Viewing entries posted in November 2019

New scrapbooks documenting Iredell County schools are now on DigitalNC!

Fourteen scrapbooks about Iredell County public schools are now available on DigitalNC, thanks to our partner, the Iredell County Public Library. These scrapbooks document the schools throughout the county from 1970 to 1981, including Mooresville High School, South Iredell High School, North Iredell High School, West Iredell High School, East Iredell High School, Statesville High School Union Grove Elementary School, Troutman Elementary School, and the Board of Education.

One notable topic in these scrapbooks is the planning for and opening of West Iredell High School in 1972. The article below is an announcement of the land for the school being purchased in August 1971. 

"School Site Purchased," August 1971

“School Site Purchased,” August 1971

Another event covered in the scrapbooks is the November 1979 Statesville Christmas Parade. The clipping below shows the North Iredell High School marching band in the parade.

North Iredell High School marching band, November 20, 1979

North Iredell High School marching band, November 20, 1979

Click here to see all Iredell County schools scrapbooks. To learn more about our partner, the Iredell County Public Library, visit their partner page here or their website here.


New Additions of Ahoskie High School Yearbooks and Newspapers Now Available

Inside cover of the 1966 Ahoskie High School yearbook depicting the school grounds and students.

Inside cover of The Chief, 1966.

Nine Ahoskie High School yearbooks and three commemorative issues of Ahoskie based newspapers have been digitized and added to DigitalNC thanks to our partner, Ahoskie Woman’s Club.

Photo of two Ahoskie High School students awarded the senior superlative for "Most Popular".

“Most Popular” senior superlative winners, The Chief, 1963.

The newly added yearbooks from Ahoskie High School, known as The Chief after the school’s mascot, span the years 1952-1969, giving a glimpse of mid-century teen life.

The newspaper additions include:

1939 Hertford County Herald, Historical Edition

1959 The Herald, Milestone Edition

1993 The News-Herald, Ahoskie Centennial

Each commemorative issue gives extensive historical background on Hertford County, North Carolina. The Historical Edition and Ahoskie Centennial focus on the town of Ahoskie, covering the time before it’s incorporation in 1893 and all major local and national events leading to it’s centennial year. The Milestone Edition delves into 200 years of Hertford County history, including cultural, societal, and economic shifts in the towns of eastern North Carolina.

An area to note is Section G of the Hertford County Herald as it describes the history of Hertford County’s Black residents.

 

Photo of Ahoskie High School chorus director and student at a piano.

Chorus director and student, The Chief, 1968.

Photo of three Ahoskie High School students dressed up as "Halloween Queens".

“Halloween Queens”, The Chief, 1956.

Clipping of Hertford County Herald newspaper describing the history of agriculture in Hertford County, N.C.

History of agriculture in Hertford County, Hertford County Herald, August 17, 1939.

Newspaper clipping of a photo of the oldest Black church in Ahoskie, New Ahoskie Baptist.

Renaming of the oldest Black church, The News-Herald, July 2, 1993.

To view more materials from Ahoskie Woman’s Club, visit their partner page here and to learn more about the club itself, visit their Facebook page here. To see other high school yearbooks, visit our North Carolina Yearbooks collection, or to view more newspapers, visit our North Carolina Newspapers collection.


Cleveland County Memorial Library Collection of Materials from the Black Community is Now Live on DigitalNC!

DigitalNC partner Cleveland County Memorial Library provided us with a rich collection of documents, photographs, and yearbooks related to the history of Black citizens in the area. Much of the collection focuses on Black schools that were established during the era of Jim Crow and segregation. These schools were created out of necessity but did not survive integration, leaving their history vulnerable. Fortunately people like Ezra A. Bridges, a longtime educator and community activist, made it a priority to preserve items related to the Black experience in Cleveland County.

 

booklet

Biographical Information on Ezra A. Bridges.

newspaper clipping

Ezra A. Bridges at groundbreaking.

A few highlights from the collection are the yearbooks, various histories of schools in the area, and photographs of students and educators. There is a lot more in this important collection of materials that stress and celebrate Black citizens of Cleveland County and their relentless pursuit of education and proper representation. To see more from Cleveland County Memorial Library visit their contributor page.

Photo

Educator and her students.


Church Minutes And History From New Bern First Baptist Church Online Now!

Thanks to our partner, the New Bern-Craven County Public Library, we have now uploaded several books of church minutes from the First Baptist Church of New Bern, as well as a book from 1984 on the history of the congregation.

Cover for “‘In The Beginning—Baptists’!: History of the First Baptist Church, New Bern, North Carolina 1809-1984” by Edna Avery Cook.

The First Baptist Church of New Bern was founded on May 11, 1809 after numerous unsuccessful attempts to form a Baptist church on the site since before the American Revolutionary War. On July 2, 1848 the sanctuary–a gothic revival structure that still stands today–was dedicated. The structure was left mostly unharmed during the Civil War, except for an indent from a cannonball from the Battle of New Bern that was visible until renovations were completed in 1975.

Cover of the book of minutes for the First Baptist Church of New Bern from December 3, 1870-January 1, 1883.

 

For more about the New-Bern Craven County Public Library, visit their website.


Mitchell Community College Catalogs and Historic Ephemera Available Now!

Thanks to our partner, Mitchell Community College, we now have a new batch of catalogs, presidential reports, event programs and other ephemera spanning the years 1943-2011.

A brochure for Mitchell College and Academy from June 1934.

Mitchell Community College began as Concord Presbyterian Female College, chartered in 1852 in downtown Statesville, North Carolina. In 1917, its name was changed to Mitchell College and in 1924 it became a junior women’s college. However, because the Great Depression brought fewer opportunities for local men to receive a college education, Mitchell College became co-educational in 1932. In 1973, Mitchell College was incorporated into the North Carolina Community College System and became known as it is known today as Mitchell Community College. They now have two locations: one in Statesville and one in Mooresville, North Carolina.

