Carolina College
About the Collection
Carolina College was a Methodist college and preparatory school for women which operated in Maxton, North Carolina, from 1912 until 1926. In the fall of 1926, the school failed to reopen due to financial difficulties.
The property was subsequently sold to Presbyterian Junior College (which later became St. Andrews Presbyterian College in Laurinburg, North Carolina) and then to Carolina Military Academy. A 1973 fire in the main building of the then-closed Carolina Military Academy apparently destroyed all of the official records of Carolina College. Contents of a cornerstone laid in the main building in 1909 are available in the North Carolina State Archives.
The materials in the Carolina College Collection were accumulated by students and alumnae of Carolina College. The collection measures approximately five linear feet, the bulk of which consists of documents, photographs, and scrapbooks. The first part of the collection (Series 1) consists of materials generated during the lifetime of Carolina College, including photographs, publications, and insignia pins. The second part of the collection (Series 2) consists of materials generated by the Carolina College Alumnae Association (CCAA).
At its inception, the CCAA affiliated itself with Presbyterian Junior College. When the campus was sold to Carolina Military Academy, the Association members continued to meet on the site of their old alma mater. When Carolina Military Academy closed, the Association began meeting at Methodist College (now Methodist University) in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
When the CCAA met on the Methodist College campus, materials were periodically given to Dr. Bill Lowdermilk, the Methodist College liaison to the CCAA, for safekeeping. Over the years, the materials grew to their current size and scope. In 2001, when some steps from the old Carolina College campus were dedicated on the Methodist College campus, Taylor McMillan, the son of long-time CCAA president Rhoda Holden McMillan, donated a scrapbook of Carolina College materials and a copy of the Carolina College history Carolina Echoes which had annotations and corrections penned in by his mother. Few details are available concerning the provenance of the remainder of the collection.
Within the limitations of fair use, there are no restrictions on access to or reproduction of materials in the collection.
Equipment used to digitize images was purchased with LSTA funds made possible through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, administered by the State Library of North Carolina, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources through the North Carolina ECHO, 'Exploring Cultural Heritage Online' Digitization Grant Program.