Category: Documents

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Documents Faculty

The Walt Hudgins Papers

We are happy to announce a new acquisition in the college archives. The Papers of Walter E. Hudgins, a longtime and beloved professor of philosophy, have been donated to the college and are open for research.

Dr. Hudgins, who died in 1986, was a Virginia native who did his undergraduate, seminary, and doctoral degrees at Duke University. After teaching at several colleges in North Carolina, he came to Wofford to teach philosophy in 1972.

In addition to some of his correspondence, the papers include a number of his speeches and essays. Some of the sermons he preached as an ordained United Methodist minister are in the collection.

Beyond his teaching and campus service, Dr. Hudgins was a published and produced playwright. The scripts of several of his plays are part of the collection, as well as the production notes, design notes, and the scores to the ones that are musicals. Over the next year, we’ll digitize some of the plays and share them so that others can read them.

The collection was donated by Mrs. Linda Hudgins, Walt’s widow, and we’re grateful to her for giving them to the college so that others might learn more about him and his work.

The finding aid for the collection is available here: http://www.wofford.edu/library/archives/FA-Hudgins.aspx

 

Categories
Documents Students

T-shirts in the Archives

Hot l Carlisle

The archives holds an interesting collection of t-shirts from the 1970s to the 2010s.

Some t-shirts come from student groups, some from Homecoming or Spring Weekend events, and others are tributes to professors, or even presidents.

But why do we collect them?  I think t-shirts are a good way of documenting student life.  They give people who attended an event or took part in a group a way of remembering the event.  I’m sure that recent college graduates have drawers or boxes full of them by the time they graduate.  

If you have a favorite t-shirt, tell me about it, or share a picture of it on the Facebook page.

We couldn’t feature all of these t-shirts in Wofford Today, so here are a few of my favorites:

Hot l Carlisle

Hotel Carlisle – a tribute to an old residence hall that was the early home to Wofford Theatre.

SUTWAK members in front of Carlisle Hall, late 1970s

SUTWAK, or Students United to Win a Keg, was a group of non-Greek students who played intramurals together (I think).  The back of the shirt is below.

A tribute to history professor Lewis P. Jones

Sometimes shirts honored faculty members, such as historian Lewis P. Jones, above, or President Benjamin B. Dunlap, below.

A t-shirt made by a student group (and autographed by Bernie Dunlap) upon the 10th president’s retirement.
Categories
Documents Students

Helicopter Parents, 1919 edition

This might be a tad unfair, but I did have that thought when I read this letter, from the mother of an entering first-year student to Wofford’s President, Dr. Henry Nelson Snyder, in the fall of 1919.

The mother, Mrs. D. G. Dantzler of Vance, SC, was writing to make sure someone would meet her son at the Spartanburg train station on the Saturday before entrance exams.  She also expressed some wishes that she had for him – that he might enter the officer’s training corps, but also that he become a good citizen and Christian gentleman.  She also noted that he wasn’t going to know anybody at the college when he got there, and so she was nervous about his

And of course, parents are always nervous about the unknowns that their sons and daughters will face when they go to college.  It was as true in 1919 as it is today.  Incidentally, R. M. Dantzler graduated from Wofford in 1923.

The letter is below.  You may click for a larger image.

Categories
Documents

Fifty Years Ago in the Advocate

Flipping through old newspapers gives us a perspective on life in years past, and looking at papers from the more recent past gives some of us a chance to remember our experiences and reactions to events that we may actually recall. These snippets come from the South Carolina Methodist Advocate of April 2, 1964, fifty years ago this spring. The issue contained a lengthy article about efforts at the upcoming General Conference to dismantle the segregated Central Jurisdiction, explaining in some detail for the laity how the denomination was structured and what ending the Central Jurisdiction might mean. Also in that issue, Rhett Jackson of Trenholm Road Church provided the weekly Bible Study. And, the cover featured pictures from the Junior High boys basketball tournament, won by St. Paul, Greenville.

Editor McKay Brabham started off the issue with this condemnation of the mixture of spring holidays and Easter:

“The annual migration of thousands of college and high-school students to the sun-spots and beer spouts of our nation is an act of blasphemy which need not be perpetuated. Days given in holiday for the remembrance of the Savior’s death and resurrection should be observed as holy days.

“Educational authorities can help in this. A change in the date of the spring holidays, if these are a requirement of our times, would at least remove the association with Christ’s sufferings of what is often reported to move from innocent idyll to bacchanalian orgy. Let it be said, however, that the reported recreational activities of considerable numbers of adults holds out little hope for the large measure of concern required to set the example of sobriety which would bring about a general improvement in youthful behavior.”

