A Legen-dairy History of Ice Cream on Campus

This post features contributions from Kelly Arnold, NC State University Public History MA '23.

In honor of National Ice Cream Day on July 17th, the Special Collections Research Center has gathered some legen-dairy facts about the history of ice cream and dairy production on campus. 

Early years of ice cream production

NC State University has a long history of dairy production, which is a tradition that continues to this day. NC State built its first dairy barn in 1892 behind Holladay Hall. In the following years, students enrolled in "Advanced Dairying" courses to learn methods for "butter-making, ice-cream-making, and testing for adulterants and preservatives" in milk products (see 1910-1911 course catalog). In October 1918, the North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station began to pasteurize milk at the creamery in the basement of Patterson Hall, which was some of the first known pasteurized milk manufactured in North Carolina.

In the 1940s, faculty members used milk produced on campus to make ice cream in the newly established milk manufacturing research laboratory. Students had the opportunity to enroll in "Ice Cream Making" and "Market Milk" short courses by the end of the 1949 academic year.

Ice cream production expanded

The only place ice cream was available on campus for the next few decades was in the dining halls. By the 1970s, the Dairy Enterprise System expanded and moved to the basement of Schaub Hall. NC State was producing larger quantities of ice cream and milk products from its dairy farm, and Dorothea Dix Hospital and Butner State Hospital also sent dairy to NC State to be processed and packaged. NC State started selling surplus dairy products to the State School for the Blind and the State Prison in the 1970s.

The Ice Cream Shoppe opened in May 1973 in the Student Center and was an immediate success with students. According to a 1973 Technician article, students returning to campus in the summer of 1973 consumed over 2,000 gallons of ice cream on campus in September alone. The Ice Cream Shoppe offered a large variety of ice cream flavors for the campus community, including six regular flavors, six specialty flavors, and two "flavors of the month" for six cents a scoop.

Given the success of the Ice Cream Shoppe, university leaders and organizations advocated for expanding dairy production and selling ice cream off-campus. The Food Science Club campaigned to bring ice cream to the NC State Fair, and they began selling their products at the fair in the 1970s. Since then, NC State ice cream has been a State Fair tradition for visitors.

A new brand for NC State Ice Cream

Carl Hollifield and Gary Cartwright, director and co-director of the NC State Dairy Enterprise System, advocated for placing all of NC State's dairy production under a new brand in the 2000s. With their support, NC State ice cream produced at the dairy processing facilities on campus by the Department of Food, Bioprocessing, and Nutrition Sciences became known officially as "Howling Cow" in 2008. NC State officially applied for trademark status for the brand in June 2009. ​​Following these changes, students were involved in all aspects of product development, from scientific innovation to product design and marketing. Howling Cow ice cream was distributed all over campus, from the creamery at the D. H. Hill Jr. and Hunt Libraries, to convenience stores around campus and grocery stores across the state. The education and advancement of ice cream production on campus continued with the opening of the Randleigh Dairy Heritage Museum in 2018. Additionally, the Howling Cow Dairy Education Center and Creamery was dedicated on October 30, 2019, to educate the public about campus dairy operations and the many facets of North Carolina’s dairy industry. 

Curious which Howling Cow ice cream flavor you are? Take this quiz and find out!

If you would like to learn more, the Special Collections Research Center has several images and videos of ice cream production on our Rare and Unique Digital Collections website. Additionally, there are some relevant materials in the Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences Records, the Department of Animal Science Records, and the Food Science Club Records.

If you have questions about our collections or would like to see our materials, please use our online request form or visit our homepage. The Special Collections Research Center’s physical reading room is currently open by appointment only. Please contact us at library_specialcollections@ncsu.edu for appointments or any questions. You can also submit a request to use materials, and we will email you with available appointment times.