N.C.", "Volume X 1916-1917"

The Y’s involvment with students started with orientation and the first student handbooks.

The sports group discovered that intramurals go way back– even before flickerball– and that they helped inspire a riot. To find out more check out the latest entries and share in our thanks to a great professor and our newly minted researchers.

Filed Under: Campus traditions, Student Life, Student organizations

National Bike Month

May 3, 2016 By Jan Blodgett Leave a Comment

1984 Wildcat Mascot with a #49 football jersey riding a bicycle

1984 Wildcat shows off pedaling skills.

Taking advantage of May being (among other things) National Bike Month, Around the D will take a spin through the history of bicycles on campus. The first mention of bikes comes in 1892 but points to two-wheelers appearing on campus earlier. The Locals column in the February Davidson Monthly reported” “Bicycles are becoming rather abundant at Davidson after an absence of several years. Even our business men are beginning to use them for riding from their places of business to their homes.” In the 1890s, the state of roads in Davidson was bumpy to say the least – the first paved roads didn’t happen until 1899.

Indeed, biking conditions prevented students and business men from taking up a challenge from a neighboring town. As reported in the October 1894 issue:

The “Bike” craze struck the town with full force this summer, and although the place isn’t flooded with wheels, there are a good many enthusiasts. We understand that Mooresville has given Davidson a challenge for a race, but as there is no good track here, the challenge will probably go unaccepted. There is some talk of the construction of a track. If this is obtained, Mooresville will most probably regret her challenge.

Club page from 1895 Quips and Cranks

Student and faculty bikers in 1895 were happy to poke a little fun at themselves – and their biking prowess —

1895 Advertisement

while an advertisement in the same Quips and Cranks provides a reminder of changing technologies with the W. E. Shaw Harness Company expanding from reins, bridles and straps to pedals, tires, and handlebars.

1897 Quips and Cranks

Two years later, the yearbook cartoon reflected one of the social values of biking — the opportunity for Davidson students to spend time with young ladies. And young ladies were biking:

The latest addition to Davidson “bicycle union” is Miss Julia Holt. She has presented herself with a Crescent, ‘97 model, and is learning to ride very fast, as she can be seen through the parlor window, in the afternoon, spinning back and forth at a lively rate. She begins by giving her wheel a special course of “indoor training.” [Davidson Monthly, January 1897]

Bicycle Club in 1900

In 1900, the club’s good humor came in the form of restyling themselves as a Corps with military sounding titles for officers and members being dubbed “Privates.” The faculty usually listed as honorary members, were given a page to themselves.

Biking faculty in 1900

Dr. Henry Louis Smith, physics professor and college president, appears on the lists and later received special attention for bringing one of the first motorcycles to town (in 1911, post at least some road-paving).

Mentions of bikes disappear from the college records after 1900 – perhaps they had become too commonplace to notice. A mention is made in 1941, when the town government, prompted by the Civic Club, decided to turn a street into a playground:

Every Thursday afternoon between 2:30 and 5:00pm a section of Woodland Street between Concord Street and the home of Dr. W. P. Cumming will be blocked off as a playground. Just recently has the pavement been extended on Woodland Street. This section is an ideal playground for the youngster. Here they may skate and ride their bicycles, wagons, and with the snows of winter their sleds, rocking chairs, and dishpans will glide down the gentle slope at the end of the street in safety. It was decided that that on Thursday there would be less use of the street. This step to provide our children with a healthier, happier and safer playground was done by the official action of the town board. [Davidsonian, 13 November 1941, p6]

The Civic Club expanded their interest in biking to road safety in 1951. A special 2-day drive was held in town with visits by state and county highway department staff and demonstrations of traffic dangers. The Civic Club’s booth passed out safe driving pledge cards for drivers and biker riders.

A man riding a bike away from the front of Belk dormitory in 1982

Biking from Belk in 1982

Although Davidson’s campus is fairly compact, students have come to rely on bikes for quick trips from dormitories to classes.

Mime biker

Or to Halloween parties – as Peter Tavemise did in 1986.

Anthony Foxx, class of 1993

Or as a future Secretary of Transportation did.

Paula Davis painting the frame of a bike yellow with spray paint

Paula Davis turning bikes yellow.

A century after bikes came to campus, Davidson Outdoors started supporting biking, offering outings, and bike repair workshops. They also started the Yellow Bike program. Bright yellow bikes were placed around campus for students to use as needed. One student could ride a bike to Chambers, then another could take it to the Union. The bikes met with hard times and some ungentle riders. They were retired and briefly replaced by Red Bikes.

