Special Collections & Archives

Allan Douglas Aldrich was an alumni of Wake Forest College and a Baptist pastor at churches in Tennessee and North Carolina between 1948 and 1985. He served as a trustee for various educational institutions. This collection includes news clippings, professional correspondences, and baptismal service records.

Archibald Randolph Ammons (1926-2001) was a poet and professor. His work has been compared to the romantic poets Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. This collection consists of nine untitled watercolor paintings dated 1977-1979 painted by A.R. Ammons.

The Wake Forest administration created records regarding student statistics and enrollment, a Self-Study Committee, faculty and department chairs, and more from roughtly 1968-1975. The information collected supported the University's move to coeducation, making curriculum changes, and tracking academic departments. Materials include department reports, enrollment statistics, data sheets, meeting materials, and a department chairmen handbook.

The Wake Forest University Language Review Committee for International Students consisted of representatives from the departments of Classical Languages, East Asian Languages, English, German, Russian, and Romance Languages. Materials in this collection include memorandums, documents granting transfer credits, and language requirement exemption applications.

Lula (Lu) Leake was the Dean of Women and Vice President of Academic advising, totalling 33-years. She received a Medallion of Merit for her service in accomodating women. Materials include correspondences, WFU architectural planning materials, academic articles and reports on the state of the university, administrative files, as well as remembrances of her life.

Wake Forest Univerity's American Ethnic Studies interdisciplinary program was created in 1996 under the leadership of Dr. Earl Smith, a sociology professor. Materials in this collection include event fliers.

The WFU Anthropology department offers a major and minor, as well as summer field schools in Portugal and Nepal. This collection documents the work of WFU's Anthropology Department and the Timothy S. Y. Lam Museum of Anthropology. Photographs relate to both the department and the museum, and show education, trips, exhibits and events, and personnel. Newsletters, administrative materials, news clippings and releases, and exhibit and event documentation are also present.

Wake Forest University's Art Department offers classes and majors and minors in both studio art and art history. The department also manages two spaces for art display, the Hanes Gallery and the START Gallery. The collection contains materials pertaining to the department such as correspondence, planning materials, newspaper clippings, foundation materials, Scales Fine Arts Center plans and promotional materials spanning 1970-2018.

Wake Forest University's Hanes Art Gallery is managed by the Art Department. It was built in 1979 and, in 2001, was named after Charlotte Hanes and her husband, businessman R. Philip Hanes in 2001. This collection includes artworks, exhibit programs, invitations, and promotional materials.

Wake Forest University's START Gallery, an affiliate of the art department, is a University-run gallery featuring work by students, faculty, and alumni. This collection includes an article pertaining to the gallery, budgetary materials, and promotional materials, dated roughly 2010-2016.

Wake Forest University's Visual Resources Center is a collection of 200,000 images available to students and faculty managed for the Art department by a librarian. This collection includes an undated VHS inventory, a 1991 catalogue of the collection, and videocassettes documenting exhibits.

Casa Artom is Wake Forest University's study abroad house in Venice. Purchased in 1974, it was named for Dr. Camillo Artom, a professor at the Baptist Medical Center. This collection contains information regarding the program and students, a newsletter, monthly reports, budget reports, and correspondence.

WFU's Chemistry Department is a research-centered, interdisciplinary science department at the University. Collection materials include seminar files correspondence, Gamma Sigma Epsilon records, and academic and biographical alumni files.

WFU's Department of Classics offers undergraduate students a major or minor in Classical Languages, Classical Studies, Greek, and Latin; it was previously the Classical Languages department. This collection includes the department's planning and administrative materials. The collection also includes audio reels of scholarly commentary and lab readings.

Wake Forest University's Department of Communications includes a major, minor, and graduate programs. This collection includes department information, workshop materials, and a two-volume Department program review from 1999.

Wake Forest University's Debate Team was established in 1834, making it the oldest organization on campus. Materials in this collection include news clippings and booklets.

Wake Forest University's Department of Counseling offers a master's degree. The department has an online offerings with many of the same courses as the Reynolda campus. This collection includes promotional materials for a book written by faculty member Samuel T. Gladding.

Wake Forest University's Economics Department offers majors and minors to undergraduate students. This collection includes a five year plan for the Economics Department.

WFU's Education Department oversees courses and events about education. Records contain information about the functioning and activities of the program, 1963-2002.

Wake Forest University's Department of Engineering introduced an engineering major in 2017. This department is housed jointly in the Wake Downtown campus and Reynolda Campus. This collection includes materials regarding the appointment of Olga Pierrakos as founding department chair.

WFU's English Department offers a variety of courses and programs of study, including a major, multiple minors, and a masters program. These records document the history and operations of the department, including memoranda, policies, and regulations, also included are a small amount of the teaching materials of Dr. Dolly McPherson, professor (1974-2001) and the first African-American woman to be a full-time faculty member at the University.

