Here we have new papers from the North Carolina Collection that have never been microfilmed! The North Carolina Collection originated in 1844 and is the largest traditional collection of library materials for any state. Learn more about the NCC here!

These additions include:

• The Courier (Asheboro, N.C.) – 1917-1918
• The Randolph Herald (Asheborough, N.C.) – 1848
• The Daily Advance (Asheville, N.C.) – 1884
• The Mountain Voice (Bakersville, N.C.) – 1881
• Our Fatherless Ones (Barium Springs, N.C.) – 1903-1912
• The Blowing Rocket (Blowing Rock, N.C.) – 1942
• The Chapel Hillian (Chapel Hill, N.C.) – 1890-1891
• The Clarkton Express (Clarkton, N.C.) – 1907
• Recorder and North Carolina Tobacco Journal (Durham, N.C.) – 1883
• The Daily News (Goldsboro, N.C.) – 1865
• Goldsboro Daily Argus (Goldsboro, N.C.) – 1889-1892
• The Eastern Reflector (Greenville, N.C.) – 1898
• The Henderson Times (Hendersonville, N.C.) – 1863
• The Western North Carolina Times (Hendersonville, N.C.) – 1896
• The Daily Free Press (Kinston, N.C.) – 1908-1909
• The Laurinburg Enterprise (Laurinburg, N.C.) – 1881
• The Monroe Enquirer (Monroe, N.C.) – 1875-1881
• Ocracoke Island Beacon (Ocracoke, N.C.) – 1941
• The Orphans’ Friend and Masonic Journal (Oxford, N.C.) – 1881-1912
• The Church Intelligencer (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1862-1865
• The Menagerie (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1857
• The Farmer and Mechanic (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1877
• The Friend and Templar (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1880
• Semi-Weekly Standard (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1865
• The Star, and North-Carolina State Gazette (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1818
• The Reidsville Times (Reidsville, N.C.) – 1882
• The Roanoke-Chowan Times (Rich Square, N.C.) – 1907-1910
• The Rockingham Rocket (Rockingham, N.C.) – 1887
• Salisbury Evening Post (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1906
• The Daily Union Banner (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1866
• Shelby Review (Shelby, N.C.) – 1893
• The Sandhill Citizen (Southern Pines, N.C.) – 1917
• The Daily Landmark (Statesville, N.C.) – 1879
• The Wadesboro Intelligencer (Wadesboro, N.C.) – 1886
• The Dew Drop (Wadesborough, N.C.) – 1853
• The Colonist (Warm Springs, N.C.) – 1870-1871
• The Morning Star (Wilmington, N.C.) – 1908
• Wilmington Chronicle (Wilmington, N.C.) – 1849
• The Wilmington Herald (Wilmington, N.C.) – 1854-1855
• Wilmington Journal (Wilmington, N.C.) – 1880-1894

We’ve just added newspaper issues from 37 titles, dating from 1819-1968, with the majority dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. From a variety of cities, most of these additions are only 1-5 issues per title. Thanks to the State Archives of North Carolina and its preservation of newspapers, we’re pleased to include these fill-in issues. The State Archives provided them to us as part of their newspaper microfilming workflow.

Below is a list of titles, their cities of publication, and the years from which the issues date.

