The 1964 Hudson High School Band.
The Caldwell Heritage Museum has partnered with us to bring the first high school yearbooks from Caldwell County high schools to DigitalNC. Over 40 high school yearbooks, along with 9 yearbooks from Davenport College are included in this batch. (The Museum is located in the only remaining building of Davenport College). The schools represented are listed below:
- Collettsville High School (Collettsville, N.C.) [1958]
- Davenport College (Lenoir, N.C.) [volumes spanning 1912-1933 join those already on our site]
- Freedman High School (Lenoir, N.C.) [1960]
- Gamewell High School (Lenoir, N.C.) [1957-1962]
- Granite Falls High School (Granite Falls, N.C.) [1964]
- Happy Valley High School (Patterson, N.C.) [1953-1966, some volumes missing]
- Hudson High School (Hudson, N.C.) [1955-1964, some volumes missing]
- Kings Creek High School (Lenoir, N.C.) [1958]
- Lenoir High School (Lenoir, N.C.) [1926-1964, some volumes missing]
- Oak Hill High School (Lenoir, N.C.) [1950-1962, some volumes missing]
View all of the materials from the Caldwell Heritage Museum on DigitalNC.
Featured above, left to right: Advotech, 1971; Advotech, 1969
Our new partner, Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute, has contributed 7 yearbooks that are now available on DigitalNC. The institution opened its doors in 1964 in Hudson, N.C. and now offers more than 100 programs. It serves a population of nearly 12,000 students in both curriculum and continuing education programs. The yearbooks feature the activities of the close-knit communities, including many of the programs’ clubs, such as nursing, cosmetology, and automotive care.
These yearbooks are more great examples of the fashion and culture of young people during the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. For more examples of yearbooks like these, check out the College and University Yearbooks in the North Carolina Yearbooks Collection.
You can see the newest additions below:
To learn more about Caldwell County Community College and Technical Institute, please visit their website.
From photos and papers documenting Albemarle schools to ledgers and scrapbooks of local citizens, we’ve uploaded more materials from the Stanly County Museum. One of our favorite items is the Marvin R. Stokes scrapbook, which has photographs related to his military service as well as action shots of motorcycle and car racing in Charlotte, like the one at right (page 9).
Yearbooks and School-Related Materials:
Scrapbooks:
Ledgers:
Ephemera:
There were also a number of photos added to those already available in the Images of North Carolina collection. You can also view all items from the Stanly County Museum.
Thanks to our new partner, the Freedman Cultural Center of Caldwell County, 13 yearbooks from Freedman High School are now online. The yearbooks cover 1951-1965. Freedman High School was located in Lenoir, NC and was an important center of the community. Freedman was a community of African Americans that was started just north of Lenoir in the late 1860s or early 1870s. The school was started in 1932 and was the first high school for Black children in Caldwell County.
Collage from the 1957 yearbook
To learn more about the Freedman Cultural Center of Catawba County, visit their partner page. To view more yearbooks from across North Carolina, visit the North Carolina Yearbooks page.
From The Boulder, Granite Falls High School, 1977.
We are pleased to announce a new partner, Granite Falls History and Transportation Museum. The museum is located in the second oldest home in Caldwell County, which dates from the 1790s. The town purchased and restored the home, which belonged to Andrew Baird, one of the founders of Granite Falls.
Thanks to our new partner, thirty yearbooks from Granite Falls High School are now available online, dating from 1947-1977.
For more information about Granite Falls History and Transportation Museum, visit their website.
UNC-Chapel Hill commencement programs from 1843 and 2009.
We’re pleased to present the Commencement Programs of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, from 1843 through 2009, now on DigitalNC.
From 33 names printed in a two-page document, written in Latin, to 80 pages describing accolades, honored guests, and university traditions, these programs have grown as much as the commencement event.
The 1843 program includes several names for which we know more from NCpedia and East Carolina University:
- John Luther Bridgers of Tarboro. He was a colonel in the Civil War, a farmer, and a lawyer.
- Robert Pain Dick of Greensboro. State Senator and North Carolina Supreme Court judge.
- Philo Henderson of Mecklenburg County. Poet who “was rather wild,” wrote a contemporary of his, “but never guilty of anything dishonorable.”
- Joseph Caldwell Huske of Fayetteville. Long-time rector at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Fayetteville, NC.
- Walter Waightstill Lenoir of Caldwell County. Class valedictorian, lawyer, and planter.
We also have catalogs, yearbooks, and other campus publications like the Basketball Blue Book and Carolina Magazine from UNC-Chapel Hill.
This week we have another 60 titles from all over the state up on DigitalNC, including a little piece of North Carolina railroad history!
On the second page of the January 15th, 1833 issue of the Fayetteville Observer, you’ll find a list of all the legislation enacted by the North Carolina General Assembly during the 1832-1833 session. One of these acts is the incorporation of the company that built North Carolina’s first functional railroad: The Experimental Rail Road Company of Raleigh.
Fayetteville Observer, January 15, 1833
The one and one-quarter mile rail line extended from the Capitol Building, which had burned in 1831, to a quarry just east of Raleigh. When the horse-drawn rail carts weren’t transporting the stone used to rebuild the Capitol, people could ride the line in “pleasure cars” for a 25 cent fare. The line cost $2,700 to construct, which would be roughly $91,000 in 2022.