The Rev. Melvin K. Medlock provided some thoughts about clergy visiting their earlier appointments:
“In 1931, when some of us came into the Conference on trial, we heard our bishop say to a class being received into full connection, ‘Go where you are sent, and stay away from where you have been.’ Some of us were bold enough to ask the older ministers, who related stories of some clergy who had done their successors harm by going back to meddle.

“Now, a confession: I went back to assist in too many weddings in one church I left. It looked like all the girls in the church decided to get married just prior to my leaving.

“But I do not think it is good to break with friends just because one is leaving a pastorate. Among my closest friends are my predecessors who have returned occasionally to see some of their friends, to assist in weddings, etc.”

Rev. Medlock offered examples of the kindnesses that each of his predecessors had shown him in each of his appointments – either by preparing the way for him, by speaking good words about his ministry, or supporting his work.

He concluded:

“These predecessors have proved to me that a man with a good spirit can do great good by “going back” occasionally. As for the man with a jealous, vindictive spirit – do we have that kind? So far it has not been my lot to follow one of them.”

And that’s some of what was in the news for South Carolina Methodists fifty years ago

Categories
Documents Founders Photographs

William Wightman and the Cornerstone

Before a crowd of several thousand people from all over South Carolina, The Rev. William M. Wightman, the first chair of the Wofford College Board of Trustees gave an address of several thousand words that laid out some of the major principles that he hoped would be central to the new college.  At President Nayef Samhat’s inauguration this morning, student Laura Kate Gamble read some of the highlights of the address.  Here’s some of what she shared:

We are assembled this day, fellow citizens, to perform the pleasant task of laying the cornerstone of Wofford College.  A noble building is to arise on this spot, bearing on its entablatures, and emblazoning in its heraldry, the name of a citizen of Spartanburg District whose liberality has made a princely contribution to the cause of Education.  We this day give that name down to posterity…

We make this beautiful grove classic ground.  For posterity emphatically, we lay this cornerstone – Generations unborn are interested in the transactions of this hour.  We summon the future, with its great “cloud of witnesses” to join us in the ceremonies of this joyous occasion.

It is impossible to conceive of greater benefits, to the individual or to society, than those embraced in the gift of a liberal education combining the moral principle… with the enlightened and cultivated understanding which is the product of thorough scholarship.

Wofford College…will be known throughout the United States as a Methodist institution of learning…

I make this frank and distinct avowal on the present occasion, for,… on behalf of that religious organization, that its leading principles are abhorrent of sectarian bigotry, and breathe the true spirit of catholic liberality, of universal good will…. In the spirit of these broad and liberal views, we shall open the doors of this institution …

We may shout the praise of our glorious Constitution in Fourth of July celebrations, and sing to our model republican institutions.  Far better would it be to go to work, each one in the appropriate sphere of action, to strengthen the foundations on which these rest – intelligence and moral principle.

We must have better schools and more of them…Public opinion must be brought to a higher standard of judgment…  institutions of learning are the nurseries in which these noble virtues are trained.

For the good of posterity we plant the foundation of this institution.  After the hopes of ages, and amid whatever chances or changes may in the eventful future befall our social and our political institutions, may this cornerstone support a fabric still flourishing in its early freshness.

 

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Brushes with History Documents Uncategorized

The letter to Nelson Mandela

I wanted to post this earlier this year, during the international period of mourning following the death of South African President Nelson Mandela.  I knew this letter existed, but I couldn’t put my hands on it in the papers of President Joe Lesesne. Yesterday I figured out why I couldn’t find it in the Lesesne Papers:  It was already on my desk, in a stack of documents that needed some kind of special attention.  I had probably pulled it earlier to show to someone, and realized it was one of those items that needs to be filed in a way that an archivist can get to it quickly.  The flat file in the storage caddy on my desk, however, is not that kind of filing method.  Later today, it’s getting its own folder and note in the Lesesne Papers so that my successors (and me) can find it a little faster.

When some of our students and faculty visited South Africa on an Interim, they saw a letter from Dr. Lesesne to Nelson Mandela at Robben Island, the place where Mandela had been imprisoned for many years.  On their return to campus, they inquired if I had a copy of the letter, and much later, when we processed the collection, I found it.  It’s posted below, in case anyone is curious.