• Southern Citizen, Asheboro – 1873
• The Asheboro Courier, Asheboro – 1888
• Bayboro Sentinel, Bayboro – 1902
• Beaufort Halcyon, Beaufort – 1855
• The Carteret County Telephone, Beaufort – 1882, 1884-1885
• The Weekly Record, Beaufort – 1886
• The Tobacco Plant (Durham), Durham – 1872, 1882-1883
• The Durham Daily Globe (later the Herald-Sun), Durham – 1891
• The Edenton Transcript, Edenton – 1908-1909
• The Albemarle Observer, Edenton – 1911
• The Edenton News, Edenton – 1922
• The North Carolinian, Fayetteville – 1856-1857
• Western Reporter, Franklin – 1880
• Our Farms, Franklinton – 1896
• Weekly Message (later The Olive Branch), Greensborough – 1855
• The Gold Leaf, Henderson – 1885
• The Herald of Truth, Hendersonville – 1855
• The High Point Enterprise, High Point – 1968
• The Lincoln Courier, Lincolnton – 1867
• The Visitor (paper of the Littleton Female College), Littleton – 1902
• The Littleton Dispatch, Littleton – 1928
• The Franklin Times , Louisburg – 1879
• The Robesonian, Lumberton – 1872, 1876-1877, 1880-1881
• Milton Intelligencer, Milton – 1819
• The Milton Chronicle, Milton – 1860, 1883
• The Monroe Enquirer, Monroe – 1881
• The Norlina Headlight, Norlina – 1919
• The Granville Free Lance, Oxford – 1880
• The Oxford Torchlight, Oxford – 1881
• Spirit of the Age Raleigh – 1855
• The Spy, Raleigh – 1875
• North Carolina Spectator and Western Advertiser, Rutherfordton – 1834
• The Rutherford Banner, Rutherfordton – 1888
• The Democrat, Rutherfordton – 1895
• The Sun, Rutherfordton – 1918-1919
• North Carolina Argus, Wadesboro – 1855

The State Archives has an exhibit of Early North Carolina Newspapers here. Their microfilming efforts are behind almost all of the digitized microfilmed papers available through DigitalNC. Search or browse all of our newspapers on the newspaper landing page.

This week we have the final 35 newspaper titles for this project up on DigitalNC! Over the past 11 months we have uploaded over 2.4 million pages of North Carolina newspapers – bringing our total number of newspaper pages on DigitalNC to 4,175,076 and our total number of titles on DigitalNC to 1,161 – all freely available to anyone! In this closing batch we have our first paper from Bower, North Carolina (which you may know as Clemmons today) and an article in the Union Republican about Stokes County’s would be Wright brother: Jacob A. Hill.

Jacob Hill, Winston-Salem Journal, March 9, 1902

Before Orville and Wilbur’s iconic first flight in 1903, the race to create a manned flying machine was fiercely competitive. One of the contenders was a man from Vade Mecum Springs named Jacob Hill. Hill was born 1862 in Davie County and had been fascinated by the flight of birds ever since he was a child. In 1901 he decided to take that curiosity a little further and solve “the problem of aerial navigation” by building his own dirigible.

Mr. Hill’s machine could have been the first piloted aircraft, but we’ll never know for sure if it could actually fly and be controlled. Momentum ran out when Hill couldn’t secure funding for his invention. According to Thomas Parramore’s First to Fly, witnesses claimed the craft could get off the ground, but couldn’t do much more than hover in place. Even though Hill’s airship became something of a local joke for a time, the legacy of his wild aspirations continues to live on in North Carolina history.

Over the past year, we’ve added 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, we have made 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:

Belhaven

• The Belhaven Pilot (Belhaven, N.C.) – 1948-1957

Bower

• The Olive Leaf (Bower, N.C.) – 1904

Charlotte

• The Weekly Observer (Charlotte, N.C.) – 1886

Greensboro

• The Daily Workman (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1883
• The Greensboro Review (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1881
• The Guilford Herald (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1896

Kings Mountain

• The Kings Mountain Herald (Kings Mountain, N.C.) – 1914-1919

Kinston

• The Daily Free Press (Kinston, N.C.) – 1920-1922

Lenoir

• The Lenoir Topic (Lenoir, N.C.) – 1890-1894

Monroe

• The Monroe Express (Monroe, N.C.) – 1881
• The Monroe Register (Monroe, N.C.) – 1890

Mt. Airy

• The Mt. Airy Watchman (Mt. Airy, N.C.) – 1880
• The Mt. Airy Times (Mt. Airy, N.C.) – 1876-1877

New Bern

• The Republic and Courier (New Bern, N.C.) – 1872-1874
• The True Republican, and Newbern Weekly Advertiser (New Bern, N.C.) – 1810-1811
• The Morning Herald (New Bern, N.C.) – 1807-1808
• Newbern Herald (New Bern, N.C.) – 1809-1810
• The North Carolina Circular, and Newbern Weekly Advertiser (New Bern, N.C.) – 1803-1805
• The Daily Herald (New Bern, N.C.) – 1868
• The Republican & Courier (New Bern, N.C.) – 1871
• Newbern Enquirer (New Bern, N.C.) – 1860
• The Daily Journal (New Bern, N.C.) – 1894
• New Berne Daily Journal (New Bern, N.C.) – 1894-1895

