Dr. Gove Goes to War

When the United States entered World War I in April 1917, Dr. Anna Gove, resident physician at the North Carolina State Normal and Industrial College (now UNC Greensboro), began preparing to become part of the effort.  Because female doctors were not allowed into the Army Medical Core, Dr. Gove looked for other opportunities to serve oversees.

By September 1917, Dr. Gove's personal papers show that she had purchased French textbooks from the Cortina Academy of Languages to prepare for European war work.  She had also sent a letter of resignation to Dr. Foust, President of the State Normal.  In his return letter, Dr. Foust expressed his hope that "after conditions become normal that you may yet find it possible to be with us again."

On January 29, 1918, a letter from the American Red Cross offered Dr. Gove a salary of $1800 a year for "general medical relief work among the refugees."  She was to set sail for France around March 1st.  Additionally, she was provided with a $200 stipend to purchase equipment and uniforms. "Goods to be bought a Abercrombie & Fitch Co., Mad. Ave. & 45th St., New York City."

List of equipment and uniform items to be purchased from Abercrombie & Fitch.  Not the handwritten list of addition items purchased by Dr. Gove.

Dr. Gove made the journey to France and was stationed at a clinic in Marseilles.  Her letters home paint a picture of her daily life and environment.  Marsielles, in the south of France, remained removed from front-line battle.  Dr. Gove writes, "With all this frightful struggle going on this city seems a place remote and unmoved by the fortunes of the contest."  She goes on to speak of the unsafe areas of the city where nurses cannot travel, the inflated prices of food and necessities, and the importance of having good shoes and clothing.

Dr. Anna Gove in American Red Cross uniform, ca. 1918

Gove spent her time in France with the Children's Relief Unit.  They worked with women and children fleeing the war in Eastern Europe.  Often, malnourishment and harsh travel conditions resulted in children arriving with serious and chronic illnesses.  Dr. Gove worked to educate mothers on the importance of hygiene to prevent sickness, an area that she continued to study after she returned from the war.

The armistice ending the war was signed on November 11, 1918.  Dr. Gove continued with the Red Cross.  She was sent to Aubenas, Ardeche, France to set up a dispensary, a small clinic to provide care for refugees.  In December, she wrote to her superior describing several unique and severely sick patients she had seen during the past month.  She finished the letter with a word about the rest of her cases that were "the usual run of people who never are well because they have never lived properly and are worse now from hard conditions."

Dr. Gove's service to the Red Cross ending in early March, 2019.  She took the opportunity to travel to Paris to sight-see. In April, Dr. Foust sent a telegram to Dr. Gove.  It simply read, "Expecting your return as physician need you salary exceeds two thousand write us." Rather than return to the States, Dr. Gove found work with the Smith College Relief Unit in Grecourt, Somme, France.  The Relief Unit was comprised of young students and alums from Smith College who wanted to volunteer for the war effort.  Gove continued to assist the unit with providing aid throughout the summer.  Her health took a turn for the worse, affecting her eye sight drastically.  In August, She went to her childhood home in New Hampshire and spent the Fall recovering.  She traveled to Greensboro in January 1920, helping out at the school part-time until her health returned fully.   

Separating the Sick from the Healthy: Early Campus Infirmaries

Students Suffering from the Mumps in the First Infirmary

In the summer of 1895, just three years after the opening the State Normal and Industrial School, (now The University of North Carolina at Greensboro), the first infirmary was built. Previously, sick students had been housed in a single room in Brick Dormitory and cared for by campus physician, Dr. Anna Maria Gove, who made rounds of the dormitories twice daily. In emergencies, students were sent home to convalesce or to other dormitory rooms, but the close quarters made the spread of infectious diseases unavoidable. It became apparent that a free-standing building was required to meet the health needs of the school. Charles Duncan McIver, the school’s president and founder, also saw the wisdom of a separate building to keep the contagious students away from the well ones.

The First Campus Infirmary, Located on College Avenue

Dr. Gove advocated for a modern structure and was disappointed when the Superintendent of Grounds instead decided on a “dwelling house” plan to provide a restful, home-like environment in which the students could recover from sickness. Soon a small brick building was constructed on College Avenue next to Guilford Residence Hall. Sometimes referred to as “Little Guilford,” the building was large enough to house offices for a physician and a nurse, as well as five bedrooms and several baths. If there were epidemics that necessitated a quarantine, the adjacent dormitory was used for additional beds.
 

