Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Farmerettes

On April 6, 1917, the United Stated officially entered World War I. With the institutional motto of “Service,” the women of the State Normal and Industrial College (now UNCG) sought ways to contribute to the war efforts. Students came together to observe meatless and wheatless days, take classes in food conservation, raise money for the War Relief Fund, and make surgical dressings.

During the summer of 1918, ten Normal women heeded President Woodrow Wilson’s call to increase American food production and reduce food waste by volunteering to work on a 300-acre farm just outside of Greensboro. Most of these Farmerettes had no experience with farm work. In fact, most were not from rural areas at all. But, according to one student – Marjorie Craig (class of 1919) – these women “volunteered for that phase of war work because there was so little else we could do to help win the war … We were told that all the food produced at home made possible a greater supply for the soldiers.”

The Farmerettes knew that their presence in the fields might not be welcomed. As Craig noted, “we had been warned beforehand that we would be laughed at and we had prepared to ignore it.” In khaki uniforms and straw hats, these Farmerettes performed all but the heaviest agricultural labor – hoeing corn, pitching hay, threshing wheat, harvesting vegetables, feeding pigs, milking cows, and performing numerous other farm tasks. Work days began at 8 a.m. and continued until 5 p.m., with a one-hour break for lunch.

Campus administrators lent a hand, with J.M. Sink, superintendent of buildings and grounds, supervising their work. Even President Julius Foust stepped in to drive the reaper to cut the wheat.

Ten years after this summer, Margaret Hayes (class of 1919) recounted her time on the farm: "Being a Farmerette I count as one of the most worthwhile experiences of my life. We were engaged in something that we felt was real and vital, not just puttering, as we suspected was the case with some of the war work."

There were tangible results: hundreds of cans of vegetables, as well as products that could not be canned. In total that summer, these students worked to produce 1100 bushels of wheat, 3000 bushels of corn, 2500 gallons of tomatoes, and 2000 gallons of beans. Most of these foodstuffs were used in the campus pantry the following semester. But perhaps more important than the resulting products, the ten Farmerettes united to fight misconceptions about women’s work abilities and contribute to the war effort in their own unique way.

The Library as a Hub of Learning (Part One)

Since the school’s founding in 1892, the library has played a central role in supporting faculty research and student learning.  From its humble beginnings in a single classroom to its current massive holdings of physical collections and online journals and databases, the library has sought to keep pace with emerging scholarly trends, changing researcher needs, evolving applications of technology, as well as a growing student population. Starting in 1892 and ending in 1945, this post will examine the profound changes in the library’s collections, services, and space during that time.

When the school opened its doors to students in the fall of 1892, its library consisted of a small collection of donated books.  Indeed, President McIver donated a number of reference titles from his private library to help build the school’s collection.  Incoming students were encouraged to bring “any books in their possession relating to Science, Literature, History, etc. to be used as reference books.”  The State Normal and Industrial School (now UNC Greensboro) had a very small budget for book purchases.  The first purchases of books took place at the end of 1892, the school bought standard reference titles and established American and British authors.  There were no purchases of more “current” fiction.

Main Building (Foust)

Within a short period of time, the library had to be moved to a larger classroom in the Main Building (Foust) to accommodate the growing number of books and periodicals.  The new space also had a reception area for visitors.  This space was managed by a faculty member and some student workers.  In 1895, with the increased use of its library, the school hired its first full time librarian, Annie F. Petty.  Ms. Petty was able to introduce a more formal method of cataloging works and meeting user requests.  She also oversaw the move of the library’s collections to larger space in the Main Building.  She was able to repurpose a former gymnasium to address a number of immediate space issues.  By 1900, the library had 3,000 titles.  President McIver concluded that this new space was not a permanent solution. 

