Three members of the Elon community contributed to the newly published Encyclopedia of North Carolina, the first comprehensive reference to North Carolina’s people, places, history, culture and arts.
George Troxler, dean of cultural and special programs, wrote a section on Elon University, including its history and enrollment statistics. He also wrote 13 other entries for the encyclopedia, including topics such as Boys Scouts of America, the battle of Alamance, the Presbyterian church and eighteenth-century private schools.
Troxler’s wife Carole, a former professor of history, wrote eight entries, and economics professor Thomas Tiemann contributed with two entries about the Evangelical and Reformed churches and freight rates.
“There’s nothing else like it,” George Troxler says. “Where else is someone going to find a quick reference to Elon University?” He explained the encyclopedia probably provides the easiest way to find compiled information about the state.
George and Carole were invited to contribute as members of the historical society of North Carolina, an organization of people who write and teach history. The editor, William S. Powell, sent the society a list of topics he wanted to include in the encyclopedia, and society members chose which topics they wanted to write about.
Tiemann learned about the opportunity through his wife, Eileen McGrath, who works with Powell at the North Carolina collection, one of the three special libraries at the University of North Carolina.
More than 550 scholars and historians contributed to the encyclopedia, which includes 2,053 entries and took 15 years to complete.
“It’s a good resource, it’s easy to use and it’s a handy way to get to information about North Carolina quickly,” Tiemann says.
The encyclopedia is the third and final segment in a series of three works edited by Powell, including The North Carolina Gazetteer and the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography.
The University of North Carolina Press published the three works and is planning to create an online edition of the encyclopedia with the North Carolina Humanities Council and the UNC library.