MANUSCRIPTS

ANNE WALL THOMAS PAPERS

Anne Wall Thomas was a Class of 1949 alumna of Woman’s College. Thomas graduated from Lilesville High School and earned a BFA and MFA from Woman’s College of the University of North Carolina, now UNC Greensboro. Her teaching career began in the public schools of Oxford, NC, and continued in the Charlotte public schools, including teaching at Central High School for a decade. While teaching in Charlotte, Thomas received a Ford Foundation Grant for High School Teachers, allowing her to study and visit West Coast art programs for a year. Following her experience in public schools, she moved to Athens, Georgia, and taught in the Department of Art at the University of Georgia. Her next teaching appointment brought her to Chapel Hill and the Art Department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While working at UNC, she wrote Colors from the Earth: Native Earth Pigments – Their Preparation and Use. Thomas moved to Reston, Virginia, for a position as Executive Director of The Greater Reston Arts Center (GRACE). After a decade in Reston, she returned to North Carolina and served for 14 years as Administrator of the Southeastern College Arts Conference.

Throughout her career, Thomas continued to produce and exhibit art, first serigraphs and later paintings and collages. She exhibited regularly in juried exhibitions in the Southeast and nationally. Her work is included in private and public collections throughout the region. She was represented by Lee Hansley Gallery in Raleigh until Mr. Hansley’s untimely death. Thomas published another book, The Walls of Walltown, inspired by her interest in family history that began while growing up in Lilesville, where she had close contact with grandparents and extended family. The book is a tribute to her forebears and the heritage she held dear. The material we have is from her time as a student of Woman’s College. This collection will be an amazing resource for working with classes in the Art Department.

THE ROAD THROUGH “DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL”: VETERANS HISTORY PROJECT

“The Road Through ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”: A Veterans History Project’ is a documentary series by USMC veteran Theresa Scott that includes photography and recorded interviews which offer insight into the lives of LGBTQIA+ service members who served before and during the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. You can listen to the interviews at: https://gateway.uncg.edu/islandora/object/mss%3AMSS0563.

RARE BOOKS

A DICKENS OF AN ACQUISITION

Recently, we had the opportunity to add to our holdings of materials relating to Charles Dickens and his works. Read on to learn more about each item.

Hunted Down

Hunted Down first appeared in 1859, in the NY Ledger, written by Dickens for the princely sum of £1000 as offered by the newspaper’s publisher, Robert Bonner. Special Collection’s copy is the publisher’s original morocco-style green cloth with gilt stamped spine and gilt stamped Dickens’ bust to front board.

Bumble’s Courtship

Inspired by Dicken’s Oliver Twist, this play may never have been publicly performed.

Sunday Under Three Heads (written under the pseudonym Timothy Sparks)

Early in his career, while busily at work on Pickwick Papers, Dickens found time to write this political tract (under this Sparks pseudonym) in support of the working man’s freedom on the Sabbath, which was being threatened by Parliamentary action. This role of working man’s champion was to continue throughout his life.

SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

After a five-year hiatus, the GSO Zine Fest returned. Held at The Crown, in downtown Greensboro’s Carolina Theater, over 50 creative artists participated. Both Maggie Murphy, Associate Professor, Art & Design Librarian, and Carolyn Shankle attended. They each made strategic purchases for the Zines & Newsletters Collection. A small selection is shown below:

Voting Arts Lab was also at the event, and for those who either registered to vote or demonstrated that they were registered to vote, they could choose a limited run poster by a North Carolina-based artist. The poster designed by Georgia Paige Welch will become part of the Print Ephemera Collection.

WOMEN VETERANS HISTORICAL PROJECT

1974 Fort Jackson WAC Training Center Yearbook

1954 WAVES Bainbridge Training Center Yearbook

CATHERINE G. KATOPES ADDITION

Catherine G. Katopes (1912-1979) of Waterbury, Connecticut, served in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) and the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) from 1942 to late 1945. Katopes joined the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps in September 1942 and was sent to basic training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa. In early 1943 she was transferred to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, where she worked in the Public Relations Office with the WAAC 158th Company. In January 1944 she was transferred to Kennedy General Hospital in Memphis.

1951 WOMEN’S ARMY CORPS RECRUITING POSTER

UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES

WOMAN’S COLLEGE BOOKENDS

These lovely wooden bookends were donated by the daughter of Woman’s College (now UNCG) alumna Grace Mildred Howell, class of 1939.