Sometimes, it’s easy to feel like the problems of today are unique to our time and place, but this latest batch of the Carteret County News-Times (1960-1963) demonstrates that people have been working through similar problems for at least 50 years. One issue, from March 16, 1962, somehow touches on big storms flooding the area (and the difficulty of insuring coastal property), U.S. House elections, and redistricting—almost as if it were printed in 2022.

Luckily, no one died in the nor’easter that hit Morehead City and the rest of the coast in March 1962, but the storm did cause quite a bit of damage. A paper from the preceding week (March 2, 1962) pictures flooding along some of the commercial streets and describes buildings that were not up to code to withstand the storm. One commissioner reported that an insurance firm in New York abstained from insuring the area because of the building code problems. A week later, a headline reads (perhaps unsurprisingly): “Red Cross Says Best Way to Help Dare Is Give to Local Red Cross.”

Another front page story describes a bid for the 3rd Congressional District by Morehead City resident S.A. Chalk Jr. Chalk Jr. ran against incumbent David Henderson in the Democratic primary (though in a much different Democratic party than we think of today). He accused Henderson of voting for “policies that are bound to cause even further trouble,” saying, “He claims he’s conservative, but his voting records do not bear this out.” Chalk Jr. still lost the primary, apparently, as Henderson went on to represent the district until 1977.

Aside from the familiar arguments of House elections, the article also mentions that Harnett County was added to the district in 1960. And while the headlines haven’t changed much over the last 50 years, the list of counties included in the 3rd District certainly has. In 1962, the district included 10 counties: Carteret, Craven, Duplin, Harnett, Jones, Onslow, Pamlico, Pender, Sampson, and Wayne. In 2023, the district will expand and morph to contain parts of 15 counties: Beaufort, Camden, Carteret, Craven, Currituck, Dare, Duplin, Hyde, Jones, Lenoir, Onslow, Pamlico, Pitt (partly), Sampson, and Wayne (partly). For visual thinkers, an interactive map of NC’s congressional districts can be found here.

You can see the full batch of the Carteret County News-Times here and explore all of our digital newspapers in our North Carolina Newspapers collection. You can also explore more materials from the Carteret County Public Libraries on their partner page and their website.

This front page of the July 20, 1939 issue of The Beaufort News announces the first annual Coastal Festival.

Thanks to nominations from the Carteret County Public Libraries, we’ve extended our community newspaper coverage in southeast North Carolina and the Inner Banks with two new titles:

• The Beaufort News [Beaufort, February 5, 1925-December 28, 1944]
• Carteret County News-Times [Morehead City, May 18, 1948-March 29, 1949]

These two titles feature news that’s particular to coastal communities. There is special emphasis on weather and its impact on travel, events, and maritime businesses. However you’ll also find news typical to community papers regardless of location: the impact of state government on local life, personal and business news, school events, and advertisements. Towns covered include not only Morehead City and Beaufort, but also much smaller communities like Newport, Wire Grass, Merrimon, Otway, Harlowe, Core Creek, North River, Davis, Harkers Island, Lenoxville, Lola, Russell’s Creek, Lenoxville, and more. We’ve especially enjoyed news items and advertisements related to Ocracoke Island, Hatteras, and other remote areas of the Outer Banks.

These papers really increase the representation of eastern North Carolina on DigitalNC. To view more papers from points east (or elsewhere), head over to our Newspapers collection page.

An advertisement from the September 19, 1916 issue.

Two more years of the Washington Daily News from 1915-1916 are now online, joining previously digitized issues from 1909-1914. These issues were provided by our partner, the George H. and Laura E. Brown Library. The Washington Daily News is a newspaper serving Washington, North Carolina, a small city located in Beaufort County, North Carolina. The paper was started in 1909 and exists today under the same name.

An interesting pronouncement in the February 8, 1916 issue.

The newly digitized issues were published six days a week and covered events of  both local and national importance. Included are stories about the local and national economy, politics, notable events, businesses advertisements, town gossip, and commentary on farming and industry around Washington, North Carolina. The paper also provided Washingtonians almost daily updates about World War I which was raging abroad.

To browse through all the digitized issues of the Washington Daily News, click here. To see more materials from the George H. and Laura E. Brown Library, visit their DigitalNC partner page, or take a look at their website.

An article updating Washington residents about the war front in the September 26, 1916 issue.

