This week we have an astounding 80 titles up on DigitalNC! These papers span all across the state, covering 22 of North Carolina’s 100 counties! We have papers from smaller communities, like The Free Press from the town of Forest City (Fun fact: Forest City was originally named “Burnt Chimney” after a house that burned own in the area, leaving only a charred chimney behind). We also have well-established papers from Raleigh, such as The Raleigh Times and Evening Visitor, giving us a cross section of the entire state.

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:

• Raleigh Christian Advocate (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1918-1919
• The Davidson Dispatch (Lexington, N.C.) – 1886-1902
• The Dispatch (Lexington, N.C.) – 1902-1922
• Carolina Messenger (Goldsboro, N.C.) – 1869-1877
• Goldsboro Messenger (Goldsboro, N.C.) – 1878-1883
• The Daily Capital (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1891
• The Daily Call (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1889-1896
• The Hayseeder (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1896-1898
• The Daily Dispatch (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1880
• Daily Morning Record (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1881
• Greensboro Evening Telegram (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1897-1900
• Greensboro Telegram (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1900-1910
• Greenville Daily News (Greenville, N.C.) – 1917-1920
• Greenville News (Greenville, N.C.) – 1920-1921
• North Carolina Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1888
• The Live Giraffe (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1852-1859
• The Democratic Press (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1859-1860
• The Daily Democratic Press (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1860
• Hale’s Weekly (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1879-1880
• The Golden Visitor (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1891
• State Prohibition Organ (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1881
• The Advertiser (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1893
• Beans (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1887
• Fayetteville Observer (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1897-1900
• The Daily Press (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1894-1895
• The Press-Visitor (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1896
• The Times-Visitor (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1900
• The Raleigh Times and Evening Visitor (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1900
• Daily Industrial News (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1905-1909
• Carolina Observer (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1816-1830
• The Franklin Times (Louisburg, N.C.) – 1879-1909
• The Topic (Lenoir, N.C.) – 1882
• The Lenoir Topic (Lenoir, N.C.) – 1882-1898
• The Western North Carolina Times (Hendersonville, N.C.) – 1901-1923
• The Free Press (and Forest City Herald) (Forest City, N.C.) – 1915
• The Free Press (Forest City, N.C.) – 1916
• Forest City Courier (Forest City, N.C.) – 1924
• Everything (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1913-1918
• Davidson County News (Lexington, N.C.) – 1897-1898
• The Press and Carolinian (Hickory, N.C.) – 1893-1896
• The Lincoln County News (Lincolnton, N.C.) – 1907-1918
• The Catawba County News (Newton, N.C.) – 1911
• The Franklin Press (Franklin, N.C.) – 1903-1906
• The Daily Workman (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1889-1891
• Greensboro Daily Workman (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1891-1892
• Goldsboro Weekly Argus (Goldsboro, N.C.) – 1903-1905
• Asheville Daily Gazette (Asheville, N.C.) – 1897-1898
• Asheville Gazette-News (Asheville, N.C.) – 1910-1914
• The Asheville Times (Asheville, N.C.) – 1917
• The Old North State (Beaufort, N.C.) – 1865
• The Sampson Democrat (Clinton, N.C.) – 1892-1901
• The Concord Register (Concord, N.C.) – 1875-1885
• The Democratic Pioneer (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – 1850-1859
• The Patriot, and Greensborough Palladium (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1827-1829
• Greensborough Patriot (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1829-1836
• The Greensborough Patriot (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1839-1850
• The Greensboro Patriot (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1918-1922
• The Eagle (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1868-1875
• The Concord Sun (Concord, N.C.) – 1876-1877
• The American (Statesville, N.C.) – 1865-1869
• The Statesville American (Statesville, N.C.) – 1870-1886
• The Statesville American and Tobacco Journal (Statesville, N.C.) – 1881
• The Economist (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – 1872-1890
• Economist and Falcon (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – 1894-1895
• Economist (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – 1895-1897
• Asheville News (Asheville, N.C.) – 1851-1865
• The Asheville News and Western Farmer (Asheville, N.C.) – 1868
• The Asheville News and Mountain Farmer (Asheville, N.C.) – 1869
• The Randolph Bulletin (Asheboro, N.C.) – 1905-1915
• The Weekly Register (Asheville, N.C.) – 1884-1894
• The State Register (Asheville, N.C.) – 1895-1896
• The Asheville Register (Asheville, N.C.) – 1899-1900
• The Daily Sun (Asheville, N.C.) – 1888
• The Carthage Blade (Carthage, N.C.) – 1896-1907
• The Dunn Signboard (Dunn, N.C.) – 1887-1888
• The Harnett Courier (Dunn, N.C.) – 1888-1889
• Asheville Weekly Citizen (Asheville, N.C) – 1893-1894
• Asheville Citizen (Asheville, N.C.) – 1894
• The Semi-Weekly Citizen (Asheville, N.C.) – 1901
• The Clinton Reporter (Clinton, N.C.) – 1873-1874

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.

A 1952 article about NC Governor W. Kerr Scott and Dr. Clyde Erwin, state superintendent of public instruction, visiting Macon County schools

Seventeen more years and over 10,000 more issues of The Franklin Press and Highlands Maconian newspaper have been newly digitized and put online on DigitalNC, with the help of our partner, the Fontana Regional Library. The Highlands Historical Society has also helped us with making these issues available for the public. While our collection previously only contained 1924-1942, we have nearly doubled the collection, with 1943-1960 now digitized online. Based out of Franklin in Macon County, the Franklin Press and Highlands Maconian was published weekly from 1932-1968.

A full issue in January 1944 wished servicemen victory in the coming year

Many of the newly digitized articles naturally deal with World War II, such as the snippet on the left of a January 1944 paper, which was wholly dedicated to wishing servicemen and soldiers victory in the coming year. After the war ended, the paper went back to its regular local and national coverage. For example, an article in 1955 detailed how excited the townspeople were of the forthcoming 1956 film The Great Locomotive Chase was being filmed in Franklin, Clayton, and Tallulah Falls.

With this new increase in pages from The Franklin Press and Highlands Maconian, DigitalNC becomes much closer to having the entire publication of the newspaper in our collection. To browse other materials from the Fontana Regional Library or the Highlands Historical Society, click on their partner pages, or visit their websites Fontana Regional Library and Highlands Historical Society here.

August 27, 1936 issue of The Franklin Press and Highlands Maconian, page 1

Earlier this year, the Highlands Historical Society approached us and asked us if we’d like to help “fill in” a year of The Franklin Press and Highlands Maconian newspaper. Most of this paper is available on microfilm that was created by one of our favorite partners, the State Archives of North Carolina; in fact, we had digitized 1924-1942 (excepting 1936) with the help of the Fontana Regional Library. The Highlands Historical Society came to us with a bound volume of the missing year, a volume full of print copies they’d never seen elsewhere. These have been added to DigitalNC.

In 1936, the U.S. waited to see the fate of the man who had kidnapped and murdered Charles Lindbergh’s child. Franklin Roosevelt was reelected. The summer Olympics were held in Berlin, under the eye of then Chancellor Adolf Hitler. All of these were covered by the Press, right next to local news of Macon County. We especially like “Interesting Places in Macon County,” a regular column by Mrs. T. C. Harbison that talks about local landmarks. An issue with this column is shown at right, talking about Whiteside Mountain.

You can browse all issues of The Franklin Press and Highlands Maconian in our Newspapers collection. We’ve also helped the Highlands Historical Society share a number of yearbooks and local newspapers online, which you can see and search through their contributor page.