As the student population grew, plans emerged for a larger campus infirmary. These plans were realized in 1912, with the construction of a new building on Forest Street. Considered modern by 1912 standards, the infirmary’s blueprint included three floors accessed by an elevator. The plan incorporated twenty-nine bedrooms with baths on the first and second floors, as well as exercise rooms, and “sun parlors.” There was also a “quarantine wing” which was separated from the main structure by a latticed porch to allow for cross ventilation. The first floor was large enough for a sitting room, the physician’s office, and “resting rooms” for students who did not live on campus.

A Postcard Showing Gove Infirmary, Located on Forest Street

Additionally, the basement held examination rooms, the incinerator, and the “fumigating room,” where infected clothing was processed. The kitchen was on the third floor, in which food was prepared and sent down to the lower levels by dumbwaiter. Excited by the prospect of a new campus infirmary, students and alumnae held a “linen shower,” to provide new sheets and towels. On May 30, 1936, the infirmary was named in honor of Dr. Gove, who had been the campus physician since 1893. 

Gove Infirmary in the 1950s

By the 1950s, the infirmary building was considered outdated, and it was decided that a larger heath center, with more modern conveniences, was needed. In 1953, a new infirmary, located on Gray Drive, was completed and named the following year for Dr. Gove, who had retired from the college in 1937. After the “Old Infirmary,” ceased to function as the school’s health center, it was mysteriously leased by the federal government for “classified” purposes. Finally, the building was used for graduate student houses and offices until it was razed in 1965.

“A Noble Idea:” The History of Peabody Park (Part One)

Take a look at a campus map.  What strikes you about the physical layout of the school and its use of green spaces?  It is a campus that is filled with looping walkways, clusters of enormous oaks and pines, manicured gathering places, secluded benches and gardens, and pristine playing fields.  The largest open space at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) is Peabody Park. The history of the Park’s development, design, and use mirror the school’s own growth.

Students Relaxing in Peabody Park

When the college was founded in 1891, UNCG (known at the time as the State Normal and Industrial School) was situated on ten acres of former farm land.  Recognizing the rapid growth in student enrollment and the need to construct future classrooms and student housing, the school’s administration made the decision to purchase 112 acres adjoining the property’s original footprint.  In 1895, the North Carolina Legislature appropriated monies to improve the condition of this new area, allowing for “the expansion of the institution on the only side not already occupied by residences.”  The Legislature also mentioned that a portion of the new land could be used as a park for open-air exercise, as well as for the study of horticulture.  Yet, the Legislature only approved half of the school’s request for $22,000 of improvements.  Nevertheless, the College immediately began to use this wooded space.  Under the direction of Dr. Anna Gove, the school’s physician, students were required to devote sixty minutes each day to walking in the new park.
 

Strolling in Peabody Park

The fortunes of the school and the newly acquired property changed in 1901 with the announcement of a gift of $10,000 made by George Foster Peabody, a distant relative of the more well-known George Peabody, whose Peabody Education Fund supported Southern public schools.  The New York financier designated $5,000 to be used for the development of an educational park and an additional $5,000 to meet other needs of the College. The donated monies were to be spent on beautifying the existing space and creating several miles of well-graded walking paths.  Moreover, the plan was that every hill, spring, or bench would be dedicated to a great educational leader or historic event.  Each location would be marked by a granite block with an appropriate description.  It was imagined that other private donors would give monies to create additional markers, as well as pavilions and rustic benches.

George Foster Peabody

In an October 1901 letter to President McIver, George Foster Peabody was pleased to hear that the Park would be officially named “Peabody Park.”  He modestly hoped that people would realize that it was in honor of his relative and philanthropist George Peabody, and not himself.  A number of North Carolina newspapers praised the construction of the educational park at the State Normal. The Raleigh-based newspaper The News and Observer declared that the Park was a “noble idea” that would forward the “civilization” of the state!  The Park project envisioned that students would be benefit from both open-air exercise and the educational content provided by the educational markers.  In turn, the well-educated women of the State Normal would enhance the civic life of North Carolina.



