The Lost Legacy of Philander P. Claxton

Philander P. Claxton

Philander P. Claxton was an important member of the early faculty at the State Normal and Industrial School (now The University of North Carolina at Greensboro), yet only a conference room in the Elliott University Center records his legacy.

Born in a log cabin in 1862 in rural Bedford County Tennessee, Claxton’s earliest memories were of the Civil War. The conflict affected his family deeply as he had one uncle fighting for the South and another fighting for the North. His father served on the local school board and Claxton proved himself an advanced student, eventually earning both a bachelor’s degree (1882) and a master’s degree (1887) at the University of Tennessee. He also pursued doctoral work at Johns Hopkins University and at universities in Jena and Leipzig, Germany. Claxton came to State Normal in 1893 to teach pedagogy, and after two years he found himself the head of the department.  His energy, wit, and enthusiasm made him popular with the students, but members of the faculty were jealous of the high regard in which he was held.

The female students were immediately taken with the handsome professor and christened him their “beau ideal.” Many thought him the most attractive man that they had ever seen and wasted no time in casting him in campus plays and productions.  He once famously appeared on stage in a kilt.

During his time at the college, Claxton initiated correspondence courses for students and continuing education sessions for public school teachers. He was also the driving force in the formation of the “practice and observation school” on campus, giving students hands-on experience in the teaching field.  Claxton agreed with the school’s president Dr. Charles McIver in the philosophy that “a normal school without a practice school is like a swimming school without water.” He was so closely associated with this endeavor that there was a great deal of surprise when the new practice school, opened on College Avenue in 1902, was not named after him, but instead named in honor of Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry, an early supporter of the college.

A passion for promoting interest in public schooling in the South instigated his departure from the State Normal School in 1902 to serve as chief of the Bureau of Investigation and Publication of the Southern Education Board. Subsequently, he held positions at various colleges and public schools, constantly campaigning for improved education for all children. He was considered very progressive for the time, undertaking a survey of black schools and holding several conferences regarding the education of black children. He continued his advocacy for the education of all Americans after his appointment as United States Commissioner of Education by President William Howard Taft, writing the legislation that would authorize rehabilitative education for World War I veterans.

Claxton died at ninety-four and was lauded as a dynamic crusader in the “great educational movement of the South,” yet his legacy on this campus has almost been lost.

Elizabeth Cowling: Cellist, Musicologist, Teacher

Elizabeth Cowling, Early 1940s

In the culture of classical music, instruments are more than objects that produce sound. Instruments have names, personalities, and even gender. Within the family of stringed instruments, the relationship between the performer and the violoncello infers an even more romantic dynamic. The curves of the instrument combined with the straddling poise of the musician in performance suggests an intimate relationship between the cellist and cello in which the cellist is typecast as the masculine partner. Certainly, it is not until the 20th century that the status of the woman cellist transitions from performing oddity to acknowledged musician, although it is not until the 1950s and 1960s in which women were accepted as concert performers and soloists. Considering the distinctive masculine tradition of the cellist, it is fascinating to note that the archive with the single largest holding of cello music related material in the world began at the Women’s College with a female cellist by the name of Elizabeth Cowling.

Elizabeth Cowling (1910-1997) accepted the position of assistant professor in the School of Music in August of 1945 with a salary of $2500 for nine months of instruction. She came to the Women’s College after earning a Master’s degree in Economics from Columbia University as well as a Master’s degree in Cello Performance at Northwestern University (she received her PhD in Music History and Literature from Northwestern in 1960). As a faculty member, Cowling earned a reputation as a demanding instructor, challenging her students with lessons described as “bone-chillingly frightening.” As one of Cowling’s former students remembers her,

“She simply demanded our best… always…and all us little Southern girls, in starched cotton dresses, had never met anyone quite like her. We all agree now that she was the one who made is aware of our minds…and forced us to use them.”

The intimidating standard of industry Elizabeth Cowling expected from her students applied to her own efforts. The course load Cowling maintained as a professor required the hiring of three full time professors in Music History within four years of her retirement.

