Special Collections & Archives

The Wake Forest Track and Field program was established in 1892 and has since evolved into an intercollegiate athletic program that includes men's and women's competitive events. This collection primarily documents women's participation in Track and Field and Cross Country from 1976 to the present. Included are end-of-season statistics, meet schedules, souvenir programs, rosters, administrative correspondence, newspaper articles, and budget materials.

Wake Forest University's women's intercollegiate basketball team was established in 1971. In 1972 Wake Forest Women's Basketball program joined the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women and was a member of the organizations North Carolina chapter. Upon dissolution of the AIAW, Wake Forest women's sports teams joined the Atlantic Coast Conference in 1978, and has been a member institution since then. This collection documents the historical and current activities of the Demon Deacons Women's Basketball team. Materials in this collection includes games programs, administrative files, schedules, and materials relating to former coaches and team alumni.

The Demon Deacons Women's Golf Team began intercollegiate play in 1971. Golf, alongside basketball, field hockey, and volleyball were among the first intercollegiate sports offered to the women students at Wake Forest. Marge Crisp, the first full-time female faculty member at Wake Forest served as the first women's golf coach. The women's golf program at Wake Forest has since grown into a highly competitive program that recruits student-athletes from all over the country and internationally. This collection contains records and materials that document the early years of the program as well as it's more recent activities. Materials include seasonal files that are comprised of rosters, schedules, invitational records and results as well as media guides. Also in cluded are player and coach files that primarily contain correspondence and some graphic media.

The Wake Forest men's and women's tennis teams began as extracurricular club sports for students. Both teams have since developed into successful and competitive teams. The inaugural season for the men's tennis team bgean in 1954 and the women's team started intercollegiate conference play in 1971. The materials in this collection originated in the office of the Director of Women's Athletics for administrative purposet so coverage of materials begins with the formation of the women's tennis team. Materials in this collection include end of season statistics, schedules, media guides and souvenir programs, as well as rosters, administrative files, and promotional materials.

The inaugural season of competitive volleyball for Wake Forest began in 1971 with the intercollegiate sports day competitions that were hosted by the Wake Forest University Physical Education Major Club. These informal competitions were fielded between Wake Forest and local colleges and universities. .The early team did not participate in conference play until (circa) 1973 when the women's athletic program joined the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women. Materials in this collection include end of season statistics, schedules, souvenir programs from competition matches, as well as rosters, administrative correspondence, and expense reports.

Wake Forest University was started in February 1834 as Wake Forest Manual Labor Institute and became Wake Forest College under the guidance of its first president Samuel Wait; in 1950, the institution moved to Winston-Salem, N.C. This collection contains audio recordings of WFU professors and administrators from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. A small number of these recordings are available online through the Z. Smith Reynolds Library .

Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke in Wait Chapel on October 11, 1962, as part of the College Union Lecture Series, sponsored by the College Union Lecture Committee (now known as Student Union). Martin Luther King, Jr., was a leader in the Civil Rights movement, the President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. As the first lecturer of the school year, he spoke of integration in the South and the continued work necessary for equality.

This collection ranges from about 1956 to 1986, with the bulk of the recording taking place 1960-1985. Many, but not all, of the recordings were recorded by and purchased from WFDD, Wake Forest University's NPR Station. The recordings include commencement speeches, presidential inaugurations, convocation speeches, and other university events and lectures.

A. Thomas Olive was an alumnus of Wake Forest College (1953) and an assistant biology professor at WFU, 1961-1988. The collection contains biographical materials, correspondence, budget materials, Olive's scholarly writings such as his dissertation, and materials related to Wake Forest and his career there. His papers reflect his activities in the Biology Department and his various experiments in entomology.

This collection consists of materials, correspondence, letters, and works of various authors from the late 18th century through the 20th century. Specifically, there are numerous amounts of information and materials related to the authors Samuel L. Clemens, F. W. Rolfe, W. B. Yeats, and Thomas Wolfe.

Dr. Avery M. Church was an alumnus of Wake Forest College (Class of 1930), and pastor of Baptist churches in North Carolina.

This collection contains photographs and other memorabilia from Thomas Willburn Ayers and Sanford Emmett Ayers, a father and son who were both doctors and missionaries in China. The photographs were taken between the years 1918 and 1949. Several are photographs of the hospital T.W. Ayers opened with his wife Minnie Skelton in Hwanghsien, China. The microfilm reel contains family history and writings by T.W. and Sanford Ayers.