Teachers & Lake Norman

July 13, 2016 By Leave a Comment

What do you get when you bring 5 public school teachers to the archives?

An amazing amount of energy and a wonderful set of lesson plans designed around Lake Norman topics. Working with Dr. Hilton Kelly, professor of Sociology and chair of Educational Studies, the archives staff reached out to teachers to help us add a collection of learning activities to the Under the Lake site.

Celia Arch presenting her lesson plans, standing in front of a class next to a projected computer screen

Celia Arch presenting her lesson plans

Along with gathering photos and stories about the lake, the we wanted the website to be a source for research and teaching. How better to bring the lake into the classroom than by having practicing teachers design and create online lessons?  Supported by the Duke Energy Foundation, we recruited local teachers. The 5 finalists were an amazing group and covered the full range of education – kindergarten to high school, mathematics to ESL to social studies and earth sciences. Together they created 11 different lesson plans, some with multiple activities.

Erik Dykes convincing fellow teachers and Little Library staff that maps and math can work tofgether. Image of Erik standing in front of a projected computer screen.

Erik Dykes convincing fellow teachers and Little Library staff that maps and math can work tofgether.

The teachers are Celia Arch, Eric Dykes, JoCelyn Roundtree, Carolyn Singleton, Erika Williams.  In one intense week, they learned about Lake Norman, explored the website, learned WordPress and built their lessons. On Friday afternoon they presented their work to their peers and members of the library staff.  The instruction librarians came away with a great respect for the teachers grasp of pedagogy and some new ideas to try out on our students.

As part of the project, the archives team added a collection of digitized area maps to the website.  Included are Lake Norman maps, county maps, town of Davidson maps and college campus maps.

1963 map of newly created lake by Mooresville Chamber of Commerece

1963 map of newly created lake.

While the activities are geared toward classroom learning, anyone can test them out. Try brushing up on your math skills or write your own essay, draw a cartoon, share a rainy summer afternoon with a child learning together or explore the history the maps show us.

The lesson plan creation team: Eric Dykes, Celia Arch, JoCelyn Roundtree, Erika Williams, and Carolyn Singleton

The lesson plan creation team: Eric Dykes, Celia Arch, JoCelyn Roundtree, Erika Williams, and Carolyn Singleton

 

Filed Under: Behind the Scenes, Lake Norman

October is for Archives-Lovers

October 29, 2014 By Leave a Comment

October is American Archives Month (and North Carolina Archives Month), and here at Davidson’s Archives & Special Collections, we’ve had a busy few weeks of sharing stories, leading class discussions, promoting archival advocacy, and assisting users! Here’s a few highlights of what public-facing activities each member of our team did this month:

Jan Blodgett, College Archivist and Records Management Coordinator:

Promotional poster from the Charlotte Teachers Institute panel that Jan spoke at.

Promotional poster from the Charlotte Teachers Institute panel that Jan spoke at.

Sharon Byrd, Special Collections Outreach Librarian:

  • Planned Ghosts in the Library event, with assistance from Peer Research Advisors
  • Taught, led discussion, or facilitated: ART 215 Intro to Print Media (Tyler Starr), ENG 240 British Lit to 1800 (Gabriel Ford), LAT 202 Int. Latin (Britta Ager), AFR 101 Africana Studies  (Tracy Hucks)
  • Helped lead an archival donor visit (with Caitlin)
The display Sharon and I set up for a donor visit - we pulled collections and objects to highlight the donors' father (an alumnus), as well as the athletic history of Davidson. There is a football pennant from 1926 showing the score of the game against UNC, Davidson 10 UNC 0. A beanie, 4 baseballs, and other documents.

The display Sharon and I set up for a donor visit – we pulled collections and objects to highlight the donors’ father (an alumnus), as well as the athletic history of Davidson.

Caitlin Christian-Lamb, Associate Archivist (me!):

  • Helped lead an archival donor visit (with Sharon)
  • Gave a campus historical tour and set up archival exhibition for Pi Kappa Phi alumni reunion (1962 – 1969 classes)
  • Spoke on a Society of North Carolina Archivists‘ panel for current University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill SILS students
  • Taught three sessions of  DIG 350 History & Future of the Book (Mark Sample), and one session of HIS  382 Science and the Body in East Asia (Saeyoung Park)
  • Helped facilitate and attended THATCamp Piedmont (see the schedule and collaborative Google docs here) after a few months of serving on the planning committee
  • Met with students for MAT 110 Finite Mathematics class about archives data visualization projects (with Jan)
  • Gave a short presentation on digital archival resources at the monthly education and technology gathering on campus (GitPub)
Pi Kappa Phi Epsilon chapter alumni (class of 1962-69) listen to an overview of what's changed on front campus in the last 50 years.