As was required of Woman’s College School of Music faculty, Cowling regularly performed in concerts locally, though her legacy is as a researcher and author of music history. Her passion of music history, specifically the history of the cello, led her to Luigi Silva, the acclaimed cellist and musicologist whose collection is the foundation of the UNCG Cello Music Collections. Her correspondence with Silva began in 1946, and the support of Silva as a mentor (and later, a colleague), combined with Cowling’s exhaustive research, would lead to the publishing of The Cello, the most comprehensive biography of the instrument to have ever been written in English at that time. The acclaimed work is still standard reading for music history and has, since its publication in 1975, been revised and published in Japanese.

Dedication of the Luigi Silva Library, 1964
(from left to  right: Janos Scholz,
Mrs. Brett Armfield,
Elizabeth Cowling, and Charles M. Adams)

The research materials for The Cello were derived from Cowling’s research trips to music archives in Europe, but also, in part, from the impressive library of Luigi Silva. When Silva’s widow made the library available for sale after his death in 1961, Elizabeth Cowling urged the Library to consider the investment. With the blessing of Charles M. Adams, the University Librarian, the Friends of the Library purchased the Luigi Silva Cello Music Collection in 1963, with the official dedication of the collection in 1964. Given the value and rarity of items in the Silva Collection, and since there was no separate music library or music librarian at the time, the Silva Library was initially housed in its own room in the Library under the care of Special Collections and University Archives.

The School of Music and the University Library collaborated in a Luigi Silva tribute event in 1964, publicizing the acquisition of the collection. Immediately, the Library received letters inquiring about research access and the content of the collection, questions that were generally forwarded to Elizabeth Cowling. The Silva Library remained the only cello music collection until 1977, when Cowling donated her personal score collection to the Library. With the combined cello music collections of Silva and Cowling, the Library could claim an archive of nearly 2450 scores, predominantly featuring the cello.

Elizabeth Cowling’s influence does not end with the donation of her collection in 1977. Her professional acquaintances and friendships with cellists around the world, combined with the prestige of sharing an archive with Luigi Silva, encouraged established cellists to donate their collections with the result that the Rudolf Matz Cello Music Collection was donated in 1986. By the time of Elizabeth Cowling’s death, Special Collections and University Archives housed the collections of Luigi Silva (1963), Elizabeth Cowling (1977), Rudolf Matz (1986), Maurice Eisenberg (1989), and Janos Scholz (1994).

Elizabeth Cowling died February 18, 1997, leaving a $190,000 gift to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, $20,000 of which was dedicated to the Library for the processing and cataloging of the collections into the OCLC online database, making the Cello Music Collections more accessible to cellists and music researchers worldwide.

Luigi Silva Collection Cataloging Project Completion
Celebration, 2001 (Left: Sarah Dorsey, Music Librarian;
Right: Joan Staples, Cello Music Cataloger)

October 23rd of this year marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of the UNCG Cello Music Collection, beginning with the acquisition of the Luigi Silva Collection in 1963. Presently, the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections & University Archives boasts the collections of ten cellists: Luigi Silva, Elizabeth Cowling, Rudolf Matz, Maurice Eisenberg, Janos Scholz, Fritz Magg, Bernard Greenhouse, Laszlo Varga, Lev Aronson, and Lubomir Georgiev.

Although Elizabeth Cowling’s impact on the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and music research is substantial, perhaps one of her former students articulated her legacy best when they wrote, “this woman exudes the mystique of music from her very being. Its joy and beauty permeate her soul, and are reflected back to those around. She is a pied piper for music students, luring them into the adventure of musicianship.”

Sue May Kirkland: lady principal and referee in all things social and domestic



Of all of the early faculty and staff of the State Normal and Industrial School (now The University of North Carolina at Greensboro), Susan Mary Kirkland was one of the most formidable. “Sue May” was born in Hillsborough, North Carolina, and educated at the Burwell School and the Nash and Kollock Select Boarding and Day School for Young Ladies which were located in her home town. She taught briefly at Peace College in Raleigh, and it was there that she met Charles Duncan McIver. When the State Normal and Industrial School opened in the fall of 1892, Miss Kirkland followed him there to take the position of Lady Principal. She held this position for twenty-two years.

