The Game of Student Life from the 1972 “Links” (Eastern Randolph Senior High School).
The game, presumably modeled after the game Life, describes events that still sound familiar to contemporary high school students. One square reads, “Back to school. Laugh at sophomores — get lecture on maturity. Lose 1 turn.” Others are less relatable: “Term papers: your typist charges you $1.50 a page and you run out of money on page 2 — Lose turn.” While the board does seem to be weighted toward academic and social pitfalls, at least all players start with a credit (since “Everybody passes biology first time around!”).
With the start of the fall semester and football season here in North Carolina, marching bands are officially back on the field and in the stands supporting their teams and entertaining audiences with favorites such as Fight Song, Hey Baby, and You Can Call Me Al. While we all appreciate what marching bands adds to these sporting events, no school has shown as much appreciation for their marching band than Henderson High School.
In the school’s 1964 yearbook, an overwhelming amount of page space is given to the school’s band. Some of these photographs show the students rehearsing in the band room with band director W. T. Hearne, but a majority of them show the students in their full marching band and majorette uniforms. The photographs included in this post from the 1964 Pep Pac showcase the amazing size of their band as well as their snazzy uniforms.
To learn more about the Granville County Public Library, visit their website here.
One highlight from this batch is the hand-written history of The Black Community Heritage of Madison. Although the material includes history of Black individuals in Madison from around the first recorded migration (~June of 1775), it focuses more heavily on after the Civil War. The work is split up into major topics such as churches, businesses, education, and civic organizations.
In the education section, the document traces the beginning of the Madison Public School System to Mary Black Franklin. Franklin began teaching members of the community in her home and in other various places in the community that would allow her to use the space. The number of students she taught continued to grow until the first public school was founded in a two room building. Eventually, a larger building later named the “Old Hall” was purchased to give the school more space. The school was only in operation six months out of the year. Students were allowed to attend the first three months of school for free, but parents would have to pay a tax for their children to finish the final three months. This system led to the creation of the Madison Public School System.
To learn more about the Rockingham County Public Library, please visit their website.
For more yearbooks from across North Carolina, visit our yearbook collection.
To view more content from Rockingham County Public Library, please visit here.
Thanks to our partner, Granville County Public Library, a batch containing yearbooks from Dabney High School, Henderson High School, Franklinton High School, J.F. Webb High School, and Zeb Vance High School ranging from 1938 to 1970 are now available on our website.
To learn more about the Granville County Public Library, please visit their website.
For more yearbooks from across North Carolina, visit our yearbook collection.
A new batch of yearbooks from Randolph County are now available on DigitalNC, courtesy of our partner, the Randolph County Public Library. Included in this collection are over 30 yearbooks from Randolph County schools across the area from the 1930s to 1960s. Also included are over a dozen yearbooks specifically from Liberty High School in Liberty, North Carolina.
Two Randleman High seniors of the class of 1965
These yearbooks contain individual portraits, class portraits, as well as photographs of student activities, sports teams, faculty and clubs. Some of the yearbooks also include class poems and class songs, class and school histories. Readers can also find “last wills and testaments”, where the graduating class leaves behind objects or memories to the next class, and class prophecies, where the students imagined where they would be in the future.
Follow the links below to browse the yearbooks from the schools included in this batch:
Students from Franklinville School gathered to take a 1966 group photo
This new batch of yearbook is a valuable addition to DigitalNC, having these yearbooks illustrate what life was like across Randolph County in the 20th century. To see more from the Randolph County Public Library, check out their partner page, or visit their website.
A photo of the 1962 football team at Franklinton High School.
A new batch of yearbooks from Granville County are now available on DigitalNC, courtesy of our partner, the Granville County Public Library. Included in this collection are several yearbooks from across Granville County in the 1940s and then later in the 1960s.
These yearbooks contain individual and class portraits, class and school histories, and honorifics of the students and assorted faculty members. Also included are photographs of school activities, class clubs, and student athletics. A few of the yearbooks also included “class prophecies,” descriptions of what they hoped they would be doing and how their lives would play out after graduation, and “last wills and testaments”, where they “bequeathed” their skills and abilities to future graduates.
