University Day at UNC: 1793 to 2009

Celebrated since 1877, University Day at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill commemorates the laying of the cornerstone of Old East, the first building of the first state university, on October 12, 1793. Highlights of the 216th anniversary of this happy occasion include Chancellor Thorp's address to the university community and a keynote speech by Governor Beverly Perdue at the convocation held earlier today.

To learn more about the history of the university, there are a number of online resources that can be explored, including the following:

:: The Carolina Story: A Virtual Museum of the University

-- Medical and Health Education
-- Public Service and Professional Schools at Carolina
-- Teachers, Scholars, and Citizens: Distinguished Carolina Faculty
-- Names Across the Landscape

:: The First Century of the First State University

:: This Day in the History of the University of North Carolina

:: Virtual Tour of the University

-- HSL and Health Affairs Schools

:: History of the Health Sciences Library and Health Affairs Schools

:: UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health: Meeting the Public Health Challenges of the 21st Century

In addition, here a few selected publications that deal with various aspects of the history of Health Affairs at UNC:

:: Bettering the Health of the People: W. Reece Berryhill, the UNC School of Medicine, and the North Carolina Good Health Movement / by William W. McLendon, Floyd W. Denny Jr., William B. Blythe [2007]

:: Norma Berryhill Lectures: 1985-1999 / The School of Medicine, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ; edited by William W. McLendon, William B. Blythe, Floyd W. Denny, Jr. [2000]; volume two, containing lectures from 2000-2008, has recently been published.

:: Medical Education at Chapel Hill / by W. Reece Berryhill ... [et al.] [1979]

:: Memories & Reflections: Academic Medicine, 1936-2000 / John B. Graham [2002]

:: The School of Pharmacy of the University of North Carolina: A History / by Alice Noble [1961]
:: Dreaming of a Time: The School of Public Health: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1939-1989 / by Robert Rodgers Korstad [1990]

:: The University of North Carolina School of Public Health Relates to the Needs of a Changing Society: A Selective and Interpretive Account with Emphasis on the Decade of the Sixties / by William Fred Mayes [1975]

Lastly, the HSL Special Collections web site features a variety of guides to research materials such as archival collections, digital collections, oral histories, etc. concerning the history of Health Affairs and the university as a whole. The library's online catalog also provides subject access to hundreds of resources on university history.

Note: The image above is from the Photographic Archives of the North Carolina Collection. It is a pen and ink sketch by John Pettigrew and depicts Old East circa 1797.