Her formal responsibilities ranged from “custodian of manners and morals” to” referee in matters social and domestic,” but these descriptions belie the true impact that Miss Kirkland had on the school. On arrival at the college, the girls were immediately impressed by their Principal’s education, ladylike demeanor, silver tea set, and personal maid, Amanda. The general awe with which she was viewed caused students to liken her majestic appearance to Queen Victoria, but her strong character, compassion, and caring nature inspired admiration and love from the many students in her care. One student, Phoebe Pegram, who had only had five days of formal education, recounted how Miss Kirkland had helped her learn how to talk and dress, even providing tutoring with her lessons. Valuable advice such as button your gloves, walk straight, and come back right after church, was also dispensed.

Although Miss Kirkland was a stickler for formalities such as proper dress and decorum, she also had a good sense of humor. Constantly correcting those who called her “Mrs. Kirkland,” she often reminded the uninformed that she was “Miss Kirkland, by choice.” Not that she was unsympathetic to the plight of her young charges to gain access to male company. Although school regulations determined that male visitors were restricted to holidays and other structured times, girls managed to develop romances under her care. On one occasion, Miss Kirkland and Miss Viola Boddie, another unmarried faculty member, were visiting in a parlor across the hall from where students were entertaining several young men. Miss Boddie commented disapprovingly that when she was young, she was never allowed to receive gentlemen callers without a chaperone. Miss Kirkland pointed out, “My mother did the same thing - and see what it did for us!”

Sadly, Miss Kirkland died unexpectedly on June 8, 1914 while visiting her sister in Raleigh. Subsequently, a campus dormitory was named in her honor. This Craftsman style building, located at the current site of the Moran Commons and Plaza, was torn down in 1964.

 

Celebrating “Service” with a Park Night Tradition

From 1920 through 1935, the Friday evening of commencement weekend at the North Carolina College for Women (later Woman’s College and now UNCG) featured a ceremony known as Park Night. This allegorical drama typically took place outdoors in an outdoor theater constructed in Peabody Park. The production featured a character named Service (meant to represent the ideals of the school) as well as her attendants Mind, Body, and Spirit.
 

A scene from the 1923 Park Night ceremony

In a July 25, 1927 letter, alumnae Julia Cherry Spruill discussed the origins of Park Night. Spruill had been appointed chairman of a committee to promote school spirit amongst students. She was asked to highlight particular features of the school that made her most proud. Spruill recalled deciding “our park was our peculiar possession of which we were particularly proud, and that we could have some symbolical exercises down there which would represent the highest ideals of our college.” She consulted with President Julius Foust, who agreed to sponsor the production and to clear some land in Peabody Park for a theater.

Selection of the student to portray Service was conducted by secret ballot. A 1929 Carolinian article noted, “this is the highest honor that a student can win at this college and goes each year to the girl in the senior class who in the opinion of her associates has rendered the most outstanding service during her college career.” For example, the role of Service in 1926 went to Georgia Kirkpatrick of Efland. Kirkpatrick was class president, a charter member and president of the Alethian Society, member of the Faculty-Student Council, cabinet member of the Athletic Association, member of the Playlikers, and a staff member of both the Carolinian newspaper and the Pine Needles yearbook.

Prologue dance from the 1923 Park Night ceremony

The script for Park Night was written by the students, with the intent of it becoming a yearly tradition. The production began with a prologue in the form of a dance. It was followed by a dramatic processional featured fifty students dressed in white robes, carrying lit torches, and singing the college song. Service and her attendants then entered, and each attendant presented Service with allegorical gifts, often through a solo dance as well as a lyrical Grecian-style poem.  After the individual presentations, Service spoke, accepting the gifts and giving a dramatic monologue. The production concluded with an epilogue featuring “a Dance to the Future.”

Although the tradition of Park Night ended in 1935 when graduating seniors decided to forgo the production in favor of honoring a number of leading classmates in a formal ceremony, “Service” remains the motto of UNCG today. From the words of Service’s concluding monologue, “when full liberty, sweetness, and joy have driven out misery and night, we shall live in the light of the glorious day when Service has won all the earth.”

