Recently added to DigitalNC are issues of the Bryson City Times (1895-1938, 1940-1945) and the Smoky Mountain Times (1947-1984, with 1963-1984 being the most complete). Fontana Regional Library and Western Carolina University are the two partners who requested that these papers be added.

Published in Swain County, the Times includes local news items related to urban development, social life, businesses, sports, relgious organizations, crime, and elections. Issues from the late 1960s – 1970s document the election of “lady mayor” Ellen Hyams. Longtime secretary at the local bank, Hyams was unanimously elected mayor by the local Board of Aldermen in September 1967. This happened right after her husband – who was serving as mayor at the time – passed away. Hyams went on to serve a second term when she was elected by a margin of 6 votes in the 1971 election.

Hyams wasn’t the first woman who wasn’t initially elected Bryson City mayor by popular vote. In the mid-1940s, Mary Moody, who was married to Mayor Bill Moody, stepped in to his position when he left to serve during World War II.

You can view all of the issues we have of the Bryson City Times and the Smoky Mountain Times via their newspaper title page.

We have over 60 titles up on DigitalNC this week! While these papers are from all over North Carolina, about a third are from western Carolina. 18 from Asheville, one from Morganton, as well as our first additions from Bryson City and Bakersville! Bakersville, which gives us The Mountain Voice, only has a population of 466, but is home to the North Carolina Rhododendron Festival. Started in 1947, the festival was a relatively small affair until Spruce Pine resident O.D. Calhoun came into the picture. Calhoun owned several movie theaters across North Carolina and apparently had contacts to Walt Disney. He used these connections to promote the festival and make it into a nationally renowned event. It’s estimated that between five and ten thousand people attended the festival when Richard Nixon made an appearance in 1958.

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:

• The Blue Ridge Blade (Morganton, N.C.) – 1876-1881
• North Carolina Advertiser (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1865
• Carolina Beacon and Metropolitan Omnibus (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1840
• Republican Touchstone (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1840
• North-Carolina Statesman (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1854
• The Independent (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1843-1845
• Democratic Flag (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1848
• The American Signal (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1856
• The Daily Telegraph (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1862
• Weekly Ad Valorem Banner (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1861
• Daily Ad Valorem Banner (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1861
• The National Democrat (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1860
• The Randolph Bulletin (Asheboro, N.C.) – 1910-1912
• The Asheboro Courier (Asheboro, N.C.) – 1918-1921
• Asheville Semi-Weekly Journal (Asheville, N.C.) – 1879
• The Western Tribune (Asheville, N.C.) – 1885
• Mountain Home-Journal (Asheville, N.C.) – 1892
• The Asheville Advertiser (Asheville, N.C.) – 1890
• The Buncombe Reformer (Asheville, N.C.) – 1893
• The Skyland Herald (Asheville, N.C.) – 1886
• The Evening Journal (Asheville, N.C.) – 1889
• Asheville Spectator (Asheville, N.C.) – 1853-1858
• Town Topics (Asheville, N.C.) – 1887
• The Daily Advance (Asheville, N.C.) – 1884-1885
• Asheville Daily Advance (Asheville, N.C.) – 1885-1887
• The Asheville Advance (Asheville, N.C.) – 1887-1888
• The Asheville Register (Asheville, N.C.) – 1901-1905
• The State Reporter (Asheville, N.C.) – 1896
• The Smoky Mountain Times (Bryson City, N.C.) – 1895-1896
• Sylvan Valley News (Brevard, N.C.) – 1916
• The Weekly Citizen (Asheville, N.C.) – 1890
• Asheville Weekly Citizen (Asheville, N.C.) – 1890-1892
• The Albemarle Press (Albemarle, N.C.) – 1922-1925
• The Bayboro Sentinel (Bayboro, N.C.) – 1902-1913
• Columbian Repository (Chapel Hill, N.C.) – 1836
• The Chapel Hillian (Chapel Hill, N.C.) – 1891
• The Harbinger (Chapel Hill, N.C.) – 1833-1834
• Orange County Independent (Chapel Hill, N.C.) – 1894
• The Independent (Chapel Hill, N.C.) – 1894
• The Chapel Hill Weekly Gazette (Chapel Hill, N.C.) – 1857
• Chapel Hill Literary Gazette (Chapel Hill, N.C.) – 1857-1858
• The Chapel Hill Gazette (Chapel Hill, N.C.) – 1858
• Burke County Times (Morganton, N.C.) – 1917-1918
• The Morning Post (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1898
• North Carolina Temperance Union (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1842
• The Southern Advertiser, and Appendix to the “Southern Weekly Post” (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1853
• Democratic State Flag (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1848
• The Deaf Mute (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1850
• North Carolina State Advertiser (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1871
• The Mercury (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1864
• The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1919
• The Post (Wilmington, N.C.) – 1869
• Western Carolina Advocate (Asheville, N.C.) – 1892-1983
• Daily Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.) – 1886
• North Carolina Christian Advocate (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1912-1917
• The Cape-Fear Recorder (Wilmington, N.C.) – 1816-1829
• The High Point Enterprise (High Point, N.C.) – 1886
• Asheville Gazette-News (Asheville, N.C.) – 1914
• The Mountain Voice (Bakersville, N.C.) – 1880
• The Daily Bulletin (Charlotte, N.C.) – 1859-1876
• The Evening Bulletin (Charlotte, N.C.) – 1880

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.