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Thanks to our partner, the Forsyth County Public Library, a new batch of yearbooks is now available on our website. The yearbooks are from the years 1969-1971 from North Forsyth High School in Winston-Salem, N.C.
The cover of the 1969 issue of the North Forsyth High School yearbook.
For more information about the Forsyth County Public Library, please visit their website. To view previous blog posts on yearbooks from Forsyth County, visit here.
“New Farmers of America,” from the Carver High School yearbook, Hi-Lite, 1949.
Eleven new yearbooks provided by Forsyth County Public Library have been digitized and added to DigitalNC. All eleven are from Carver High School in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, dating from 1949 to 1969. The yearbook was titled “Hi-Lite” until 1949, then “Yellow Jacket” from 1950 onward. Carver High School is a historically Black school founded in 1936 and still open today; the yearbooks include photographs of students, staff, class activities, athletics, clubs, and superlatives.
You can view more yearbooks from Forsyth County Public Library in our North Carolina Yearbooks collection. Plus you can see more materials from Forsyth County Public Library, including yearbooks, city directories, memorabilia, and photographs.
Early high school yearbooks from several Winston-Salem schools are now available in the North Carolina High School Yearbooks collection on DigitalNC. There are 48 volumes online, ranging in date from 1911 to 1963. The schools represented are:
The original yearbooks are in the North Carolina Room at the Forsyth County Public Library in Winston-Salem.
A huge batch of 65 yearbooks is now on our site thanks to our partner, the Forsyth County Public Library. These yearbooks span 60 years, from 1913 to 1973, and include some of the high schools of Winston-Salem that are now closed. This batch also has one edition of The Yellow Jacket (1955) from Carver High School and The Maroon and Gold Yearbook (1953) from Atkins High School, two of the few historically Black high schools in the state that remained open through school integration.
Since there are so many yearbooks in this batch, there is a wide assortment of creative yearbook titles—some of which are stronger than others. As an alumna of R.J. Reynolds High School, I’ll admit that I have some bias toward the Black and Gold, but even I have to acknowledge that it’s a pretty generic name (in this batch alone, we’ve also got The Maroon and Gold from Atkins, the Blue and White from Old Town High School, and the Blue and Gold from Griffith High School).
Rather than opt for the usual school colors-based title, here are the top five yearbooks that aimed for something a little different.
#5: The Keyhole (Rural Hall High School)
I like that this team of young yearbook editors took a philosophical approach to their title. Like looking through a keyhole, a yearbook can only give a limited picture of what the culture and experience of Rural Hall High School was like. They continue this slice-of-life theme on the inside of the yearbook as well with this comical drawing featuring some of their classmates.
#4: The Iliad (Southwest High School)
There’s something so quintessentially high school about being assigned The Iliad, possibly reading it, and then using it as a metaphor for the obstacles you face (a move perhaps only topped by a comparison of your personal journey to The Odyssey). This literary homage is made even better by the fact that the mascot for Southwest was the Trojan, meaning that this yearbook likely describes the siege and fall of the school by means of wooden horse.
#3: Quill Pen (Salem Academy)
Third place on this not-at-all subjective list was initially selected because of its overlap with the editorial column of James Mackintosh Qwilleran, a fictional detective and journalist who writes “The Qwill Pen” in the mystery series The Cat Who… by Lilian Jackson Braun. However, based on the uniforms required for yearbook photos, it does also seem possible that the students of Salem Academy really were writing with quills.
#2: Dress Parade (Oak Ridge Military School)
As someone with no military experience, when I initially picked this title, I had a different mental image of what the “dress parade” might include. However, given the fact that students at Oak Ridge did have to wear their uniforms on display for the yearbook, it still seems like a really fitting title. Plus, this edition has some cool woodblock prints and this one inexplicably tiny photo of a gazebo.
#1: Ye Olde Towne Crier (Old Town High School)
I don’t even know where to begin with this absolute chef’s kiss of a yearbook title. I love the old-timey spelling. I love the idea that a yearbook is the modern equivalent of a person who yells out the town news. I love the font choice and the inclusion of “Ye.”
Old Town High School experimented with a couple of names before this (see Blue and White and The Log), suggesting that it might take a few tries before you can land on the perfect name. The icing on the cake is that every time I read it, I can hear the opening notes of Lil Nas X’s 2019 hit “Old Town Road” in my mind. (Sadly, Old Town High School was not located on Old Town Road, though such a road does exist in Winston-Salem).