Campus Literary Societies

Today's post was written by Kristen Thomas, a senior history major. Kristen interned in Special Collections and University Archives during the Spring semester, and constructed both a physical and online exhibit (http://library.uncg.edu/collection/exhibits/Campus_Literary_Societies.aspx) on the history of campus literary societies. Here, she writes about the founding and activities of these organizations.

Today, there are dozens of student groups to choose from on campus. But, back when The State Normal and Industrial School (now known as UNCG) was first founded, there was no such thing as campus organizations. That changed when President Charles McIver discovered a group of students had created their own sorority in secret.

Adelphian Society performance, 1913

Sororities had already been banned on campus, with McIver believing that they would lead to students feeling left out. McIver’s goal was to make sure all students could be included, emphasising his democratic approach to education. However, there were many who wanted a sorority-like group on campus. So McIver decided to create the Literary Societies.

He charged two students, Mary Arrington and Alice Green, with organizing these groups with the help of certain faculty members. They decided that the student body would be divided in half, each belonging to one of the societies. They were sorted at random, with names being drawn from a hat.  Once the students had been grouped, they settled to finding a name. The group created by Arrington was named the Adelphian Society and the one by Green the Cornelian Society.

Each society created their own secret initiation rites and rituals, which were only known to the members of the group. For a while, even many of the officers were kept a secret. Despite the secret nature of the societies, they did come together in order to produce plays, debates, and simple luncheons, sometimes in honor of the other society. For the first 25 years they were on campus, they facilitated much of the activities outside of the classroom.

Aletheian Society initiation, 1940

In 1918, the campus had grown to such a size that the two societies were becoming too large to function as they did before. A third society was chartered, with members being pulled from the already existing societies. They became the Dikean Society and adapted smoothly into campus life. A fourth, the Aletheians, was added in 1923. Both societies created their own rituals and secret initiations, and functioned much like the Cornelian and Adelphian societies.

By the 1930s, the influence of the societies has waned as other groups had taken shape on campus, such as the Student Government Association and the YWCA. They still held an important role as social groups and the election of marshals, a function they held until their disbandment.

As time went, the students began to group themselves more by class than by societies. Many felt that the societies had grown too large to continue to serve the campus effectively and participation had waned in favor of other groups. In 1953, after a vote was taken across campus in favor of disbandment, the presidents of all four groups formally agreed in a letter submitted to the university to bring the end of the societies.

WC Students, Tate Street, and Desegregation in 1963

While the February 1960 sit-in at Greensboro’s F.W. Woolworth store downtown is well known, fewer people are knowledgeable about a second round of protests that escalated in Greensboro in the Spring of 1963. A number of Woman’s College (WC) students participated in the 1960 sit-ins, but the 1963 movement hit the students of WC a bit closer to home. While the protests stretched around town, one aspect of the movement was primarily targeted at businesses located on Tate Street, in the area known as “The Corner.”

Chancellor Otis Singletary

On February 27, 1963, 23 WC students (most African American) wrote Chancellor Otis Singletary asking him to immediately begin working towards desegregation of the Corner, a business area adjacent to the WC campus. The students wrote “This college has accepted us as students, therefore, as members of the Woman’s College community. Since we are accepted as such, we feel that the college has the responsibility of seeing that we receive the same privileges as any other member of this community. As of now, we are not granted such opportunities.” They added that “the decision to accept Negro students to Woman’s College implies the decision to give them your full moral support, not just a limited, partial support.”

The letter to Singletary earned a swift response. On March 13, he set up a meeting with a local business owner and Dean of Students Katherine Taylor. In the meeting, Singletary stressed that he recognized that he had no official authority to dictate policy to the business owners of the Corner, but he wished to request “unofficially that all students at the Woman’s College be served at the Corner eating places and admitted to the Cinema Theatre.” Singletary warned that, if the present segregationist policy continued, the students would likely begin picketing and boycotting these businesses.

On that same day - March 13, 1963 - the WC Student Government Association passed a resolution urging Singletary to "use his authority and influence as a college official" to convince owners of business on the Corner to desegregate their facilities. Specifically, they called out two restaurants - the Apple House and the Town and Country – as well as the Cinema Theatre on Tate Street. SGA’s resolution carried the same argument as the letter from the students to Singletary – the WC is integrated and its local businesses should be too.