The next installment of “A Noble Idea:” The History of Peabody Park will cover the evolution of the Park from a place of strolling and reflection to one of recreational activities, open-air theatrical performances, and finally, institutional encroachment.

Dr. Anna Maria Gove, Lady Doctress

When it came time to form the State Normal and Industrial College (now UNCG) in 1891, student health was of the utmost importance.  And since the student body was comprised of young women, President Charles Duncan McIver wanted to provide the students with a campus physician who could care for all their needs.  Miriam Bitting served one year as campus physician before marrying and moving to New York.  The start of the second year of the young college saw a need for a new physician to take Dr. Bitting's place.   Upon the recommendations of several of her instructors and mentors, including a letter from Emily Blackwell, the third woman in the United States to earn a medical degree, Dr. Anna Maria Gove was hired as the second woman physician for State Normal in 1893.

Anna Gove was born on July 6, 1867 in Whitefield, New Hampshire to Maria Pierce and Dr. George Sullivan Gove.  As the only daughter of a physician, Anna was exposed to the profession from a young age.  It was said that she often rode with her father on the back of his buggy to visit patients around the area.  So it seemed natural for Anna to pursue a medical career, even in a time when there were so few women doctors.  She attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woman's Medical College of the New York Infirmary where she graduated in 1892.  After a one year internship at the New York Infant Asylum in New York City, Dr. Gove came to Greensboro.

Dr. Gove brought progressive ideas to the little woman's college in North Carolina.  She formulated and put into practice a system for every freshman to have a physical and medical examination upon entering school.  She would then lay out plans to correct minor medical defects while the student was at college.  State Normal was the third college in the United States to adopt this practice.

Even with Dr. Gove's diligence, illness came to the school through a number of epidemics.  She saw the students through a large measles outbreak in 1895.  Keeping the sick women quarantined away from their fellow students and reassuring parents of their daughters' well-being kept Dr. Gove busy.   When the typhoid epidemic descended on campus in 1899, Dr. Gove worked night and day to discover the source of the problem and assist the dozens of sick and dying students.  Shortly after the epidemic passed, Dr. Gove took a leave of absence from the school to recoup and recover both mentally and physically.

Perhaps because the typhoid epidemic left such and impression on Dr. Gove, she had a passion for keeping up-to-date on the changing medical field.  She took several leaves of absence from the school throughout her early career to increase her medical knowledge.  In 1896-1897, she spent a year studying internal medicine in Vienna, Austria.  She returned to Vienna in 1913-1914 to continue her post graduate studies, where she met and worked with the famous orthopedist, Adolf Lorens.  Dr. Gove even assisted on one of his surgeries.

Dr. Gove in her WWI uniform

With the outbreak of WWI, Dr. Gove looked for a way to become involved in the war effort.  Women doctors were not accepted into the army medical corps, so Dr. Gove sought another way to put her skills to use.  In March 1918, she joined the American Red Cross and travelled to France to serve with the Children's Bureau in Marseille.  Dr. Gove worked with refugee children, assisting with dietary and other health concerns.  After the war, she served with the Smith College Relief Unit in Somme, France, before returning to the college in 1920.

Dr. Gove spent much of the 1920s developing a Health and Hygiene Department at the college.  She attended numerous lectures at the University of Michigan on mental and physical hygiene and brought that knowledge back to North Carolina.  Dr. Gove was a pioneer in the detection and control of tuberculosis at colleges and was asked to read a paper on the subject at the meeting of the National Tuberculosis Association.

By the time of Dr. Gove's retirement in 1936, she was being widely recognized for all her contributions to the college and to the medical profession.  The campus infirmary was named for Dr. Gove on May 30, 1936.

Dr. Gove passed away on January 28, 1948 at age 80.

The Beginning of Physical Education on Campus: 1892 – 1917

Dr. Miriam Bitting, first campus physician, ca. 1892

When the State Normal and Industrial School (now UNCG) first opened its doors in the fall of 1892, the Department of Physiology and Physical Culture was in place. Its purpose was to educate the students in the care and training of their bodies and to encourage health and wellness. The program included gymnastics and calisthenics to promote strength and improve the posture of the students. Exercise classes were held in the school’s first gymnasium, located in the northeast section of the Main Building (now the Foust Building), which was equipped with weights, bars, and exercise machines. Training included increasingly difficult exercises meant to develop the body and create strong, graceful, and dignified young women. Miss Maude Broadaway was the director of the gymnasium and led the exercises that were designed to be easily translated into the classroom, as many of the State Normal students were studying to become teachers.


