Viewing entries posted in October 2014

Photographs, Scrapbook, and Rotary Club Records from Troy and Biscoe, now on DigitalNC

We’ve recently completed a number of items from Montgomery County Public Library that document the communities of Biscoe and Troy, NC.

Helen Poole's Class Activities, Troy Elementary School (1950s)In an earlier post, we wrote about Helen Poole’s elementary school class and the marionettes she used as a teaching tool over the course of three decades. In addition to the items mentioned in that earlier post, we now have more photographs showing the different types of dramatic productions Poole’s classes created. We have almost no information on the children in these photographs; if you or someone you know went to Troy Elementary in the 1950s-1970s and could supply more information, we’d love to have it.

We have also added photographs of World War II veterans, and a scrapbook documenting the Biscoe community from 1952-1954. The scrapbook includes newspaper clippings showing Biscoe’s growth and social life during that time.

Finally, we’re pleased to help the Library share a considerable number of records of the Troy Rotary Club, from the 1930s to the 1980s. This collection includes attendance records, minutes, rosters, ephemera, and hundres of issues of the club bulletin (“The Wheel Horse”).

“The Wheel Horse” is replete with personal news of the club’s members: birthdays, marriages, births, jobs taken, travel, illnesses, events, and hyperlocal goings-on (one issue discussed someone moving to a new office, and admiration of a particular Christmas tree). We were entertained by the fact that these news tidbits are freely interspersed with factoids, poems, pithy jokes, and groan-worthy puns, many of which showcase a fair bit of 1950s-1970s sexism.

The salesman sat down in the motel restaurant and told the waitress: “Gimme a charred egg burnt toast, a cuppa coffee and then sit down and nag me, I’m homesick.” [April 1968]

mcpl_bulletins_1968_001Some of these just left us scratching our heads:

At the end of the year an abnormal eel that could swim well, run, climb, and fly a little was made valedictorian. [February 1968]

With all of its names and personal events, this collection could be helpful as well as interesting to a genealogist or local history researcher with an interest in Troy.

You can view all of Montgomery County Public Library’s items on DigitalNC.


Changes are Underway on the DigitalNC Newspaper Collection

As we reported in the spring, we have been working on a major change to the software that is behind the North Carolina Newspapers digital collection. We are migrating all of the community newspapers that we have digitized to the Library of Congress Newspaper Viewer (those of you who are regular users of their excellent Chronicling America site will already be familiar with the viewer). Those changes are currently underway right now.

While the transition is underway, users may run into occasional error messages or downtime for the collection, but we are working hard to make sure that there are as few interruptions as possible. Please let us know if you experience extended difficulties with the site.

We are hoping to have the migration complete by later this fall. When we’ve got everything moved over we’ll post an announcement here, which will include more information about the tools and features available in the new newspaper viewer.


Additional Items from Granville County Public Library now Online

Yearbook photo 1956 Pep PacGranville County Public Library has contributed yearbooks and some manuscript volumes to DigitalNC, including the first yearbook on the site from Warren county.

Yearbooks

  • The Warrentonian [1949] John Graham High School, Warrenton, N.C.
  • Pep-Pac [1948] [1956] Henderson High School, Henderson, N.C.
  • Nahiscoan [1954] Nashville High School, Nashville, N.C.

Other Items

You can view all of Granville County Public Library’s content on DigitalNC.


Anson County Town and Property Maps Now Available on DigitalNC

Detail from a 1961 map of downtown Wadesboro, N.C.

Detail from a 1961 map of downtown Wadesboro, N.C.

We’ve recently finished work on group of mid 20th-century town and property maps from Anson County. The maps are held by the library at South Piedmont Community College in Polkton, N.C.

There are 48 maps now available online, ranging in date from the 1940s through the early 1970s. A few of the maps show the town of Wadesboro, but the majority detail the boundaries of specific properties, including factories, churches, cemeteries, and schools.


More Johnston County High School Yearbooks Now Available on DigitalNC

Yearbook staff from the Johnston County Training School, 1947.

Yearbook staff from the Johnston County Training School, 1947.

We’ve just completed digitizing a new batch of materials from the Johnston County Heritage Center in Smithfield. Among the new materials are:

These yearbooks, combined with contributions from the Benson Museum of Local History and the Hocutt-Ellington Memorial Library in Clayton, add up to more than 200 yearbooks from Johnston County alone. The yearbooks span more than four decades and come from 18 different schools.


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This blog is maintained by the staff of the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center and features the latest news and highlights from the collections at DigitalNC, an online library of primary sources from organizations across North Carolina.

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