This week we have another 40 titles up on DigitalNC! In this batch we have special editions of Morganton’s The News-Herald that detail the destruction caused to Western North Carolina by “The Great Flood of 1916.”

In July of 1916, two hurricanes hit Western Carolina within a week of each other. The first one came from the Gulf Coast and stalled over the region from the 8^th until the 10^th, and the second made landfall in South Carolina, reached the mountains on the 15^th, and dumped an astounding 22 inches of rain in a 24 hour period.

Asheville Grocery, 1916. Image via ourstate.com

After the storms had passed, the Swannanoa River was a mile wide, the French Broad was four times its normal width, there were over 300 landslides, and the town of Hendersonville was surrounded by a lake. At least 80 people died in the flooding, but since so many people lived in rural areas, the exact number is unknown.

July 18, 1916

July 19, 1916

July 20, 1916

Over the next year, we’ll be adding millions of newspaper images to DigitalNC. These images were originally digitized a number of years ago in a partnership with Newspapers.com. That project focused on scanning microfilmed papers published before 1923 held by the North Carolina Collection in Wilson Special Collections Library. While you can currently search all of those pre-1923 issues on Newspapers.com, over the next year we will also make them available in our newspaper database as well. This will allow you to search that content alongside the 2 million pages already on our site – all completely open access and free to use.

This week’s additions include:

• The Liberty Register (Liberty, N.C.) – 1899-1900
• The Kernersville News (Kernersville, N.C.) – 1883-1888
• Jonesboro Leader (Jonesboro, N.C.) – 1888-1892
• Daily Progress (New Bern, N.C.) – 1860
• The Graphic (Nashville, N.C.) – 1899-1925
• The Constitution (Lincolnton, N.C.) – 1880
• The Union Labor Record (Wilmington, N.C.) – 1922-1937
• The Cottage Visitor (Hendersonville, N.C.) – 1869
• Carolina Observer (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1831-1832
• The Second Century (Albemarle, N.C.) – 1881
• The News-Herald (Morganton, N.C.) – 1902-1922
• The Greenville Index (Greenville, N.C.) – 1894
• Goldsboro Weekly Argus (Goldsboro, N.C.) – 1914-1915
• The Albemarle Enquirer (Murfreesboro, N.C.) – 1886
• Murfreesboro Index (Murfreesboro, N.C.) – 1887-1896
• Piedmont Press (Hickory, N.C.) – 1873-1887
• The Hickory Press (Hickory, N.C.) – 1897-1900
• Randolph Regulator (Asheboro, N.C.) – 1876-1879
• The Randolph Sun (Asheboro, N.C.) – 1878
• North Carolina Bulletin (Asheboro, N.C.) – 1856-1857
• The New North State (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1871-1877
• Greensboro North State (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1886-1891
• The Daily Workman (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1885-1889
• Greensboro Telegram (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1910-1911
• The Weekly Index (Henderson, N.C.) – 1868-1869
• The Henderson Index (Henderson, N.C.) – 1870
• The Hustler (Henderson, N.C.) – 1899
• Evening Herald (Henderson, N.C.) – 1900
• The Henderson News (Henderson, N.C.) – 1887-1888
• The Vance Farmer (Henderson, N.C.) – 1892
• Henderson Daily Dispatch (Henderson, N.C.) – 1916-1923
• Albemarle Sentinel (Edenton, N.C.) – 1839-1840
• Carolina Miscellany (Edenton, N.C.) – 1832
• North-Carolina Miscellany (Edenton, N.C.) – 1833
• The Edenton Clarion (Edenton, N.C.) – 1880-1881
• Edenton Sentinel, and Albemarle Intelligencer (Edenton, N.C.) – 1841
• Albemarle Bulletin (Edenton, N.C.) – 1850-1851
• American Banner (Edenton, N.C.) – 1856
• The Express (Edenton, N.C.) – 1859
• Eastern Courier (Edenton, N.C.) – 1900

If you want to see all of the newspapers we have available on DigitalNC, you can find them here. Thanks to UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries for permission to and support for adding all of this content as well as the content to come. We also thank the North Caroliniana Society for providing funding to support staff working on this project.