This recipe comes from Hoi Toiders’ Recipes and Remembrances issued in 1993 by the Ocracoke Volunteer Fire Department on Ocracoke Island, in Hyde County, North Carolina. Nancy Hartlaub shared her “Crockpot Roast Pork” recipe as part of the fundraiser for the fire department.
I assembled all of the ingredients, choosing to use Honeycrisp apples. I think my apples were larger than those Nancy used in her original recipe because they ended up making more liquid than expected. (Note to self – use fewer apples next time.)
Just as Nancy directed, I assembled the apples and sweet potatoes in layers, then placed the pork loin on top. I used a boneless pork loin, which lessened the cooking time to about six hours on low. Then I poured the glaze over the cut of meat, following with more layering of the sweet potatoes and apples.
Can you smell those pictures? The scent of apples and ginger filled my house! The drawing of the eager pup waiting for the crock pot to finish cooking is so true.
Here is the finished pot roast – it was so tender and easy to shred. While I served mine with rice, Nancy has another recipe in the cookbook for “Corn” Bread which would be a tasty alternative. (Bonus recipe at the end.)
Nestled within the Special Collections and University Archives is the Robert C. Hansen collection.
This collection dates from circa 100 to 2020 (bulk 1800s-2000s) and contains programs, heralds, guidebooks and periodicals, playbooks, sheet music and songbooks, correspondence and autographs, original costume and scenery designs, posters, photographs, postcards, tradecards, scrapbooks, and other visual materials and memorabilia which document the history of the performing arts, mainly theatre, in many countries.
Part of the Hansen collection contains a variety of three dimensional objects. In order to preserve and care for these items, custom made archival storage boxes are made.
Specialty plates depicting scenes from Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Using special foam, a cozy niche is carved into which the object can safely and easily rest. This ensures the protection of these delicate objects as they are moved about, keeping them from bumping into other items. It is fascinating to see these precious artifacts from long ago productions, keepsake treasures, or promotional materials to encourage attendance at special performances.
Porcelain figures of the actors protraying their characters
Wooden bust of actor Sir Henry Irving as Cardinal Richilieau
Bust and Base enclosed in specially constructed conservation box
Tools are used to carve archival foam in the shape of each object, allowing it to nestle safely within the enclosure
In this new artist’s book, artist Ellen Schechner-Johnson explores the legend of the “Paper Bridge,” seeking to express the historic liminality of Jewish existence, the image of the wandering Jew, the subjects of displacement, homelessness, and disconnection—of belonging and not belonging. The poems by Kadya Molodowsky express this, specifically, and are placed as touchstones or buried treasure within the collaged fragments of text and expressive etchings by the artist. Molodowsky’s poems are printed by letterpress in both Yiddish and English.
This work contains poems by Kadya Molodowsky, and hand painted etchings, drypoints, and collages by Ellen Schechner-Johnson. It is letterpress printed text on handmade paper by Twinrocker and the Morgan Conservatory. It is hand bound in linen and paste paper and housed in a clamshell box mounted with two drypoint prints, 9″ x 13″ in an edition of 30.
Ellen Schechner-Johnson states that paper is both the principal art material that she works with and it intrigues her as a symbol. She “was reading about the uses of paper in various spiritual practices, and saw the words “the paper bridge.” For many years she researched this image.
“It led me to a book called Paper Bridges, a book of Yiddish poetry by Kadya Molodowsky. She wrote about her memories of Jewish life in Eastern Europe, which she left in 1935, and her transition to life in New York City, where she was deeply involved in the Yiddish literary society of that time.”
Kadya Molodowsky
“This literary group used the image of the paper bridge to keep connection to the culture of their past that they had had to leave in Europe before and during World War II, preserved by stories, captured on paper—the life of a disappearing culture.”
“Paper and language became a direction for my work on a series of painted and collaged books—books about lostness, about searching for home.”
“This present book, thanks to Michele Burgess and Brighton Press, is a continuation of this topic.”
The bridge—as transition—needed a book with an extended, horizontal form.
The Hard-Boiled Women: Post-World War II Female Detective Fiction exhibition showcases female detective authors that are often overlooked or undervalued. Most of these authors also wrote female detectives as their protagonists. This broke stereotypes and pushed society’s understanding of what women were capable of in the decades following World War II. Many women felt they proved themselves capable when they took over the men’s jobs during the war. But societal pressure when the soldiers returned sent them back home to domesticity. This was an interesting exploration into how women wrote about themselves in a time period when they were exploring their role in society.