Salem

• The Farmers’ Reporter (Salem, N.C.) – 1832
• The Salem Observer (Salem, N.C.) – 1867

Salisbury

• North Carolina Herald (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1885-1888

Shelby

• The Highlander (Shelby, N.C.) – 1914-1919
• The Aurora-Highlander (Shelby, N.C.) – 1917

Statesville

• Statesville Christian Advocate (Statesville, N.C.) – 1887-1890

Swan Quarter

• The Hyde County Herald (Swan Quarter, N.C.) – 1941-1956

Taylorsville

• The Mountain Scout (Taylorsville, N.C.) – 1907-1917

Warrenton

• The Indicator (Warrenton, N.C.) – 1867-1868

Winston

• The Union Republican (Winston, N.C.) – 1874-1918
• The Twin-City Daily (Winston, N.C.) – 1889

Winston-Salem

• The Twin-City Daily Sentinel (Winston-Salem, N.C.) – 1916

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.

We have another 30 titles up on DigitalNC this week! This batch brings us our first newspapers from Dallas, Fairmont, Lake Landing, Maiden, and Newland, North Carolina!

In the January 8^th, 1891 issue of the Monroe Enquirer-Register we have an ad for a fledging discount store in Monroe, North Carolina called The New York Racket, which will become the shopping mall staple we know as Belk. Founded by William Henry Belk in 1888, the store would change its name to Belk Brothers in 1898 and go on to become one of the largest department store chains in the country.

January 8th, 1891

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:

Belhaven

• The Belhaven Citizen (Belhaven, N.C.) – 1914
• The Belhaven Times (Belhaven, N.C.) – 1929
• The Belhaven Times and the Hyde County Record (Belhaven, N.C.) – 1933-1934

Black Mountain

• The Black Mountain News (Black Mountain, N.C.) – 1980

Creedmoor

• Creedmoor News (Creedmoor, N.C.) – 1913

Dallas

• The Dallas Eagle (Dallas, N.C.) – 1891
• The Truth (Dallas, N.C.) – 1903

Fairmont

• The Fairmont Times (Fairmont, N.C.) – 1933
• The Times-Messenger (Fairmont, N.C.) – 1941
• The Fairmont Messenger (Fairmont, N.C.) – 1941

Forest City

• The Carolina News (Forest City, N.C.) – 1952

Gastonia

• The Community Survey (Gastonia, N.C.) – 1921

Iredell County

• The County News (Iredell County, N.C.) – 1953

Lake Landing

• The Mattamuskeet Clarion (Lake Landing, N.C.) – 1925

Lincolnton

• The Lincoln County Times (Lincolnton, N.C.) – 1908

Maiden

• The Maiden Times (Maiden, N.C.) – 1969-1974

Manteo

• The Coastland Times With Which is Combined The Pilot and Herald of Belhaven and Swan Quarter (Manteo, N.C.) – 1963-1974

Monroe

• Monroe Enquirer-Register (Monroe, N.C.) – 1891

Mooresville

• The Mooresville Record (Mooresville, N.C.) – 1897
• The Record-Times (Mooresville, N.C.) – 1899
• The Rounder and the News Leader (Mooresville, N.C.) – 1937
• The News Leader (Mooresville, N.C.) – 1939

Newland

• The Avery Post (Newland, N.C.) – 1955

Rocky Mount

• The Evening Telegram (Rocky Mount, N.C.) – 1916-1954

Shelby

• The Highlander and Shelby News (Shelby, N.C.) – 1921

Statesville

• The New Deal (Statesville, N.C.) – 1933-1934
• Statesville Daily Record (Statesville, N.C.) – 1947-1953
• The Iredell Morning News (Statesville, N.C.) – 1956-1959

Swan Quarter

• Hyde County Record (Swan Quarter, N.C.) – 1928-1930

Taylorsville

• The Taylorsville News (Taylorsville, N.C.) – 1895

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.