History

Alice Baldwin was the first dean of the Woman's College. Also a professor of history, Baldwin was the first woman at Duke to have full faculty status. Source: Duke University Archives. Durham, North Carolina, USA. library.duke.edu/uarchives
Alice Baldwin was the first dean of the Woman’s College. Also a professor of history, Baldwin was the first woman at Duke to have full faculty status. Source: Duke University Archives. Durham, North Carolina, USA. library.duke.edu/uarchives
The Historical Society of North Carolina was organized on November 17, 1945, in Chapel Hill. Instrumental in its organization was Archibald Henderson. A constitution and bylaws were drawn up and adopted and officers were elected: Alice Baldwin of Duke University, president; Frontis W. Johnston of Davidson College, vice-president; and Cecil Johnson of the University of North Carolina, secretary-treasurer. Dr. Henderson, Christopher Crittenden of the State Department of Archives and History, William T. Polk of the Greensboro Daily News, and James W. Patton, then of North Carolina State College, were named to the executive council. After dinner, at this first meeting, Dr. Johnston read a paper entitled “The Military Career of Zebulon Baird Vance.”
The Letters of Zebulon Vance. Edited by Frontis Johnston.
The Letters of Zebulon Vance. Edited by Frontis Johnston.

The Society claims descent from the North Carolina Historical Society, which was incorporated in 1833 under the leadership of David L. Swain. For details concerning the history of that organization and five other early historical societies that were organized between 1833 and 1887, see H. G. Jones’s For History’s Sake: The Preservation and Publication of North Carolina History, 1663-1903.

Some of our archival records are at UNC-Chapel Hill here.

NameAffiliation
Dr. Mary Alice Baldwin (1879-1960)Duke University
Dr. Cecil Kenneth Brown (1900-1957)Davidson College
G. Hope Summerell Chamberlain (1870-1960Chapel Hill
Robert Digges Wimberly Connor (1878-1950)UNC - Chapel Hill
William Terry Couch (1926-1988)Publisher (various institutions)
Dr. Charles Christopher Crittenden (1902-1969)NC Dept of Archives & History
Adelaide Lisetta Fries (1871-1949)Archivist - Winston-Salem
Dr. James Logan Godfrey (1907-1994)UNC - Chapel Hill
Paul Green (1884-1981)Writer - Santa Monica, CA
Dr. Fletcher Melvin Green (1898-1980)UNC - Chapel Hill
Dr. Joseph G. de R. Hamilton (1878-1961)UNC - Chapel Hill
Dr. Archibald Henderson (1877-1963)UNC - Chapel Hill
Dr. Samuel Hamilton Hobbs, Jr. (d. 1969)UNC - Chapel Hill
Dr. Walter Clinton Jackson (1879-1959)UNC - Greensboro
Dr. Cecil Johnson (n.d.)UNC - Chapel Hill
Dr. Frontis Withers Johnston (1908-1990)Davidson College
Dr. Edgar Wallace Knight (1915-1953)UNC - Chapel Hill
Dr. Hugh Talmage Lefler (1901-1981)UNC - Chapel Hill
Lawrence Foushee London (1908-2005)Curator, UNC-Chapel Hill
Dr. Albert Ray Newsome (1894-1951)UNC - Chapel Hill
Dr. James Welch Patton (1900-1973)NCSU & UNC - Chapel Hill
Dr. Charles Chilton Pearson (1879-1956)Wake Forest College
William Tannahill Polk (1896-1955)UNC - Greensboro
Charles Phillips Russell (1884-1974)Journalist, UNC - Chapel Hill
Dr. Marvin L. Skaggs (1897-1994)Greensboro College
Dr. Charles Sackett Sydnor (1898-1954)Duke University
Mary Lindsay Thornton (1891-1973)Librarian, UNC - Chapel Hill
Dr. Rupert Bayless Vance (1889-1975)UNC - Chapel Hill
Dr. Robert Hilliard Woody (1903-1985)Duke University