Viewing entries tagged "photos"

Recipes, Records, and More Now Available from Edgecombe County Memorial Library!

Thanks to our partners at Edgecombe County Memorial Library, we are pleased to announce DigitalNC now has over two hundred new records to explore! Pore over records from Tarboro’s history of shipping and manufacturing, read through decades of magazine club programs, or get inspired by dozens of new recipes! This new batch covers a truly dazzling array of subjects, from as far back as 1878 to as recent as 2022. They include correspondences, legal ledgers, and even uniforms! Whatever your historical interest, this collection likely has something for you.

The back of a postcard from Tar River Oil Company.

Locals from or around Tarboro will be pleased to find a great quantity of photographs, publications, and records relating to downtown Tarboro’s historic structures. Historians have taken painstaking efforts over the years to preserve the history of this beautiful town, and the fruits of their labor are now easily seen. Many storefronts, churches, and civic buildings have carefully curated profiles, containing detailed photographs, preserved newspaper clippings, and written histories. Perhaps the most detailed of these profiles is Tarboro’s old town hall building, which served as a fixture of community politics before it was demolished in the late-twentieth century. The destruction of the building is detailed in full, even including detailed photographs of its demolition!

Readers interested in women’s history will be elated to discover over a century’s worth of documents related to the Tarboro Magazine Club, a collective of women dedicated to intellectual growth and community. The Magazine Club has graciously provided decades of correspondences between members, detailed lists of membership records, and magazine subscription lists. A vast number of programs are also included, which list the annual theme of the club alongside a schedule of lectures and talks given by members of the Magazine Club. Educational “learn-at-home” courses were also used by the club, and even include materials from UNC Chapel Hill!

A recipe card for Strawberry Satin Pie.

Locals may also fondly remember DeBerry’s Colonial Dining Room, a traditional southern kitchen that served the community for years before its unfortunate closing. Fortunately, our collection now includes a host of photographs, postcards, and menus from the dining room. We even have detailed photographs of the famous uniforms worn by the waitresses! Perhaps most tantalizing of all is the inclusion of over one hundred recipes carefully recorded by Ruby DeBerry, the matriarch of the restaurant. The recipes are an absolute gem, reflecting mid-century southern cuisine in a new way. Miss a dish? Now you can recreate it at home!

Hungry for more? You can find this collection (and more) here. Want to know more about Tarboro? Contact our partners at Edgecombe Memorial Library at their website here. Want to test some recipes? Let us know how they turn out!


Latest Durham Section of the National Council of Negro Women Batch Fills In Recent Years

Thanks to our partner, the Durham Section of the National Council of Negro Women, Inc. (NCNW), a batch containing a plethora of meeting minutes, photographs, programs, a scrapbook, and much more are now available on DigitalNC. The majority of these materials in this batch expands our holdings of NCNW materials primarily from the 1980s-2000s to encompass the 2010s.

Always fun are the photographs from events attended and held by the NCNW Durham Section such as the 2016 Harambee Old School Gala! The Gala pictures feature members along with their friends and families dressed up and having a great time.

Two people smiling big. One person is standing on the left is dressed in a gray shirt and long sleeve cardigan. The second person, sitting, has on a black hat, white shirt, and red blazer.
Harambee Old School Gala [2016]

To learn more about the Durham Section of the National Council of Negro Women, Inc., please visit their website linked here.

To view more materials from the Durham Section of the National Council of Negro Women, Inc. please click here.


Three Kittrell College Yearbooks from the 1960s and More Now Available on DigitalNC!

Thanks to our partner, Granville County Public Library, batches containing a May 1947 issue of Oxford High School’s student newspaper; several years of yearbooks from Middleburg High School and Kittrell College; two W. H. Smith account books; and one photograph of Middleburg High School’s women’s 1937 basketball team!

While we have several Kittrell College bulletins available on DigitalNC, this batch brings us our first yearbook issues for the college which are from 1960, 1968, and 1969. In addition, the yearbooks in this batch from Middleburg High School fill in previous gaps on DigitalNC with issues from 1938, 1939, 1947, 1948 and 1949.