We’ve just added newspaper issues from 37 titles, dating from 1819-1968, with the majority dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. From a variety of cities, most of these additions are only 1-5 issues per title. Thanks to the State Archives of North Carolina and its preservation of newspapers, we’re pleased to include these fill-in issues. The State Archives provided them to us as part of their newspaper microfilming workflow.

Below is a list of titles, their cities of publication, and the years from which the issues date.

• Southern Citizen, Asheboro – 1873
• The Asheboro Courier, Asheboro – 1888
• Bayboro Sentinel, Bayboro – 1902
• Beaufort Halcyon, Beaufort – 1855
• The Carteret County Telephone, Beaufort – 1882, 1884-1885
• The Weekly Record, Beaufort – 1886
• The Tobacco Plant (Durham), Durham – 1872, 1882-1883
• The Durham Daily Globe (later the Herald-Sun), Durham – 1891
• The Edenton Transcript, Edenton – 1908-1909
• The Albemarle Observer, Edenton – 1911
• The Edenton News, Edenton – 1922
• The North Carolinian, Fayetteville – 1856-1857
• Western Reporter, Franklin – 1880
• Our Farms, Franklinton – 1896
• Weekly Message (later The Olive Branch), Greensborough – 1855
• The Gold Leaf, Henderson – 1885
• The Herald of Truth, Hendersonville – 1855
• The High Point Enterprise, High Point – 1968
• The Lincoln Courier, Lincolnton – 1867
• The Visitor (paper of the Littleton Female College), Littleton – 1902
• The Littleton Dispatch, Littleton – 1928
• The Franklin Times , Louisburg – 1879
• The Robesonian, Lumberton – 1872, 1876-1877, 1880-1881
• Milton Intelligencer, Milton – 1819
• The Milton Chronicle, Milton – 1860, 1883
• The Monroe Enquirer, Monroe – 1881
• The Norlina Headlight, Norlina – 1919
• The Granville Free Lance, Oxford – 1880
• The Oxford Torchlight, Oxford – 1881
• Spirit of the Age Raleigh – 1855
• The Spy, Raleigh – 1875
• North Carolina Spectator and Western Advertiser, Rutherfordton – 1834
• The Rutherford Banner, Rutherfordton – 1888
• The Democrat, Rutherfordton – 1895
• The Sun, Rutherfordton – 1918-1919
• North Carolina Argus, Wadesboro – 1855

The State Archives has an exhibit of Early North Carolina Newspapers here. Their microfilming efforts are behind almost all of the digitized microfilmed papers available through DigitalNC. Search or browse all of our newspapers on the newspaper landing page.

This week we have another 70 titles up on DigitalNC including over 1,000 issues of The Robesonian, 1,000 issues of The Western Sentinel, 3,000 issues of The Reidsville Review, 4,000 issues of The News and Observer, and almost 4,000 issues of the Salisbury Evening Post!

In the March 8th, 1914 issue of The News and Observers we have an article detailing a practice game played by the Baltimore Orioles while in Fayetteville. This happens to be the game where a 19 year old George Herman “Babe” Ruth hit his first home run as a professional baseball player. Ruth was also given his iconic nickname “Babe” while in Fayetteville on this trip.

The News and Observer, March 8th, 1914

Image via The Fayetteville Observer

Over the next year, we’ll be adding millions of newspaper images to DigitalNC. These images were originally digitized a number of years ago in a partnership with Newspapers.com. That project focused on scanning microfilmed papers published before 1923 held by the North Carolina Collection in Wilson Special Collections Library. While you can currently search all of those pre-1923 issues on Newspapers.com, over the next year we will also make them available in our newspaper database as well. This will allow you to search that content alongside the 2 million pages already on our site – all completely open access and free to use.

This week’s additions include:

Asheboro

• Asheboro Courier (Asheboro, N.C.) – 1902

Asheville

• Asheville Daily Citizen (Asheville, N.C.) – 1891-1900
• The Citizen (Asheville, N.C.) – 1900
• Asheville Citizen (Asheville, N.C.) – 1906-1907

Belhaven

• Belhaven Journal (Belhaven, N.C.) – 1916-1923
• Beaufort-Hyde News (Belhaven, N.C.) – 1966-1980