Pi Kappa Phi Epsilon chapter alumni (classes of 1962-69) listen to an overview of what’s changed on front campus in the last 50 years.

We also have a few more upcoming public events. Tonight all three members of Archives & Special Collections will be at Ghosts in the Library – come to the Smith Rare Book Room on the second floor of the library at 8:00 PM to hear scary stories and eat delicious treats. Tomorrow (October 30th), Jan and I will be participating in #AskAnArchivist Day, a national archival outreach initiative – simply tweet a question and #AskAnArchivist to @DavidsonArchive, and we’ll tell you everything we know! Early next month, on November 8th, the first ever Piedmont Triad Home Movie Day/ Personal Digital Archiving Day will be held at Wake Forest University’s library – HMD/PDAD is co-hosted and co-planned by the archives and library staff of Davidson College and Wake Forest University. Come watch college archival footage, share your own home movies, and learn basic digital preservation tips!

Filed Under: Alumni, Behind the Scenes, Curriculum, Lake Norman

Lake Norman History Update

May 27, 2014 By Leave a Comment

Thanks to the hard work of 21 Environmental Studies students, there is more to read and explore about Lake Norman history.  The students divided into 8 groups for their research projects and with support from a Duke Energy grant launched into learning lake history by taping oral histories, reading issue after issue of old newspapers, pouring over photograph collections, interpreting government reports and more.

Environmental Studies majors and faculty at the 2014 commencement

Environmental Studies majors and faculty at the 2014 commencement

Instead of a traditional research paper, a digital twist was added with the students creating webpages for each topic. Check out their work and learn more about Lake Norman through timelines, videos and interactive maps.

WheJust what can you learn from their projects?

Davidson’s Lake Campus – what is it and how is it used?

Map showing location of the Lake Campus from the school

Map showing location of the Lake Campus

Demographic Changes – which counties around the lake grew the fastest?

Fishing – what are the major fish species in the lake and why aren’t striped bass among them?

Flood of 1916 – how much damage did it do and how did it change the river?

1916 headline for one of the 2 storms that brought 28 hours of rain, "64-Mile-Gale Hurricane Hits Carolina Coast"

1916 headline for one of the 2 storms that brought 28 hours of rain

Griffith Street – how are the lake and Exit 30 connected to changes in residential and commercial spaces on Griffith Street?

Lake Norman’s shoreline – do you  know what percentage of the shoreline is residential? industrial?

Non-Profits and the Environment – What are the ecological issues around the lake and what organizations address them?

the lake influence both environmental groups and housing, a bunch of boats docked on lake norman with a few houses in the background

Recreational uses of the lake influence both environmental groups and housing

Real Estate – When the lake go from fish camps to million dollar homes and why?

Congratulations and thank you to the first class of Environmental Studies majors. We hope you enjoy their work and learn something new.

Original Under the Lake website
Environmental Studies Lake Projects website

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Lake Norman

Lake Norman Magazine Photograph Collection

August 6, 2013 By

Around the is proud to announce the launching of a new database for the Lake Norman Magazine Photograph Collection!

The E. H. Little Library has collected and microfilmed several local publications recognizing their value in documenting the history of the region.  One of the publication is the Lake Norman Magazine  which began in 1983.

Between 2007 and 2009, the College Archives received 24 boxes of photographs and negatives from the Lake Norman Magazine.  The over 4200 photos date from 1989 to 2004 and provide a rich visual account of people, places and events around the lake.

Getting all the photographs cataloged and getting the database online took several years and several staff.  Of particular note, Tom, one of our regular volunteers, spent months organizing the photos, typing in cataloging data and matching images to articles.  Thanks to the students who spent hours getting the photos in sleeves and in albums.

photo albums

The photos have been reorganized into albums for easier viewing

Most of the photographs appeared in the magazine– which adds to the context and information about the images– but might also lead to the question “Why keep the prints if they are already on microfilm?”

Carboat, a blue car on Lake Norman that appears to be acting as a boat

One of the images from the Lake Norman Magazine Collection documenting some of the more unusual vessels on the lake

Our answer is that reproducing images from microfilm doesn’t work well.  The microfilm and photograph collection complement one another.  The next question may be “Are they all digitized and online?”  At this point, neither the microfilm or images have been digitized –it’s an expensive undertaking and there are copyright concerns since multiple photographers–some employees of the magazine and some not–created the images.  Even if they can not all be republished, the photographs are useful research tools and welcome additions to the archives.