To learn more about the Granville County Public Library, visit their website here.

To explore more yearbooks from across North Carolina, visit our North Carolina Yearbook collection.

To view more materials from Granville County, visit our Granville County page here.


Fruit of Labor World Cultural Center Shares Labor Organizing Materials

The North Carolina Digital Heritage Center is pleased to announce that materials from our new partner Fruit of Labor World Cultural Center are now available for viewing. Fruit of Labor World Cultural Center is located in Raleigh, NC but there work goes far beyond Raleigh. The digitized materials reflects the organizing efforts of national, local and sub-local chapters of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America labor union. These materials are meant to be used for educational and training purposes. You can view the materials at DigitalNC!

Beige colored cover page of the International Worker Justice Campaign Bulletin with two black and white images of a speaker standing behind a podium and a group of speakers sitting at a table. for the Mental Health Workers Bill of Rights Campaign.
Cover of International Worker Justice Campaign Bulletin, August 2008.

Materials in the collection include information about labor organizing through photographs, newsletters, bulletins, guides and selected literature. There are also Executive Orders from the State of North Carolina that were a result of the organizing efforts for example Executive Order No. 105. This act of legislation is a win for the labor union as they fight for the right to fair practices in the workplace. Inside The International Worker Justice Campaign Bulletin you will find mention of this legislation being passed and announcements about the Mental Health Workers Bill of Rights Campaign.

The United Electrical, Radio and Machine workers of America Local 150: Public Service Workers of North Carolina is rallying for many issues. The Mental Health Workers Bill of Rights Campaign is an ongoing movement fighting for better wages, attendance polices, and safe staffing to name a few, and you check out the related materials on the NCDHC website. To learn about the other campaigns and organizing efforts visit the Fruit of Labor World Cultural Center website.


6 Halloween Costume Ideas from the Archive

Scrapbook spread, Halloween themed

1. Dress up like a character from your favorite cult classic.

This is a perfect excuse to re-watch low budget movies from the ’80s!

Photo of child wearing Toxie halloween costume

Ocracoke School Halloween Carnival [1995]

2. Dress like your future self.

Pull out your cardigans, print button-downs, and homemade cookies!

Scrapbook clipping, Halloween costumes

Cedar Mountain Community Club Scrapbook [1985]

3. Embrace the classics and dress your baby like a pumpkin!

Newspaper clipping, Halloween costume, King Mountain Herald

The Kings Mountain Herald [2004]

 

Scrapbook page showing Halloween party, Cedar Mountain

Cedar Mountain Community Club Scrapbook [1992]

 

Newspaper clipping, The News-Journal, Halloween costume of baby in pumpkin

The News-Journal (Raeford, N.C.) [1984]

4. Dress like something unintentionally creepy.

On Halloween night, even something as simple as a Cabbage Patch costume can look unsettling!

Scrapbook clipping of Lib Shipman dressed in a Halloween costume

Cedar Mountain Community Club Scrapbook [1985]

Scrapbook clipping, Halloween party with people in costumes

Cedar Mountain Community Club Scrapbook [1982]

 

5. Relive your childhood and dress like a beloved childhood character.

Take inspiration from the Oscar the Grouch, Big Bird, and Dora the Explorer costumes below!

Newspaper clipping from Albemarle High School Student Newspaper, Halloween costume

Albemarle High School Student Newspaper [1987]

 

Child wearing bird costume, Halloween

Ocracoke School Halloween Carnival [1995]

 

Newspaper clipping, Halloween costume, Dora

The News-Journal (Raeford, N.C.) [2002]

6. Match with your friends.

Pick a movie, character, or theme for everyone to follow!

Newspaper clipping, Brevard College Student Newspaper, Halloween costumes

Newspaper clipping, University of North Carolina at Asheville Student Newspaper, Halloween masks

University of North Carolina at Asheville Student Newspaper [2018]


Blaze into Fall with the Greensboro Fire Fighters and Yellow Fire Trucks!

