Viewing entries posted in June 2022

Issues of “The Shore Line” Offer a Taste of NC Wildlife

Human residents of North Carolina probably know that our state is also home to a variety of exciting wildlife, from rare butterflies, “secretive” otters, and occasional alligators (if you want to see flora and fauna by county, the NC Wildlife Resources Commission has shaded maps). And now, thanks to our partners at the History Committee of the town of Pine Knoll Shores, we have some issues of The Shore Line that profile some of our animal neighbors. 

Photo of a juvenile Great Horned owl perched on a wound-up garden hose with its feathers ruffled. Its facial feathers give the impression of human eyebrows, creating a striking resemblance to the actor Al Pacino.

Owl Pacino (The Shore Line, May 2021)

In May 2021, Pine Knoll Shores residents got a visit from a special guest: a juvenile great horned owl with a striking resemblance to actor Al Pacino. These birds are actually common throughout the state, and though most people have never seen one, you’ve almost definitely heard their call

The author of this piece, John Clarke—who aptly named the bird “Owl Pacino”—reached out to the local aquarium’s owl expert, Amanda Goble, for more information about his feathered friend. Goble said that great horned owls tend to have a long period of dependence on their parents, so it’s likely that Owl Pacino’s mother and father are nearby as well.

The NC Wildlife Resources Commission also notes that while it is a myth that owls can turn their heads in a complete circle, they can in fact turn them 180 degrees.

Another pair of special guests on the pages of the June 2021 issue of The Shore Line are these two shelled friends:

A photo of a terrapin with a pretty shell. The shell has dark hexagon shapes with bright outlines.

North Carolina is home to 21 species of turtles, including sea turtles and our state turtle, the box turtle (Terrapene carolina, for the Latin-inclined). This article ran as a way to remind people how to handle turtles when they come across them. The short answer: leave them alone.

A photo of a turtle crossing a road

About half of the turtle species in NC (11/21) are either federally listed as threatened or endangered and/or listed by the state as an animal of “special concern.” The author of the article, Frederick Boyce, is the staff herpetologist at the NC Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores; he clarifies that the common advice, “Put them off the road in the direction they were heading,” really only applies to our beloved representative the box turtle. Most of the time, the best course of action is to do nothing.

One more animal neighbor that appears in the February 2021 issue is the “sexy speedo,” more formally known as the six-lined racerunner lizard.

A photo of a small lizard standing as if ready to run. The lizard has dark coloring and stripes along its body.

The six-lined racerunner is native to NC (The Shore Line, February 2021)

There are several whiptail lizards native to North America, but the only one east of the Mississippi is this little friend (according to Boyce, who also wrote this article). Interestingly, many species of whiptails native to the U.S. reproduce by parthenogenesis, meaning that all members of the species are female and are born from a single parent. Our North Carolina whiptails, though, have both male and female members and do not reproduce by parthenogenesis. 

“I have always thought, however, that Jurassic Park would have been more convincing if Michael Crichton’s fictional scientists used lizard rather than frog DNA to fill in the gaps of their ancient dinosaur strands,” Boyce adds.

The full 2021 run of The Shore Line can be found here; all of our digitized issues of The Shore Line can be found in our North Carolina Newspapers collection. For more information about and materials from the History Committee of the Town of Pine Knoll Shores, you can visit their partner page or their website


Maysville Photos and Genealogies Document N.C.’s First Female Mayor

A sepia-toned photo of a one-story brick building. A car is parked in front with a person standing nearby.

G.H. Jenkins drug store and Foscue Hardware c. 1940

We’re excited to introduce one of our newest partners, the Maysville Public Library! Maysville is located in Jones County near the Croatan National Forest, and this batch of photos and family genealogies helps give a sense of some of the town’s history. 

One fun fact about Maysville is that it was the first town in North Carolina to elect a woman as mayor. Annie Koonce Jenkins was elected in 1925 and served for six years; her legacy lives on in the large oak trees she planted that still stand today. (Technically, Katherine Mayo Cowan was N.C.’s first female mayor since she finished a term for her husband, who died in office in Wilmington in 1924. Jenkins was the first woman to be elected mayor.)

A grayscale photo of a brick building. A tall tree stands beside it. Children are on the grass in the foreground.

Maysville School c. 1940

Some of Annie Koonce Jenkins’ life is recorded in the Basil Smith Jenkins: Ancestors and Descendants history. She was born November 7, 1880 (making her 45 when she was elected mayor) and married Franklin “Frank” Mattocks Jenkins on December 23, 1902. Franklin was the first son of Basil Smith Jenkins, which probably gave Annie some extra local clout.

Annie was a teacher in Richlands, N.C. when she married Frank and came to Maysville as the head of the Maysville school. She also helped organize the Civic Leagues (now known as Women’s Clubs) of many small Eastern towns, and she served as the president of the Maysville Civic League for 14 years. 

A grayscale photo of a tall church tower.

