Archive Record

Metadata

Title

ASU Founder's Day Collection

Collection

ASU Founder's Day Collection

Catalog Number

2008.045

Object Name

Papers, Personal

Level of description

Fonds/Coll

Scope & Content

ASU Founder's Day Collection

1 cubic box, 1 1/4 box, 1 medium flat box; 2 cubic feet

This collection represents the various celebrations of ASU Founder's Day and includes correspondence relating to the planning and preparations of the Founder's Day events. The bulk of the collection is the "Souvenir Programs". This collection ranges from 1925 to 2020 with scattered copies in some periods.

The first Founder's Day celebration at Alabama State University was held on February 9, 1901, when Mary Frances Terrell and her sixth grade class, held a surprise birthday party for ASU's revered founder, Dr. William Burns Paterson. The party included tributes to Paterson reminiscent of his birth in Tullibody, Scotland, on February 9, 1850. His favorite poems, "What I Live For," and his favorite song, "The Blue Bells of Scotland," were integral parts of the celebration. So memorable was the occasion that similar observances were held in his honor until his death on March 14, 1915.

In recognition of Paterson's efforts to keep education of blacks a reality, the program was expanded into an alumni memorial observance designated as Founder's Day. Some academic classes are held in a building that bears his name. The School of Music is named after his birthplace, Tullibody.

Mary Terrell, an 1891 Alumna of State Normal School who taught English at her alma mater for more than fifty-one years, continued the Founder's Day observances until her death in 1943. In 1974, by resolution of the Alabama State Board of Education, the university's governing board, a campus street near the Zelia Stephens Early Childhood Center was named in her memory.

Archive Record

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