This week we have another 60 titles up on DigitalNC! While these papers cover all of North Carolina, almost one third are from Statesville alone!

In the October 3^rd, 1902 issue of Elizabeth City’s Tar Heel, there is an interview with Reginald Aubrey Fessenden’s assistant, Professor Saint Marie. Fessenden was a pioneer in early radio, or “wireless telegraphy,” and was conducting experiments at Manteo on Roanoke Island. In the interview, Prof. Saint Marie seems somewhat pessimistic about the process and its possibilities, which might be due to Fessenden abruptly ending their contract with the Weather Bureau the previous month after conflict arose over ownership of the patent.

Tar Heel, October 3, 1902

However, less than two months later The News and Observer reported that Fessenden’s invention had greatly improved and could now send transmissions to Washington, D.C. On Christmas Eve, 1906, he conducted the first radio broadcast by reading a bible verse and then playing ‘O Holy Night’ on his violin for the ships off the coast of Massachusetts. By 1909, according the the Charlotte Evening Observer, he had perfected the process for which he laid the foundation on the Carolina coast.

News and Observer, November 23, 1902

Evening Chronicle, April 14, 1909

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:

Elizabeth City

• Tar Heel (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – 1901-1910

Moravian Falls

• The Yellow-Jacket (Moravian Falls, N.C.) – 1895-1928

North Wilkesboro

• The North Wilkesboro Hustler (North Wilkesboro, N.C.) – 1906-1926
• North Wilkesboro News (North Wilkesboro, N.C.) – 1893-1896

Oxford

• The Leisure Hour (Oxford, N.C.) – 1858-1861
• The News of Oxford (Oxford, N.C.) – 1889
• Oxford Banner (Oxford, N.C.) – 1911
• The Granville Whig (Oxford, N.C.) – 1850
• Granville County Reformer (Oxford, N.C.) – 1894
• The Oxford Mercury (Oxford, N.C.) – 1843
• The Oxford Mercury, and District Telegraph (Oxford, N.C.) – 1843-1844
• The Oxford Leader (Oxford, N.C.) – 1875

Pittsboro

• The Communicator (Pittsboro, N.C.) – 1847
• Central Reflector (Pittsboro, N.C.) – 1833
• The Home (Pittsboro, N.C.) – 1887-1889

Rutherfordton

• West-Carolina Record (Rutherfordton, N.C.) – 1873-1874
• The Rutherford Star and West-Carolina Record (Rutherfordton, N.C.) – 1874-1875

Salem

• The Farmers’ Reporter (Salem, N.C.) – 1832-1834
• The Farmers’ Reporter and Rural Repository (Salem, N.C.) – 1835-1836
• Carolina Gazette (Salem, N.C.) – 1841

Salisbury

• The Evening World (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1895-1898
• Weekly World (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1895-1896
• Salisbury News (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1878
• The Salisbury Press (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1888
• The Tribune (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1872
• The Daily Gazette (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1865
• The Rowan Whig and Western Advocate (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1852-1855
• The Salisbury Herald (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1855-1857
• The Weekly Jubilee (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1852
• The Prohibitionist (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1881
• Salisbury Weekly Sun (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1897-1904
• Salisbury Globe (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1904-1905
• The Salisbury Daily Index (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1899-1900
• Salisbury Daily Truth-Index (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1900-1901
• Daily Herald (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1891-1896
• North Carolina Herald (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1885-1898
• The Industrial Record (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1899

Selma

• The Johnstonian (Selma, N.C.) – 1926

Shelby

• The Mountain Eagle (Shelby, N.C.) – 1861
• Shelby Review (Shelby, N.C.) – 1892

Siler City

• The Siler City Grit (Siler City, N.C.) 1905-1920

Smithfield

• The Weekly Herald (Smithfield, N.C.) – 1883
• The Smithfield Herald (Smithfield, N.C.) – 1885-1900

Statesville

• The Mascot (Statesville, N.C.) – 1897-1899
• The Statesville Mascot (Statesville, N.C.) – 1899-1901
• The Evening Mascot (Statesville, N.C.) – 1908-1909

Stonewall

• The Pamlico Enterprise (Stonewall, N.C.) – 1882-1884

Tarboro

• Tarboro’ Press (Tarboro, N.C.) – 1845-1847

Taylorsville

• The Mountain Scout (Taylorsville, N.C.) – 1913-1916

Wadesboro

• The Pee Dee Star (Wadesboro, N.C.) – 1854

Warrenton

• The Centennial (Warrenton, N.C.) – 1876
• The Semi-Weekly News (Warrenton, N.C.) – 1856-1857
• Warrenton News (Warrenton, N.C.) – 1850-1861

Washington

• The Weekly Express (Washington, N.C.) – 1873
• Washington Gazette, and Weekly Advertiser (Washington, N.C.) – 1807-1808
• Freeman’s Echo (Washington, N.C.) – 1829
• The New Era (Washington, N.C.) – 1862-1863
• The North State Press (Washington, N.C.) – 1878-1881

Wilson

• The Plaindealer (Wilson, N.C.) – 1869-1873

Windsor

• The Albemarle Press (Windsor, N.C.) – 1874-1876

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.