The elected campus leaders for Mitchell Community College 1938-1939. In back, left to right: Betsy Gilliam, Nancy Sloop, and Helene Solomon. Front row, left to right: Martha Dotson (standing), Eleanor Bonner, and Dorothy Cutting. One person is unidentified.

Thanks to our partner Mitchell Community College, we now have several additional scrapbooks about the school from 1929-1947. The scrapbooks primarily contain newspaper clippings from community papers, including the Charlotte Observer, the Statesville Daily, and the Winston-Salem Journal. 

This batch also contains a few miscellaneous items from MCC from the 1970s, including alumni newsletters and a feature in the Statesville Record & Landmark Bicentennial Edition. 

Most of the newspaper clippings celebrate the notable happenings at the school or accomplishments of its students, such as the performance of the basketball team or the presentation of a commencement speaker. A few mark historic moments for the school, such as when W. B. Ramsey, president of the school for 14 years, resigned her post for its “strain of duties of this exacting and responsible office—always taxing on her health.”

One topic that comes up frequently in these scrapbooks is the Mitchell Community College A Cappella choir, which performed in “a dozen or more cities” in North Carolina (according to the Statesville Daily in May 1939). The Charlotte Observer called it “one of the outstanding musical organizations in the state” in an article from January 8, 1939. 

The MCC choir, 1939

To see more from Mitchell Community College, take a look at their partner page or their website. You can also view the full collections of MCC scrapbooks and alumni newsletters.

This newspaper clipping discusses the early conversations on opening a community college for the county in Marion, NC. The college would later become known as McDowell County Technical Community College

Scrapbooks from McDowell County Public Library are now available on Digital NC. The scrapbooks include newspaper clippings from specific events through McDowell County. The scrapbooks are clippings for the local 4- H Club, along with a wide range of clippings from various communities, including the City of Marion and Old Fort. You can also view clippings from the Chamber of Commerce and the McDowell Technical Community College.

Special thanks to our partner, McDowell County Public Library. To view more from the library, including this collection, visit them here.

To see more in our North Carolina Memorabilia collection, visit here.

Thanks to our partners at Johnston Community College, DigitalNC is proud to have three scrapbooks from the mid-1970s available online. These scrapbooks add more memorabilia to our robust collection of Johnston Community College materials.

Johnston Community College Scrapbook [January 1974 – December 1974].

To see all three scrapbooks, click here. To take a look at all the JCC materials we have available and to learn more about Johnston Community College, please visit their partner page and website.

Clipping of the cover page of the Cedar Mountain Home Demonstration Club Scrapbook [1963-1964].

Three clubs were featured in this upload:

• The Cedar Mountain Community Club [1991-1992]
• The Cedar Mountain Extension Homemakers Club [1966-1971]
• The Cedar Mountain Home Demonstration Club [1963-1966]

These scrapbooks share photos and ephemera documenting club meetings, members, and events. Many community service events are highlighted within their pages. Not only do they give a look into the history of these clubs, but they also reflect changes in the local community. Fastidiously organized, the scrapbooks detail events such as construction of new buildings and beautification projects.

Page 16 of the Cedar Mountain Extension Homemakers Club Scrapbook [1966-1967] shows photos from the home landscaping presentation they attended.

Tim Valentine (third from right) and young farmers, February 9, 1984 to April 6, 1984.

DigitalNC is happy to announce the addition of nine scrapbooks about U.S. Congressman Itimous “Tim” Thaddeus Valentine to our online scrapbook collection. These items were made available to digitize by our partners at Nash Community College and we are grateful to them for their contribution.

From the scrapbook January 8, 1983 to April 27, 1983.

Tim Valentine represented the 2nd district of North Carolina, an east central district that formerly included Durham and Raleigh, in the U.S. Senate from 1983-1994. These scrupulously maintained scrapbooks span the first two years of his position, beginning from January 8, 1983 until September 20, 1984. His congressional appointment was marked by a highly publicized electoral race with civil rights activist and attorney Henry McKinley “Mickey” Michaux. Michaux would have become North Carolina’s first black congressman of the twentieth century if Valentine hadn’t narrowly defeated him in a contested runoff, causing much of Valentine’s freshman year to be devoted toward gaining ground with black voters.

Labeled a Democratic conservative during the 80’s, Valentine’s voting favored moderation, as when voting against the nuclear freeze (which he later supported) but voting for a $5 billion jobs package. Most of the images in these nine scrapbooks are newspaper clippings relating to Valentine, his political rivals, or his politics. These scrapbooks also feature ephemera, such as a certificate awarded to Valentine to highlight his support of Adult Continuing Education Week and a holiday card from President Reagan and Mrs. Reagan.

A note to readers: these scrapbooks contain many clippings stacked on top of another- therefore if it looks like there are duplicates of pages, there are! The duplicated pages should have the covered clippings exposed (you may notice a bone folder in some of the images) for full ability to read the contents.

Before (clipping hiding other clipping).

After (clipping flipped up).

For a look at all the scrapbooks mentioned, click here. To view all material from Nash Community College, click here. To get more information on Nash Community College, please visit their homepage here.

Cover or title page of the 1977 Homesteaders See-Off Community Club Scrapbook

Transylvania County Library has shared 70 additional scrapbooks from their extensive collection, adding to the over 100 already on DigitalNC. This latest group includes a number of community clubs and groups:

• See Off Community Clubs and Beautification Contest Entries [1972-1990]
• Quebec Community Club [1977-1989]
• Transylvania County Mathatasian Club Minutes and History back to 1923
• Lake Toxaway Community Club [1962-1982]
• Friends of the Transylvania County Library [2006-2015] (you may also want to view additional Friends scrapbooks from earlier batches)
• Cathey’s Creek Community Development Club [1970-1976]
• Dunns Rock Community [1955-1979]
• Cedar Mountain Community Club [1990] (you may also want to view additional Cedar Mountain scrapbooks from earlier batches)

Like previous batches, these community club scrapbooks share photos and ephemera documenting town events, club members, and club activities. Many of these clubs took part in regional or statewide contests encouraging community “beautification” by landscaping roadsides, installing signs, or improving publicly used buildings or even private homes.

This page from the 1955 Dunns Rock Community Club Scrapbook shows before and after photos of the remodeled Lance home.

Thanks to Transylvania County Library for scanning these at their library and sending the images for addition to DigitalNC. You can view all of the items from Transylvania County Library on their contributor page.