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This collection has access restrictions. For details, please see the restrictions.
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.
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Collection Overview
| Size | 21.0 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 4000 items) |
| Abstract | William Watlington Dow (1945-2012) was a white medical doctor, organic farmer, and community organizer. Dow was a co-organizer of a number of projects including Student Health Coalitions throughout the southeast, the Center for Health Services at Vanderbilt University, the Agricultural Marketing Project, the Carrboro Farmers' Market, and the Solar Greenhouse Employment Project. He was also a member of the Chatham County Planning Board. Files chiefly document Dow's professional career and consist chiefly of research files, administrative files, grant and project proposals, correspondence, reports, clippings, photographs, and a few other writings created or collected by Dow. Major topics include community organizing, community-institutional relations, public health accessibility and promotion, nutrition, organic farming, pediatrics, rural health, farmers' markets, environmental issues, sustainability, solar buildings and greenhouses, education, Ayrshire Farm, and the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association. There are some personal materials that document Dow's youth and marriages. |
| Creator | Dow, Bill, 1945-2012. |
| Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
| Language | English |
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Information For Users
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Subject Headings
The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.
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Biographical Information
William Watlington Dow was born 15 February 1945 in Middletown, Ohio, and grew up in Meridian, Mississippi. He received a bachelor's degree in molecular biology from Vanderbilt University, attended Vanderbilt Medical School, and was graduated in 1971. Dow interned at the Department of Pediatrics at Vanderbilt University Hospital in 1972, where he also served his residency from 1973-1975.
In 1969, Dow helped form the Student Health Coalition. During this period, Dow and the Student Health Coalition organized several rural health clinics in eastern Tennessee, including the White Oak Health Council and the Mountain People's Health Council in Huntsville, Tennessee. Dow was a key figure in the establishment of other student health coalitions throughout the south. He acted as advisor to the Alabama Student Health Coalition, he co-founded the North Carolina Rural Student Health Coalition (both University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke chapters), and was involved in the creation of similar coalitions in Georgia and Texas. Dow also convened the first regional student health coalition conference in 1978.
Dow was an important figure in the organization of Vanderbilt University's Center for Health Services, the center which ultimately absorbed the Student Health Coalition. Dow served on the university committee which recommended the establishment of the Center for Health Services, he served as the Center's director from 1975 to 1976, and as Co-Director for Development in 1977.
In the mid-1970s, Dow began to focus his attention on nutrition, especially on the availability of healthy food as a principal determinant for a number of medical outcomes. This shift in focus was informed by observations made while working with the Student Health Coalition within rural Appalachian communities and experiences from his pediatric residency. In 1975, Dow worked with John Vlcek and Lindsay Jones to develop a new organization called the Agricultural Marketing Project with the goal of setting up food fairs, or farmers' markets, throughout Tennessee. The project successfully established farmers' markets in Memphis, Knoxville, Oak Ridge, and other locations in the state. Dow applied this new model to help set up a similar project (also called the Agricultural Marketing Project) at the University of Alabama; then in 1978, working with Laura Heise, he founded the North Carolina Agricultural Marketing Project with the same goal. The North Carolina Agricultural Marketing Project ultimately led to the formation of what is now the Carrboro (N.C.) Farmers' Market. In 1978, Dow earned a fellowship with the Vanderbilt Medical School Department of Medical Administration, a fellowship in conjunction with the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.
In 1979, Dow co-founded the Solar Greenhouse Employment Project with Paul Konove, which lasted until 1984. Around 1980, Dow decided to become a full-time farmer, and bought a 30-acre farm outside of Pittsboro, N.C., which he named Ayrshire Farm. Ayrshire became the first certified organic farm in North Carolina. Throughout Dow's career, he was involved in a wide range of environmental and political issues: he helped organize the East Tennessee Research Corporation and Save Our Cumberland Mountains (SOCM), he served on the (N.C.) Governor's Waste Management Task Force and the Chatham County Planning Board, and helped start the Committee for Solar and Appropriate Technology for Orange County, NC.
Dow died on 4 December 2012 in Pittsboro, N.C.
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Scope and Content
The William W. Dow papers consist chiefly of professional papers created or collected by Dow over the course of his professional career. Dow was a white medical doctor and organized a number of health- and agriculture-related projects. Professional papers include research files, administrative files, grant and project proposals, correspondence, reports, clippings, photographs, and a few other writings created or collected by Dow. The collection also includes a small number of personal papers.
Series 1. Center for Health Services Files document the development of the Student Health Coalition and the Center for Health Services at Vanderbilt University as well as other Student Health Coalition chapters. Subseries 1.1 documents the early years of the initial Student Health Coalition before it was subsumed into the Center for Health Services. Subseries 1.2 is chiefly research materials, correspondence, administrative reports, and other materials related to the development of the Center for Health Services, the Student Health Coalition at Vanderbilt, and other Student Health Coalition chapters in the southeast.
Series 2. Fellowship Files include class materials, correspondence, research materials, and a few other items documenting Dow's projects during his fellowship year.