Brevard

• Brevard News (Brevard, N.C.) – 1917

Charlotte

• Daily Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.) – 1893-1897

Cherryville

• The Eagle (Cherryville, N.C.) – 1915-1919

Clayton

• The Clayton News (Clayton, N.C.) – 1914-1966

Concord

• The Bright Mason (Concord, N.C.) – 1873-1874

Cooleemee

• The Cooleemee Journal (Cooleemee, N.C.) – 1956-1962

Creedmoor

• Creedmoor Times-News (Creedmoor, N.C.) – 1913-1914

Durham

• The Morning Herald (Durham, N.C.) – 1913-1914

East Bend

• The Yadkin Ripple (East Bend, N.C.) – 1902

Elizabeth City

• The Advance (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – 1916
• The Daily Advance (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – 1916-1917

Forest City

• The Free Press (Forest City, N.C.) – 1913

Gastonia

• The Gastonia Gazette (Gastonia, N.C.) – 1908

Goldsboro

• Goldsboro Daily Argus (Goldsboro, N.C.) – 1905-1920

Greenville

• King’s Weekly (Greenville, N.C.) – 1903-1905

Kenly

• The Kenly Observer (Kenly, N.C.) – 1927

Leaksville

• Leaksville Herald (Leaksville, N.C.) – 1861

Lenoir

• The Semi-Weekly News (Lenoir, N.C.) – 1900
• The Weekly News (Lenoir, N.C.) – 1902-1905
• The Lenoir Weekly News (Lenoir, N.C.) – 1905-1915
• The Lenoir News (Lenoir, N.C.) – 1906, 1914-16

Lincolnton

• Lincoln Progress (Lincolnton, N.C.) – 1874
• The Lincoln Journal (Lincolnton, N.C.) – 1903-1906

Lumberton

• The Robesonian (Lumberton, N.C.) – 1903-1923

Mocksville

• The Davie Times (Mocksville, N.C.) – 1902

Mooresville

• The Mooresville Enterprise (Mooresville, N.C.) – 1901-1902

Moravian Falls

• The Yellow-Jacket (Moravian Falls, N.C.) – 1928

New Bern

• The Sun (New Bern, N.C.) – 1911

Raleigh

• The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1906-1923

Red Springs

• The Farmer and Scottish Chief (Red Springs, N.C.) – 1890

Reidsville

• The Weekly Review (Reidsville, N.C.) – 1889-1899
• The Reidsville Review (Reidsville, N.C.) – 1899-1923

Rocky Mount

• Rocky Mount Mail (Rocky Mount, N.C.) – 1875-1876

Rutherfordton

• The Sun (Rutherfordton, N.C.) – 1911

Salisbury

• Salisbury Evening Post (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1905-1923
• Salisbury Post (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1908-1912
• Yadkin Valley Herald (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1918-1919

Selma

• The Johnstonian (Selma, N.C.) – 1925

Shelby

• The Cleveland Star (Shelby, N.C.) – 1902-1904
• The Highlander (Shelby, N.C.) – 1912-1920

Smithfield

• Johnston County Record (Smithfield, N.C.) – 1933-1934
• The Smithfield Herald (Smithfield, N.C.) – 1977

Spruce Pines & Burnsville

• The Tri-County News (Spruce Pine & Burnsville, N.C.) – 1940

Statesville

• Statesville Landmark (Statesville, N.C.) – 1874-1875
• The Landmark (Statesville, N.C.) – 1875-1903
• The Statesville American (Statesville, N.C.) – 1878
• The Statesville Mascot (Statesville, N.C.) – 1902

Taylorsville

• The Mountain Scout (Taylorsville, N.C.) – 1902-1906

Washington

• Washington Dispatch (Washington, N.C.) – 1861
• The North State Press (Washington, N.C.) – 1880
• The Washington Gazette (Washington, N.C.) – 1884-1887
• The Evening Messenger (Washington, N.C.) – 1896-1899
• The Gazette-Messenger (Washington, N.C.) – 1900-1904
• Washington Progress (Washington, N.C.) – 1930-1931

Waynesville

• Waynesville Courier (Waynesville, N.C.) – 1914-1915
• The Carolina Mountaineer and Waynesville Courier (Waynesville, N.C.) – 1921

Wilmington

• Wilmington Weekly Chronicle (Wilmington, N.C.) – 1840-1841
• Wilmington Chronicle (Wilmington, N.C.) – 1841-1845
• The Daily Journal (Wilmington, N.C.) – 1851-1852
• The Daily Wilmington Herald (Wilmington, N.C.) – 1866

Windsor

• Windsor Ledger (Windsor, N.C.) – 1913

Winston-Salem

• The Western Sentinel (Winston-Salem, N.C.) – 1903-1922
• Twin City Sentinel (Winston-Salem, N.C.) – 1922

If you want to see all of the newspapers we have available on DigitalNC, you can find them here. Thanks to UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries for permission to and support for adding all of this content as well as the content to come. We also thank the North Caroliniana Society for providing funding to support staff working on this project.

