This week we have another 32 titles up on DigitalNC! Eleven of these papers are from Asheville, including a few with a focus on the organized labor movement.

When people think of North Carolina, unions aren’t typically the first thing that come to mind, which makes sense since the state has the second lowest union representation rate in the country at 2.6%, only beating South Carolina by about 1%. However, in the first half of the 20^th century, the labor movement was alive and well, that is until North Carolina officially became a Right-To-Work state in 1947, greatly limiting the power of unions in the state. In the 1950s, the unionization rate was 9% and it has been on the decline ever since.

The Workman, March 30, 1901

The Asheville Banner, July 30, 1931

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:

1. The Elkin Tribune (Elkin, N.C.) – 1914-1920
2. The Progress (Enfield, N.C.) – 1922-1924
3. The North Carolina Times (Louisburg, N.C.) – 1848
4. The Monroe Enquirer (Monroe, N.C.) – 1909-1942
5. The Morganton Herald (Morganton, N.C.) – 1889-1890
6. Rocky Mount Mail (Rocky Mount, N.C.) – 1873-1876
7. Person County Courier (Roxboro, N.C.) – 1887-1889
8. Johnston Courier (Smithfield, N.C.) – 1878
9. Madison County Record (Marshall, N.C.) – 1902-1910
10. The French Broad News (Marshall, N.C.) – 1907-1911
11. Law’s Lash (Moravian Falls, N.C.) – 1911-1914
12. The Lash (Moravian Falls, N.C.) – 1914-1930
13. The Murphy Advance (Murphy, N.C.) – 1889
14. Murphy Bulletin (Murphy, N.C.) – 1886-1888
15. Union and Scottish Chief (Maxton, N.C.) – 1892-1893
16. Scottish Chief (Maxton, N.C.) – 1893-1894
17. Maxton Scottish Chief (Maxton, N.C.) – 1894-1898
18. Southern Illustrated Age (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1875
19. North Carolina Christian Advocate (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1856-1861
20. The Eclectic (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1892
21. The Special Informer (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1892
22. Anti-Saloon Advocate (Asheville, N.C.) – 1905
23. The Freeman (Asheville, N.C.) – 1933
24. Asheville Life (Asheville, N.C.) – 1930
25. Asheville Herald (Asheville, N.C.) – 1933
26. The Asheville Banner (Asheville, N.C.) – 1931
27. The Good Roads Bulletin (Asheville, N.C.) – 1900
28. The Workman (Asheville, N.C.) – 1901
29. Our Mountain Home (Asheville, N.C.) – 1906
30. The Church Advocate (Asheville, N.C.) – 1943
31. Mountain Home-Journal (Asheville, N.C.) – 1891
32. Western North Carolina Methodist (Asheville, N.C.) – 1891-1892

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.