4 April 2012 Source: Special Collections Reference Collection PG2689 .U56 1943 Staff Person: Ralph Scott Description: This restricted World War II publication by the War Department “contains the Russian words and expressions you are most likely to need.” It was designed for use by Allied service personnel serving in the Soviet Union. The book contains [...]
Source: Hardison Family Papers, #767.l.p Staff Person: Ralph Scott The Hardison family was from Jamesville, North Carolina and more than three generations of family and business matters are covered in this collection. Primarily farmers, the manuscript materials describe day-to-day activities associated with agriculatural interests in Martin County. The collection covers the period 1727 to 1947 and contains [...]
This photograph features Chancellor Leo Jenkins along with Jack Minges and Waightstill H. “Booger” Scales at the famed Copacabana Club in New York City. Taken in October of 1963, the trio had much to celebrate including the recent opening of Ficklen Stadium. Scales, considered East Carolina’s greatest fundraiser, organized a group that sought donations from [...]
George Willcox McIver was born on December 22, 1858, at Carthage, N.C., and died in 1947 at the age of eighty-nine. He was the son of Alexander McIver, a noted North Carolina educator, and Mary Ann Willcox. McIver was appointed to West Point in 1877 and graduated with the class of 1882. Upon graduation, he began a military career of forty years of active service including duty in the United States, Alaska, Cuba, France, and the Philippine Islands.
McIver’s military career began with service in the West (1883-1891) with the 7th U.S. Infantry. He was stationed at various forts, including Pembina, Fred Steele, Laramie, Logan, and Bridger. He was sent to Rock Springs, Wyoming (1885), along with other troops to put down civil unrest between Chinese and white miners. McIver’s unit participated in the “Sioux Campaign” of 1890-1891 which culminated in the Battle of Wounded Knee. He served as a tactical officer at West Point (1891-1893); duty officer to Camp Pilot Butte, Montana (1893); and Regular Army officer with the California National Guard (1894), where he observed the civil unrest of the California Railroad Strikes. In 1898, McIver was reunited with the 7th U.S. Infantry, which was mobilized at Chickamauga Park, Georgia, for service in Cuba during the Spanish-American War, where McIver’s unit participated in the Battle of El Caney.
From 1898-1900, McIver was stationed at Ford Brady, Michigan, and at Leech Lake Indian Agency in Walker, Minnesota. From 1900 to 1903, he was stationed at Nome and Fort St. Michael, Alaska. He was assigned to the Philippine Islands from 1903 until July 1905, when he returned to California as the Commandant of the U.S. military prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. In 1907, he became the Commandant of the army’s first musketry school at Monterey, California. In 1911, he began work on a revision of the Army Small Arms Firing Manual. McIver served a second tour of duty in the Philippines (1914) before becoming executive officer of the Militia Bureau of the War Department (1915).
Before U.S. intervention in World War I, McIver was promoted to Brigadier General and took command of the 161st Brigade of the 81st (Wild Cat) Division which trained at Camp Jackson and Camp Sevier, South Carolina. This unit became incorporated into the American Expeditionary Force and participated in the Meuse-Argonne offensive. From 1919 until his retirement in 1922, McIver was stationed at Fort Pike, Arkansas, and Fort Slocum, New York.
Source: Benjamin B. Winborne Papers, 1872-1930 #691.005 Staff Person: Dale Sauter Description: Today’s staff pick features a menu from the Willoughby Beach Hotel (Willoughby Beach, VA) dated July 15, 1905. This item came from the Benjamin B. Winborne Papers. Not much information was readily available on the hotel; however, the link below offers a few [...]
Source: Elizabeth Rudder Fearrington Croom Collection, East Carolina Manuscript Collection #0058 Staff Person: Martha Elmore Description: Freemasonry has a long history in North Carolina back to colonial times and still has a strong presence with 375 lodges and 47,000 members (2007, www.grandlodge-nc.org/freemasonryrevealed/atlantic.htm). It is thought that the society developed from stonemason guilds in the Middle [...]
Source: Paul Ricks Papers, University Archives #UA90-02, East Carolina University, Greenville, N.C. Staff Person: Kacy Guill Description: In 1935, East Carolina Teachers College obtained the services of Paul T. Ricks as director of a new travel course designed to meet the needs of travel-hungry students. For the initial tour, more than a hundred students filled [...]
Source: J.C. Peele, M.D. Papers, ca. 1918-1987, undated, East Carolina Manuscript Collection, #1030.25.g Staff Person: Nanette Hardison Description: The J.C. Peele, M.D. Papers (ca. 1918-1987, n.d.) is a manuscript collection that reflects the anti-communist sentiments of a physician in Kinston, N.C. This publication from the collection, dated May 1968, is a compilation of selected articles [...]
Source: University Archives Staff Person: Lynette Lundin Description: Health conditions at ECTTC are one of the major topics mentioned in the Board of Trustees minutes from 1918. There were 141 cases of the Spanish flu recorded on campus, but there was no record of serious complications. Worldwide this was not the same. This flu epidemic [...]
Source: University Archives, Chancellor’s Office, Record Group CH1050, Series 2, Subseries 1, Box 1, Folder 6 Staff Person: Brian Johnson Description: The images below are from East Carolina Teachers College President Robert H. Wright’s “Chapel Talks” given to students every morning from 9:30 to 10:25 six days a week. Chapel Talks typically consisted of a [...]