Miriam Bitting was both the resident college physician and the head of the department. She taught a class on physiology and made morning and evening rounds of her students, offering suggestions regarding room ventilation, hygiene, and clothing. Dr. Bitting was very progressive in thought and encouraged the girls to reject their corsets for better movement and general health - giving the State Normal girls the reputation for a good postures and large waists.



Maude Broadway wearing a traditional gym suit, ca. 1893

Dr. Anna Gove, second campus physician, ca. 1894

When Dr. Bitting left the following year to get married, she was replaced by Dr. Anna Gove. Dr. Gove was a graduate of the Woman’s Medial College of New York Infirmary and had also studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It was Dr. Gove who began the “walking period” or “exercise period” that required each girl to spend at least an hour per day participating in outdoor activities, which could include walking or games.  In 1900, the gymnasium in the Main Building was converted to a library and this daily exercise period would become even more important. The campus Athletic Association was founded the same year.


First athletic field, across from Spencer Dormitory

During the 1907/1908 academic year, the Department of Physiology and Physical Culture changed its name to the Department of Physical Training, remaining within the Hygiene Department and retaining Dr. Gove at its head. Miss Ruena West, specially trained in physical education, was also hired to serve as physical director. The program concentrated on exercise regimens tailored to the needs of the individual, and also included sports such as basketball and tennis. An exercise room was incorporated into Spencer Dormitory, which could be used throughout the seasons. Field Hockey was added a few years later and a large area was designated across from Spencer Dormitory for an athletic field. Popular courses such as folk dancing and rhythmic dancing were added in the 1911/1912 academic year, but the program also continued to focus on physical evaluation, drills, and indoor and outdoor games. In 1917, the department officially became the Department of Physical Education.                                                                                                                                           

Walter Clinton Jackson, Race, and WC Resources

Throughout the first seven decades of its existence, the institution now known as UNCG grappled with a number of questions regarding facility use by students from neighboring colleges, particularly the nearby African-American institutions such as North Carolina A&T and Bennett College.

Interior of the College Library, circa 1923

As early as February 1929, administrators were discussing use of the Library by students from A&T. Then Vice President (and later Chancellor) Walter Clinton Jackson wrote College President Julius Foust on February 15, 1929, requesting that an A&T student be allowed to borrow books from the College Library. Jackson wrote, “it seems to me rather incongruous that we should refuse a little courtesy of this kind to a neighbor institution, even though a negro institution. It is a very small matter, in a way, but it has large consequences so far as the Negroes are concerned.”

Foust agreed to discuss the matter with the College Librarian and “do anything we can to aid these students.” He quickly added, however, that Jackson should be acutely award “that certain embarrassments may arise in our attempt to do what they request” and that he “doubt[ed] the wisdom of permitting negro students to take the books out of our library.” While he agreed to consider the idea, Foust added that he would ask the Librarian to consult with Dr. Anna Gove, the student health coordinator, to learn more “about the danger that may arise from disease if these students are permitted to take the books and use them when our students must use them when they are returned to the library.”

Jackson’s decision to support the use of the WC Library by African-American students ran counter to the Jim Crow laws that were prevalent across North Carolina at the time. Jackson, however, was well known as a champion of racial equality. He arrived at the institution then known as State Normal in 1909 to lead the history department. A native of Georgia, he studied at Mercer University and spoke frequently on the topic of race relations in American history. Although he was forced to work within the framework of the segregated South, he served as chairman of local, state, and southern regional Commissions on Interracial Cooperation. From 1938 to 1953, he served as chairman of the Board of Trustees at Bennett College.

