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.

This week we have another 45 newspapers added to DigitalNC including our first titles from Ridgeway, North Carolina!

In the June 15^th, 1920 issue of the Asheville Citizen we have an article celebrating UNC’s class of 1920 where recent graduate, and Asheville native, Thomas Wolfe reads the class poem and presents the class gift at an alumni event. It would be almost a decade until his iconic debut novel, Look Homeward, Angel, is published.

Asheville Citizen, June 15, 1920

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:

Asheville

• Asheville Citizen (Asheville, N.C.) – 1900-1923

Concord

• Concord Weekly Gazette (Concord, N.C.) – 1855-1857
• The Carolina Flag (Concord, N.C.) – 1861-1862
• The Concord Sun (Concord, N.C.) – 1878-1880
• The People’s Paper (Concord, N.C.) – 1879
• The Temperance Herald (Concord, N.C.) – 1881
• The Enterprise (Concord, N.C.) – 1883
• The Prohibition Banner (Concord, N.C.) – 1886
• The Concord Times (Concord, N.C.) – 1904-1905

Durham

• The Tobacco Plant (Durham, N.C.) – 1875

Fayetteville

• North-Carolina Intelligencer, and Fayetteville Advertiser (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1806-1808
• The Fayetteville Index (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1915-1917

Greensboro

• The Greensboro Patriot (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1881-1883
• The Daily Patriot (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1883

Highlands

• Blue Ridge Enterprise (Highlands, N.C.) – 1883-1885

Kinston

• American Advocate (Kinston, N.C.) – 1858-1859
• The Kinston Free Press (Kinston, N.C.) – 1920-1922

Laurinburg

• The Exchange (Laurinburg, N.C.) – 1911-1913
• The Laurinburg Exchange (Laurinburg, N.C.) – 1913-1916

Lenoir

• The Lenoir Topic (Lenoir, N.C.) – 1907-1909

Louisburg

• The Franklin Courier (Louisburg, N.C.) – 1875-1876

Mocksville

• The Davie Times (Mocksville, N.C.) – 1881-1887

Nashville

• The Argonaut (Nashville, N.C.) – 1890

New Bern

• The North Carolina Circular, and Newbern Weekly Advertiser (New Bern, N.C.) – 1803-1805
• The Morning Herald (New Bern, N.C.) – 1807-1808
• Newbern Herald (New Bern, N.C.) – 1809-1810
• The True Republican, and Newbern Weekly Advertiser (New Bern, N.C.) – 1810-1811
• The Carolinian (New Bern, N.C.) – 1815
• The Hornet’s Nest (New Bern, N.C.) – 1847
• Newbern Enquirer (New Bern, N.C.) – 1860
• The Daily Herald (New Bern, N.C.) – 1868
• The Campaign Anti-Radical (New Bern, N.C.) – 1870
• The Daily Liberal (New Bern, N.C.) – 1872

Pittsboro

• The Communicator (Pittsboro, N.C.) – 1849-1850

Polkton

• The Ansonian (Polkton, N.C.) – 1875

Raleigh

• The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1911

Randleman

• The Political Broadaxe (Randleman, N.C.) – 1890

Reidsville

• The Record (Reidsville, N.C.) – 1872-1873
• The Enterprise (Reidsville, N.C.) – 1875
• Reidsville News (Reidsville, N.C.) – 1875-1879

Ridgeway

• The Daily Graphic (Ridgeway, N.C.) – 1890
• The Ridgway Press (Ridgeway, N.C.) – 1869

Rockingham

• The Rocket (Rockingham, N.C.) – 1891-1896

Wadesboro

• North Carolina Argus (Wadesboro, N.C.) – 1854-1856

Winston-Salem

• Twin City Sentinel (Winston-Salem, N.C.) – 1897

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.