Series 3. Agricultural Marketing Project Files contain correspondence, proposals, reports, regional chapter updates, and a few other materials documenting the establishment and maintenance of the original Agricultural Marketing Project as well as subsequent projects in other states.
Series 4. Solar Greenhouse Employment Project Files chiefly consist of correspondence, greenhouse designs and workshop materials, administrative reports and proposals, promotional materials, and other materials related to solar buildings and energy efficiency.
Series 5. Chatham County Planning Board Files contain agendas, agenda notes, and meeting minutes for the monthly meetings of the Chatham County Planning Board.
Series 6. Subject Files include articles and clippings collected by Dow over the course of his career as well as a few personal papers and correspondence. Topics include agriculture, Ayrshire Farm, the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, the Carrboro Farmers' Market, church affiliations, education, the environment, and public health.
Series 7 is composed of additions to the collection. Researchers should note that the additions are unarranged and do include material that relates to the six topical series in the collection.
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Series Quick Links
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Series 1. Center for Health Services Files, 1967-2011.
Arrangement: Alphabetical by filename.
As a sophomore in 1968, William W. Dow traveled to New York to meet with representatives from 14 other medical schools as well as representatives from the Josiah Macy Foundation. The foundation, which had sponsored the conference, was offering funding to students who came up with projects to take on. Dow felt that the needs of rural communities were not being met, and wanted to take advantage of the opportunity presented by the foundation. The Macy Foundation wanted Dow's project to be carried out in conjunction with students at the historically black medical school Meharry Medical College, who wanted to focus on urban issues. Although Dow was able to find a principal investigator in Dr. Amos Christie, he was unable to get the Vanderbilt Medical School to move forward on the project. Eventually, he took the project over to Meharry Medical School, and they agreed to move forward with the project. The first summer of the Student Health Coalition, then, was funded by Meharry Medical School. As such, the first SHC summer in 1969 was focused on medical surveys in urban Nashville, but Dow and Pat Maxwell led a small group of Vanderbilt students through rural Tennessee to collect survey information.
The Center for Health Services was established in 1971 due to the need for an administrative structure to connect the Student Health Coalition to the university and to work with the Student Health Coalition in educational activities related to health care delivery. As the center developed, it was also the vehicle for additional action-oriented projects designed by various student and community groups. By 1974, there were three branches to the Student Health Coalition: the Urban Student Health Coalition, the Appalachian Student Health Coalition (also referred to as the Rural Student Health Coalition), and the West Tennessee Student Health Coalition. The first SHC conference was held in 1978 at the University of Alabama and was organized by Dow during his fellowship year.
Files document the development of the Student Health Coalition and the Center for Health Services at Vanderbilt University as well as other Student Health Coalition chapters. Subseries 1.1 documents the early years of the initial Student Health Coalition before it was subsumed into the Center for Health Services. Subseries 1.2 is chiefly research materials, correspondence, administrative reports, and other materials related to the development of the Center for Health Services, the Student Health Coalition at Vanderbilt, and other Student Health Coalition chapters in the southeast.
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Subseries 1.1. Student Health Coalition Files, 1969-1971.
Arrangement: Alphabetical by filename.
Consists of correspondence, reports, and a few other items documenting the early years of the Student Health Coalition before it was subsumed into the Center for Health Services.
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Subseries 1.2. Center for Health Services Files, 1967-2011.
Arrangement: Alphabetical by filename.
Chiefly research materials, correspondence, administrative reports, and other materials related to the development of the Center for Health Services, the Student Health Coalition at Vanderbilt, and other Student Health Coalition chapters.
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Series 2. Fellowship Files, 1973-1980.
Arrangement: Alphabetical by filename.
During the academic year 1977-1978 William W. Dow completed a fellowship funded by Dr. Vernon Wilson and the Vanderbilt Medical Center which, in Dow's words, "allowed me basically to do as I wished." Dow moved to North Carolina, where he participated in the University of North Carolina-Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program. Dow took courses covering topics including biostatistics, epidemiology, decision analysis, policy analysis, medical economics, medical anthropology, and health education, as well as rural health. He led two seminar sessions on preventive medicine as it applies to the individual and to the community, respectively. Dow worked with students at UNC (in medicine, law, and public health) and Duke (medicine) to arrange a summer project of Student Health Coalition and Agricultural Marketing Project type activities. Dow also organized a conference in Tuscaloosa for all of the Student Health Coalition chapters addressing issues of organizational maintenance: fundraising, recruitment, continuity, and program development. Dow helped develop a course at the University of Alabama entitled "Who Owns the Future of the South?" with Duna Norton, and a conference on this topic was held for people who had worked in the Alabama Student Coalition for Community Health. Over the summer Dow, along with Dr. Richard (Rick) Davidson, provided most of the clinical supervision for the health fairs conducted by the newly formed North Carolina Student Health Coalition. Successful farmers markets, organized by Dow with interested students, were held in Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill. In the spring and summer of Dow's fellowship year, he developed a growing interest in solar energy and related technology: specifically, solar greenhouses and other forms of low cost passive heating devices.