This week we have another 41 titles up on DigitalNC! In this batch we have a lot of new papers from Durham and Beaufort, as well as our first additions from Mocksville, Pine Forest, and Kenansville!

Last month we added our first copies of The Nation from Buffalo Springs. The Nation was a handwritten paper published by John McLean Harrington, a Harnett County man who would painstakingly copy each of his papers by hand for his roughly 100 subscribers. This week we have five more of Harrington’s handwritten papers: The Young American from Buffalo Springs, The Weekly Eagle from Pine Forest, and Harrington, N.C.’s The Times, The Weekly News, and The Semi-Weekly News.

Over the next year, we’ll be adding millions of newspaper images to DigitalNC. These images were originally digitized a number of years ago in a partnership with Newspapers.com. That project focused on scanning microfilmed papers published before 1923 held by the North Carolina Collection in Wilson Special Collections Library. While you can currently search all of those pre-1923 issues on Newspapers.com, over the next year we will also make them available in our newspaper database as well. This will allow you to search that content alongside the 2 million pages already on our site – all completely open access and free to use.

This week’s additions include:

• The Clinton Independent (Clinton, N.C.) – 1856-1858
• Eastern Courier (Hertford, N.C.) – 1895-1896
• The Nation (Buffalo Springs, N.C.) – 1858
• The Young American (Buffalo Springs, N.C.) – 1858
• The Weekly Eagle (Pine Forest, N.C.) – 1860
• The Eagle (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1868-1873
• The Semi-Weekly News (Harrington, N.C.) – 1860
• The Weekly News (Harrington, N.C.) – 1860-1864
• The Times (Harrington, N.C.) – 1867-1869
• Eastern Carolina News (Kenansville, N.C.) – 1908-1911
• The Chronicle (Albemarle, N.C.) – 1916-1917
• The Enterprise (Albemarle, N.C.) – 1917-1918
• The Albemarle Enterprise (Albemarle, N.C.) – 1919
• The News (Albemarle, N.C.) – 1919
• Stanly County Herald (Albemarle, N.C.) – 1919
• The Stanly News-Herald (Albemarle, N.C.) – 1919
• The Weekly Record (Beaufort, N.C.) – 1887-1888
• The Beaufort Eagle (Beaufort, N.C.) – 1876
• The Herald (Beaufort, N.C.) – 1893
• Beaufort Journal (Beaufort, N.C.) – 1857-1858
• Carteret County Telephone (Beaufort, N.C.) – 1881-1885
• The Clayton Bud (Clayton, N.C.) – 1883-1886
• The Weekly Bud (Smithfield, N.C.) – 1886-1887
• Creedmoor Times-News (Creedmoor, N.C.) – 1915-1919
• Durham Daily Dispatch (Durham, N.C.) – 1880
• The Durham Herald (Durham, N.C.) – 1876
• The Durham County Republican (Durham, N.C.) – 1884
• The Truth (Durham, N.C.) – 1884
• Daily Record (Durham, N.C.) – 1898
• The Daily Reporter (Durham, N.C.) – 1885
• The Durham Weekly Globe (Durham, N.C.) – 1889-1892
• Durham Globe (Durham, N.C.) – 1895-1896
• Saturday Night (Durham, N.C.) – 1893
• The Patriot (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1826-1827
• The Carolina Beacon (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1836-1837
• Southern Telescope (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1837
• The Carolina Patriot (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1837-1839
• The Davie Times (Mocksville, N.C.) – 1887-1903
• The Davie Record (Mocksville, N.C.) – 1899-1922
• Chatham Observer (Pittsboro, N.C.) – 1901-1904
• Chatham Citizen (Pittsboro, N.C.) – 1897-1899
• The Day (Oxford, N.C.) – 1890-1892
• The Concord Times (Concord, N.C.) – 1895-1897
• The Evening Tribune (Concord, N.C.) – 1904-1910
• Concord Daily Tribune (Concord, N.C.) – 1910-1921

If you want to see all of the newspapers we have available on DigitalNC, you can find them here. Thanks to UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries for permission to and support for adding all of this content as well as the content to come. We also thank the North Caroliniana Society for providing funding to support staff working on this project.