Recognizing that the state legislature would not be making funds available soon for a new library, President McIver decided to write to the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie for help.  Mr. Carnegie had established a program to fund the construction of public libraries around the country.  McIver’s appeal to support the public education of women seemed to resonate with Carnegie.  The State Normal and Industrial School was awarded $15,000 for a new building and nearly $4000 for furniture and shelving.  The new library building (Forney) was built on College Ave.  It was considered a “modern” building and was equipped with steam heat and electrical lights.  Annie Petty described the building as being of “red brick and granite trimmings, and contains seven rooms on the first floor and two on the second.  It is furnished in light oak and furnished throughout with Library Bureau furniture, which is artistic, durable, and convenient in every respect.”  The Carnegie structure also contained a fire-proof stack-room which had the capacity of 30,000 volumes and also a fireproof vault.  Ms. Petty opened the doors of the new library to students in October 1905.

Carnegie Library Building, 1905

With the ending of World War One and rationing, the state’s legislature turned its attention to reconstruction and a growing postwar economy.  The school (now called the North Carolina College for Women) experienced a postwar growth in student enrollment.  To meet the needs of this larger student population, the state allocated funds ($75,000) to expand the footprint of the original building.  Starting in 1921, a year-long construction project took place.  The newly expanded structure was nearly three times as large as the original building.  The expanded building would include new public seating to increase the total public seating to 373.  The expansion of stack space now allowed for 95,000 volumes.  With Ms. Petty’s retirement in 1920, the new space was supervised by Charles B. Shaw.  Shaw was a trained librarian.  He also was a strong and vocal advocate for libraries.  Through his tireless promotion of the library, he would obtain funds to dramatically build the book collection as well as nearly double the size of the library’s staff.  The 1920s represented a decade of growth in the library.

On September 15, 1932, the library suffered a significant set-back.  A fire broke out in the middle of the night.  Thankfully no staff or patrons were injured since the building was closed.  Yet, the damage to the building was significant.  The greatest damage centered on the reading room and the library science room.  The estimates are that 12,000 to 15,000 titles were damaged by smoke and water.  But, the majority of the library’s holdings survived in the fire-proof structure in the building.  The damage was estimated to be $98,000.  The library’s staff and surviving collections were temporarily moved to the Students’ Building.

Under the supervision of the college librarian Charles H. Stone, the rebuilding of the library began almost immediately.  The year-long project involved both the repair of fire damaged areas as well as the expansion of the building.  The expansion project would involve the addition of two wings to the building and a new stack space.  Additionally, the expansion project allowed for a new space for students to enjoy current and “popular” works for recreational reading.  Beyond the construction project, the library undertook a collections development project.  New titles had to be purchased and other damaged titles replaced.  The library would also struggle to “rebuild” its card catalog system since it was almost completely destroyed in the fire.  Finally, the library sought to develop new services to support student research.  The library instituted the position of a “readers’ advisor” to assist individuals in selecting what “they need or want to read.”

On the eve of the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the school, there was a flurry of news accounts about the library and the college.  A number of newspaper articles written in April 1941 noted that the library was recognized as the largest woman’s college library in the South.  The school was now called the Woman’s College of the University of North Carolina.  The library served nearly 2,300 students and 300 faculty members with approximately 100,000 titles.  The library now employed eleven professional staff to meet the needs of 1000 daily users. 

Only four years later in 1945, a number of newspaper articles were written discussing the space crunch that the college’s library was deemed to be facing.  One article noted that the present structure is “inadequate.”  Drawing on the library’s own statistics, these newspaper accounts stressed the steady growth in book purchases and circulation.  The authors concluded that these growth numbers were straining the library’s current spaces and services.  Additionally, they declared that the library’s seating capacity had not kept pace with the significant growth in the student population. 

Not surprisingly, the college submitted a request to the 1945 North Carolina General Assembly for monies to build a new library.  Dr. Walter Clinton Jackson, Dean of Administration, stated that $380,000 was requested for the building of the new library.  Of the $380,000 asked for the library, Jackson noted that $365,000 would be for construction and $15,000 for equipment.  The proposed new three-story library building would be built directly across College Ave. from the 1905 Carnegie library building.  The new space would relieve the “cramped” conditions and would include: four large reading rooms, an exhibit room, a rare books room, an audio-visual laboratory, music audition rooms, and a series of small seminar and study rooms.  Jackson also noted that the current Carnegie library could be quickly converted into an art center or classrooms.  The immediate challenge for the college was to convince the General Assembly of this pressing space need.   