SGA resolution calling for a boycott
of segregated businesses on Tate Street, 1963

 Three days later on Thursday, May 16, 1963, the WC SGA issued a call for "selective buying campaign" directed at the Tate Street merchants. On that same day, the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce and the Merchants Association passed resolutions calling for equal access in all local businesses. Coinciding with a week of massive marches and demonstrations around Greensboro, approximately two dozen WC students picketed the offending Tate Street businesses they considered part of their campus community. One local businessman wrote Dean of Students Taylor that “it was disturbing, to say the least, to observe the fine looking young ladies harassing these local businessmen by parading before their places of business today … They appear determined to destroy our way of life and some of the business people whose taxes are educating them.”

Rallies and protests continued throughout Greensboro during the summer months. On May 22, 1963, more than two thousand African Americans of all ages and classes silently marched to downtown Greensboro to show their dedication to achieving racial equality, making it the largest march in the city’s history. A few days later, 1,643 white residents of Greensboro allowed their names to be published by the Greensboro Daily News in a full-page and partial-page ad in support of the integration of Greensboro’s businesses. On June 4, over five hundred students and adults joined North Carolina A&T student body president Jesse Jackson in a silent march. The next evening, Jackson led close to seven hundred African Americans to City Hall and was charged with “inciting a riot.” Protests continued throughout town, leading Greensboro Mayor David Schenk to issue an appeal to all businesses to desegregate immediately and for activists to halt their protests.

By June 13, eight more Greensboro restaurants chose to desegregate, making approximately one-quarter of local establishments open to African Americans. In July, the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce and the Merchants Association insisted on a resolution calling for the immediate desegregation of all public spaces. And by the fall of 1963, close to 40 percent of Greensboro businesses had been integrated – including the institutions on Tate Street.

More information about the 1963 desegregation protests and marches – including more images and original documents – can be found at Civil Rights Greensboro.

Fraternities and sororities at UNCG

Prior to the founding of the State Normal and Industrial School (now The University of North Carolina at Greensboro) in 1891, Charles Duncan McIver was very supportive of the notion of societies for the female students.  In 1893, the Adelphian and Cornelian became the first two literary societies on campus and almost all of the students joined either one of the two groups.  In the years following, a joint committee of students would divide the list of new freshman girls and place them within either society.  Society invitations and initiations became an exciting time for each student as some expressed great joy in their placement while others were visibly upset. In 1896, fourteen girls attempted to create their own secret society tied to a Greek letter sorority.  Upon discovering this, McIver quickly reproached the girls and demanded they disband the group or face expulsion, believing such exclusive secret organizations were inappropriate to the mission of public education.  Two other literary societies would later be established on the campus as student body population continued to grow.  In 1918, the Dikean Society was founded and the Aletheian Society was later established in 1923.  The societies would continue to operate as part of student life on the campus until 1953 when they were abolished by a student vote. 

The next several decades saw a general distain by the administration regarding the establishment of a Greek system.  In 1975, believing social sororities (and later fraternities) to be elitist, divisive, and irrelevant to academics, a faculty committee voted against the issue of whether to establish a Greek system at UNCG. However, recurring student interested prompted a second study in 1977-1979 and found that thirty-one percent of the student population would consider joining a fraternity or sorority.  With such support, the Board of Trustees approved a five year trial period for a Greek system and in 1980 the first rush took place. By the fall of 1981, there were seven fraternities and seven sororities officially recognized on the campus.  With continuing interest and growth, the five year probationary period expired and a Greek system was official established at UNCG in 1984.  As of 2012, there were ten social fraternities and social eleven sororities on the UNCG campus.

One key iconic symbol that is shared by UNCG fraternities and sororities is the Rock.  The Rock is a 12.7 ton boulder that was imported to the campus from a rock quarry in nearby Jamestown by the Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity in 1973.  It was placed between the dining halls and dormitories and would serve as a message board for the various fraternal organization as it was continuously painted over again and again.  There exists an unwritten rule that a groups message has to stay up for twenty four hours before being written over.  Prior to the Rock, students would paint and decorate the statue of Charles Duncan McIver as way to promote their messages.  However, after years of continued abuse, the statute was beginning to deteriorate thus prompting a new method of communication.