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Civil War Era Issues of the Fayetteville Observer Now Online

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Issues of the Fayetteville Observer from 1851 to 1865 are now available on DigitalNC.org.  The Fayetteville Observer has long been one of the most important papers in North Carolina, covering the entire Cape Fear region.  Over 1,300 issues are now online, an invaluable resource for anyone studying the Civil War era in North Carolina.
This title was nominated for digitization by the Cumberland County Public Library, home to an excellent local and state history collection at its main branch in Fayetteville.

Catawba Journal on the Evils of Sunday Papers

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Lew Powell’s On This Day In North Carolina (John F. Blair, 1996) alerted us to an article from a Charlotte newspaper in 1825 criticizing the first appearance of a Sunday newspaper in the U.S.

Here’s the text of the article as it appeared in the Catawba Journal on April 26, 1825:

A new paper has lately been established in New-York, and is issued on Sunday! This, we believe, is the only instance in the United States, of a paper published on the Sabbath.  The Evening Gazette, of Boston, is partly a Sunday paper — a small portion of it, under the head of “second edition,” is dated on that day; though we are not aware that it is distributed to subscribers on the sabbath.

Sunday papers in Europe are quite common; but it is to be hoped they will never become so in this country.  If they are tolerated here, we may look next for the introduction of Sunday Theatres, and other fashionable vices of Europe.  We are as little inclined to bigotry as any one: but it certainly appears to us, that a proper reverence for the sabbath — setting aside its influence on the future destinies of man, — is essential to good morals and good society, and consequently, that its open and wanton profanation is destructive to both.

Brevard College Students on the Cuban Revolution, 1959

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In the student newspapers from Brevard College that were recently digitized, we came across an interesting article from January 1959 about two Cuban students who were at home during the revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power. Here are a couple of excerpts:

“The people of Cuba are rejoicing about the overthrow of the Batista government and the success of the popular rebel leader, Fidel Castro. ‘Viva Fidel’ is the cry of the people. These observations are from two Brevard college students who have just returned from their Christmas holidays spend at their homes in Cuba.”
“Both students expressed belief that the Castro government will be the most liberal in Cuba’s history. They denied emphatically that the rebel group was in any way communist controlled.”
Apparently there were, at the time, several students from Cuba attending the small college in the North Carolina mountains.

Carolina Times Story on Pauli Murray Arrest in 1940

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Friday’s @ncdhc headline, from the Carolina Times, describes the arrest of two women on a Greyhound bus in Virginia in 1940: “Jim-Crow Bus Dispute Leads To Girls Arrest.”  One of the women arrested was Pauli Murray.

Murray, who had lost a battle to enroll in the University of North Carolina in 1938, was living in New York at the time and was returning home to recover from an illness.  She and Adelene McBean were arrested for their refusal to move to the back of the bus when asked by the driver.  This was fourteen years before a similar incident in Montgomery, Alabama launched a nationwide movement, and just one of many occasions on which Pauli Murray fought against injustice.
 
Murray, described in the Carolina Times article as a “honey-tongued legal mind,” was an author, lawyer, activist, and Episcopal priest who grew up in Durham.  Her life and work is celebrated today by the Pauli Murray Project at the Duke Human Rights Center.

Yearbook Photos of North Carolina Gubernatorial Candidates

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As three of the candidates for the Democratic party nomination for Governor ramp up their campaigns, I decided to check the North Carolina College and University Yearbooks collection to see if I could find photos from their college days.

Lieutenant Governor Walter Dalton

Lieutenant Governor Walter Dalton received his B.S. from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1971. This photo is from the 1971 Yackety Yack.

 

Former U.S. Representative Bob Etheridge

Former U.S. Representative Bob Etheridge graduated from Campbell University in 1965. This photo, from the 1965 Pine Burr, is one of many of “Bobby” Etheridge, who was the Senior Class Vice President, a member of the Honor Court, and a star on the Campbell basketball team.