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 North Carolina Prohibitionist (Bush Hill, N.C.) – 1886-1888
- The Progress (Enfield, N.C.) – 1908-1922
- The North-Carolina Journal (Halifax, N.C.) – 1792-1810
- The News Reporter (Littleton, N.C.) – 1897-1923
- The Franklin Courier (Louisburg, N.C.) – 1872-1874
- The Madison Enterprise (Madison, N.C.) – 1873-1874
- The Monroe Journal (Monroe, N.C.) – 1923
- The Iredell Gazette (Mooresville, N.C.) – 1880
- The Morganton Herald (Morganton, N.C.) – 1891-1901
- Surry Visitor (Mount Airy, N.C.) – 1874-1876
- Cherokee Herald (Murphy, N.C.) – 1874-1876
- Person County Courier (Roxboro, N.C.) – 1890-1892
- North Carolina Argus (Wadesboro, N.C.) – 1848-1876
- Mecklenburg Times (Charlotte, N.C.) – 1889-1897
- The North Carolina Whig (Charlotte, N.C.) – 1863
- King’s Dollar Daily (Greenville, N.C.) – 1904
- King’s Weekly (Greenville, N.C.) – 1894-1909
- McDowell Democrat (Marion, N.C.) – 1905-1909
- Marion Progress (Marion, N.C.) – 1909-1922
- The Stanly Banner (Albemarle, N.C.) – 1876
- The Stanly Observer (Albemarle, N.C.) – 1884
- The Stanly News (Albemarle, N.C.) – 1892-1893
- The Caldwell Messenger (Lenoir, N.C.) – 1875-1876
- The Semi-Weekly News (Lenoir, N.C.) – 1900
- The Weekly News (Lenoir, N.C.) – 1900-1902
- The Magnolia Monitor (Magnolia, N.C.) – 1873-1876
- The Duplin Record (Magnolia, N.C.) – 1874-1875
- The Weekly Record (Magnolia, N.C.) – 1876-1877
- The Central (Lexington, N.C.) – 1876
- Lexington and Yadkin Flag (Lexington, N.C.) – 1855-1856
- The Lexington Herald (Lexington, N.C.) – 1915-1917
- The North State (Lexington, N.C.) – 1904-1908
- Murfreesboro Enquirer (Murfreesboro, N.C.) – 1876-1878
- The Albemarle Enquirer (Murfreesboro, N.C.) – 1878-1881
- The Hornets’ Nest (Murfreesboro, N.C.) – 1812-1813
- Carolina Chronicle (Murfreesboro, N.C.) – 1827
- Milton Intelligencer (Milton, N.C.) – 1819
- Milton Spectator (Milton, N.C.) – 1832-1839
- The Milton Chronicle (Milton, N.C.) – 1841-1888
- Milton Gazette & Roanoke Advertiser (Milton, N.C.) – 1824-1831
- The Milton Spectator (Milton, N.C.) – 1854
- The Lincoln Democrat (Lincolnton, N.C.) – 1895-1896
- The Lincoln Journal (Lincolnton, N.C.) – 1898-1901
- The Lincoln Courier (Lincolnton, N.C.) – 1891
- Lincoln Transcript (Lincolnton, N.C.) – 1836
- The Western Whig Banner (Lincolnton, N.C.) – 1840
- Lincoln Progress (Lincolnton, N.C.) – 1873-1882
- Economist (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – 1903
- The Weekly Economist (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – 1903-1905
- Daily Economist (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – 1905-1907
- North Carolina Advocate (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – 1833
- The Intelligencer, and Nag’s Head Advocate (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – 1840-1841
- The Elizabeth-City Gazette, and Public Advertiser (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – 1808
- Fayetteville Observer (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1833
- The Public Spirit (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1876
- The News (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1865
- The Fayetteville Daily News (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1865
- The Weekly Courier (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1860
- Fayetteville Examiner (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1880-1883
- Daily Telegraph (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1865
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.
Bear cub on a hillside.
County Warden Bardel and District Forester Kimball pose by a tree in 1926.
Photographs and vertical files from our newest partner, The Forest History Society, are now online at DigitalNC. The Forest History Society is a nonprofit organization located in Durham, North Carolina, that is dedicated to the collection and preservation of materials concerning forest history and conservation. The Forest History Society represents information about forestry around the world, but the materials now up on DigitalNC are specific to North Carolina.
Vertical files from this batch cover topics like forestry schools in North Carolina, the Cherokee National Forest, the Pisgah National Forest, the Southern Forest Experiment Station, the effects of Hurricane Hugo, Fran, Hortense, and Bertha on NC forests. Each vertical files contain a range of materials such as newspaper clippings, pamphlets, maps, images, reports, press releases, magazine articles and correspondence. Materials in the files are text searchable and provide a great overview of forestry issues in North Carolina.
The images in this batch also document a wide variety of subjects related to forestry. Fire prevention is one major theme of this image collection with photographs of fire towers, forest fire prevention signs, and fire control exhibits. There are also images of different tree and plant species, nurseries and planting efforts, tree damage and disease, and portraits of foresters, wardens, and rangers.
To browse through all of these materials, visit The Forest History Society’s partner page, and learn more by visiting their website.
One of the many fire prevention signs in the image collection.
