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Collection Number: 70146

Collection Title: Virginia Omega Collier Photograph Album, circa 1936-1945

This collection has use 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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Size 1 item (1.0 linear foot)
Abstract Virginia Omega Collier, a Black woman who attended Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina (known as North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University since 1967), located in Greensboro, N.C., from 1941 to 1943, compiled this photograph album in the 1940s. The album documents her time at the University as well as her family life and home in Plainfiled, N.J. The album includes images depicting Collier and her Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority sisters, students in classroom settings, vacations on the Jersey Shore, soldiers on leave, and events like homecoming parades. Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina was the first land grant funded historically Black college or university opened in North Carolina after the U.S. Civil War when it was founded in 1891.
Creator Collier, Virginia Omega, 1919-2016.
Curatorial Unit University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives.
Language English
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Restrictions to Access
No restrictions. Open for research.
Restrictions to Use
For copyright and use restrictions contact the North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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 Virginia Omega Collier Photograph Album #70146, North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Acquisitions Information
Purchased by the North Carolina Collection, in January 2023; accession no. 20231003.1.
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.
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Processed by: Patrick Cullom and Saija Denay Wilson, 2023

Encoded by: Patrick Cullom, March 2023

Since August 2017, we have added ethnic identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine ethnic 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 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 ethnicity to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@email.unc.edu.

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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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Virginia Omega Collier of Plainfield, N.J., was the daughter of a A.M.E. pastor. She enrolled at North Carolina's Shaw College, located in Raleigh, N.C., in 1938 and then attended Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina, located in Greensboro, N.C., from 1941 to 1943. Ephemera includes a program for her cousin Vivian Collier, "Colored Soprano," at Manhattan's Town Hall, 1942. Clippings document her sister Elouise's admittance as the second Black student at the Yale School of Nursing, and community recognition of her father's long service as a clergyman.

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Virginia Omega Collier, a Black woman who attended Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina, located in Greensboro, N.C., from 1941 to 1943, compiled this photograph album in the 1940s. The album documents her time at the University as well as her family life and home in Plainfiled, N.J. The album includes images depicting Collier and her Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority sisters, students in classroom settings, vacations on the Jersey Shore, soldiers on leave, and events including university homecoming parades. Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina was the first land grant funded historically Black college or university in North Carolina after the U.S. Civil War when it was founded in 1891.

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Contents list

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Virginia Omega Collier Photograph Album, circa 1936-1945.

1 item.

Photograph Album PA-70146/1

Virginia Omega Collier photograph album, circa 1936-1945

Photograph album

148 pages(approximately 150 images)

Most of the photographs depict students of the university between 1941 and 1943. The images depicting family and friends date from as early as 1936 and as late as 1945. A majority of the images and pages have hand written or typed captions.

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