Walter Clinton Jackson, 1948

Throughout his sixteen-year tenure as Woman’s College chancellor (1934-1950), Jackson opened many venues for progress and collaboration between WC and its neighboring educational institutions, including those that were African American. In a June 17, 1935, letter to Charlotte Hawkins Brown, he expressed dismay that WC would not be able to openly welcome students from Brown’s Palmer Institute, a school for African Americans in Sedalia, North Carolina, just outside of Greensboro. After Brown declined to bring her students to a music performance at the WC due to the segregated seating requirements, Jackson wrote, “I hope the time will speedily come when difficulties which confront us may be more easily resolved.”

State laws and regulations, however, did not support open sharing of resources between WC and its African-American neighbor institutions. “Separate but equal” policies resulted in the segregation of public schools, public spaces, transportation, restrooms, restaurants, and drinking fountains. Since 1901, North Carolina state law had explicitly required separate facilities for the consumption of library materials by white and black citizens. While a number of prominent North Carolinians, including Governor W. Kerr Scott (1949-1953), believed in extended some degree of civil liberties to African Americans, the general consensus across the state favored the continuation of segregationist policies.

Jackson’s willingness to push these boundaries and search for concessions whenever possible led to him being recognized as a “pioneer in the field of better race relations” when he received an honorary doctorate from Bennett in 1949. While Jackson was no longer Chancellor when the WC was officially desegregated in 1956, he stood as an early leader in creating a more open and accepting campus.

Physical Culture at State Normal

Dr. Miriam Bitting

A founding department at the State Normal and Industrial School (now UNCG) was the Department of Physiology and Health (also known as Physical Culture). This unit had two objectives: instruction in hygiene and creation an individualized program of exercise for students. Work in the department included gymnastics, calisthenics, and exercises that were to promote the individual’s health and strength. The purpose of the department, according to the campus catalog, was “not only to provide systematic, graded, healthful exercise for the class, but also to give each student such exercises as her peculiar case demands, to strengthen crooked shoulders, to strengthen weak lungs, to develop chest and arms, and to improve her general bearing.” This focus on “Physical Culture” would “give students such knowledge as will make them reverent and care for their bodies and such training as will give them strength and conduce to their happiness.”

Maude Broadaway

As the campus’s resident physician, Dr. Miriam Bitting not only taught physiology in the classrooms, but on her morning and evening rounds, she made suggestions about ventilation, clothing, bathing, dressing, and other points of personal hygiene. During this time period, it was rare for a full-time physician to be on staff at a college, and a female physician was exceptionally rare. But, President Charles Duncan McIver’s wife (Lula Martin McIver) actually insisted that there be one on campus. Dr. Bitting had previously received her medical degree from the Woman’s Medical College in Philadelphia, where she also practiced prior to arriving at State Normal. In 1893, however, Dr. Bitting left campus after getting married and Dr. Anna Gove took over as the campus physician and head of the Physical Culture Department.

Dr. Bitting and Gove were assisted in their work by Maude Broadaway, a student, who acted as director of the gymnasium. A small room in the northeast section of the Main Building (now Foust) was equipped with eleven bars, chest weights, Indian clubs, and a weighing machine. Although the gym was in use only for 4 ½ months during the first year, “many chests increased in girth, shoulders straightened, arms became stronger, and the general bearing much improved.”

Main Building (now Foust) Gymnasium

A designated Walking Period also ensured that students got some exercise each day. All students were required to leave the dorms and engage in some type of physical activity. Some students loved it; others didn’t. In 1914, an article appeared in the Carolinian student newspaper describing the Walking Period: “Walking period bell rings at 4:30, you open your windows and doors, and set out resolutely to tramp the slowly drying walk for a perfectly good hour you might have spent making fudge or doing embroidery.” Someone checked in the dorms to make sure that all students had gone on their walk. Students were required to walk only on campus, and most chose to walk through Peabody Park, about one mile each day.

Walking Period in Peabody Park

Dr. T.H. Pritchard, former president of Wake Forest, who delivered the first commencement address at the Normal, took note of the institution’s focus on women’s health in observing that there were three ways to recognize a State Normal student: “she doesn’t flirt with the boys, she walks erect and throws her shoulders back well, and she has a large waist” (Drs. Bitting and Gove had taught the women that lacing was not conducive to health, and two-thirds of them had been persuaded to discard their corsets). By tossing aside Victorian-era taboos about women’s health and fitness capabilities, State Normal became an early leader in physical education for women as well as in the training of female physical education instructors.