The books are pulled from the Robbie Emily Dunn Collection of American Detective Fiction which primarily has mysteries written by women or starring women. I previously looked through the collection and was unfamiliar with most of the authors so I thought there must be a lot of people who are unaware of these women and their contributions to literature. I chose 11 authors who primarily wrote in the 1940s and 50s about women solving crimes. A few of the protagonists are men but the authors behind them are deserving of praise so I wanted to include them. M. V. Heberden is one of those writers. She wrote over 30 novels, some of them starring her character, Desmond Shannon. Married couples who credited under a pseudonym are also featured in the exhibition. For example, G. G. Fickling (aka Gloria and Forest Fickling) who wrote the iconic Honey West series.
SCUA staff Carolyn Shankle and Audrey Sage both won well-deserved UNCG Staff Star Awards on February 2/21/2024!
The Staff Star Award recognizes outstanding service and dedication on behalf of the UNCG Staff Senate and the entire UNCG community. We are lucky to have Carolyn and Audrey in SCUA!
Book Talk
University Libraries and Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives will host a book talk by authors Hal E. Pugh and Eleanor Minnock-Pugh, on their book Naomi “Omie” Wise: Her Life, Death and Legend on March 21, 2024 at 3:30 PM, in the Oakley Room of Alumni House on UNCG’s campus. The event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.
Naomi Wise was drowned by her lover in the waters of North Carolina’s Deep River in 1807. Her murder has been remembered in ballad and story for well over two centuries. Mistakes, romanticization, and misremembering have been injected into Naomi’s biography over time blurring the line between reality and fiction. The authors of this book, whose family has lived in the Deep River area since the 18th century, are descendants of many of the people who knew Naomi Wise or were involved in her murder investigation. This is the story of a young woman betrayed, shedding light on the plight of impoverished women in early America and the inner workings of the Piedmont North Carolina Quaker community that cared for Naomi and her daughter and kept their memory alive.
On the coldest evening in January, Carolyn Shankle led an select group from the Alumni Leadership team on the UNCG Campus Ghost Tour. While everyone enjoyed the tour they all agreed that the next tour would be scheduled when it was warmer.
Curators’ Talk
Join us on February 29 at 3pm for a presentation by archivists Kathelene Smith and Patrick Dollar as they discuss the curation and installation of “Give My Regards to Broadway: 6 Plays.” This exhibit, located in the Hodges Reading Room, features six musicals that originated on Broadway and are either playing now or have been on stage within the last year. Most of these have won multiple Tony Awards and you will probably be familiar with them all!
Welcoming Alumnae Back to Campus
On Friday, January 26th, University Archivist Erin Lawrimore assisted Interim Director of Alumni Engagement Beth Carlin in hosting the UNCG group from the River Landing retirement community in High Point. The UNCG group consists of UNCG alumni and former faculty/staff who now live in River Landing. During their visit, the UNCG group took a bus tour of campus and learned about many of the changes that have taken place to the campus facilities in the last 50 years. After the tour, they enjoyed a lunch in the Oakley Family Reception Room at the Alumni House.
Welcome to Matthew Berdon!
Matthew Berdon is the new project archivist who is processing and digitizing the Loewenstein-Atkinson Architectural Firm Records. Matthew is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Information and Library Science. He also has a BA in Classical and Medieval studies from Bates College. Matthew is an enthusiastic scholar of library science and academic librarianship with a professional background in DEIA work in academic libraries. He has experience researching and developing library guides, building academic library collections, and working collaboratively to meet long-term goals. Additionally, Matthew has experience in archival settings scanning, cataloging, and providing metadata to archeological materials. He enjoys playing board games in his free time, as well as watching and discussing vintage movies. Matthew is also an avid reader of non-fiction and books addressing contemporary social issues. A fun fact about Matthew is that he has sailed close to 10,000 miles in the Atlantic Ocean and in the Caribbean.
Community Outreach
On February 22, 2024, Kathelene Smith spoke to the Thursday Study Club in Asheboro, NC about SCUA’s Collections.
And we made some time to celebrate Mardi Gras with king cakes and, of course, beads…
The scrapbook was created by Pauline Green between 1917 and 1921 and documents her time as a student at the State Normal and Industrial College (later North Carolina College for Women, now UNCG). The scrapbook is constructed of green front and back covers bound by brown leather straps and is annotated in black ink on white paper.
