Campus Maps Part II

In an earlier blog post, we looked at maps drawn by students and alumnae of The Woman's College of the University of North Carolina (now UNCG). In this blog post, we'll look at some more diverse campus maps found within our collections!

Changes on campus can be traced by maps that show the university's relationship to the community and transportation. The following two parking maps show the growth of the campus and the increase in parking areas on campus.

1975 Campus Parking Map

It is also interesting to note that many former roads that cut through campus are now restricted and used primarily as pedestrian walkways- an example of changing campus policy in action reflected on maps!

2006-2007 Campus Parking Map

 The need for parking maps at school with a large commuter population is obvious and it's important for those maps to be accurate. But we also have maps that are more fanciful and even metaphorical!

Map from 1948 Pine Needles Yearbook

The map featured on the 1948 Pine Needles Yearbook endpapers contains a reasonable facsimile of campus at the time, but notice the scale used. "Four Years Equals One Degree" The first clue that this map may be a little more tongue-in-cheek than others is that it is labeled "A Curry Smoke-Stack View of Campus." There is, in fact, a student standing on the smoke stack with a spyglass, surveying the school. Fanciful descriptions are also used alongside typical names you might find on any campus map. The cars in front of Foust are labelled "Faculty Jalopies." An area near the athetic fields is labelled "W.C.'s Coney Island" and the area behind Weil-Winfield is labelled "The Country Club."

WCUNC Home Economics Club Campus Map, circa 1935

This whimsical map dating from around 1935 was drawn by Emma Lee Aderholt and sponsored by the Home Economics Club. It not only shows the buildings and grounds of the campus at the time, but also includes many clues as to campus activities. You will find the Botany class in front of the Foust Building (marked "Admin" on this map), as well as a depiction of some of the May Day activities. In front of Old McIver Memorial Building, you can just make out a "Freshie" (freshman student) washing the statue of Charles D. McIver. There is a P.J. party taking place in Peabody Park. UNCG Auditorium (Aycock Auditorium at that time) is the site of "The Saddest Day of All"- Graduation Day.

1911 Map from Carolinian Yearbook

Not all maps represent actual physical places. "The Pscientist's Progress" is a map that appeared in the 1911 Carolinian yearbook. This student drawn map shows the perilous journey of those brave students who ventured onto the path of Bachelor of Science degrees at the school. Courses and subjects are presented as dangerous milestones that must be transcended to achieve the student's final destination-their degree.

Campus Maps Part I

Maps are artifacts that represent a physical space fixed at one point in time. Taken individually, they tell us how to get from one place to another. They provide a view of place unattainable from the ground and give us a unique perspective and orientation. Compared with one another, maps trace the changes in our physical world. Buildings come and go, or their uses vary with the changing times. The landscape also changes as new roads are built and fields are turned into golf courses or parking lots. In this post we'll look at some examples of campus maps from our University Archives drawn by members of the university community.

Several maps of campus used in official publications were drawn by female students and alumnae of the university. These maps were used primarily in publications such as the course catalog, handbook, and brochures. These official publications would represent the university not only to its students, but to the public. Because of this, the maps had to be of high quality. Three examples of these are presented below, along with photographs of the cartographers.

This 1940 map of the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina campus was drawn by Kathryn Bain (top) and Doris Shaffer (bottom), both Class of 1941 students

This 1957 map of the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina was drawn by Henriette Manget Neal, Class of 1945

This 3D 1965 map of the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina was drawn by Clara Reese, Class of 1965

We'll explore more campus maps from our collections in a future Spartan Stories blog!

Like a Duck to Water: Spotlight on the Military Life of Alumna Geraldine Cox

Geraldine Cox (1918 - 1988) was a small town girl from Washington, North Carolina, but she accomplished a great deal during her multiple careers. Cox entered the Woman’s College of the University of North Carolina (now UNCG) in 1935 and earned her degree in English four years later. Directly after graduation, with plans to become a librarian, she enrolled in the School of Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her career as a librarian took her as far afield as Salt Lake City, where she worked at the University of Utah. Letters home spoke of her enjoyment of the library work, skiing lessons on the weekend, and her interest in Red Cross work.

Geraldine Cox, US WAAC

The prior year of her life had seen many changes. Not only had she moved across the country in search of a new career, but the United States had entered World War II. Perhaps, it was her involvement with the Red Cross that led her to enlist in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) only a month after it was formed as the women’s branch of the United States Army. Joining the WAACs in the summer of 1942, she went through training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, and was later transferred to Daytona, Florida, where she worked as a training instructor in the Motor Transportation Division. Cox test drove tanks and jeeps, and instructed other WAACs how to drive and care for large Army trucks. She was amazed that, in many cases, the smaller, frailer women made the best drivers.

Periodically, she wrote Miss Clara Byrd, the Alumnae Secretary at Woman’s College, to keep her up-to -date about her activities. One note expressed how well-suited she was to military life and compared her Army training to her college experiences. She wrote honestly of her belief that her academic education had fallen short. She believed that the applicable education and training that she received in the Army better prepared her for life’s challenges than a liberal education focusing on “manners and culture,” both integral parts of a 1930s woman’s education. Her letter even commented that “there’s much in the education and handling of women that educators could learn to their profit from the Army.” Perhaps reflecting her feelings about her past college experiences, she found in the Army an impartial environment, where “neither money, social position, or graces count.” 

Senior Photograph and Notation from the 1939 Pine Needles Yearbook

While in Florida, she sent a letter to Miss Byrd describing her experience in the WAACs. She found it amusing that people believed that women could not thrive in the military life. She reported quite the contrary, writing that “Girls seem to take to the life like ducks to water!” She described her fellow WAACs working long hours at tedious and difficult jobs, with little rewards. Sometimes working over forty hours per week without overtime, Cox reported that they “belonged to Uncle Sam twenty-four hours a day, including Sunday!” She especially marveled at the positive attitudes and fun-loving spirits of her comrades. Proudly, she informed Miss Byrd that the WAACs were well respected by the men, who seemed surprised that the women could keep up with them. Cox closed her letter by stating that even with the hard work and long hours, “you won’t find a harder working or happier bunch of women in the world than WAACs.”

 Cox later attended Officer Training School, gaining the rank of First Lieutenant, and spent the last years of the war as a recruiter for the Army Airs Forces in Minneapolis, Minnesota and at an air field at a WAAC Detachment in Denver, Colorado. Like many women, she did not remain in the Army after the war. She left the services in 1946 and returned to her work as a cataloger in the library at the University of Utah and spent her later life, once again, in the role of a teacher in Bath, North Carolina.