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• 1 media/image19.jpg 2021-08-03T10:10:50-07:00 1887 - Stephen B. Weeks (1865-1918) Receives First Earned Graduate Degrees in English 5 Stephen B. Weeks becomes the first student to receive an earned Master of Arts degree in English in 1886. In 1888, he received his Ph.D. in English, also the first doctorate given by the College of Literature, and pursued a career as a historian, accumulating a renowned collection of North Carolina historical documents. plain 2021-09-01T07:53:44-07:00 01/01/1887 Stephen B. Weeks becomes the first student to receive an earned Master of Arts degree in English in 1886. In 1888, he received his Ph.D. in English, also the first doctorate given by the College of Literature; the title of his dissertation was “The Maid of France: Schiller vs. Shakespeare.” A prolific writer on historical subjects, he accumulated an extensive collection of North Carolina historical documents, which became the nucleus of the University’s North Carolina Collection. He taught in the Indian School in Sante Fe, NM, and was superintendent of the San Carlos Agency School in Arizona Territory.  It is important to explain the harmful effects that such “Indian Schools” had on Native American culture. The Santa Fe Indian School’s website explains, “the School was established by the federal government during the Boarding School era with a charge to assimilate the native child. The established belief at that time was if you could remove an Indian child from their community, prohibit them from practicing their native language and beliefs, you could remove the cultural and individual identity of the children providing the opportunity to impart new standards for living the American way of life. ‘Kill the Indian to save the man’ was a term penned by General Richard Henry Pratt, the individual charged to deal with the ‘Indian problem’ and responsible for creating the first boarding school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1879. At one time there were 25 boarding schools, established by the US Department of War, located in 15 states with the largest native populations.” 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  SOURCES
  
  Battle, Kemp P.  History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II: From 1868 to 1912.  Raleigh: Edwards & Broughton Printing Co., 1912. 387, 808.  Rpt. in Documenting the American South.  University Library, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, https://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/battle2/battle2.html.
  
  Jones, H. G. “Weeks, Stephen Beauregard.” Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, edited by William S. Powell. U of North Carolina P, 1996. Rpt. in NCPedia, https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/weeks-stephen-beauregard.