Thanks to our partner, the Greensboro Firefighters History Book Committee, additional photographs of Greensboro Fire Department individuals, stations, trucks; copy of the Spring 1979 North Carolina Professional Fire Fighter magazine, photographs of industry buildings in the city, and more are now available on DigitalNC! Featured in this batch are photographs of the Department’s yellow fire trucks.

In the early 1970s, studies reported that yellow fire trucks were more visible than red ones. Following the publication of these studies, yellow fire trucks began to appear on streets in cities such as Greensboro. Unfortunately, painting the trucks didn’t actually improve people’s awareness of them, but instead caused an increase in vehicular accidents. This was a result of the color’s association with utility company vehicles which led to less people registering the yellow fire trucks as emergency vehicles. Later, a different study was published that found that red and white were more associated with emergency vehicles, making yellow officially out as the color of future fire trucks.

The Greensboro Fire Department had several yellow fire trucks in use from in the 1970s. However, in the late 1980s, Chief W. Frank Jones declared the department’s trucks would be returning to red, saying, “fire trucks are supposed to be red, from what children say.” The yellow fire trucks continued to be used until they had to be replaced.

Information about the yellow fire trucks was gathered from page 60 of the September 23, 1990 issue of Greensboro News & Record along with previous Greensboro Firefighters History Book Committee batch materials.

To view more materials from the Greensboro Firefighters History Book Committee, please visit their contributor page linked here.

To learn more about the Greensboro Firefighters History Book Committee, please visit their website linked here.


Learn About Dr. Moses Ray of Tarboro With New Edgecombe County Materials

Thanks to our partners at the Edgecombe County Memorial Library, Digital NC has digitized new materials from Tarboro and Edgecombe County, North Carolina. These documents include architectural photographs; minutes, photographs, invitations, and other records from the Edgecombe Magazine Club; a new W.S. Clark ledger from 1909; a scrapbook from the Gettysburg Veterans Reunion of 1913; and a family Bible from the Bridgers family of Edgecombe County.

Additionally, we have added a new collection of materials from Dr. Moses A. Ray (1920-1995), a dentist, mayor, community advocate and leader in Tarboro. Dr. Ray was a graduate of Shaw University and Howard University, where he earned his doctorate in dentistry. After settling in Tarboro in 1946, he helped establish the Edgecombe Credit Union for African-Americans, was a trustee of the Edgecombe Technical Institute, led the East Tarboro Citizens League, was a member of the North Carolina Board of Transportation, and served on the Tarboro Town Council and as the first post-Reconstruction African-American mayor of Tarboro. This list comprises only a portion of the many leadership roles he held in Tarboro over the second half of the twentieth century. His community service was honored with many certificates and plaques that are now available as a part of the collection on Digital NC.

Visitors to the site can also see photographs from throughout Dr. Ray’s life depicting some of his work in the Tarboro community. We have also added a program from a 2015 Phoenix Historical Society educational program honoring his life of service, which further details some of his accomplishments like helping establish low-income housing and paved roads in East Tarboro. The Phoenix Historical Society records and promotes the African-American history of Edgecombe County; researchers can learn more online or in the East Carolina University Manuscript Collection. View the Dr. Moses Ray Collection here and see the rest of our Edgecombe County Memorial Library materials here.


Materials From New Partner Lee County Public Libraries Now Available!

Lee County Public Libraries has shared a large collection of materials relating to Sanford, Jonesboro, and the greater Lee County area, now available on Digital NC. Here at NCDHC, we are thrilled to work with a new partner and broaden our representation of “the heart of North Carolina.” Visitors to the site can now view nearly one hundred years of documents, including bulletins and directories; county fair and circus programs; personal records; Chamber of Commerce pamphlets; many photographs of residents, homes, and businesses; scrapbooks; school programs, records, and yearbooks; and more. Also available are forty-four years of minutes from the Pierian Club, a women’s club and Sanford’s oldest literary society. Records from these societies, common in the twentieth century, give unique insight into the activities of middle-class North Carolina women.

