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61 New titles on DigitalNC!

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newspapers

Header from the June 20, 1862 issue of Raleigh, N.C. newspaper The Daily Telegraph

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:

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.

300th Partner and Mount Pleasant Collegiate Institute Yearbooks

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In addition to achieving the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center (NCDHC)’s goal of having at least one partner in each of the state’s 100 counties, the center has reached another milestone this year. The center’s newest partnership with the Eastern Cabarrus Historical Society brings the total numbers of DigitalNC contributors to 300!

Thanks to the Eastern Cabarrus Historical Society, a batch of Mount Pleasant Collegiate Institute yearbooks from 1925, 1928, 1932, and 1933 are now available on our website.

The Western Carolina Male Academy, later the site of Mount Pleasant Collegiate Institute, was founded in 1852. The main building of the school was completed in 1855 and the first class was enrolled the same year. The college was renamed three years after its opening in 1858 to the North Carolina College. Before the American Civil War, there were an average of 60+ students per class. These students would pay $125-145 a year in tuition and would travel from as far as Texas. When the war began in 1861, professors as well as students left the institute to fight. With the sharp decline in student enrollment, the college quickly began to have financial issues. After the war the college never recovered its same attendance levels or funding. In 1901, the North Carolina College closed its doors.

Group photograph of students of the Gerhardt Literary Society holding a pennant with "Gerhardt" on it.

Gerhardt Literary Society, 1928.

Two years later, in 1903, the Mount Pleasant Collegiate Institute opened on North Carolina College’s former campus thanks to generous alumni and Reverend L. E. Busby. A preparatory school for young men, the students studied English, literature, math, biology, and Latin. In 1907, military drills, uniform, and discipline were added to the school’s curriculum. Similar to the North Carolina College, the Mount Pleasant Collegiate Institute was closed in the early 1930s due to a lack of funding and an inability to compete with schools such as Lenoir College who received generous funding from the merged North Carolina and Tennessee Lutheran Synods.

In 1859, a Lutheran school for young women referred to as the Mount Pleasant Female Seminary was established in Mount Pleasant, North Carolina. Nine years after its establishment, the seminary was transferred to the North Carolina Synod in 1868 and was renamed to Mont Amoena Seminary in 1892. Mont Amoena was successful for many years, but ultimately was closed in 1927 due to its inability to keep up with the newer facilities of other colleges and public high school’s duplicating their curriculum. By copying the seminary’s curriculum, public high schools made it so that female students did not have to relocate to Mount Pleasant or pay the higher tuition cost of attending Mont Amoena. As a result of the seminary’s closing, female students were allowed on Mount Pleasant Collegiate Institute’s campus as day students in 1927. Evidence of this can be seen in the 1928, 1932, and 1933 yearbooks where headshots are featured of each class member.

To learn more about the Eastern Cabarrus Historical Society, please visit their website.

To view more North Carolina yearbooks, please visit our North Carolina Yearbooks Collection.

To browse all 300 institutions that have worked with us, please visit our contributor page.

Information from this post was pulled from the yearbooks as well as the NCpedia Lutheran Schools of Mount Pleasant entry.

South Piedmont Community College Board of Trustee Records Now Available on DigitalNC

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A portion of the SPCC Board of Trustees cover. The text on the image reads: SPCC Board of Trustee Meeting

Thanks to our partner, South Piedmont Community College (SPCC), a batch including SPCC Board of Trustee minutes, board reports, and retreat records dating from August 2005 to October 2007 are now available on our website. These documents include chairman and president reports, policy information, facility planning, SPCC Board of Trustees member lists, budgets, and more.

Plan for the Old Charlotte Highway Campus for SPCC. The image shows plots of lands with a planned building on the left side. The plans were created by Morris Berg Architects.

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

To view more materials from North Carolina community colleges, please click here.

21 Newspaper titles added to DigitalNC!

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Header for June 27, 1894 issue of Raleigh, N.C. paper The Spirit of the Age

We have 21 new titles this week, including a couple from Petersburg, Virginia! In 1863, printer John William Syme relocated the Raleigh Register to Petersburg, Virginia. Production continued only until 1864, when the scarcity of supplies forced him to cease publication.

This week we also have one of the earliest advertisements for Pepsi buried on the last page of this issue of the New Bern Daily Journal. Created in a New Bern drug store in 1893, Pepsi was originally named “Brad’s Drink” after its creator and store owner, Caleb Bradham. In 1898 Bradham, changed the name to “Pepsi-Cola,” and in 1902 registered a trademark for the name. The first ad, misspelled as “Pesi-Cola,” is from August 8th, 1902 and the second, with the corrected name, is from August 31st, 1902.