Includes class materials, correspondence, research materials, and a few other items documenting William W. Dow's projects during his fellowship year.
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Series 3. Agricultural Marketing Project Files, 1968-1989.
Arrangement: Alphabetical by filename.
In 1975, William W. Dow worked with John Vlcek and Lindsay Jones to develop a new organization called the Agricultural Marketing Project with the goal of setting up farmers' markets throughout Tennessee. The project successfully established farmers' markets in Memphis, Knoxville, Oak Ridge, and other locations in the state. Dow applied this new model to help set up a similar project (also called the Agricultural Marketing Project) at the University of Alabama; then in 1978, working with Laura Heise, he founded the North Carolina Agricultural Marketing Project with the same goal. The North Carolina Agricultural Marketing Project ultimately led to the formation of what is now the Carrboro (N.C.) Farmers' Market.
Contains correspondence, proposals, reports, regional chapter updates, and a few other materials documenting the establishment and maintenance of the various projects.
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Series 4. Solar Greenhouse Employment Project Files, 1976-1987.
Arrangement: Alphabetical by filename.
The Solar Greenhouse Employment Project (SGEP) grew out of the Student Health Coalition. It began in 1978 as a non-profit, foundation-supported project which conducted solar greenhouse construction demonstration workshops as an organizing and educational effort in small communities in the southeastern United States. The communities and individuals selected for workshops were often those previously contacted by the North Carolina Student Rural Health Coalition (NCSRHC) and the North Carolina Agricultural Marketing Project (NCAMP).
Chiefly correspondence, greenhouse designs and workshop materials, administrative reports and proposals, promotional materials, and other materials related to solar buildings and energy efficiency.
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Series 5. Chatham County Planning Board Files, 1971-1989.
Arrangement: Alphabetical by filename.
The Chatham County Planning Board managed the land development and permitting process of Chatham County. William W. Dow was a member of the board from 1982-1988 and chaired the board in 1988. Chiefly agendas, agenda notes, and meeting minutes for the monthly meetings of the Chatham County Planning Board.
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Series 6. Subject Files, 1969-2012.
Arrangement: Alphabetical by filename.
Articles and clippings collected by William W. Dow over the course of his career as well as a few personal papers and correspondence. Topics include agriculture, Ayrshire Farm, the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, the Carrboro Farmers' Market, church affiliations, education, the environment, and public health.
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Series 7A. Papers, 2013-2014 and undated (Addition of April 2016).
Acquisitions Information: Accession 102563
One letter from Kate Bradley to Daryl Walker, 5 February 2014, with a copy of article by Evangeline Mee about the Bradleys (Mee interviewed them for the Southern Oral History Project), and a copy of an article about fundraising, which includes an anecdote about Kate Bradley purchasing land for the Petros clinic.
| Box 38 |
Papers, 2013-2014 and undated #05612, Series: "7A. Papers, 2013-2014 and undated (Addition of April 2016)." Box 38 |
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Series 7A. Papers, 1957-2009 (Addition of May 2016).
Acquisitions Information: Accession 102597
Arrangement: As received.
The addition documents the Carolina Farmer's Stewardship Association, Solar Greenhouse Employment Project, the Center for Health Services, Dr. Amos Christie, the North Carolina Rural Student Health Coalition, Ayrshire Farm, the Carrboro Farmer's market, and the Agricultural Marketing Project. Materials include correspondence, notes, reports, newspaper clippings, farm records, and research on each of those projects. There are also personal papers relating to his two marriages, including guest lists, photographs, invitations, and correspondences, and his childhood and high school life including school work, scrap books, report cards, photographs, correspondence between family, and diplomas from high school, college, and medical school.
| Box 38 |
Papers, 1957-2009 #05612, Series: "7A. Papers, 1957-2009 (Addition of May 2016)." Box 38 |
| Image Folder PF-05612/13 |
Photographs: William Dow, 1980s-2008 #05612, Series: "7A. Papers, 1957-2009 (Addition of May 2016)." PF-05612/1312 Images Photographic Prints |
| Oversize Paper Folder OPF-05612/1 |
Diplomas and awards, 1961-circa 1990 #05612, Series: "7A. Papers, 1957-2009 (Addition of May 2016)." OPF-05612/1 |
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Series 7A. Papers, 1940s-2011 (Addition of October 2018).
Acquisitions Information: Accession 103467
The addition includes photographs documenting Dow's youth, early 1980s Carrboro Farmers' Market, Student Health Coalition, Solar Greenhouse Employment Project; and an interview by a Chatham County Community College oral history project, and other materials.
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Items Separated
Processed by: Jodi Berkowitz, Amelia Holmes, July 2015
Encoded by: Amelia Holmes, July 2015
Revisions by: Patrick Cullom, October 2016; Jodi Berkowitz, December 2016; Nancy Kaiser, January 2019
Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.
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