Sanford has historically been an important site for manufacturing and industry, and was established at the junction of the Raleigh and Augusta Air Line and Western Railroads. The early twentieth century saw rapid expansion, thanks to Sanford’s location on the railways and its official incorporation as a city in 1907, as well as the growth of manufacturing throughout the Piedmont. Tobacco in particular contributed to Sanford’s growth, which is reflected in many of the photographs and documents now available on the site. Many of the newly digitized materials are concerned with attracting more business to Sanford and advertising its various commercial enterprises. Sanford suffered economic downturns in the Great Depression and again in the 1960s and ’70s as tobacco and manufacturing declined.

Thanks to investment in economic diversification at the end of the twentieth century, Sanford has again become a vibrant and growing community with many manufacturing jobs and a diverse population of over 60,000 residents. Researchers can learn more about Lee County here and view all of our digitized materials from Lee County Public Libraries here.


Chronicles of Jeanne Swanner’s Miss North Carolina Reign Now Available on DigitalNC!

Thanks to our partner, Graham Historical Museum, a Sanborn Insurance Map of Graham, North Carolina, a program from the 1963 Miss Graham pageant, along with six scrapbooks that chronicle Jeanne Flinn Swanner’s Miss North Carolina appearances, telegrams, and Graham’s trek to Atlantic City to cheer her on at the Miss America 1963 pageant are now available to view on DigitalNC!

In 1963, Jeanne Flinn Swanner was named the winner of the Miss North Carolina crown. During the pageant, Swanner quickly became a favorite, winning the swimsuit competition and receiving a standing ovation for her performance of original songs on the ukulele. In the same year, she competed in the Miss America pageant held in Atlantic City, New Jersey. She did not win the Miss America crown, but was voted Miss Congeniality.

Following the completion of the pageants, Swanner returned to Auburn University and completed a bachelors degree in physical education. After receiving her degree, she started teaching during the week while giving speaking engagements on weekends. After nearly a decade of teaching, Swanner decided to pivot her career into professional speaking full-time. She credits the year following her Miss North Carolina win, when she traveled to nearly every corner of the state giving over 500(!) speeches, for her career as a professional humorist.

Individual in a light colored dress and long white finger gloves holding a rose while sitting in a chair.
Miss Jeanne Swanner pictured in the Graham High School yearbook, The Wag [1961]

To learn more about the Graham Historical Museum, please visit their website linked here.

To view more materials from the Graham Historical Museum, please visit their contributor page linked here.

To explore more yearbooks from across the state, please visit our North Carolina Yearbook Collection linked here.

Information about Jeanne Flinn Swanner was gathered from her obituary, the newspaper clippings within this batch, and the New York Times article announcing her passing in 2021.


Explore Enchanting Mountain Views in Latest Southwestern Community College Materials!

Thanks to our partner, Southwestern Community College (SCC), a new batch of materials are now available on DigitalNC! This batch has over 190 new records that include a Great Smoky Mountains trail map, local histories, previous course catalogs, various newsletters, SCC program pamphlets, over 100+ photograph slides showcasing the college campus and nearby beautiful mountain views.

Located in the beautiful mountains of North Carolina, Southwestern Community College held its first classes on December 1, 1964 under the name “Jackson County Industrial Education Center.” During that time, the school was a satellite of Asheville-Buncombe Technical Institute. In September 1967, however, the satellite became an independent school and was renamed Southwestern Technical Institute (STI). The school’s name changed once more in 1979 to Southwestern Technical College before becoming Southwestern Community College in 1988.

The years following STI’s independence from Asheville-Buncombe Technical Institute were filled with construction of buildings, receiving accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, their first on-campus commencement ceremony, establishment of the Cherokee Center, and much more. Today, SCC has facilities across several counties as well as on the Qualla Boundary, is the only community college in the nation to enter into a cooperative science agreement with NASA, and offers over 40 academic programs for students to choose from.

To learn more about Southwestern Community College, please visit their website linked here.

To view more materials from Southwestern Community College, please visit their partner page linked here.

To view more materials from community colleges across North Carolina, please view our North Carolina Community College Collections exhibit linked here.

Information about SCC was gathered from the college’s College History page located on their website linked here.


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