Viewing entries posted in July 2018

New Batch of Yearbooks from Granville County Now Online at DigitalNC

A photo of the 1962 football team at Franklinton High School.

A new batch of yearbooks from Granville County are now available on DigitalNC, courtesy of our partner, the Granville County Public Library. Included in this collection are several yearbooks from across Granville County in the 1940s and then later in the 1960s.

These yearbooks contain individual and class portraits, class and school histories, and honorifics of the students and assorted faculty members. Also included are photographs of school activities, class clubs, and student athletics. A few of the yearbooks also included “class prophecies,” descriptions of what they hoped they would be doing and how their lives would play out after graduation, and “last wills and testaments”, where they “bequeathed” their skills and abilities to future graduates.

An exterior shot of Franklinton High School, taken in 1965

Follow the links below to browse the yearbooks from the schools included in this batch:

To see more from Granville County Public Library, visit their partner page, or check out their website to learn more.


New Yearbooks from Benson Museum of Local History Now Online at DigitalNC

A group of students from Benson High School in 1968

A new batch of yearbooks from Benson, North Carolina, are now up on DigitalNC, courtesy of our partner, the Benson Museum of Local History. Included in this batch are two yearbooks from Benson High School, The Tatler from 1968 and The Tatler from 1969.

These yearbooks show what it was like to go to school in Benson at that time. These yearbooks include individual portraits, class portraits, and photographs of activities, student clubs and organizations like Future Farmers of America, and sports that the students participated in. They also include photographs celebrating the years’ homecoming events, and faculty at the school, including librarians and the school’s bus drivers.

A colored photo of Benson High School Principal Robert D. Warren speaking to the Senior Class of 1969.

To see other materials from the Benson Museum of Local History, please visit their partner page. To learn more about the museum, visit their home page.


Over 60 Years of Gaston College Catalogs Now Online at DigitalNC

Over 60 years and dozens of catalogs from Gaston College are now online at DigitalNC. The publications span over six decades, from 1955 to 2018. Founded in 1952, the institution was originally called Gaston Technical Institute. Run under the banner of the School of Engineering at North Carolina State College (which changed its name to NC State University in 1962), the school was later renamed to Gaston College in 1964. These catalogs cover admissions, student registration for classes, scheduling, financial aid information, and lists of programs and classes.

Because of Gastonia’s focus on industrial development and the importance of the textile industry to the area, it is no surprise that many of the classes at Gaston College originally reflected that. In the beginning, it was almost exclusively classes on civil engineering, chemical engineering, electrical and electronic engineering, and mechanic and industrial engineering. It also included a curriculum for pre-textiles, which would have assisted in the study of textile chemistry, knitting technology, and textiles technology. In 1970, taking such a program would have cost you $32 to be a full time student.

Click here to browse through the catalogs. To learn more about Gaston College, visit their partner page or take a look at their website.


More Newspapers From Pine Knoll Shores Now Online Through 2017

A few of Pine Knoll Shores residents and the fish they caught.

An article notifying PKS residents of turtle season and the turtles that have returned to the area

Issues of the Pine Knoll Shores newspaper, The Shoreline, from January to December 2017, are now online at DigitalNC, courtesy of the History Committee of the Town of Pine Knoll Shores. These new issues join over four decades of The Shoreline that have been added to DigitalNC over the last few years.

The Shoreline is a monthly newspaper that covers different parts of life in the Pine Knoll Shores area, including articles on community events and groups like the local Women’s Club or Garden Club, stories about the local businesses, news from the mayor and local county commissioners meetings, and book reviews. It also includes tips and helpful advice for locals, such as investment information, and in one issue, advice on how to prepare a prime rib roast for the summer. Another article offered a list of activities around the area, including special programs at the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores.

Having these issues in our collection gives us a greater picture of what it means to live in a small coastal community. Click here to view nearly 40 years of The Shoreline. To learn more about the History Committee of the Town of Pine Knoll Shores, take a look at their partner page, or website.


Dunbar High School Yearbooks from Rowan Public Library are now online

An exterior photo of Dunbar High School in 1965.

Nearly twenty years of yearbooks from Rowan County have now been digitized and are available on DigitalNC, courtesy of our partner Rowan Public Library. The yearbooks cover 1950 through 1969, come from Dunbar High School, the town’s Black high school, making them the first yearbooks digitized from the town of East Spencer, N.C.  Originally named the East Spencer Negro School, which opened in 1900, the school changed its name to Dunbar High School in 1958.  

These yearbooks include individual portraits, class portraits, and photographs of activities, clubs the students joined, and sports played. Some of the class portraits also included “ambitions” – jobs that the students wanted to be when they grew up, like stenographer, teacher, or social worker. A few of the yearbooks also include “last wills and testaments”, where classes would “bequeath” thanks or seats to future seniors, and “class prophecies”, where students imagined and wrote about where they might be in the future.

The Hi-Y club of 1959 at Dunbar High School.

