Andy
Griffith Donates His Papers
to UNC Southern Historical Collection
 Television
and film star Andy Griffith, one of the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill’s most famous alumni, has donated his personal
collection chronicling his successful career to the university’s
Southern Historical Collection.
"I am proud of my connections to Carolina and pleased to know
that some results from a lifetime of work on television, film, stage
and recordings will have a permanent home in Chapel Hill,"
Griffith said. "The Southern Historical Collection is an impressive
repository of great value to the people of North Carolina, our Southern
region and beyond, and I am glad to help expand and enhance such
an important resource."
Griffith, one of television’s most personable and enduring
star performers, was in Chapel Hill to help dedicate the newly renovated
Memorial Hall, in which he gave his first theatrical performance
as a UNC undergraduate.
Griffith was among the principals at a ribbon-cutting ceremony
Thursday, September 14, 2005, and participated in other celebratory
events thoughout the weekend, including a grand opening gala with
singer Tony Bennett. Griffith was honorary chair of the Memorial
Hall Transformation Steering Committee, which helped raise more
than $5 million for the public-private partnership that made the
renovation possible.
UNC’s Southern Historical Collection, likely the world’s
largest collection of manuscript and related material documenting
the American South, celebrated its 75th anniversary this year. The
collection, located in Wilson Library, contains more than 15 million
items in 4,900 collections with sizes as diverse as a single item
and half a million. Materials date primarily from the mid-18th century
to now. Included are long runs of intimate family correspondence,
sets of 50-volume diaries, 80,000 photographs, 3,500 oral history
interviews, general store account books, scrapbooks, office files,
videotapes and other items.
In 1930, UNC officially established the Southern Historical Collection,
with a founding endowment gift from Sarah Graham Kenan. Throughout
its history, items have been acquired largely as generous gifts
from individuals like Griffith, as well as families and organizations.
The collection documents the lives and careers of thousands of people,
including UNC alumni or students U.S. Sen. Sam J. Ervin; journalist
Charles Kuralt; novelist Walker Percy; historian and novelist Shelby
Foote; novelist Gail Godwin; and N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice
Susie Sharp.
The Griffith collection includes manuscripts, recordings, television
and film footage and other memorabilia documenting a 55-year career.
Currently, those materials are scattered in locations including
Griffith’s home in California. Click
here to view the catalogue listings for the Griffith collection.
"Andy Griffith is a North Carolina treasure and a national
folk hero. This generous donation will ensure that his legacy is
forever intertwined with a university that is proud of his accomplishments
and grateful for all that he has given back," said Chancellor
James Moeser. "The Southern Historical Collection is the perfect
place for the university to lovingly document his distinguished
career. And we are delighted to celebrate this announcement as part
of our Memorial Hall celebration, making another strong connection
between the performing arts and a vital part of our academic community,
the library."
The Southern Historical Collection already had some Griffith materials
– mostly 16 millimeter reels of television footage and feature
films – as well as materials from actress Frances Bavier,
"Aunt Bea" on "The Andy Griffith Show." Griffith’s
items were part of a 2001 biographical exhibit in Wilson Library
that attracted the most visitors of any exhibit in recent years.
The library has commercially produced recordings from Griffith in
the Southern folklife and North Carolina collections.
Walter C. "Tim" West, curator of manuscripts and director
of the collection, said he expected the new Griffith materials to
attract strong interest among the general public, the thousands
of Southern scholars who visit the collection annually and the university
community.
"We have been pleased with the response to past efforts to
spotlight our early holdings of Andy Griffith materials and expect
such interest to grow when this new collection is completed,"
he said. "We are honored that Andy is entrusting such valuable
and culturally important materials to the Southern Historical Collection.
They will have a good home on the campus where he learned his craft."
A native of Mount Airy, Griffith graduated from UNC in 1949, earning
a bachelor’s degree in music. He was president of the campus
glee club and a member of the Carolina Playmakers and the music
fraternity, Phi Mu Alpha. He received the Distinguished Alumnus
Award in 1978. He established the Andy and Cindi Griffith Scholarship
in the departments of dramatic art and music. In 1993, Griffith
helped the university celebrate its Bicentennial Observance by providing
the voiceover for public service announcements focusing on Carolina’s
role as the nation’s first public university.
Griffith’s best-known Chapel Hill connections included his
1953 monologue, "What It Was, Was Football," performed
in Kenan Stadium and later recorded and distributed through Capitol
Records, selling more than 800,000 copies.
His career highlights include starring in the Broadway hit, "No
Time for Sergeants" and playing Will Stockdale, a role that
he reprised in the movie of the same name in 1957. Also that year,
he appeared in Elia Kazan's "A Face in the Crowd" playing
Lonesome Rhodes, generally considered his greatest film performance.
"The Andy Griffith Show" debuted in 1960, starring Griffith
as Sheriff Andy Taylor and was on the air for eight years, becoming
television’s top-rated program in its final year.
Griffith went on to do several movies, television specials, made-for-television
movies and series including "The Headmaster," "Salvage
1" and the long-running "Matlock" series, which began
in 1986 with Griffith playing Ben Matlock, a criminal defense lawyer.
In 2003, the network TV Land donated a bronze statue for Raleigh's
Pullen Park that depicted a carefree moment from the opening sequence
of "The Andy Griffith Show," the sheriff walking to the
fishing hole with his son Opie.
Griffith also recorded three music albums. One of those, "I
Love to Tell the Story," won a Grammy Award in 1997.
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