Restrictions to Access

Use of audio or moving image materials may require production of listening or viewing copies.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Mack J. Preslar Collection #20502, Southern Folklife Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from John W. Mainwaring of Chapel Hill, N.C., in September 2014 (Acc. 102091).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Encoded by: Laura Smith, November 2017

Updated by: Anne Wells, Patrick Cullom, Rae Hoyle, and Meredith Kite, June 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.

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.

• Colonial Records (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
• Cordon, Norman.
• Hamilton, George, IV, 1937-2014.
• Loudermilk, John D.
• Music--North Carolina.
• Preslar, Mack, 1923-2014.
• Radio broadcasting--North Carolina.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Department of Radio, Television & Motion Pictures.

• George Hamilton IV Collection (#20410)
• John D. Loudermilk Collection (#20418)
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dept. of Radio, Television & Motion Pictures (#40086)

Mack J. Preslar (1923-2014), a white CEO and electronics professional, was born in Sanford, N.C. and grew up in Durham, N.C. He attended Durham High School and Duke University, pursuing his interest in electronics. Beginning in 1947, Mack J. Preslar was the associate director of the Communication Center at the University of North Carolina, which later became the Department of Radio, Television and Motion Pictures. Later he joined the Department of Otolaryngology to conduct research affiliated with deafness. Preslar later founded and was CEO of Demlar Medical, Inc., which specialized in the development and manufacture of clinical audiometers.

Audio recordings, moving images, photographs, newspaper clippings, and scattered correspondence comprise the collection of Mack J. Preslar (1923-2014), a white CEO and electronics professional who was the associate director of the Department of Radio, Television and Motion Pictures at the University of North Carolina beginning in 1947. Correspondence includes letters from songwriter and producer, John D. Loudermilk, and from country music recording artist, George Hamilton IV (1937-2014), among others. Clippings and photographic prints depict Preslar's personal life, service in the United States Navy, as well as scenes from the Department of Radio, Television and Motion Pictures, including his role in radio broadcasting and his participation in a 1957 effort to photograph an eclipse in Thailand. Audio recordings consist of instantaneous discs of Norman Cordon, an operatic singer and UNC alum; open reel audio of radio broadcasts and live performances on the UNC campus, including a 1954 performance by Louis Armstrong and the All Stars (FT-20502/2-4); master open reel audio recordings affiliated with Orville Campbell's independent record label, Colonial Records based in Chapel Hill, N.C. (FT-20502/15); and other open reel audio recordings compiled by Preslar. Moving images consist of a videotape of Preslar with Norman Cordon (VT-20502/1) and unidentified erotic motion picture films (F-20502/1-9).

• Audiotape (FT-20502/1-58)
• Film (F-20502/1-9)
• Instantaneous Discs (FD-20502/1-80)
• Videotape (VT-20502/1)