Pauline was in college during the World War I. The students were very active in homefront mobilization, including the care of the campus grounds and farm, as well as food preservation. Pauline was one of many students who participated in Red Cross service during the war years. Even though the school was on lockdown because of the Spanish Flu epidemic, college president Dr. Julius Foust, allowed the students to participate in the Peace Parade in downtown Greensboro. Photographs showing the young women gathering for the parade in their Red Cross uniforms are included in the scrapbook. There are also images of the YWCA Hut built on campus grounds by the “Carpenterettes.”
Students in Red Cross dress queue for the “Peace Parade”
In 1920, the school performed the play Pride and Prejudice, and the scrapbook contains postcards, clippings, dried flowers, programs, and photographs relating to this production. As the North Carolina College for Women was a girls’ school, all of the parts were played by the young women. It appears that Pauline played the part of Jane Bennett, which was a fairly substantial role.
Students in costume for Pride and Prejudice
The daisy chain was a very popular tradition during the time that Pauline was on campus. The students created their first daisy chain in 1900, when they fashioned two fifty-foot-long ropes of daisies procured from fields located outside of town. In addition to being a festive accessory to the graduation ceremonies, the daisy chain represented a sister class project between the sophomores and the seniors. The sophomore class was responsible for gathering the flowers and crafting the chain, which was used for the Class Day exercises and again the next morning during the graduation ceremony. The seniors were honored by walking between the floral ropes.
Sophomores gathering daisies for commencement
Pauline included various photographs in her scrapbook that show campus buildings, friends, special events, and students in class sweaters. During these politically active years, the college was fortunate to have many strong suffrage advocates speak to the student body such as Dr. Anna Shaw, president of the National American Suffrage Association and personal friend of political science professor Harriet Elliott. Shaw spoke at the school on three occasions between 1917 – 1919 and spoke at the 1919 commencement ceremony. Shaw felt that the spirit of the Normal students was “inspiring and unique.”
Commencement of 1919 showing Dr. Anna Howard Shaw as speaker
Pauline’s scrapbook includes a great deal of ephemera that captures the time that Pauline spent at State Normal and Industrial College/ North Carolina College for Women. It has wonderful memorabilia, personal correspondence, autographs from friends and classmates, mementos related to Green’s Red Cross service, and artifacts such as art corners, a napkin, and a pressed cigarette.
Artifacts donated by Dr. Thomas K. Fitzgerald to the Anthropology Department have been transferred to Dr. Fitzgerald’s manuscript collection in the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections & University Archives.
Samoan Basketry
Stylized Carved Wooden Head Polynesian grass and shell necklace and bracelets
Ceremonial Wedding Cup
Louanne Watley Collection
Louanne Watley is a visual artist and writer based in Chapel Hill, NC. Recently, SCUA was fortunate to acquire a collection of Watley’s photographs, artists’ books, collotype printing plates, and prints. Characteristic of Watley’s prolific and iterative creative process, there are varied editions of multiple photographic series. Watley’s work is documentary in nature, yet her images are often cropped, manipulated, collaged, resampled, and reinvented into entirely new works. Inherent in the work of this collection is a prime example of not just the work or product of an artist but the process of an artist. Not every attempt resulted in a successfully finished piece, which is partly what we are particularly excited to share with students. In Watley’s work, students will find the importance and value of the process.
Archivists Stacey Krim and Kathelene McCarty Smith looking over the Louanne Watley collection
Rare Books
From Log Cabin to the Pulpit; or, Fifteen Years in Slavery / Reverend W.H. Robinson
Born enslaved in 1848 in Wilmington, North Carolina, Reverend Robinson describes his life there and in Tennessee, his service with the Union Army toward the end of the Civil War, various jobs held afterwards, and finally life as a pastor in the Midwest.
Cover of Robinson, Rev. W.H. From Log Cabin to the Pulpit; or, Fifteen Years in Slavery. Eau Claire, WI : Published by the Author, James H. Tifft, Printer. 1913. Third edition.
Movement in Black / Pat Parker
Movement In Black is a collection of poetry by Black lesbian feminist Pat Parker. The poems featured in the collection center around Parker’s experiences as a Black woman, lesbian, feminist, mother, writer, poet, and activist. This book provides an intimate glimpse into the intersectionality between life as a Black woman and life as a Lesbian in the 70’s. Also featured is a foreword by Black lesbian poet, Audre Lorde.
Parker, Pat. Movement in Black. Oakland: Diana Press. 1978.
