We are one of 29 finalists for the Institute of Museum and Library Services 2018 National Medal for Museum and Library Service. Now through April 13, IMLS is asking the people who have been impacted by the Digital Heritage Center to share their stories. If you have a story you’d like to share, we’d love to hear from you! Please contact us or share via social media by tagging us on Facebook (@NC Digital Heritage Center) or on Twitter (@ncdhc).
Today’s story comes from Philip Howard, past president of the Ocracoke Preservation Society. The materials we’ve worked with OPS to digitize have helped the Society’s ongoing efforts at historic preservation.
“As a chronicler of Ocracoke Island history [through his blog and newsletter] and one of the founders and a past president of the Ocracoke Preservation Society, I am acutely aware of the importance of access to historic documents for research. The North Carolina Digital Heritage Center has digitized and placed on their web site numerous letters, brochures, booklets, photographs, and newspaper articles relevant to Ocracoke Island. These important documents are now readily available for anyone interested in Ocracoke’s history. In addition to being used in research for magazine & newspaper articles and books, they have played an important role in providing supporting documentation for the preservation of several homes and other significant structures in Ocracoke’s historic district.“
One specific effort is the Society’s work on behalf of the Island Inn. A local group is hoping to purchase the property to protect it for the future and open it up for community use. Resources digitized and available on DigitalNC.org have helped them document that building’s known and hidden history.
Thanks to our partners at the Ocracoke Preservation Society, DigitalNC is proud to announce decades worth of Ocracoke history are now available online! This upload is a collection in multiple parts and includes The Mullet Wrapper newsletter, a compilation of marriage records, half a century’s worth of obituaries and funeral programs, books detailing Ocracoke’s cemeteries, and a detailed list of historic sites from the National Register of Historic Places. Almost every aspect of island life is represented within these records: from parades and exhibits, to local nuptials and obituaries, to the discovery, exploration, and conservation of historic sites.
One of the best ways to become acquainted with the history of Ocracoke Island is to read through The Mullet Wrapper, Ocracoke Preservation Society’s biannual newsletter. Named after the practice of wrapping freshly bought fish in newspapers, The Mullet Wrapper provides a detailed glimpse into the myriad efforts made to preserve Ocracoke history. Within its pages are articles teaching historic home preservation, profiles on notable locals, and news on upcoming educational talks and events. Our collection spans from The Mullet Wrapper’s inception in 1997 to 2017, and even includes two years of newsletters published before The Mullet Wrapper received its name! A highlight of this period is seeing the development of historians understanding of Fort Ocracoke, a sunken structure resting underneath Ocracoke’s bay. The Mullet Wrapper’s publication begins around the fort’s discovery, and as the issues progress more and more articles are released detailing information, eventually ending in the construction of a Civil War memorial near the site.
Additional context is provided for Ocracoke’s history in the form of an extensive report from the National Register of Historic Places. This report details every single historic building, landmark, or structure within Ocracoke’s Historic District, a neighborhood nestled around the bay’s shores. Two maps (one highlighted and one untouched) provide an essential key for understanding the layout of the island, and are themselves a part of preservation history. If you desire additional context, we’ve also uploaded two books containing records of the island’s over eighty historic cemeteries. Each book includes records of the interred, maps of cemetery layouts, and additional context for family or particular sites.
The society’s records also include almost four decades of deaths in or around Ocracoke Island. Funeral programs, obituaries, and hand-written eulogies have been collected and collated for every Ocracoke native’s death, including those occurring hundreds of miles away. Beginning in 1973 and ending in 2021, each year contains a list of every recorded death alongside any related written material. This includes articles published outside of Ocracoke (in the instance of former state senator George Warner), prayer cards for the deceased, and a massive collection of eulogies written by local pastor Jimmy Creech. Reading through these records imparts the sense of just how interconnected community becomes on an island.
Whenever you need a break from the weight of death, refresh with a wedding! Our uploads include a log of local marriages in and around Ocracoke Island that extends as far back as 1735, featuring an extensive list of nuptials, dates, and locations. More recent marriages also include copies of individual marriage certificates from the deed of registers, dating back to the middle of the twentieth century. A personal highlight of the collection are a pair of authentic marriage records from a ceremony taking place in 1912: one between E. Spencer and N. Gaskill, and the other between Albert Stephen and Marnie Spencer.
You can access this absolute bumper crop of history online at DigitalNC here. Still not satisfied? Read more about Ocracoke’s history and preservation at our partners website here, or look through more Ocracoke material on their partner page.
Brochure for Ocracoke Island, which continues “Have the time of your life at ‘Bermuda of the USA.'”
New materials from Ocracoke Preservation Society have been digitized and added to DigitalNC. The materials include photographs and film negatives, showing the Ocracoke community during the mid to late twentieth century, including schools, athletics, fishing, events, and people. There is also a collection of materials from Franklin Miller Cochran, a pilot and writer of Ocracoke Island. He flew passengers between the island and mainland North Carolina and wrote extensively about his experience as a pilot and citizen of the Outer Banks. His largest manuscript, The Outer Banks — Today and Yesterday, is about the history of the Outer Banks. Additionally, correspondence between Cassius M. Clay and several citizens of Ocracoke has been digitized. Other ephemera, such as brochures, maps, business cards, and post cards are also in the collection.
Learn more from our past blog post about Ocracoke and the scrapbooks we digitized. You can see more from Ocracoke Preservation Society on their contributor page or their website.
Illustrations of local plant and animal life in Ocracoke.
Ocracoke Lighthouse and plane, 1952.
Park Service plans for project in Outer Banks, July 1952.
Nine scrapbooks from Ocracoke, North Carolina have been digitized and added to DigitalNC. From the Ocracoke Preservation Society, these scrapbooks range from the 1940s to 1980s and include photographs, newspaper clippings, brochures, booklets, drawings, letters, maps, short stories, and histories about Ocracoke. The newspaper articles are often about local people and families, events, and news such as park projects and ferries opening. The brochures and booklets are typically informational, about nature, animals, boats, and lighthouses on the Outer Banks and Ocracoke Island . The 1955-1981 scrapbook in particular features information about lighthouses and lighthouse keepers and ships and sailors. The 1956-1980 scrapbook is full of photographs from Ocracoke, including buildings, houses, ships, and the lighthouse. All of the scrapbooks are listed below:
These materials were contributed by the Ocracoke Preservation Society, which works to preserve the cultural and historical heritage of Ocracoke Island. You can view more from the Ocracoke Preservation Society through their contributor page or on their website.
4th of July pony penning.
Coast Guard Station on Ocracoke Island.
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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.
