North Carolina Brigade at Camp Stewart, El Paso, Texas
Panoramic photos of Company K and the 120th Infantry, provided by Randolph County Public Library, are now online at DigitalNC. These photos, taken from 1914-1919, show Company K, which was comprised of men from Asheboro, and the larger North Carolina Brigade in a variety of locations.
Company K, 120th Infantry 30th (Old Hickory) Division at Camp Jackson, S.C.
The locations of the photos include Camp Sevier and Camp Jackson, both located in South Carolina, and Camp Stewart in El Paso, Texas. One photo of Camp Sevier shows an aerial shot of soldiers in formation along with camp structures and buildings. Many of these photos include some identifying information including names of soldiers or commanding officers in the photo. The panoramic nature of these photos gives the viewer a unique sense of these camps and required us to use special photo equipment reserved for digitizing large materials!
120th Infantry at Camp Sevier, S.C.
Click here to browse the photos. To see more materials from Randolph County Public Library visit their partner page or take a look at their website.
Company K, 120th Infantry 30th Division at Camp Sevier, S.C.
Newspapers from across the state continue to be added at rapid pace to DigitalNC. The Press and Carolinian and the Hickory Democrat, two newspapers printed in Hickory, NC are now available online.
The Press and Carolinian, which was a merger between The Press and The Carolinian papers in Hickory in 1887, covers general news of the day both in Hickory and across the country. In their inaugural issue following their merger, the editors state to their readers that, “Our purpose is to spread, not to suppress the truth, and in this we ask the aid of all…We intend to make the Press and Carolinian not only a welcome visitor in every household but an indispensable luxury.” While they claim an air of neutrality, the paper has a definite Democratic slant to its reporting and promoted the Democratic party ticket headed by Grover Cleveland in 1892. Other topics regularly reported on include big issues of the day such as union strikes, tariff disagreements, and an overall focus on the economic conditions of the country. The issues available in DigitalNC cover 1887 until 1892. The Press and Carolinian was recommended for digitization by the Catawba County Library.
The Hickory Democrat is a much flashier looking newspaper than the Press and Carolinian, with issues from 1906 until 1915 available online. On the byline they inform their readers that they provide access to “All the News While It Is News.” One particular feature of the Democrat that makes it stand out is the prevalence of political cartoons on every front page of the paper, relating to both state and national news items. The Hickory Democrat was recommended for digitization by the Hickory Public Library.
As the North Carolina Library Association is winding up its biennial meeting this week in Hickory, we’ve had fun comparing this year’s program with a program from the 1939 meeting, which is in a scrapbook of library activities compiled by the Braswell Memorial Library (Rocky Mount, N.C.) in the 1930s. While this year’s meeting featured lots of sessions about online research tools and e-books, the 1939 program included a “Discussion of the Use of the Printed Catalog Card,” and “A New System of Book Charging for College Libraries.” But a few of the 1939 sessions, like “The Librarian as a Coordinator in an Educational Enterprise” and “Financing the Public Library,” could very well have been titles of talks today.
The author at age 10 on page 22 of Brookford Memories
Brookford Memories, a book contributed by Hickory Public Library, celebrates life in Brookford, NC, a small town in Catawba County. Brookford Memories was written in 2003 by Brookford native Dyke Little, born in 1935. This book contains the chapters “Childhood Memories”, “Brookford Places”, “Brookford Mills”, “Brookford People”, “Brookford Lives”, “Brookford Photos”, “Rosa Clinard’s Album”, “Grandview School”, “Mill Property”, “Church Brochures”, “Myrtle Hunt Scrapbook”, and “More Brookford Photos.”
Through a series of vignettes, interviews, biographies, and historical documents, Little paints a portrait of Brookford as it was during it’s heyday as a mill town. In the introduction, he reflects his childhood during the late 1930s and 1940s saying, “the Depression was over but World War II was starting. This was a time when we all felt closer to each other… Back then the pace of life was slower and people had more time for each other.”
Although Little’s focus is on Brookford, delving into family histories and specific childhood memories, the book touches on themes common to towns all around North Carolina and beyond.
