Norman Underwood library building records, 1901-1902
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Summary
- Creator:
- Underwood, Norman
- Abstract:
- Norman Underwood was the contractor in charge of the construction of the Trinity College Library. The collection consists of receipts and bills made out to Norman Underwood for materials and labor related to the construction of the library on East Campus. There is also some very limited correspondence regarding these bills and receipts, as well as a contract for materials. The majority of the companies and individuals named in the receipts were located in Durham, and included contractors, suppliers, hardware and supply stores, pharmacies, and rail companies; several companies and individuals were located outside Durham, including Raleigh, Goldsboro, Chattanooga, TN, and Atlanta, GA. The receipts and bills detail materials, prices, contractors, and business names used in the construction of the library.
- Extent:
- 0.5 Linear Feet
- Language:
- Materials in English
- Collection ID:
- UA.10.05.0006
- University Archives Record Group:
- 10 -- Executive VP and Treasurer & Administration (Business and Finance)
10 -- Executive VP and Treasurer & Administration (Business and Finance) > 05 -- Facilities
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The collection consists of receipts and bills made out to Norman Underwood for materials and labor related to the construction of the library on East Campus. There is also some very limited correspondence regarding these bills and receipts, as well as a contract for materials. The majority of the companies and individuals named in the receipts were located in Durham, and included contractors, suppliers, hardware and supply stores, pharmacies, and rail companies; several companies and individuals were located outside Durham, including Raleigh, Goldsboro, Chattanooga, TN, and Atlanta, GA. The receipts and bills detail materials, prices, contractors, and business names used in the construction of the library.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Norman Underwood was the contractor in charge of the construction of the Trinity College Library. He was born in Ohio on September 2, 1862 and moved to Durham, N.C. in about 1897. Having worked in construction for many years, he started his own contracting firm in 1901. In addition to the library building, he contracted for several other buildings for Trinity College, including Craven Memorial Hall and the West Duke Building, as well as several buildings in Durham and for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Active in civic duties, Mr. Underwood married Elsie E. Ward of Ohio and had five children: May Almina Underwood Rigsbee, Norman Bruce, Harrison Aubrey, Daniel Maurice, and Robert Ward. He died on June 17, 1930.
The Trinity College Library was built in 1901 and 1902. Prior to that time, the Library did not have a dedicated building and instead housed books and a reading room in a shared building. In 1900, James Buchanan Duke gave the college some money to build a library, following Benjamin Duke's gift for a library endowment the previous year. Ground was broken for the new building in July 1901 and it was expected to be complete by the end of the school year. The winter of 1901-1902 was a hard winter for building, and the completion of the building was delayed until December 1902. Over the Christmas holidays, the books, numbering about 11,000 volumes, were moved from the old library into the new building. The building was formally opened on February 23, 1903. In 1927, preparations began to move the library to the new West Campus. By then the books numbered about 100,000, and were moved to the new Women's College Library, opened in March 1927, before moving to the new General Library. In an agreement with Kittrell College, an all-black college in Vance County, the Trinity College library building would be moved to the Kittrell College campus and reassembled. The move was partially funded by a gift from Benjamin Duke, and the newly reassembled library building at Kittrell was named in his honor when it opened in 1929. The B. N. Duke Library, along with two other buildings moved from Trinity College to Kittrell College, burned down in 1972, and Kittrell College closed down in 1975.
- Acquisition information:
- The Norman Underwood library building records were acquired by the University Archives prior to 1985 by Mattie Underwood Russell.
- Processing information:
-
Processed by: Tracy M. Jackson, November 2014.
Accessions described in this finding aid: UA2014.0063.
- Physical location:
- For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
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Collection is open for research.
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- Terms of access:
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Copyright for Official University records is held by Duke University; all other copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
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- Preferred citation:
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[Identification of item], Norman Underwood Library Building Records, 1901-1902, University Archives, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.