 

State Representative Bill Faison, 1969

State Representative Bill Faison graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with an AB in 1969, overlapping with Dalton by a few years. This photo is from the 1969 Yackety Yack.

 
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find any yearbook photo for likely Republican nominee Pat McCrory. McCrory graduated from Catawba College in Salisbury, and the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center has not yet worked with Catawba on yearbook digitization.

Supplement Your 1940 Census Research With North Carolina City Directories

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As researchers around the country begin to dig in to the 1940 census records released today by the National Archives, many will be looking for supplemental information to help locate ancestors in the as-yet-unindexed records.  City directories are a great place to start.

The North Carolina Digital Heritage Center has digitized directories for 1940 from 20 different cities and towns. These are part of the growing North Carolina City Directories digital collection. You can also browse our collection of city directories from 1940.

Womanless Weddings

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Today’s @ncnewspapers headline, from Raeford in 1953, reads “Lions Club Plans Womanless Wedding.” While womanless weddings of a different sort are in the news these days as North Carolina prepares to vote on a proposed constitutional amendment, the event mentioned in the headline was a popular form of entertainment in small towns a few decades ago.

A “womanless wedding” was usually held as a fundraiser and involved prominent men of the community dressing up in full bridal outfits for a mock wedding ceremony. From the stories I’ve heard, it was common practice to get the burliest man in town to play the part of the bride, backed up by a train of equally rough-looking bridesmaids.
I found a couple of newspaper photos of womanless weddings in the DigitalNC collection. The first is from Burgaw in 1957 and was held as a fundraiser for the local high school (from the Burgaw Jaycees Scrapbook, 1957-1958, contributed by the Pender County Public Library). The second is from a Bennett College fundraiser in 1974 (from the Bennett College Scrapbook, 1972-1977).

Drivers Licenses Defeated in 1931 North Carolina

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Today’s headline from the @ncnewspapers Twitter feed reads “House Kill Bill For Licensing Of Auto Operation.” I suppose I’d always taken it for granted that a license from the state was necessary for driving a car; certainly I would have thought that they would be in place by the 1930s.

The bill, according to the article in the March 27, 1931 Pilot would “require operators of motor vehicles to be licensed by the state. . . The bill was sponsored by the Carolina Motor Club and had the support of most of the state press, aroused by the growing automobile death rate in the state.”
So what could be the objection?  In language reminiscent of many of today’s political arguments, the bill was opposed by representatives who saw licensing drivers as a ploy by the state to increase taxes and add more officers to the government payroll.  Apparently a representative Allen of Granville was one of the leaders in defeating the bill.  The article in the Pilot closes with a great quote: “The 10 commandments would have a hard time passing Mr. Allen if there was a new executive officer required in their administration.  He would move to table them if they were not introduced with ample safeguards against extra expense.”

Methodist University Yearbooks Now Available

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Image of students climbing out of and sitting on top of a car

Forty-seven yearbooks from Methodist University are now available online at DigitalNC.org. The yearbooks span from 1964, four years after the institution was formed, to 2010. Methodist University also contributed three yearbooks from the now-defunct Carolina College, which was located in Maxton, N.C. Interestingly, the North Carolina College and University Yearbooks digital collection also contains fifty-four yearbooks and course catalogs from another defunct school that was once located in Maxton, Presbyterian Junior College. 

Brevard College Student Newspapers Now Available on DigitalNC

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The small town of Brevard has lately received a lot of attention here at the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center. Following last week’s announcement about the digitization of early issues of the Sylvan Valley News, I’m pleased to announce that a long run of historic student newspapers from Brevard College is now available online.

Over 700 issues of student-produced papers from Brevard College as well as predecessor schools Weaver College and Rutherford College can now be searched and browsed online. The papers range in date from to 1924 to 2006, and are a fantastic resource for studying student life in a small mountain college throughout the 20th century.

These digital versions were created from original newspapers held in the Brevard College Archives, located in the James A. Jones Library.
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