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A batch of four videos of Washington, N.C. has been added to our collection thanks to our partner, the George H. and Laura E. Brown Library. Two of the videos, which are silent but in color, show footage of Washington from 1939, including notable buildings, Warren airport, boats on the water, and tulips in bloom. They also have footage of the Tulip Festival parade, which features floats, marching bands, and several excellent costumes. Since the annual festival is no longer celebrated, these videos give us an idea of what it looked like in its most popular era.
Speaking of bygone Washington cultural touchstones, the other two videos focus on the Patrician Inn, a popular place to stay founded by the Pickle family. One video offers a tour of the rooms, which feature several antiques and items of unique furniture. The second video provides some context to the inn’s collection in an interview with Mrs. Ellen Vincent Pickles and Emily Pickles Williams. Although the camera operator takes some artistic liberties that we probably wouldn’t see today, we do get even more footage of the treasures in the room as Mrs. Pickles tells some of her stories.
Since the Patrician Inn has since been converted to a parking lot, we will probably never encounter the subject of one of her most intriguing stories: the ghost(s) that haunted the inn (4:47). Mrs. Pickles tells the story of a couple of guests who claimed to have seen “the most beautiful ghost that [they’d] ever seen in [their] life,” who was apparently wearing a “white wig and a blue satin jacket” and “silver buckles.” This was not the ghost that Mrs. Pickles was familiar with; her usual ghost was named Paul Bregal (spelling unclear), and he liked to snuff out her candles on the end of the mantle. He, apparently, did not wear such finery, and he usually lived in a closet rather than a guest room.
You can watch all of the videos here or explore our North Carolina Sights and Sounds collection. To see more from the Brown Library, you can visit their partner page and their website.
Thanks to our partners at George H. and Laura E. Brown Library, we now have 24 new yearbooks available on our website. They are from Washington High School and span the years 1945-1969, giving substance to what was previously only one yearbook from Washington High.
Located in Washington, N.C., the seat of Beaufort County, Washington High titled their yearbooks Packromak. They replicate many typical features of U.S yearbooks, including photos of students, faculty, dances, and clubs as well as the traditional senior class last will and testament and superlatives.
For a look at all 25 Packromak yearbooks, click here. For more information about the George H. and Laura E. Brown Library, visit their landing page here.
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.
A front page headline from September 2, 1909 celebrates Frederick A. Cook’s trip to the North Pole and subsequent return to Lervik, Norway.
Issues of the Washington Daily News, contributed by the George H. and Laura E. Brown Library, are now available on DigitalNC. The Washington Daily News is a newspaper published six days a week, that started in 1909. The 1,441 issues now available digitally, span 1909-1914. The paper focuses on news from Washington, a small city located in Beaufort County, North Carolina, but also includes news as from the nation as a whole. While front-page headlines tend to tackle breaking stories from the American South, the United States, and beyond, shorter pieces recount municipal issues, meetings, social gatherings, and more.
A brief update on the repair of a local school in the September 3, 1909 issue.
The Washington Daily News still exists in both print and online form, and in 1990 the paper won a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for a series of articles exploring and exposing water contamination in Washington, North Carolina.
To learn more about the George H. and Laura E. Brown Library, visit their partner page, or take a look at their website.
The following microfilmed newspapers have been selected for digitization in 2016-2017. Around 70 reels were chosen from over 1,100 nominated reels, according to our Criteria for Selecting Newspapers to Digitize from Microfilm.
Title |
Years |
Nominating Institution |
Carolina Indian Voice (Pembroke, N.C.) |
1996-2005 |
UNC-Chapel Hill |
The Cherokee Scout (Murphy, N.C.) |
1923-1943 |
Murphy Public Library |
The Daily Advance (Elizabeth City, N.C.) |
1923-1927 |
Pasquotank County Public Library |
Farmville Enterprise (Farmville, N.C.) |
1914-1941 |
Farmville Public Library |
The Franklin Times (Louisburg, N.C.) |
1909-1924 |
Louisburg College |
The Future Outlook (Greensboro, N.C.) |
1941-1972 |
UNC-Greensboro |
The Roxboro Courier (Roxboro, N.C.) |
1922-1929 |
Person County Public Library |
State Port Pilot (Southport, N.C.) |
1935-1949 |
Margaret and James Harper Jr. Library |
Washington Daily News (Washington, N.C.) |
1909-1916 |
George H. and Laura E. Brown Library |