A 1990 program for the Miss Mitchell Pageant, an annual pageant that was held at Mitchell Community College.

You can view all of the materials we’ve digitized for Mitchell Community College on their contributor page. For more information about this partner, check out their website.


Photographs from the North Carolina Community College Adult Educators Association Now Available!

Thanks to our partner, Randolph Community College, we now have photographs from the North Carolina Community College Adult Educators Association (NCCCAEA) available online along with issues of the Association’s newsletter. The photos span the years 1969-2001 and primarily capture moments from various conferences and banquets featuring members of the association. 

The NCCCAEA was formed in 1965 as the Community College Adult Educators of North Carolina. Membership is available for instructors, administrators, and support staff employed by the North Carolina Community College System.

Banner from the 1995 NCCCAEA Fall Conference.

For more information about Randolph Community College, visit their website.


Yearbooks from the Henderson County Public Library Now Online!

Thanks to our partner Henderson County Public Library, we now have a new batch of yearbooks from Henderson County schools on the website. This batch consists of issues of The Tiger, the yearbook of Ninth Avenue School in Hendersonville, North Carolina. The volumes cover the years 1950-1964.  Ninth Avenue School was the high school for Black children in Hendersonville during segregation.  

Front cover of the 1957 edition of The Tiger, the yearbook of Ninth Avenue School in Hendersonville, North Carolina.

You can see other yearbooks we’ve scanned for Henderson County Public Library on their contributor page. For more information about this partner, visit their website.


More Issues of Fieldcrest Mill Whistle have been Added to DigitalNC

Fieldcrest Mill Whistle newspaper masthead

Three additional issues of The Fieldcrest Mill Whistle are now available to view on DigitalNC thanks to our partner, Rockingham Community College.

The Fieldcrest Mill Whistle provided Spray, North Carolina residents with a community newspaper and also doubled as a source of information for Fieldcrest Mills employees. Fieldcrest Mills was a textile mill that produced items such as blankets, towels, and bed sheets.

Newspaper clipping of a large group of young girls at a library with their dolls

Doll party at the Rockingham County Library, from January 10, 1949.

 

Newspaper clipping of two employees at a workplace event.

Employees are celebrated at a Safety Barbecue, October 23, 1978.

 

Newspaper clipping of advice used as newspaper space fillers.

An example of fillers for blank spaces in the paper, January 10, 1949.

 

To view more material from Rockingham Community College, click here, or for the entire issue catalog of The Fieldcrest Mill Whistle, click here.


Yearbooks, Early Journals, and More Student Newspapers from Greensboro High School / Grimsley High Now Online

Group of high school students named Senior Superlatives standing outside facing the cameraWe’ve worked with the Greensboro History Museum to add more publications from Greensboro High School (now Grimsley High School) to DigitalNC. Included in this most recent batch are more of the school’s student newspaper, the High Life, from the 1920s-1960s. You’ll also find The Sage, one of the school’s literary publications, with issues from 1910-1918. Finally, there are three additional yearbooks – 1930, 1968, and 1969. Our partner provided this succinct history of the school’s yearbook and other publications:

Greensboro High School’s first annual was published in 1909 and named The Reflector in 1910. To help with the war effort during World War I, the school chose not to publish the yearbook in 1918, saving funds by using the May 1918 edition of its magazine, The Sage, as a smaller, abbreviated version. This continued even after the war, in 1919 and 1920, before publication of The Reflector resumed in 1921. In 1926, 1928, and 1929, there were both January and June editions, a result of adding mid-term graduating classes starting in 1926. By the mid-1920s, because of growing difficulties funding the yearbook, The Reflector‘s content was significantly reduced, and it went from hardcover to paperback in 1926 before publication ceased after 1930.

While the Depression did not fully impact Greensboro Senior High and its other programs until 1933, when a local bond-supplement failed to pass, the already financially strapped yearbook was affected and publication stopped. Despite interest in restarting an annual soon after financial stability for the Greensboro schools was restored in 1936 (via a successful bond vote), Principal A.P. Routh insisted that the yearbook have full and strong financial stability before being resumed, hence it did not occur then. The effort was further delayed a few years later by the significant impact of World War II on school life.

After the war, interest in publishing a yearbook continued to grow. The financial situation was finally stabilized, and the first edition of the newly named Whirligig was published in 1950 (after almost occurring in 1949), ), the yearbook that is still issued each year at Grimsley today. During the 19 years of no annuals (1931-1949), photos of seniors were published on souvenir photo sheets or in the year’s final issue of the school newspaper, High Life.

Click through to view all of the Greensboro / Grimsley High School publications available on DigitalNC.


More yearbooks from Surry County are now available on DigitalNC

The North Star from North Surry High School, 1962

The North Star from North Surry High School, 1962

Nine new Surry County yearbooks from the 1950s and 1960s are now available on DigitalNC, thanks to our partners at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History.

The batch includes seven Windswept Echoes from Copeland High School in Dobson, which adds to five existing yearbooks. We now host a complete set from 1950 to 1961 for this school.

Two North Stars from North Surry High School in Mount Airy (from 1961 and 1962) are also included in this batch. We previously held one from that school from 1960.

These yearbooks represent two of thirteen high schools from Surry County represented on DigitalNC. Click here to browse them all.

Click here to see all nine yearbooks from this batch. To see all materials from the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History, click here. To learn more about them, visit their partner page here or their website here. DigitalNC is very thankful for their partnership in making these yearbooks accessible online.


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