Advertisement for "Pepsi-Cola" misspelled as "Pesi-Cola" from August 8th, 1902Advertisement for "Pepsi-Cola" from August 31st, 1902

 

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:

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.

Middleburg, Polkton, and Jefferson High School Yearbooks Now Available on DigitalNC

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yearbooks

Thanks to our partner, Granville County Public Library, five yearbook issues from 1957 to 1962 are now available on our website. This batch adds Polkton High School to our list of schools with available yearbooks and expands on our holdings of Middleburg and Jefferson High School. Featured in the yearbooks is a look into education in the northern part of the state including the various clubs and sports offered at each school and photographs of fun school events.

Bus drivers for Middleburg High School sitting on a bus. One person is in the driver's seat while the rest are in the bench seats, all smiling at the camera from the window. Included are the bus driver's names: Hunter Reavis, Tommy Hendricks, Johnny Watkins, Jimmy Holloway, and Eddie Royster.

1961 Middleburg High School Bus Drivers

To learn more about Granville County Public Library, please visit their website.

For more yearbooks from across North Carolina, visit our yearbook collection.

New Materials from Lincoln County Historical Association are now on Digital NC

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LincolnCountyHA

Images from the 1957 “The Rosphian” of Rock Springs High School in Rock Springs, NC. The top image is of the High School Band. The bottom image is the organization called “Piano Pupils”

From yearbooks to scrapbooks, Digitial NC is happy to announce new items coming from new partner, the Lincoln County Historical Association. Yearbooks range from 1949 to 1971 and cover two of the local high schools, Rock Springs High and Lincolnton High. Along with the numerous amount of yearbooks, Digitial NC has also made available “The Realistic Picture”,  a scrapbook that includes class pictures of the Rock Springs Elementary School in 1963.

Special thanks to our partner the Lincoln County Historical Association. To view more from their collection, visit them here.

To view more from our North Carolina High School Yearbooks, visit us here.

 

Read About Stanly Community College in Newspaper Clippings Collection

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Thanks to our new partner Stanly Community College, we now have newspaper clippings about the school from the 1974-1975 academic year to 2021. Many of the articles describe the activities and accomplishments of the Stanly Community College chapter of Phi Beta Lambda (PBL), a professional organization for students studying business.

A newspaper clipping from 1981 with a photograph of Stanly Community College students in the Phi Beta Lambda professional organization and Albemarle, N.C., community leaders. They are attending a ceremony celebrating the return of American citizens and diplomats after the Iran Hostage Crisis.

While several articles detail the impact that the SCC Phi Beta Lambda chapter had in the Albemarle community, a few connect the organization to a larger context. In 1981, for example, PBL students partnered with community leaders to hold a ceremony celebrating the safe return of United States citizens and diplomats after the Iran Hostage Crisis. The PBL president, vice president, historian, and treasurer were supported by Albemarle Mayor Carlton B. Holt and Tony Lowder, chairman of the Stanly County Board of Commissioners, along with several church leaders.

Most of the newspaper clippings come from The Stanly News & Press, a local paper of Stanly County.

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

The full Stanly Community College collection can be found here. To see more newspapers from around North Carolina, please click here.

40 Titles added to DigitalNC this week!

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Header for August 31, 1888 issue of Durham, N.C. paper The Daily Tobacco Plant

This week we have 40 more titles on DigitalNC from all across North Carolina! Most of these papers are from Raleigh (such as the long-running Raleigh Evening Times and the Methodist Episcopal paper Raleigh Christian Advocate) as well as many papers from smaller communities. We have Rich Square’s Roanoke-Chowan Times, The Warrenton Gazette from Warrenton, The Roanoke News from Weldon, and Richmond County’s Rockingham Rocket. Whether it’s marriage announcements, classifieds for lost pets, or local elections where the winner barely reaches 100 votes, these newspapers give a glimpse into what small town life in North Carolina was like over a hundred years ago.

Header for the August 14, 1875 issue of Raleigh, N.C. paper Southern Illustrated Age

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:

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 Pilot” from Southern Pines Public Library now on Digital NC

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Front Page of The Pilot

Front Page of “The Pilot” newspaper from Southern Pines, NC, dated August 7th, 1968

Thanks to our partner, Southern Pines Public Library, Digital NC now has available new additions of the local newspaper “The Pilot” ranging in the years 1956 to 1968. A local staple in the community, “The Pilot” covers news stories in Southern Pines and the surrounding areas of Moore County. Still active today, “The Pilot is published twice a week.

To see more of the newspaper collection for “The Pilot”, visit here. To view the collection from our partner, Southern Pines Public Library, visit here.

You can also check out our wide selection of newspapers throughout North Carolina by visiting our North Carolina Newspaper Collection.

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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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