Follow the links below to browse the various yearbooks from Dunbar High School included in this batch:

These yearbooks provide a valuable source of knowledge for what segregated school life in East Spencer, N.C. were like at that time. To learn more about the Rowan Public Library, visit their contributor page, or their website. You can also visit their website for the Edith M. Clark History Room. To see more yearbooks from across North Carolina, you can click here.


Four more issues of the Highlands High School student newspaper are on DigitalNC

cover page of the 1947 June issue

More issues of the Highlands High School student newspaper, The Mountain Trail, are now online, adding issues from 1947, 1976, 1979 and 1982.  These additions help fill in gaps in our already online coverage from 1938 to 1982.  Three of the issues are specifically the graduation issues of the paper and focus on the senior graduating class.  The June 1, 1976 issue devoted a full page to each senior.  

Song list

Songs that fit each graduating senior from the June 1976 issue

class news

The lower grades had news in the paper too. This is from the September 1979 issue.

To learn more about our partner Highlands Historical Society, visit their partner page.  You can read previous posts on the Mountain Trail here and visit our North Carolina Newspapers page to view more papers from across the state.


New Materials from the United Daughters of the Confederacy Now Online at DigitalNC

1902 application for Mrs. Edgar Smith to join the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

Nearly two dozen new folders and notebooks have been added to DigitalNC, courtesy of our partner, the Braswell Memorial Library. Coming from the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the North Carolina Division, Bethel Heroes Chapter, this new batch contains group applications, membership petitions, and meeting minutes dating back to 1902. While most of them belong to the specific Bethel Heroes chapter in Rocky Mount, there are some applications from other states like Florida. This batch is massive, with materials stretching throughout nearly the entire twentieth century, from 1902 to 1994.

These notebooks and folders give us a good idea of what it meant to be a member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy at that time. It is so important for us to archive this material so that we’re able to figure out what their members found important and noteworthy. The collection of meeting minutes can be found here, and the membership petitions are found here.

To see more from Braswell Memorial Library, you can visit their partner page, or click on their website to learn more information.


Charlotte Post is now available

front page of the February 18, 1993 Charlotte Post

Front page of the February 18, 1993 issue of the Charlotte Post, with a focus on Black History Month

Issues of the Charlotte Post, an African American newspaper out of Charlotte, are now online, thanks to partner Johnson C. Smith University.  The Charlotte Post was founded in 1878 and is a weekly publication.  It still is published today, with the tagline, “The Voice of the Black Community.”  

The first issues that we are making available online on DigitalNC cover 1988-1990, 1993, and 1996.  Issues affecting the Black community in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the wider nation are all discussed in the 30 plus pages of each issue of the paper, from politics, including the runs of several Black politicians in local and state government, as well as Jesse Jackson’s run for president in 1988, issues with the Charlotte Mecklenburg school district, especially for Black students, and a multitude of other topics, many of which will seem not so different from the topics of today.

To view more materials from Johnson C. Smith University, go here.  To view more of our newspapers, visit here.


New Issues of The Barker from Walter Williams High School Now Up

Students dream of a star-studded faculty in the 1958 April Fools’ issue.

Six Issues of The Barker, the student paper from Walter Williams High School, are now available on DigitalNC. Walter Williams High School is located in Burlington, North Carolina, and The Barker is still published by the school’s journalism class during the spring semester.

Issues from this batch date from the 1957-1958 academic year and were published on a monthly basis. Included in each issues are news articles related to school happenings, event notices, and pictures of student life. A special April Fools’ issue lets the students’ sense of humor shine through as they take a break from their usual routine.

To learn more about our partner Alamance County Public Libraries, who provided these materials, take a look at their DigitalNC partner page, or visit their website.


Student newspapers from the Henderson Institute now on DigitalNC

Title page of the April 1943 edition of The Campus Herald

Ten issues of the student newspaper from the Henderson Institute are now on DigitalNC.  The Henderson Institute was founded in 1891 with the goal of educating the Black community.  It was funded by the United Presbyterian Church.  The school closed in 1970 but maintains an active alumni group and our partner, the Henderson Institute Historical Museum stands on the original grounds of the school in Henderson, NC.   

Editorial in 1941 paper about US view of race relations

Editorial in the 1941 Campus Herald discussing the inconsistency of the US policy abroad and at home

The topics covered in the paper include events happening at the school, topics of study in classes at the school, as well as important events in the Black community both locally and nationally.  The issues of the paper span 1937 through 1969, showing the evolution of the school in the middle of the 20th century, including some very interesting papers from the World War II era where there is discussion by the students of the juxtaposition of the United States push for liberty abroad while race relations on the home front remained fraught.  The early papers published in the 1930s were done under the direction of the English department but later issues appear to be have been produced by a specific group of the student body independently at the school.  

1969 student council

The introduction of Student Council at the Henderson Institute in 1969

To learn more about the Henderson Institute Historical Museum visit their partner page or their website.  To see more newspapers from across North Carolina, visit our newspaper page.  


DigitalNC Blog Header Image

About

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.

Social Media Policy

Search the Blog

Archives

Subscribe

Email subscribers can choose to receive a daily, weekly, or monthly email digest of news and features from the blog.

Newsletter Frequency
RSS Feed