Davidsonian article announcing red bikes program 25 January 2001

In 2016, there are no community bikes but plenty of bikes filling up bike racks in front of dormitories and classrooms and even the library.

Someone riding a bicycle on a brick path next to a tree in front of the E.H. Little Library

Bicycle and bricks and books – perfectly Davidson

Filed Under: Student Life, Town history

Once Upon a Timeline

April 12, 2016 By Jan Blodgett Leave a Comment

Readers of Around the D get to be our test audience for a new timeline on the Archives and Special Collections site. Thanks to the diligent and creative work of student volunteer and student athlete, Caroline Turner ’17, we are launching a history of athletics at Davidson through a timeline with photographs and brief descriptions.

Caroline Turner using her J S Timeline skills

Caroline Turner ’17 using her TimelineJS skills.

The timeline includes the obvious — first football game, flickerball and 2008 March Madness– and some fun bits, like our year with 7 sets of twins playing on varsity teams. We invite you to explore the timeline and remember we have more on sports in the Davidson Encyclopedia –feel free to explore there as well. Let us know –what more needs to be included (comments to Archives@davidson.edu are fine).

To whet your enthusiasm, try this quiz:

Is this the live cat from the 1920s or 1960s?

Davidson College Athletic Association Article I

What year was the Athletic Association founded?

Group photo of 16 people with baseball equipment, unknown year but most likely before 1902

What year did these guys take to the college diamond?

A jump ball between Davidson and Duke at a basketball game

What’s special about this team?

Filed Under: Athletics, Behind the Scenes

Searching for Jane

March 29, 2016 By Jan Blodgett Leave a Comment

No cookies this week but a little more on researching aspects of women’s lives–this time looking for Jane Austen in the college’s curriculum. Given that full coeducation came late to Davidson (unofficially co-eds have been on the scene since the 1850s, officially since the 1970s ), it would not be surprising to find women writers, including Austen, slow to appear on class reading lists.

A little searching turned up that should Davidson students in 1888 have made it to Chapter 6 “Our First Great Novelists” in their assigned textbook Nicoll’s Landmarks of English Literature, they would have encountered some faint praise of her work. Naming her “a greater novelist” than either Fanny Burney or Miss Edgeworth, Nicoll brief summary of her work concludes “In her chosen walk of fiction, truthful pictures of the 0rdinary, middle-class society we see around us, Miss Austen has not equal; and the extent to which she succeeds in interesting us in her annals of humdrum, commonplace English life is the highest tribute to her genius.”

Title page for English textbook used in 1880s and 1890s.

English literature first invaded the classical curriculum of Davidson in the 1870s; John Milton and Francis Bacon opened the way to survey classes for prose and poetry; Shakespeare soon earned classes of his own. By the 1930s, the English department had expanded sufficiently in number of faculty and course listings to provide students with deeper encounters with novelists.

1929 Catalog listing announcing the new course The English Novel to Hardy.

Changing course numbers and faculty (James Purcell succeeded William Cumming), the English Novel to Hardy remained a department fixture into the 1970s. Purcell added to the number of women writers being taught with his Women in American Fiction course introduced in 1973. The course readings included both male and female writers while focusing on women as characters. Four years later, Assistant Professor Georgiana Ziegler offered a course focusing on women as writers.

1977 course description returning Austen to the classroom.

The course description identifying the instructor as “Miss Ziegler” was not a slight but a reflection of the era when all faculty were listed as Mr. or Miss. A decade later, Ziegler’s replacement in the course was Ms. Mills, who kept women writers before students into the 1990s.

Ziegler and students in an outdoor class session in the front of E.H. Little Library - perhaps discussing the English countryside of Austen

Ziegler and students in an outdoor class session – perhaps discussing the English countryside of Austen

The British Novel returned to the curriculum by 2000 and in 2001-02 the list of advanced English seminars included ENG 472 Jane Austen and Thomas Hardy: Sex, Politics and the Novel.

In 2010, Austen jumped from the confines of English into Theatre with a production of Pride and Prejudice.

Playbill for fall 2010 production

This search for Austen was not exhaustive. Despite the best efforts of archivists to document curriculum, there are limitations. At Davidson, we have a full run of catalogs which provide listings of course titles and brief descriptions but very few syllabi before 1994. If the course listing doesn’t name an author, we can’t know for certain what was taught. Fortunately for this search, our catalogs are online and searchable. And another library has done the work of digitizing Nicoll’s Landmarks, giving us a way to look at what the students of the era saw.

We might have a notion of what students thought about Austen but the literary magazines of the day are not quite as accessible yet. If the Davidson Monthly has articles on Austen, it will take a longer and slow search to find them!

Filed Under: Behind the Scenes, Curriculum