Celebrating "Service" with Park Night

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.”

The History of the College Yearbook - Part III

A student dreams about graduation, Pine Needles 1960

As Woman’s College (now UNCG) moved into the 1960s, the school was on the precipice of enormous change. It was a time of political and social unrest in the country and in the community, but the campus yearbook, Pine Needles, did not always reflect this turmoil. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Pine Needles retained a more traditional format, including photographs of campus buildings, school organizations, sports, and individual student portraits. These yearbooks also tended to represent a more conventional view of women’s roles in society. Images of female students dreamily pondering graduation, shiny new cars, and engagement rings, occupied many of the pages. Local events, such as the Woolworth Sit-ins of February 1960 and the Tate Street protests, were noticeably missing from the publications. Yet, there was a sense that Woman’s College students were moving toward greater self-awareness. The make-up and mindset of the student body was evolving, and soon the yearbook would become more of a reflection of the times.

One of the most significant changes on campus during the 1960s was the admittance of male students. The school had been a women’s college since it opened in 1892, but in the fall of 1964 it opened its doors to men and officially became The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. During the first few years after this shift, there was very little evidence in the yearbooks that men had been integrated into campus life.  It took several years before male students were fully assimilated into the student body and were equally represented in the yearbook.

President Richard Nixon lampooned in the 1973 Pine Needles

The 1960s and 1970s ushered in a more political era on the UNCG campus, and this shift was reflected in the yearbooks. Political cartoons and realistic photographs peppered the Pine Needles of these decades. Presidential elections and campus protests were prominently featured. President Richard Nixon was a particular target of student artists on the Pine Needles staff and he was lampooned in several volumes. These highly charged drawings echoed the art of political cartoonists such as Paul Conrad, who was chronicling current issues such as Watergate, civil rights, and social injustice in national publications.  Pine Needles not only covered national events, but also those closer to campus, such as the Black Power Forum, which was included in the 1969 yearbook.  It also continued to include images of students, campus views, and school sports, as well as visiting bands and entertainers.

Black Power Forum, Pine Needles 1969

In the decades after the college became co-educational, it was still trying to come to terms with its new identity. UNCG had embraced the male students and campus expansion, but because of its lack of social opportunities and adequate dormitories, many considered the school to be a “suitcase college” or commuter school. The administration actively sought ways to bring the students back to campus. A survey of the student body reflected a strong interest in bringing national fraternities and sororities to the university. From the time that the school opened, these types of social organizations had not been welcomed by the administration. Charles Duncan McIver, the founder and first president of the college, had considered them elitist, and instead instigated literary societies. Fraternities and sororities were finally approved by the faculty and trustees, and the first membership rush took place in 1980; the same year that the school exceeded a 10,000 enrollment.

Pine Needles 1984

 
When the school celebrated its 100th birthday, the event was chronicled in the 1992 Pine Needles. But sadly, this centennial edition would be one of its last. Budgetary constraints and general student apathy heralded the demise of the yearbook, and the last volume of Pine Needles was published in 1993.

However, the yearbooks remain a popular and heavily researched part of the archival collection at UNCG. Each volume serves as a time capsule of fashion, school traditions, campus scenery, and student life. Most importantly, these yearbooks have recorded and commemorated the history of the school, from its beginnings as a woman’s teaching college to its current place as a vital public liberal arts and research university.

Walter Clinton Jackson and the Documenting of the Great War

This year marks the centenary of the United States’ involvement in World War One.  Over the course of twenty months (April 1917-November 2018), the nation mobilized its military, natural resources, industry, and citizens to fight an overseas war in Europe.  Realizing that maintaining public morale was critical to achieving victory, the federal government and the state of North Carolina promoted the concepts of patriotism, service, and sacrifice.  Here on campus, the students, faculty, and administrators of the North Carolina State Normal and Industrial College (now known as UNC Greensboro) rallied to the cause and enthusiastically supported the war effort.  Their activities included: buying Liberty Bonds, training stenographers, making bandages, conserving food, and serving as Red Cross volunteers. 

