Viewing entries posted in 2021

Additional Smithfield Herald Issues Now Available

The Smithfield Herald header. The subtitle reads: Smithfield, N.C., Friday, January 6, 1911.

Thanks to funding from the State Library of North Carolina’s LSTA Grant and our partner, Johnston County Heritage Center, over five hundred issues from 1911 to 1925 of The Smithfield Herald are now available on our website. These issues expand DigitalNC’s previously digitized issues from 1901 all the way to 1925.

The paper was first published weekly in Smithfield, North Carolina in 1882 under the name The Weekly Herald. In the late 1880s, the paper was renamed a second and final time to The Smithfield Herald. Articles in the paper focus on local as well as national news. Over one hundred years later, The Smithfield Herald continues to be published in Smithfield, North Carolina.

A special Sunday edition of the paper was printed when William B. Cole, a rich mill owner in Rockingham, North Carolina, was acquitted of the charge of murder. According to the paper, Cole was on trial for the murder of his daughter’s lover and former serviceman—William B. Ormond. The paper is unclear about what motive Cole had to murder Ormond.

After several hours of deliberation and pressuring one of their fellow jurors, the jury concluded that the mill owner was not guilty of the murder of Ormond. The writer’s mention of the defendant as a wealthy man in the article points to the suspicion that he may have been acquitted thanks to his money.

Although found not guilty, the judge would not release the defendant until he proved that he was sane. A day after the verdict was read, Cole attended a hearing in Wilkesboro to determine whether or not he should be sent to the State Hospital for the Insane in Raleigh. It is not mentioned in the two articles about this story if Cole was released or sent to the hospital. 

To read more about the William B. Cole case,  click here and here.

To learn more about the Johnston County Heritage Center, please visit their website.

To view more newspapers from across North Carolina, please click here.


New Materials Added to the Crystal Lee Sutton Collection from Alamance Community College

Color photograph of two smiling individuals with raised fists facing camera, Lenin's tomb with line of visitors in the background

Crystal Lee Sutton and Richard Koritz in Red Square, 1984

Crystal Lee Sutton was a union activist whose story rose to prominence after she was fired from her position at a Roanoke Rapids, N.C. textile plant, J. P. Stevens, because she supported the establishment of a union and advocated for better working conditions and pay. Her story was documented in the movie Norma Rae, and Sutton’s life changed greatly due to the fame that followed the movie’s success. She went on to support unionization efforts in a variety of industries during the rest of her life. Sutton passed away in 2009. 

On behalf of Alamance Community College we have digitized additional materials from the Crystal Lee Sutton collection, which was donated directly to the College’s Library before her death.

This batch of materials contains some of Sutton’s school report cards, correspondence to various supporters, newspaper clippings about her activism and the movie, unionization booklets, and a few photos of Sutton. There are also quite a few of her speeches, both handwritten and typewritten, including those she lists as the first speeches she gave after being fired in 1973

Due to copyright or privacy concerns, not all of the materials from the Sutton collection are online. If you are interested in those items, take a look at this list. You can contact the Alamance Community College Library for access to the items listed there.

You can view the most recent batch along with all of the items we have been able to share online on the Crystal Lee Sutton exhibit page


44 Titles added to DigitalNC this week!

Headers from Raleigh, North Carolina newspapers The State Journal, The Field and Fireside, The Home Rule, and The Rasp.

This week we have 44 newspaper titles up on DigitalNC ranging from 1799 t0 1919! The vast majority of these are Raleigh papers, but we also have some from Charlotte, Asheville, New Bern, Winston-Salem, and Chapel Hill.

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 are the following:

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.


The Wallace Enterprise now on DigitalNC Thanks to New Partner Thelma Dingus Bryant Library

Wallace Enterprise newspaper front page

Front page of the June 17, 1937 issue of the Wallace Enterprise covering both Eleanor Roosevelt’s visit to the town and a better than ever Strawberry Festival that year.

 

Thanks to our new partner, the Thelma Dingus Bryant Library in Wallace, NC (Duplin County), twenty years of the local paper The Wallace Enterprise is now online.  Over 1,000 issues covering 1931 to 1955 were digitized from microfilm.  The paper covers many local topics of the day in Duplin County and wider eastern North Carolina and had the tagline “Devoted to the Best Interests of the People of Wallace and Duplin County.”  The local strawberry festival which brought in crowds from all over the state to “the largest strawberry market in North Carolina” was covered yearly, as were local elections, school board discussions and lots of coverage of agriculture topics, including crop control measures, which directly affected the largely agricultural workforce in the area.  Eleanor Roosevelt visited in 1937 and gained a lot of glowing coverage when she came.  

To view all the issues of the paper, visit here.  To look at all our newspapers, visit our North Carolina Newspaper Collection.  


New Catawba Presbytery Documents, Charlotte Post Issues, Johnson C. Smith Materials, and More Now Available

Thanks to our partner, Johnson C. Smith University, a batch of materials including documents from Catawba Presbytery, issues of The Charlotte Post, a book on Johnson C. Smith University’s first female president, and more are now available on our website

The book, The Yancy Years 1994-2008: The Age of Infrastructure, Technology and Restoration, is an educational narrative about Johnson C. Smith University’s first female president, Dr. Dorothy Cowser Yancy. The first half of the book is split into three different parts with each part representing a different phase of her time as president. One of the biggest impacts Dr. Yancy had on the university during her time as president was her investment in technology. She switched the campus to using email, expanded wireless capabilities, upgraded campus technology, and acquired laptops for students and faculty. In addition, Dr. Yancy brought Johnson C. Smith University into a new realm of success which placed the school on the national stage.

