New Collection Guide for the Department of Horticulture Science Records Now Available

This blog post is contributed by Mollie B. Frazier.

The Special Collections Research Center is pleased to announce that a new collection guide is available for the Department of Horticulture Science Records.  This collection comprises about 14 linear feet and dates from the early 1900s-2003, and it is included in the University Archives.

The North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (now NC State University) welcomed students into the Department of Horticulture, Arboriculture, and Botany in 1889.  During the twentieth century, the program narrowed to horticulture and became known at the Department of Horticultural Science in 1962.  Since the 1950s it has been housed in Kilgore Hall on the NC State campus.  Additional information about the department's history can be found in the Historical State timelines.

Of particular interest in the department's archival collection is a series of Photographic Materials. This series contains 35 mm slides, glass lantern slides, photographic prints, and glass plate negatives. The 35mm slides date from 1940 to circa 1975. Most depict fruit and vegetable crops, both in the field and after being harvested. Also included are images of greenhouses, department trips, farmworkers, and agricultural equipment.

The majority of the glass lantern slides depict the planting, harvesting, sorting, packaging, and selling of crops, especially peaches and apples, and the people involved. Several contain images of transportation and family life. Also included are a few images of children, a diagram of a peach sorting table, nutrition information, and images of family dinner tables. One slide is dated 1905. The rest are undated but also appear to date from the early twentieth century. Most of the slides are black and white, although some have been hand-colored.

The photographic prints, many of which are accompanied by negatives, depict a wide range of departmental activities and range in date from the early 1900s to 1991. Many depict Department of Horticulture work at the agricultural experiment stations in the 1920s and 1930s, and these include a large number addressing fruit tree pruning. Also included are images of NC State's Kilgore Hall and the horticultural science faculty, as well as a handmade booklet with photographs of Field Day in Willard, North Carolina, in 1933. 

A highlight of the collection is the group of glass lantern slides colored by Effie Brown Earll Slingerland (also known as Effie Brown Earll Slingerland Yantis), who began painting lantern slides in 1904 for nature studies and college agricultural departments across the United States. She worked with her first husband, Mark Vernon Slingerland, a professor of entomology at Cornell University, from which she also graduated from 1893. She helped create the Homemaker's Club of Manchester, New Hampshire, in 1915 and became president of the organization. She was a watercolor artist and a member of social and philanthropic clubs such as the Woman's Alliance; Woman's Educational and Industrial Union of Auburn, New York; Ithaca Woman's Club; Child Study, Campus Club of Cornell University; and Cornell Woman's Club. She has been described as a universalist and a supporter of women's suffrage. In 1924, she became the first woman re-elected to the New Hampshire Legislature.

Here are more examples of Slingerland's work:

There are over 200 images from the Horticultural Sciences Department available for browsing on our digitized collections site.  The department's entire archival collection is described in an online collection guide.   For additional resources regarding university history and many other topics, search our digitized collections and archival collection guides. Research questions and/or requests for materials can be sent in using the Special Collections Request Form.  Please note that due to the NC State University Coronavirus Response, NC State University Libraries Special Collections Research Center is closed but staff are working remotely and are able to assist with some reference support; we will respond to your inquiry as soon as possible.