To see more materials from Hickory Public Library, take a look at their DigitalNC partner page, or view their website.
We’ve taken a look back at this year’s top 5 most viewed items on DigitalNC, and they may not be what you expect! Here they are in order of popularity.
The most viewed single item on DigitalNC was this photo:
Want to know more about Madison Beach? We did, and found this page in a Rockingham County Public Library volume by local author John T. Dallas to help us out.
This picture of Jim Thornton and his band includes Congressman Harold D. Cooley and singer Mozelle Phillips. The band played at dances and events, as well as on the radio and a live country music television show out of Raleigh entitled “Saturday Night Country Style.”
From the 1880s, this postcard shows the bridge spanning Contentnea Creek in Wilson County, with “Wiggin’s Mill” and the reservoir waterfall in the background. Wiggin’s Mill was a sawmill, and can be found in newspapers of that era as a local landmark both on land and on the creek. The Wilson Advancedescribes the Wiggin’s Mill bridge floating away in a “freshet” in June 1891.
Taken together, yearbooks are the most popular items available on our site. It’s not surprising that one made the top 5 list. This 1976 Yackety Yack has spectacular photographs with 1970s style.
For the curious, here are some overall numbers for DigitalNC for 2017. Here’s looking forward as we work with partners to share even more of North Carolina’s cultural heritage in 2018!
Partnering with the Hickory Public Library in Catawba County, NC, DigitalNC has published a copy of “The Hill,” a volume documenting the history and people from the Ridgeview Community in Hickory.
The Ridgeview Community, better known as “the Hill,” was once a bustling community full of close-knit families, active churches, and Black-owned businesses. The area was hub of activity in the late 1930’s, with many physicians’ offices, beauty and barber shops, restaurants, and entertainment. Most of the homes and business were demolished between 1950’s and the 1980’s, but the volume documents many of the photographs and memories that some Hickory residents still hold.
Drucella Sudderth Hartose, The Hill, page 8
The volume is comprised of the research and memories of Drucella Sudderth Hartsoe, a community leader in Catawba county who has steadily worked to make Hickory a better place. She was president of the Progressive Club and took the initiative to send her daughter to Hickory High School as the first African American student. Hartsoe moved to the hill in the 1940, a time when the area was thriving with activity and personally been a part of the history. Many of the photos and research come from her family history and direct experiences.
The volume also documents historical moments in the community, like participation in civil rights activities. One example is picture below, in which members of the Ridgeview Community traveled to Washington D.C. to march with Dr. Martin Luther King in August, 1963.
The Hill can also serve as a useful genealogical tool for those interested in families and property from the area. It contains many images, family names, and death dates of community members both old and young. This is especially true for those in the religious community, as the volume draws heavily on church records. It also documents the street addresses and locations of businesses that have long since been demolished. In addition, the volume contains many names and images of those who went to school in the Ridgeview Community, especially those who participated in extra curricular activities, like band and sports.
The Hill, page 81
The Hill, page 58
Information ranges from the community’s founding in 1903 through publication in 2001.
To learn more about the Hickory Public Library and its collection, please visit the contributor page or the homepage.
There are all kinds of clever covers for this intellectually themed, physiologically fitting title. View all Wake Forest School of Medicine yearbooks.
#4 “Hacawa” Lenoir-Rhyne University
“Hacawa” is a one-word abbreviation of Halls, Campus, Walls. In and around these centers the whole student life here. The Hacawa is an emanation from the work, play, joys, trials, and triumphs of the entire college for the year.” (1909 Hacawa, p. 8) View all Lenoir-Rhyne University yearbooks.
#3 “Quips and Cranks” Davidson College
“Haste thee nymph, and bring with thee
Jest and youthful Jollity,
Quips and cranks, and wanton wiles,
Nods, and becks, and wreathed smiles…” – L’Allegro, by John Milton
We like this title because the students capitalized on the school name they were dealt. View all Burgaw High School yearbooks, courtesy the Pender County Public Library.
#1 “Ayantee” North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
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.