An average height woman, Dr. Yancy, hugs a very tall former basketball plater, Earvin "Magic" Johnson.

Dr. Yancy shares a hug with NBA legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson during a talk inside the Sarah Belk Gambrell Auditorium at Biddle Memorial Hall.

The last half of the book features a 14-year financial overview of the university and a look at the 2006-2015 master plan. The book’s final chapter, “A Daughter’s Perspective on Dorothy Cowser Yancy,” is written by Dr. Yancy’s daughter, Yvonne. In it, Yvonne discusses her mother and their close relationship.

Dr. Dorothy Cowser Yancy and her daughter, Yvonne Cowser Yancy, standing next to each other. The daughter, who is on the left, wears a floor length sunshine yellow gown. The mother, on the right, wears a black blazer with a pattern on the neckline and cuff area with either black pants or a black floor length skirt.

Yvonne Cowser Yancy and her mother, Dr. Dorothy Cowser Yancy at the “Diamond President” Gala Celebration in April, 2008.

To learn more about Johnson C. Smith University, please visit their website.

To view issues of The Charlotte Post, please click here.

To view more newspapers from around North Carolina, please visit our North Carolina Newspapers Collection.


New Yearbooks from Alamance County Now Available!

High School Yearbook

The front cover of the Doe – Wah – Jack yearbook for Walter M. Williams High School in 1971.

Thanks to our partner, Alamance County Public Library, 16 high school yearbooks are now available on Digital NC. Along with the yearbooks, the Burlington Telephone directory is also available. Each yearbook comes from several different high schools in Alamance County during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Yearbook titles include the Doe – Wah – Jack (1971) from Walter M. Williams High School in Burlington and the Aries (1970) from Northeast Guilford High School in McLeansville. These yearbooks join previous years such as the Sylvanian (1960) from Sylvan High School in Snow Camp and the Reg-O-Ala (1959) from E.M. Holt High School in Burlington.

To view our collection of high school and college yearbooks from North Carolina, visit our collection here.

Aries -- School Yearbook

The front cover of Northeast Guilford High School yearbook, Aries in 1970.


New Newspaper, The Pamlico News, Now Available

Header for The Pamlico County News. The subheader reads: Dedicated to the progressive development of Pamlico County - "Home of America's oldest, largest holly tree."

Thanks to our partner New Bern-Craven County Public Library and funding from the State Library of North Carolina through IMLS’ LSTA program nearly 600 issues spanning 1976 to 1987 of our newest newspaper, The Pamlico News, is now available on our website.

The paper was first published in the late 1960s as The Pamlico County News, but in 1977 the paper’s name was changed to The Pamlico News. The newspaper is still published under this name today.

Published weekly in Bayboro, North Carolina, the paper focuses on local and broader North Carolina news including topics on community history, events and festivals, citizen accomplishments, education, and more.

A frequent feature of the paper is celebrating older citizens of Pamlico County’s birthdays. One article featuring Mr. Frank Styron’s 100th birthday is especially fascinating. The piece includes a picture of Mr. Styron as well as information on his family history.

To learn more about New Bern-Craven County Public Library, please visit their website.

To view more newspapers from around North Carolina, please click here.

 


29 Titles from Raleigh, Wilmington, and New Bern added to DigitalNC

Header for an 1855 Raleigh, North Carolina newspaper titled "The Arator"Clipping from 1871 Raleigh, North Carolina paper called "The Carolina Era"Clipping from 1944 Wilmington, North Carolina paper "The North Carolina Shipbuilder"

This week we have almost 30 newspaper titles added to DigitalNC. These titles include a Raleigh paper about agriculture and it’s “kindred arts,” an employee paper for North Carolina shipbuilders during World War II, and plenty of others from Wilmington, Raleigh, and New Bern!

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 are the following:

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.


New Issues of The [Williamston] Enterprise Now Available

The Enterprise header from 1945. The subheader reads: Williamston, Martin County, North Carolina. Tuesday, May 1, 1945.

Photo of a man in a military uniform. Article discusses Martin County resident, Raleigh T. Harrington's promotion to captain in the Army Air Corps.

Captain Raleigh T. Harrington

Thanks to our partner Martin Community College and funding from the State Library of North Carolina through IMLS’ LSTA program, new issues of The Enterprise are now available on our website. This batch adds over 1,000 issues from 1943 to 1954.

The Enterprise was published biweekly and focused primarily on community news such as town meetings, citizen’s achievements, deaths, festivals, and more. A frequent feature in issues published during the World War II years are articles highlighting Martin County citizens who joined the war effort and their accomplishments while in the service.

To learn more about Martin Community College, please visit their website.

To view more newspapers from around North Carolina, please click here.


New additions of the News of Orange County Newspaper

front page of News of Orange

Frontpage of the News of Orange County Newspaper in 1945.

Thanks to our partnership with Orange County Public Library, we now have additions of The News of Orange County now available on Digital NC. The new additions include the years 1944 to 1964. Issued out to the community on Thursdays, The News of Orange County discussed news out of Hillsborough, North Carolina, and other parts of Orange County as well. 

Many of the issues cover a special section about members of the armed forces from Orange County as they fought in World War II. 

To see the other issues of The News of Orange County, visit them here

To view more from our partner, Orange County Public Library, visit them here

Make sure to check out the rest of our NC Newspaper collection, here


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This blog is maintained by the staff of the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center and features the latest news and highlights from the collections at DigitalNC, an online library of primary sources from organizations across North Carolina.

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