You can decide for yourself which titles are best by looking through the full batch of yearbooks, available here. You can also browse all of our digital yearbooks from Forsyth county and beyond in our North Carolina Yearbooks collection. To see more from the Forsyth County Public Library, you can visit their partner page and their website.
Photo in the 14th Street School scrapbook showing classes in front of the school.
Practicing trumpet for the school band in the 14th Street School Scrapbook.
A batch of new materials from Forsyth County Public Library are now available on DigitalNC. Included are two scrapbooks, one from the 14th Street School in Winston-Salem and one from the Society for the Study of Afro-American History in Winston-Salem. Also included are materials from the Malloy/Jordan East Winston Heritage Center and the East Winston Branch Library, and yearbooks from St. Anne’s Academy and Atkins High School.
The 14th Street School educated African-American students in Forsyth County from its founding in 1924 through the 1970s. This scrapbook collects photographs of student activities and events. Included are photographs of sports teams, the school band, dance performances, and class portraits. The 14th Street School acted as a community hub and created lasting bonds within its student body which remain strong to this day. Despite its closure, alumni continue to hold reunions and advocate for the school as an important part of Winston-Salem history.
Additionally a scrapbook from the Society for the Study of Afro-American History in Winston-Salem (now called the Society for the Study of African American History in Winston Salem) collects calendars created from 1989 through 1997. These calendars include images and write-ups of Winston-Salem history and events as well as photographs and information about Society events.
A page of the 1989 calendar by the Society for the Study of Afro-American History showing a reunion of the 14th Street School classes of 1931-1939.
The Maroon and Gold 1948-1949 yearbook from Atkins High School and The Annette 1952 yearbook from St. Anne’s Academy are also now available. Atkins High School was founded in 1930 for African-American students in Winston-Salem. The school was named for Dr. Simon Green Atkins, the founder and first president of Winston-Salem University. Dr. Atkins was born into slavery in 1863 on a farm in North Carolina but was able to receive a public education after the end of the Civil War. He went on to attend St. Augustine College and subsequently dedicated his life to improving education for African Americans.
To see these and the other items from this batch of materials, visit the links below.
To see other materials from Forsyth County Public Library visit their partner page or take a look at their website.
The 1948-1949 14th Street School basketball team as seen in the scrapbook.
Have you ever wondered what fire fighting was like in the 1930s and ’40s? Our latest batch of materials from the Greensboro History Museum offers a look into some of the gatherings of the North Carolina State Firemen’s Association through a set of booklets documenting their annual convention and tournament.
The convention rotated between several North Carolina cities, including Asheville, Winston-Salem, and New Bern, among others. The convention booklets contain lists of officers, transcripts of speeches from the leaders, and memorial pages dedicated to the fire fighters lost in the line of duty. They also include editions of the Association’s constitution and bylaws.
The tournament part of the gathering seems to include competitive drills that test fire fighters’ abilities. The last few pages of the most recent booklet (from 1942) list the records of some of the events from previous years, including the Horse Hose Wagon Contest (tied between Kinston and Morehead City in 1916 at 27 and 2/5 seconds), the Hand Reel Contest (won by Kannapolis in 1937 in 16 and 2/5 seconds), grab races and motor contests.
In addition to the convention booklets, this batch also includes some early proceedings of the Association from 1888, which describes the organization of white, volunteer companies. Also included in this set of materials (though unrelated to fire fighting) are three more editions of the Whirligig yearbook from Grimsley High School. You can browse the full batch of materials here. To see more from the Greensboro History Museum, you can visit their partner page and their website. You can also browse our collection of North Carolina High School yearbooks to see all available editions of the Whirligig and browse our Images of North Carolina collection for more photographs of fire fighters in action.
With the recent addition of student yearbooks from Lees-McRae College, we are very pleased to announce the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center has now worked with 100 different institutions. These 100 content partners have contributed an incredible variety of materials related to the history and culture of North Carolina, all of which is easily and freely accessible at DigitalNC.org.
Our partners are spread across the state, from Western Carolina University and the Haywood County Public Library in the west, to Elizabeth City State University and the Wilmington Railroad Museum in the east. The biggest concentration is in and around the cities in the Piedmont, with eight of our partners located in Guilford County and seven each in Mecklenburg and Forsyth Counties.
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.