Black Lesbian Newsletter, scattered issues, 1982
Published in Berkeley, California, the Black Lesbian Newsletter featured poems, drawings, political perspectives, photographs, book reviews, event listings, personals, and business listings.
Printing in the Time of COVID-19 : March – May 2020 / Lauren Emeritz
Just before the Pandemic lock-down started in March 2020, Lauren Emeritz participated a letterpress workshop with Amos Paul Kennedy. Inspired to print, but not able to use the press in the studio due to the Pandemic, Emeritz began printing in a makeshift print studio in her home. Using wood type, a Vandercook 99, and hand-inking, she printed on chipboard, an inexpensive and accessible substrate. The prints include words and phrases from during that time early in the pandemic (March to May 2020).
Rule of Thumb / Ellen Knudson
From the artist’s website and colophon: “Rule of Thumb is a moveable book about the historical human obsession with ourselves and with approval from others. In the last 10 years, we have become obsessed with living online instead of actual living. We seem to only care about how many “thumbs up”, likes, or hearts we can accumulate on social media platforms. We practice a psychological social separation. We live virtual lives. Now, with the proliferation of the COVID-19 virus, we are living with the physical reality of “social-distancing”. How will we make it back? Can we make it back? I hope we will realize how much we don’t want to live without one another.” Rule of Thumb considers the ways in which humans have used our thumbs to, at best, twist reality, and at worst, ruin ourselves.
Women Veterans Historical Project
More Nurses are Needed!
1944 Recruiting poster for the U.S. Army Nurse Corps. Artist Henry McAlear.
Unknown WAC’s 1950-1951 Photograph Album
This photograph album was compiled by a Women’s Army Corps enlisted soldier from 1950-1951. The photographs were taken at basic training at Fort Lee (now Fort Gregg-Adams), Virginia and Fort Riley, Kansas. The WAC (who identifies herself in captions as “me”) trained as a clerk-typist.
Stella Minnie Mahler Pace Scrapbooks
Two scrapbooks documenting her time as a U.S. Navy WAVE during WWII. Mace (1909-2007), of Matteson, Illinois, did her boot camp training at the University of Wisconsin Madison and was stationed at The Naval Air Training Center Corpus Christi, Texas from 1943-1944 where she was a radioman 3rd class.
1958 U.S. Women’s Army Corps Center Fort McClellan, Alabama Yearbook
In September 1954 General Matthew B. Ridgeway, Chief of Staff of the Army dedicated the Center. The Center conducted basic training, clerk-typist, stenography, personnel specialist, leadership, and cadre courses for enlisted personnel and basic and advanced courses for officers.
Recruiting material for the WAF and WAVES 1950s-1973
It is with great sadness we share that Jennifer Brooks, Temporary Assistant Archivist in University Libraries, died on Wednesday, January 3, 2024, in Greensboro. A memorial service celebrating her life was held at 11:00 AM on Saturday, January 20, 2024 at Rolling Roads Baptist Church, 2800 Vanstory St., Greensboro, NC 27407.
Brooks earned her MLIS in 2017 from UNC Greensboro. While a student, she worked for both Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections & University Archives (SCUA) and Digital Projects in University Libraries. After graduation, she held a temporary position in the Athletics Department, processing their memorabilia collection. She joined SCUA in January 2020, processing collections in both Rare Books and Manuscripts, as well as serving on SCUA’s public service desk and virtual chat.
Brooks was known for her love of history, historical artifacts, travel, books, and an uncanny ability to find connections with everyone she met. She built on those interests and talents through traveling around the world, gaining friends both far and close to home, and exploring a wide range of genres on her personal booktuber channel, which grew to over 8.7K subscribers. For those who knew her in person and those who followed her on social media, she will be missed for her humor, insights, enthusiasm for learning, and genuine friendship.
On Friday, November 10, 2023, the UNC Greensboro Women Veterans Historical Project (WVHP) hosted its annual luncheon, which featured keynote speaker Ingrid Ruffin, U.S. Air Force veteran and UNCG alumna. Ingrid spoke about her experiences in the military and how she has applied the lessons learned in the Air Force to her education and career. Ingrid is currently an Associate Professor and Associate Dean/Division Director for Research and Education at the University of Nevada Las Vegas Libraries.
In addition to the luncheon and the speaker, guests admired the exhibit of materials from the WVHP collections designed by Tori Hinshaw (read her piece about the exhibit HERE.)
