Special Collections & Archives

This collection contains three-dimensional objects related to University history. Items include trophies, plaques, certificates and banners awarded to Wake Forest sports teams, pennants and banners, t-shirts, sports memorabilia, and autographed balls. Also included are items used by the Wake Forest College library, items owned by Samuel Wait, pins, shoes, medals, and a roll of toilet paper.

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. This collection contains pastel renderings of both the original Wake Forest, N.C., campus and the Reynolda campus in Winston-Salem.

Wake Forest University has over 150 chartered club and organizations. This collection of posters and fliers documents publicized events held by student-run organizations. Events include club meetings, theatrical and musical productions, political debates, philanthropy fundraisers, sporting events, study abroad opportunities, well-being initiatives, and other events.

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 portraits of WFU professors and administrators from around the 1950s and 1960s.

This collection contains photographs that document the work and life of Wake Forest University students, faculty, staff, and related communities. The collection also contains a small number of sketches, slides, negatives, and digital photograph files; the digital files are listed in this inventory and available in the related digital collection.

The University has gathered a number of scrapbooks that memorialize University events and places. Some of the items in the collection appear to have been created and maintained by the University News Bureau, which later was known as the University News Service and Wake Forest News, part of the Communications and External Relations team.

The Wake Forest University Art Collections consist of nine independent and diverse collections assembled by a variety of circumstances including commissions, gifts, bequests and purchases. More than 1600 works, including paintings, prints, photography, sculpture, drawings, furniture, and textiles, are located in 35 on- and off-campus locations. The materials in this collection include brochures, committee materials, pamphlets, and newsletters.

The University Club existed from 1944-2002, as an organization of faculty women and wives of faculty that organized events in order to encourage socialization among the University community. This collection documents the planning, membership, and events of the University Club.

Wake Forest College was founded in 1834 in Wake Forest, N.C., north of Raleigh. It was one of the first institutions of higher learning in North Carolina. These records document the history of Wake Forest University. Records in this collection contain information on the history of the University, ceremonial events, and others. Materials in this collection include emails, articles, essays, and a ceremonial invitation.

Upon the 175th Anniversary of WFU in 2009, a series of oral histories with retired University employees were commissioned, collected by local historian Anne Phillips with retired WFU employees. The materials in this collection include interview abstracts as well as interview audio files on compact discs or audiocassettes.

The Wake Forest University News Service, now part of the Office of Communications and External Relations (CER), maintains files of news stories related to Wake Forest University at large as well as individual administrators, professors, departments, and specific events. This collection contains those clippings, some of which have been photocopied and/or bound; also included are printouts of the University publication /.

This collection contains correspondence, budgets, and proposals between Wake Forest University and the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation and the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation.

The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation was formed by Mary Reynolds Babcock and her siblings in Winston-Salem in order to serve as a memorial to their youngest brother, Zachary Smith Reynolds. Materials in this collection include correspondence, event materials, reports, booklets, and memorandums. A small amount of materials are related to the College's move to Winston-Salem.

The Wake Forest University Senate was established in 1967 and contains the seven schools of WFU. It advises the Board of Trustees and University administration. This collection contains minutes, memorandums, reports, and by-laws of the Wake Forest University Senate, as well as materials from committees, special issue reports such as Koch Foundation funding at Wake Forest, and official statements on behalf of the Senate.

These biographical files are comprised primarily of newspaper clippings and materials collected by or on behalf of Wake Forest University's Special Collections and Archives department. Materials were collected to document people of note related to Wake Forest College, Wake Forest University, Baptists in North Carolina and elsewhere, and other related organizations.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Baptist Student Union was a faith-based campus organization that operated out of the Kemp P. Battle House from 1965-2015. Its records include administrative materials, organization records, subject files, scrapbooks, and chaplains' materials.