The school was also deeply involved in documenting the contributions of North Carolinians to the war.  President Foust sought to both promote and document the school as a leader in war work.  For example, President Foust had professional photographs taken of the school’s students canning food, maintaining the grounds on campus, and harvesting crops at its farm.  Copies of these photographs were sent to Raleigh as evidence of the institution’s wartime work.  Moreover, Dr. Walter Clinton Jackson, head of the State Normal’s Department of History, championed the collecting of information detailing women’s war work on and off campus. 

Dr. Walter Clinton Jackson

Responding to a July 1917 letter sent by the North Carolina Historical Committee to President Foust requesting that all “materials bearing on the war” be preserved, Dr. Jackson and the History Department took up the call to collect.  The History Department published a 1917 pamphlet that made the case for documenting women’s war work.  The pamphlet declared that “it is the purpose of the State Normal and Industrial College to make a systematic effort to collect for permanent preservation all the material related to the work of women in this great crisis, so that when the historian who tries to write of woman’s part in the life of former days, he will not lack for ample and correct records.”  The pamphlet asks the reader to direct any communication relative to this work directly to “W.C. Jackson, Greensboro, N.C.”

In 1918, Dr. Jackson and the History Department published three additional pamphlets on collecting war-related materials.  The first publication “Women and the War in North Carolina: Suggestions for the Collection of Historical Material” was widely circulated amongst students and alumnae.  The pamphlet addressed the types of materials found in each of the collecting areas.  These collecting areas included: newspaper clippings, official and semi-official documents, manuscript material, pictorial material, educational material, and propaganda.  Readers were asked to mail any war-related items to Professor Jackson so that “it may be properly filed and preserved at the State Normal and Industrial College.” 

Drawing on the materials received from throughout the state, the second publication, “The State Normal and Industrial College and the War,” detailed the college’s wartime activities that included its work with the Red Cross, the YWCA, food conservation, as well as war-related lectures presented on and off campus.  In a lengthy introduction to the pamphlet, President Foust noted that the responsibility of war work should be shouldered by students and faculty since they enjoyed the advantages of a college education.  The third publication, “Women and the War in North Carolina” was written by students Mabel Tate and Naomi Neal of the Class of 1918.  It reported on the work accomplished by the state’s women from April 1917 to April 1918.   Working with Dr. Jackson, the authors of the report summarized the types of women’s war work performed in the areas of fundraising, knitting and sewing, food production, and nursing activities.  The pamphlet also listed the types of materials being received at the State Normal.

On November 11, 1918, an Armistice was signed and the fighting on the Western Front ended.  When news of the peace reached campus, President Foust allowed students to stage a victory celebration as well as join the citizens of Greensboro for a parade downtown.  With the conclusion of the war and demobilization, many individuals and organizations began to look towards peace-time reconstruction.  The state of North Carolina recognized the need to formalize and centralize documentation efforts.  Legislators felt that these preserved records would serve to honor and commemorate the heroic efforts and sacrifices of its citizens.  In 1919, the state’s General Assembly authorized and funded the position of ‘Collector of War Records.”  The veteran and educator, Robert House was hired to serve as Collector.  To support his efforts, House decided to reactivate and broaden the wartime network of citizen historians.

Not surprisingly, Dr. Walter Clinton Jackson was recruited to help document the homefront mobilization in Guilford County.  A committee of “collectors” for Guilford County was formed in 1919.  Jackson was selected to serve as the committee’s Chairman.  Jackson and the committee developed an ambitious plan to gather documents from local government agencies, civic groups, social organizations, and soldiers.  In 1920, Robert House, the state’s “Collector of War Records,” recognized the successful work of Walter Clinton Jackson and his committee.  He urged other county collectors to embrace Jackson’s collecting model. 

Through the tireless efforts of Professor Walter Clinton Jackson, a substantial number of State Normal records that relate to World War One were preserved.  Jackson met and surpassed his charge to preserve materials relating to women’s war work for future historians.  Indeed, these records can be found both in the department of Special Collections and University Archives at UNC Greensboro as well as in the North Carolina State Archives in Raleigh.  

