Wilson Library exhibit unveils University 'treasures'

Priceless Gems: Treasures from Carolina’s Past, a special collections exhibition housed in UNC’s Wilson Library, opened to the public on Jan. 24. Featuring a carefully curated selection of artifacts, the exhibit highlights unique pieces of historical significance and the captivating stories they reveal about the University. 

Linda Jacobson, keeper of the North Carolina Collection Gallery, said that the exhibit currently holds 20 items and three audio clips, all of which are considered “treasures.” 

“They're connected to UNC history,” Jacobson said in reference to the artifacts. “They're connected to the history or the events or people who went to school here who are famously connected to the University.”

The exhibition has the treasures organized into five separate exhibits: The First Hundred Years, Student Life, Student Organizations, Athletics and Notable Tar Heels.

“The great thing about all of these items is that researchers, enthusiasts, students, staff, whoever can come in and look at these items in our reading room — have that tactile experience,” Jacobson said. 

Jacobson was inspired to start the exhibit after Wilson Library received Joseph Caldwell's telescope as a gift. In 1824, Caldwell, the first president of UNC, took a trip to Europe to bring scientific equipment back to the University with a plan to build an astronomical observatory on campus. As a result, UNC was the first state university to have this kind of observatory. 

Also available in the collection is George Moses Horton's acrostic poems. Horton was an enslaved man from Chatham County who taught himself to read and write. With any money Horton made, he bought free time from his enslaver to travel to Chapel Hill. He would write and sell romantic poems to UNC students, with the first letters spelling out the subject’s name. 

In honor of Horton and his work, Horton Residence Hall was named after him in 2007. 

Lolita Rowe, assistant University archivist for outreach and engagement, said that one item chosen for this collection was the Master’s diploma of Henry Owl, the first Native American to graduate from UNC in 1929. 

Owl grew up as part of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Reservation, which only taught up to the eighth grade at the time. He then attended the historically Black Hampton University and Lenoir College — now Lenoir-Rhyne University — before coming to UNC.

After UNC, he used his master’s thesis to oppose literacy tests that prevented anyone of Cherokee ancestry from voting. The UNC Student Affairs building was named after Owl in 2021.

Rowe also spoke about the Omega Psi Phi fraternity scrapbook, an artifact from the first Black Greek letter fraternity on campus in 1973. 

“Their focus was on scholarship and leadership and activism,” Rowe said. “And so, it's just basically helping to create a space for Black students at a predominantly white institution.”

Christian Edwards, assistant keeper for the North Carolina Collection Gallery, said that one of the pieces she enjoys is the original hand-drawn plays by Dean Smith during his time as the UNC men’s basketball head coach.

“Of course, UNC athletes or athletics would not be where it is in the national reputation of the ACC without Dean Smith,” Edwards said.

Another artifact that Edwards holds in high regard is geologist Elisha Mitchell’s pocket watch.

Mitchell, also a UNC professor, identified a peak in the Black Mountains as the highest in the eastern United States. His scientific methods were so accurate that he was within 12 feet of modern technology measurement tools, she said. 

In 1857, Mitchell went missing while exploring the Black Mountain range. A hunter was sent out to find him, but found his dead body at the bottom of a waterfall, with the pocket watch in his pocket, marking his time of death, Edwards said. 

In 1881, the U.S. Geological Survey named the peak that Mitchell identified after him: Mount Mitchell.

“Both of my parents were North Carolina history teachers, so when we were sitting around the campfire, my mom would actually tell us the story of Mount Mitchell and the competition between Mitchell and one of his former students, Thomas Clingman, to find the highest point east of the Mississippi,” Edwards said. 

Mitchell's pocket watch, Dean Smith's plays, the Omega Psi Phi scrapbook, Henry Owl's masters diploma, George Moses Horton's poems and Joseph Caldwell's telescope, alongside other treasures, will be on display in Wilson Library at least until May of this year. 

“We're telling Carolina's story, and each individual makes up who we are today from different aspects,” Jacobson said. “You see from different people who were at one point not considered to be a part of our community to people who are now a part of our community. And I think that's what the story tells us, what that community is for us today.”

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