Jeff Lowrance standing near a cemetery

Davidson alumnus Jeff Lowrance was featured in a 2001 article on slave cemeteries.

One added benefit is that the photo database provides a partial index to the magazine, important since most local publications are not indexed–even on Google!  We invite you to explore the database and to come to the archives to view the collection (now in 16 albums in boxes).

NorthCross, businesses surrounding a fountain

Photographs of businesses can provide economic historians with data about changes in local employment and consumer options.

 

Filed Under: Lake Norman

Under Lake Norman

November 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment

under lake norman mapThe Davidson College Library and Archives has launched Under Lake Norman, an interactive mapping project that falls under the rubric of our Community Space website. This initiative is part of the world of crowdsourcing–where archives and special collections create opportunities for community members to share their skills and knowledge.

For this project, we are looking for images and information about structures or locations that went underwater when the waters of the man-made Lake Norman rose in 1963. The website features an interactive map that includes sites we have identified to date either through historical research or public submissions.

highway 73 bridge   The gravestone of General William Lee Davidson

Help us fill in the map by sending in digital copies of photographs or writing up accounts of places that are now under the lake. As we build the site, we are including pictures and extended essays describing the sites and their historical significance.

people standing outside of elm wood plantationIf you know of any locations that should be added to the Under Lake Norman project, please visit the site and submit them. If you know of classes at your institution, have patrons who would be interested in contributing, or know of local historical societies who might like to help, please share the link: http://davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/archives/community/under-lkn/

Filed Under: Digital collections, Lake Norman, Town history

Elm Wood Plantation (Under Lake Norman)

October 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Archives and Special Collections is developing a new crowd-sourcing project under the rubric of our recently launched Community Space website. The new project will be called Under Lake Norman and will focus on…you guessed it!–things that are under Lake Norman.

Specifically, the focus is on sites of some historical interest that were covered when the man-made lake was created between 1959 and 1964. We will post more on the project later, when it launches, but in the meantime we thought it might be nice to share the stories of a few underwater historic sites that we are researching for the project. Today, a brief history of Elm Wood Plantation.

Dr. Chalmers Davidson and history class touring Elm Wood.

Dr. Chalmers Davidson and history class touring Elm Wood.

 

Elm Wood was a, by all accounts beautiful, late Georgian style plantation house built by John Davidson Graham between 1825-1828. The house was situated on a hill above the Catawba river, near the end of present-day Ranger Island Road in Catawba Springs, NC.

John D. Graham was the son of Revolutionary War soldier and iron manufacturer, General Joseph Graham, and a member of one of North Carolina’s most distinguished families. His brother, William A. Graham was Governor of North Carolina (1845-1849), U.S. Senator, Secretary of the Navy, and the Whig nominee for Vice-President in 1852, and his maternal grandfather, John Davidson, was owner of the Rural Hill plantation (since burned).

Davidson students visiting Elm Wood. The wooden staircase was removed and then lost to a fire.

Davidson students visiting Elm Wood. The wooden staircase was removed and then lost to a fire.

 

Joe Graham, a descendant of John D. Graham, inherited Elm Wood and sold the house and hundreds of surrounding acres to Duke Power during the Great Depression. The Graham family received about $30,000 from the sale, and were allowed to continue living in the home for several decades, until the start of the Lake Norman project in 1959.

In an attempt to preserve the plantation house and save it from being covered by the coming lake, in 1960 Duke Power donated the house to Charles and Winifred Babcock of Winston-Salem. Babcock agreed to dismantle move the brick plantation house to his farm on Indiana Avenue in Winston-Salem, where it was to be reassembled and preserved.

About three months into the relocation project, in April 1961, there was a fire in the barn where the Babcocks were storing the interior components of the plantation house (which had been completely moved by then). With the house’s interior destroyed, the project was abandoned and what remained of the largely disassembled plantation house was left behind to be covered by the waters of Lake Norman.

Filed Under: Lake Norman, Town history

Davidson’s Lakes

July 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Heat and humidity are going strong in Davidson this summer, making some of us look longingly at pools and lakes. For a small inland town, Davidson has had quite a collection of bodies of water.

Back in 1835, when the site for Davidson College was selected, one of the favorable features was its close–but not too close–proximity to the Yadkin and Catawba Rivers.   For the students, the rivers provided some escape for picnic. and entertaining young women.