Harriet Elliott: Teaching and Making History

Harriet Wiseman Elliott (1884 – 1947) was truly a woman ahead of her time. Her students would say that she not only taught history, but made it.

Harriet Elliott in the midst of State Normal students, ca. 1920

Harriet Elliott came to the State Normal and Industrial College (now UNCG) as a faculty member in the Department of History and Political Science. During her time at the college, she would inspire generations of students to learn about government, democracy, and their responsibilities as citizens of the United States.

Young Harriet Elliott

Born to a very political family, Miss Elliott’s interest in current affairs began when she was growing up in the small town of Carbondale, Illinois. Concerned with social injustice and community economics, her father Allan Elliott, attended many political rallies and parades, and took his young daughter with him. Mr. Elliott was an avid Democrat, and as it was mostly Republican territory, the Democrats often lost local elections. Reacting to the frequent losses, Harriet exclaimed, “Why don’t you change your vote so we can be on the winning side sometimes?” This was a sign of things to come – Harriet Elliott did not like to lose.

As Harriet’s parents believed in women’s education, she was sent to Hanover College in Indiana. It did not take long for her to establish herself as a rebel. She campaigned against rules that she thought were absurd, such as the living and working circumstances in the dormitories and the poor condition of local prisons.


While earning her Master’s degree at Columbia University, Harriet became more passionately interested in suffrage. It was at a college lecture on women’s rights that she would meet Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, a leader in the national suffrage movement.  After Dr. Shaw’s talk, Harriet waited backstage to speak to her. They immediately discovered that they were political kindred spirits and became lifelong friends. It was Dr. Shaw who suggested that Harriet’s true calling was to study, and eventually teach, political science.

Miss Elliott

When “Miss Elliott” joined the faculty of the State Normal, she brought fresh and sometimes controversial ideas to the Southern women’s college. Her students looked forward to her fiery lectures on history and politics, which introduced concepts such as “women’s rights, informed electorate, the democratic way, responsible freedom, and the dead weight of uniformity.” She encouraged independence of political thought and even helped her students form the Student Government Association in 1915.
     
In April of 1917, the United States entered into the First World War. Miss Elliott realized that with the world changing so profoundly, so must her teaching methods. Instead of using textbooks for lessons in current events, she asked that her students prepare for class by reading the daily paper. She believed that this was the best way to show that “government [was] a living subject.” Miss Elliott took every opportunity to educate her young students about women’s equality in a wartime nation, offering a program in June 1918, titled “Women and War.”

Moving beyond the confines of the campus, Miss Elliott also spoke to the community, calling for women to go to war – overseas or at home! Recognizing her passion for politics, President Woodrow Wilson appointed her to the North Carolina’s Women’s National Defense Council. She was also a prominent member of the state’s Woman’s Committee. But perhaps most of all, Miss Elliott was a suffragist, constantly advocating for the right for women to vote. She resented being grouped “among idiots and criminals [who] were classified as politically incompetent” to cast a ballot! She felt so strongly about her personal right to participate in elections, that she maintained her legal residence in Illinois so that she could vote there. Women had been able to vote for the president and in local elections in Illinois since 1913.

Dr. Anna Howard Shaw speaks at Commencement, 1919

Miss Elliott was strongly connected with leaders of the suffrage movement. She worked with the Federation of Women's Clubs and spoke across the state about women's rights. She was also a member of the North Carolina Equal Suffrage Association and scheduled many strong suffrage advocates to speak to the student body of the State Normal. These speakers included Jeannette Rankin, the first woman to serve in the United States Congress, as well as her friend, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, who spoke at the school on three occasions between 1917 and 1919. Miss Elliott and her students were hopeful that North Carolina would soon ratify the 19th Amendment, but it was not to be. When the suffrage bill went in front of the North Carolina Legislature, it was not ratified. Fortunately, on April 20, 1920, the requisite number of states passed legislation officially granting American women the right to vote.

