William Coker and the North Carolina Botanical Garden: Home

This guide points to primary and secondary resources housed in Wilson Special Collections Library that are related to the life and career of William Chambers Coker, specifically focused on the Arboretum and the establishment of the North Carolina Botanical Garden.

The material was originally designed for an undergraduate class at UNC-Chapel Hill looking at the Pinetum on Manning Drive, English 266: Science & Literature, Section 1

• September 8, 1952: UNC System President Gray proposed to the Board of Trustees of the University of North Carolina that land be set aside for use as a botanical garden. ["Documents relating to the history of the Garden", Box 3. North Carolina Botanical Garden of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Records, 1952-1997. #40072. University Archives, Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.]
• October 20, 1952: Professor John N. Couch of the Botany Department sends Chancellor House the final draft of the proposal for the Botanical Garden, in which he expresses hope that W.C. Coker will give land along the Meeting-of-the-Waters Branch to the University. This is the land that would later become the Coker Pinetum. ["A Proposal to Establish a Botanical Garden at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill", Box 3. Botanical Garden Records]
• Febraury 26, 1953: A letter from Couch thanks Coker for "the deed for the two lots, made out to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, to be added to the land which the University has set aside for the Botanical Garden." [Department of Botany of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Records, 1922-1989. #40078. University Archives, Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.]
• May 18, 1953: Couch expresses hope of "a considerable addition" of land from Coker in a letter to John Sprunt Hill. [Department of Botany Records]
• June 27, 1953: Coker passes away. [Powell, William S. Dictionary of North Carolina Biography. CBo D55p. North Carolina Collection, Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.]
• December 8, 1953: "The Building and Grounds Committee recommends that Coker College be requested to deed to the University of North Carolina the park areas along the Meeting-of-the-Waters Branch...." [From "Building and Grounds Committee Recommendation", Box 4:2, Folder 331. Subseries 4.4: Building and Grounds Committee, 1919-2002. General Faculty and Faculty Council of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Records, 1799-2011. #40106. University Archives, Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.]
• April 1954: The Trustees of Coker College gave approximately 35 acres of land formerly belonging to W.C. Coker along the Meeting-of-the-Waters Branch to UNC. ["The North Carolina Botanical Garden: A Review of the History and Status, and Prospectus for a Public Botanical Garden and Arboretum, Operated as a Unit of the Department of Botany, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill". Cp581 N87b4. North Carolina Collection, Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.]
• Early 1960s: An undated brochure inluding a map of the Botanical Garden conatins an early reference to the land along Meeting-of-the-Waters Creek as "Coker Pinetum". This brochure can be dated between 1960, when Ritchie Bell was appointed Acting Director of the North Carolina Botanical Garden, and 1966, when the Garden was first opened to the public. [Department of Botany Records]