The May 1892 Davidson Monthly provides a glimpse of one such gathering:

There was quite an enjoyable picnic out at the old “Withers Home Place,” near the Catawba river, on the evening of May the 9th. The party, consisting of about twenty or thirty young ladies from the village and boys from the College, drove out, in hacks, at 3 o’clock, P. M., and returned that night, by moonlight, at about nine. Besides the young ladies of the village, Misses Costin, of Wilmington, Wood, of Statesville and Holiday, of Virginia, who are visiting Davidson, were present and added very much to the pleasure of the occasion. The thanks of the party are due to Mrs. Vinson, our amiable chaperone,for the efficient manner in which she took of them, and served the much appreciated repast in the latter part of the evening. Mr. H— of Elm Row fame, it is reported from a very reliable source, in addition to taking his holiday out on the river, carried a copy of Mrs. Browning’s Portuguese Sonnets along, in order to insure an interesting topic of conversation. It is useless to remark, that he lost the way and never reached the river until an hour or two after the party arrived.

Students boating on Lake Wiley, circa 1896

Students boating on Lake Wiley, circa 1896

It it was a fair hike (or buggy ride) to the Catabwa River from campus or town so the creation of Lake Wiley late in 1892 proved popular.  This Lake Wiley existed from 1892 to 1909 and was created by the damming up of a small creek.   Periodic dam collapses doomed the small lake. Students and townspeople had to settle for the rivers until 1963 when Lake Norman was created.

Davidson College was given a portion of land that is now known as the Lake Campus.

Over the years, it has been home to sailing teams, crew, water skiing, freshman orientation regattas, and even a horseback riding program.

Aerial view of Lake Campus

Aerial view of Lake Campus

Water skiing at Lake Campus

Water skiing at Lake Campus

Horesback riding at Lake Campus

Horseback riding at Lake Campus

After the construction of I-77 across the lake in 1968, the sections of the lake bordering the town became known as Lake Davidson.  Just across Griffith Street from Lake Davidson, is Roosevelt Wilson Park with a pond fed by the lake.

Lake Norman & Lake Davidson aerial view

Lake Norman and Lake Davidson

Whether you are close to Lake Norman, Lake Davidson, Lake Campus, the pond or another lake or river altogether, may you have cool breezes and good companions for a picnic. And if you’d like to know more about our lakes, check out the Davidson Encyclopedia.

Filed Under: Lake Norman, Student Life

This Day in Davidson – February 22

February 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment

1837-2012 ◊◊ Celebrating Davidson’s 175th anniversary

1891 Catalog description of new laboratory

1891 Catalog description of new laboratory

1889 – Faculty approved that Professor Henry Louis Smith be granted permission to fit up the old Latin Room as a Student’s laboratory

Davidson train depot in 19121912 – Faculty grant permission for students to run a special train to Rock Hill on the occasion of the Davidson- South Carolina University debate.

1950 -Director of the Oak Ridge National Laboratories Dr. Alexander Hollander spoke on “The Biological Effects of Radiation”

1961 – Dean Rusk gives the Reynolds Lecture 1961 and Leon Uris visits Davidson for as part of the Book of the Year program

Lake Campus and a dock with some sailboats

Lake Campus

1963 – Headlines from the Mecklenburg Gazette

Hikers Walk 50 miles in under 12 hours – The hikers included Eddie Beam, Tom McEver, and Bruce Parker who finished the trek in just under 12 hours. Three other hikers took a bit longer.

College Gets Lake Land from Duke – This marks the beginning of Lake Campus

Filed Under: Alumni, College buildings, Curriculum, Lake Norman, Student Life, Town history

Davidson from Above

January 12, 2010 By 1 Comment

Most of us experience the campus and town at ground level. What we see and how far can depend on how tall we are.  Aerial photographs in the archives can make us taller – and let us see our world from a different perspective.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: College buildings, Lake Norman, Town history

The Lake Norman Magazine Photograph Collection

June 3, 2009 By 1 Comment

In the spring of 2008, the Lake Norman Magazine underwent spring cleaning. In their possession were four filing cabinets of photographs (and a healthy sprinkling of slides and negatives). Although these filing cabinets were just short of a mess, the photograph files inside were an unequaled visual portrait of life around Lake Norman that would be lost if the files were not adopted.

The Davidson College Archives accepted the files, though we were unsure when we would be able to process and catalog the collection. Shortly afterward, a gentleman named Tom Rynne came to the EH Little Library and asked if there were any projects that he might volunteer for.

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Filed Under: Behind the Scenes, Lake Norman