After women gained the vote, Miss Elliott expanded her efforts to inform the women of North Carolina of their rights. In June of 1920, she offered “A School of Citizenship for Women,” which was open not only to her students, but to “all the women of North Carolina.” The program included lectures and round table discussions regarding the government’s structure and purpose. Miss Elliott was also a founding member of the North Carolina League of Women Voters. In 1926, Miss Elliott helped revive the League in Greensboro, which had lapsed, and encouraged the participation of the “New Voters League,” a chapter at the North Carolina College for Women (now UNCG).

Miss Elliott waits with her students for election results, 1940s

She continued her interest in women’s rights and politics, and when the United States entered the Second World War, she was recruited by President Franklin Roosevelt to serve as Consumer Advisor on the National Defense Advisory Committee and as a member of the Women’s Division of the War Finance Committee.
     
Following in Miss Elliott’s footsteps were thousands of alumnae – many becoming active in national, state, or local politics, the League of Women Voters, or other community organizations. Perhaps more than anything – that was her greatest legacy.

Winged Victory - Gift of the Class of 1915

Known simply as "Winged Victory" for the majority of its time on campus, the armless, headless, statue of Nike (as she was known in Greek) or more properly, The Winged Victory of Samothrace (as the original is called by the Louvre) is an example of a plaster cast statue, created from an original ancient marble statue. The method of production of this type of statue has been discussed here before and in that regard, this statue is no different.

Plaster cast statue of Winged Victory located in the Forney Building, 2018 (photo by author)

The Winged Victory of Samothrace original is located in the Louvre. It was discovered in 1863 on the island of Samothrace by Charles Champoiseau and is believed to have been created about 190 BC, possibly to commemorate a major Rhodian naval victory. 1

The Winged Victory of Samothrace original statue located in the Louvre 2

 UNCG's Winged Victory arrived in 1915, as a gift of the graduating class. Although it's impossible to say where the Class of 1907 bought the statue of Minerva, Winged Victory has its maker's stamp clearly visible.

"Caproni Casts" maker's mark on UNCG's Winged Victory

Caproni Borthers was a well-regarded plaster cast statue manufacturer in the days when these type of statues were in vogue. On page 18 of their 1911 catalog, Winged Victory statues are available in a variety of sizes and prices.

1911 Caproni Brothers catalog, page 18 3

Much like the Class of 1907 Minerva statue, Winged Victory has had a long journey on UNCG's campus. The statue was presented during class day ceremonies in May, 1915, by the senior class and stood for the next 35 years in the old Student's Building (no longer extant), the same building as Minerva.

Image of Winged Victory in the Student's Building from 1929 Pine Needles (yearbook)

The old Student's Building was razed in 1950, leaving Winged Victory without a home. The statue next showed up in a garage behind the "old Scarborough House" which was located about where the Ferguson Building now stands. Winged Victory was saved by Dr. Jim Cooley who was quoted as saying, "One day, I believe some sort of maintenance crew came around and was about to take the statue and all of the contents of the garage out to the dump." Luckily, Dr. Cooley had recognized the importance of the statue, partially due to the small plaque at the base of the statue, identifying it as a gift of the Class of 1915.

Plaque that helped save the statue, identifying it as a gift of the Class of 1915 (photo by author)

Dr. Cooley had the statue moved into his office at the Scarborough House and when his office moved to 313 McIver, the statue went with him. The statue suffered some damage while in McIver from a leaking roof and fallen ceiling tiles and when Dr. Cooley was about to leave campus for research leave in 1985, a group of concerned UNCG staff members had the statue transferred to the basement of Alumni House.
Winged Victory's next location was possibly Weatherspoon Gallery, where it was stored until a permanent home was found. Sometime between 1985 and 1987, the statue was placed in the lobby of the Forney Building where it resides to this day. 4
In 1987, Winged Victory finally received some much needed maintenance and was restored by Simone Spicer-Raab (Class of 1987).  5

1- https://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/winged-victory-samothrace
2- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nike_of_Samothrake_Louvre_Ma2369_n4.jpg Public Domain image 
3- The 1911 Caproni Brothers catalog can be viewed online.
4- Today on Campus Wednesday, September 25, 1985 No. 59
5- Campus Weekly Sept. 21-Oct. 5, 1987, page 1