Categories
Alumni Documents Methodist Students

The things you find in collections

Wofford's Class of 1870

Today I got around to processing a small collection we received last summer.  The materials related to a member of Wofford’s Class of 1870 named Wellborn Davies Kirkland.  Rev. Kirkland, who became a Methodist minister, served in a number of significant positions in the Methodist Church in South Carolina, edited the Southern Christian Advocate, and was the editor of the churchwide Sunday School magazine when he died at a fairly young age in 1896.

His papers included a number of speeches he gave as a student – his 1870 graduation speech, his valedictory to his literary society, and a few other ones.  They also included some family history materials and, believe it or not, a lock of his hair that appears to have been cut after his death.

His papers included some photos of both him and his wife, and there was also a composite photo of Wofford’s 1870 graduating class.

Wofford’s Class of 1870

The W. D. Kirkland Papers are available here.

 

Categories
Coeducation Documents Photographs Students

Women at Wofford: The Early Years

In years past, I’ve put up blog posts about the early years of coeducation at Wofford – the time that the college went from being a college for men only (or mostly) to one that had both male and female students enrolled and living on campus. This month, we’ve put a display of some pictures and clippings in the entry area of the library for Women’s History Month.

From the 1971 Bohemian: Robin Henry, Donna Green, and Shelley Henry, three of the first four women day students.

Although Wofford had women students on an occasional basis from 1897 to 1970, only in the spring of 1971 did the college announce that it would admit women as regular students.  For the next five years, the college did not provide housing, but in the fall of 1975, the Board of Trustees voted to move to full residential coeducation beginning in the fall of 1976.  These clippings, photographs, and documents from the College Archives tell something about these early years of coeducation at Wofford.

Among the items in the display are some yearbook photos of the first women’s sports teams, the 1981 volleyball and basketball teams.  This clipping, below, talks about the organization of Zeta Tau Alpha, the first fraternity for women on campus.  Please drop by if you’re on campus to see all of the items in the display.

Categories
Documents Faculty

James H. Carlisle’s writings

We don’t talk much about Wofford’s third president – he’s sort of a representative of a very distant age in the life of the college.  A hundred or more students live in a residence hall named for him, Dean of Students Roberta Bigger lives in his house, but he’s become something of an unknown figure around campus.  Yet when he died, hundreds, if not thousands, attended his funeral, and he was eulogized as the most important South Carolinian of his day.

Writing styles change over time, of course, and so do educational styles.  We forget this sometimes, in this day of the discussion section, of the “flipped classroom.”  In late 19th and early 20th century South Carolina and Wofford, James Carlisle could evidently hold the attention of an audience, whether it was one of students or of members of the community.  He had flocks of admirers.

Recently, one of my student assistants scanned two volumes relating to Dr. Carlisle – one, the Carlisle Memorial Volume, is a series of articles about Dr. Carlisle’s life and legacy.  Many of the authors were his former students and some were his faculty colleagues.  I’ve added the Carlisle Memorial Volume (click the title for the link) to our Digital Commons site so others can peruse it.

I’ve also added a copy of the Addresses of James H. Carlisle to our Digital Commons site so that others might get a flavor of his speaking and writing style.

Technology that Dr. Carlisle could never have imagined can make it possible to share his words with people who will never know him, but nothing has ever quite replaced the kind of faculty-student interaction that he exemplified, and that we still try to practice here on the city’s northern border.

Categories
Alumni Documents

The Harry L. Harvin Papers

This week I updated the finding aid for one of our smaller collections – two scrapbooks and a volume of memoirs for a 1943 Wofford graduate.  Harry Harvin was a native of Sumter, the son of a Wofford alum, who enrolled at the college in 1940.  He found that at the start of his junior year, he’d have enough credits to finish in three years.  He tried to get into ROTC, but was about ten pounds underweight, but that didn’t keep him from being drafted.  Based on his impending draft notice, he joined the enlisted reserve corps, which gave him the possibility of finishing his degree before being called up.  He was actually called to active duty in late April, but the college allowed him to take his exams early.  He also was elected to Phi Beta Kappa before he left college.

His papers include a scrapbook that he kept during his freshman year, which one of my student assistants cataloged a few summers ago, and a second scrapbook with some materials from 1943-45 in it.  He was wounded while in the army.  After World War II, he attended graduate school in history at Duke University and became a college professor, teaching most of his career at St. Andrews Presbyterian College in North Carolina.  He wrote his memoirs in the 1990s

There are a few other interesting items in the collection – including a fairly small Wofford t-shirt and an ROTC patch, which I’m including here.