An exterior shot of Franklinton High School, taken in 1965
Follow the links below to browse the yearbooks from the schools included in this batch:
A 1952 article about NC Governor W. Kerr Scott and Dr. Clyde Erwin, state superintendent of public instruction, visiting Macon County schools
Seventeen more years and over 10,000 more issues of The Franklin Press and Highlands Maconian newspaper have been newly digitized and put online on DigitalNC, with the help of our partner, the Fontana Regional Library. The Highlands Historical Society has also helped us with making these issues available for the public. While our collection previously only contained 1924-1942, we have nearly doubled the collection, with 1943-1960 now digitized online. Based out of Franklin in Macon County, the Franklin Press and Highlands Maconian was published weekly from 1932-1968.
A full issue in January 1944 wished servicemen victory in the coming year
Many of the newly digitized articles naturally deal with World War II, such as the snippet on the left of a January 1944 paper, which was wholly dedicated to wishing servicemen and soldiers victory in the coming year. After the war ended, the paper went back to its regular local and national coverage. For example, an article in 1955 detailed how excited the townspeople were of the forthcoming 1956 film The Great Locomotive Chase was being filmed in Franklin, Clayton, and Tallulah Falls.
A headline from the June 22nd, 1934 issue of The Franklin Times gives the film “Tarzan and His Mate” a rave review!
On June 29th, 1934, the 12 year old National Spelling Bee winner from Maine was featured on the front page of The Franklin Times.
More issues of The Franklin Times, provided by our partner, Louisburg College, are now available online. The issues are from the years 1912-1944 and 1963-1972, and join previously digitized issues from 1909-1911. Established in 1870, The Franklin Times covers news in Louisburg, North Carolina, as well as statewide and national news of note. The Franklin Times continues to publish issues on a weekly basis both online and in print form and is distributed throughout Franklin County.
The issues from this batch span a large period of Louisburg’s history, and the paper includes articles on municipal decisions, social and cultural events, meetings, contests, and more at the local level. Large national news stories are also covered, and the paper allows for a glimpse both at life inside and outside Franklin County through the eyes of Louisburg residents throughout much of the 20th century.
A column in the Feb 11, 1910 issue urging boys from Franklin County to enter an upcoming corn growing competition.
Over 100 issues of The Franklin Times, provided by our partner, Louisburg College, are now up on DigitalNC. These issues are from 1909-1911, and were published on a weekly basis. Louisburg is the seat of Franklin county, and The Franklin Times reports on news taking place in Louisburg, Franklin County, North Carolina, and the United States. In fact, the tagline printed at the top of the paper reads “the County, the State, the Union.” Although some large national news stories are covered, many of the issues focus primarily on Louisburg and Franklin County. For example, one weekly column, “The Moving People,” tracks “those who have visited Louisburg the past week” and “those who have gone elsewhere for business or pleasure.” The column lists individuals who returned from trips and those who visited from afar. This is indicative of the paper’s local interest. Local meetings, contests, municipal issues, social events, and more are recounted each week.
Part of the “Moving People” column from the February 11, 1910 issue.
The Franklin Times was established in 1870, but still runs weekly with a print and online version. The Franklin Timeswebsite states, “it is the only newspaper published in the county and its content is focused on local government, local schools, the communities and the people who call this rapidly growing area home.” Although many years have passed, the focus of the paper remains the same.
To see more materials from Louisburg College, visit their partner page, or website.
Announcement in the Jackson County Journal from May 25, 1939. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was scheduled to visit Sylva for the town’s 50th anniversary celebrations.
Here you can find issues of the Jackson County Journal ranging from 1923-1942. The final few years in this selection are dominated by World War II-related items, such as local men enlisting as soldiers, or Sylva groups’ contributions to the war effort. Town obituaries and events also make up the mix. (For example, the front page of the Journal for November 19, 1942, includes the headlines “42 Men Left for U.S. Army First of Week” and “Mrs. Morris Passed Away Last Friday.”)
The Sylva Herald and Ruralite has been publishing weekly in Jackson County from 1926 to the present. The 385 issues of this newspaper on DigitalNC span 1943-1950, beginning with the August 4, 1943 issue, which announces the launch of a new newspaper for Jackson County and explains: “the Herald Publishing Company … has purchased the 17-year-old Ruralite and combined it with The Sylva Herald. … The publishers plan to make it as newsy, and as modern as possible.” War news continues to predominate the early issues, along with announcements about local Sylva church and society news.
Learn more about our contributor, the Jackson County Public Library, at their website or their contributor page. You can also find current information about The Sylva Herald and Ruralite at their website. Browse the North Carolina Newspapers Collection to see more newspapers from communities around the state.
From the Sylva Herald and Ruralite, August 4, 1943.
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.