Wake Forest University's Writing Program is a part of the English department that teaches writing as a discipline. The Writing Center is staffed by undergraduate and graduate tutors. This collection includes event materials and promotional materials for , other promotional materials, and a WRI 111 syllabus.

Wake Forest University's Flow House located in Vienna was purchased in 1998. Named after Roddy and Vic Flow, students live and study at this house with an on-site professor. This collection includes a brochure for the Vienna program.

WFU's German and Russian department is one of almost 40 undergraduate and graduate academic departments at Wake Forest University. German, German Studies, and Russian are all offered as undergraduate majors and minors. The records in this collection document the operations and history of the department. Materials include syllabi, newsletters, a grant application, journals from stays at Flow House in Vienna, and trip planning.

Wake Forest University's Health and Exercise Science Department, formerly the Physical Education department, focuses on understanding health and putting an end to chronic disease and physical disability. This collection includes a department description, a five-year plan for the department, and curriculums.

WFU's Department of History was founded in 1957 and currently offers major, minor, and masters degrees in history. This collection contains department materials including memorandums, course syllabi and descriptions, and administrative materials. There are also materials related to the Working Group on Disability in US Presidents and the 25th Amendment.

J. Howell Smith was a WFU history professor, 1965-2007. This collection contains oral histories conducted by WFU students, as well as a few University and Winston-Salem history items. Record types include interviews on audiocassettes, videocassettes, compact discs (CDs), and floppy disks, printed and digital transcripts, release forms, student papers related to their interviews, and administrative materials related to projects. Some recordings are available in Special Collections and Archives' .

The St. Benedict's Oral History Program, a project of Wake Forest University's history department, aimed to document the history of St. Benedict the Moor Catholic Church during the spring semester of 2015. This collection includes interview transcripts and other materials pertaining to meetings and the church's anniversary.

These are personal family histories done by students enrolled in several history classes at Wake Forest University offered by professor Dr. James Howell Smith.

Wake Forest University's Humanities Program includes an Interdisciplinary Humanities minor. Notably, Dr. Maya Angelou was an professor in the program. This collection includes materials pertaining to Maya Angelou and her World Poetry in Dramatic Performance class.

This collection captures the work of the mathematics and computer science academic departments. The bulk of the collection relates to the mathematics department.

Wake Forest University's Military Science Department houses the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program. The University hosts two partnership schools, Winston-Salem State University and Salem College. This collection includes information regarding ROTC's participation in Sexual Awareness Month.

The Wake Forest University Music Department has performed from the early 1940's until present day, and now includes an orchestra, wind ensemble, symphonic band, jazz ensemble, marching band, concert choir, vocal ensemble, chamber choir, and various small ensembles. This departmental collection includes mixed materials such as choral performance recordings, sheet music, annual departmental reports, performance programs, music essays, photographs, departmental correspondence, and church programs. Much of the collection relates to the years of direction by Thane McDonald, from 1941-1967.

WFU's Philosophy Department has both major and minor degree options. The philosophy department offers divisional courses, upper-level classes, and research opportunities. This collection includes a long-term department plan, volumes, professor writings, and two brochures.

The Magnolia Festival was an annual event held by the Physical Education department that included dancing, skits, and the crowning of the festival queen and her court. This collection includes background materials on the festival as well as programs from the 1940s and 1950s.

Wake Forest University's Physics Department offers a major and minor to undergraduate students and a graduate degree program. This collection includes long-term plans for the Physics Department and other administrative materials.

Wake Forest University's Department of Politics and International Affairs includes one of the most popular majors, the Politics and International Affairs major. The department also offers a variety of interdisciplinary majors. This collection includes syllabi, faculty member materials, program review reports, and departmental planning documents.

WFU's Psychology Department began as courses taught by early College professors such as Dr. A. C. Reid, beginning in the early 20th century. Materials include annual summaries and reports, a department newsletter, a 5-year plan.

Subject folders and correspondence files on the operations of the Religion Department, its majors and graduate school students.

The Department of Romance Languages was the home of many non-English languages at Wake Forest. The collection contains a list of faculty members in the department from 1942 to 1995.

WFU's Speech Communication and Theatre Arts Department was an academic department, circa 1940s-1990s, that directed the curriculum for theater production, speech courses, and media communication. This collection contains correspondence and subject files, scrapbooks from the Anthony Aston Society, correspondence, financial documents, photographs, faculty materials related to Julian Burroughs, speech communication professor and former WFDD station manager.

WFU's Department of Theatre and Dance offers undergraduate students majors and minors in theatre and minors in dance. This collection includes prompt books and a variety of plays performed by students in the Theatre Department, as well as performance audio and video recordings, scrapbooks, and posters.

The Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGS) department at Wake Forest University offers interdisciplinary courses that examine and analyze cultural, biological, political, and social constructions of femininity and masculinity. The department first offered an interdisciplinary minor beginning in 1983, as Women's Studies, and began expanding in the 1990s. Collection materials include course listings, and materials memorandums, symposium agendas, department newsletters, and two volumes of , a literary journal supported by the department.