Maysville Baptist Church c. 1940

Meanwhile, Frank took turns on the Board of Aldermen and Jones County Board of Education as well as serving as postmaster and town marshal. Both Frank and Annie were also active in the Baptist Church, where he served as Superintendent of Sunday School and the Chairman of the Board of Deacons while she taught adult Sunday School classes. 

It’s evident from this batch of materials that the Jenkins family was an important one in Maysville, as several landmarks bear their name. But there are many other families included in these histories and photographs as well. You can explore the full batch of materials here. To learn more about Maysville Public Library, you can visit their partner page or their website


Wake Forest University Handbooks Document Major Moments in the School’s History

Wake Forest University is a school that’s proud of its traditions—and nothing illustrates the history of those traditions like student handbooks from the past 100 years or so. Thanks to our partnership with WFU, we’ve just uploaded a batch of those handbooks from 1906 through 2010.

A photo of four Wake Forest College students gathered at the entrance to a dorm. They are standing under a rounded entryway of a brick building with tall, white columns by the door.

Students outside a dorm, 1956

Beginning on the original campus in Wake Forest, N.C. (where the school was founded in 1834), these handbooks follow students and faculty through several of the school’s major milestones, including a move to Winston-Salem, N.C., in 1956.

This photo, from the 1956 handbook, is from the first year that students were at the Winston-Salem campus. Except for the fashion, this might look like a familiar scene to many current WFU students.

The handbook reads, “Among Wake Forest’s oldest and most cherished traditions are the magnolias. The tree’s beautiful white blossoms have for many become almost synonymous with the name Wake Forest. The former campus in the village of Wake Forest was covered with magnolias, and that tradition has been transplanted here with all the others. The trees are plentiful on the new campus and are placed in prominent positions.” In fact, there is still an area of campus know as the “mag quad” (short for “magnolia”) near the first-year dorms where the trees are supposedly grown from old campus saplings.

A photo of Wait Chapel surrounded by scenic tree branches

Wait Chapel, 1956

Throwing things way back to 1913, it’s easy to see the school’s early connections to the Baptist Church. The 1913-14 student handbook is presented by the College Young Men’s Christian Association (Y.M.C.A), and it’s clear that participation in church activities was a big part of life as a student. Bible study is encouraged for all students, and “Attendance upon Daily Prayers and upon Sunday morning service is required.” The 1913-14 handbook is also truly the size of a person’s hand—a trend that has been abandoned with regard to contemporary “handbooks.”

Another big change for Wake Forest came in 1942, when the school began admitting women. This was due to the decline in enrollment as young men went to fight in the Second World War. You wouldn’t know it based on the language in the 1942-43 handbook, which uses phrases like, “each new man will be assigned to an adviser” and “New men who enjoy singing with their fellow students and who can carry a tune are not only asked but urged to report for the first practice.” Though there is mention of social societies holding “smokers,” to which they invite “all the women, half the men, and a faculty member.”

Also in the 1942-43 handbook? An ad for Shorty’s—the original restaurant in Wake Forest, N.C.

A student holding their head in their hands while studying, apparently stressed.

A student studying, 1962

In 1961, the school formally ended racial segregation, extending admission to students of color (however, there doesn’t seem to be any indication of this in the 1961 handbook or even the 1962 handbook). Instead, there’s a photo that depicts a tradition that, again, many Wake students of today will find familiar.

To see the full batch of Wake Forest University handbooks, click here. To learn more about Wake Forest University as it is today, you can visit their partner page or their website


Posters From Durham County Library Celebrate Festival of the Eno

An artistic print of large green trees alongside a green river

As residents of Durham, nature fans and music listeners may already know, the annual Festival for the Eno is quickly approaching. And while the Eno River Association has several past and present posters available, our latest batch of materials from our partner, the Durham County Library, includes some of the older vintages.

An artist's print of a river otter standing up on it's back legs

This poster, from the 1982 festival, features an alert river otter, a species found across the state of North Carolina. While sightings of otters are usually rare (they tend to be secretive and their total population is somewhat low), they are playful animals.

In the 1990s, according to the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, there was an effort to re-expand the territory of river otters into the western part of the state, where they were seen in the 1930s. To do this, the NC Wildlife Resource Commission trapped and relocated several to western river systems. They also brought several otters to West Virginia, which was trying to restore its otter population.

In exchange for otters, the West Virginia gave North Carolina wild turkeys, which brings us to the 1985 poster:An artist's print of a wild turkey against a blue background

The wild turkey is also a native North Carolinian, but the population declined quickly in the early 1900s due to overhunting and habitat loss. In 1985 (during restoration efforts), the total population was estimated at 14,000; in 2020, it was estimated that our state was home to 270,000 turkeys. Today, turkeys are classified as “Big Game,” and their hunting season is strictly limited.

Other posters from the earlier years of the Festival for the Eno feature fish, people in costumes, and other landscapes. Some of the informational posters have lists of performers and activities as well. 

You can see the full batch of maps and posters from the Durham County Library here. To find out more about them, you can visit their partner page or their website. The 43rd Annual Festival for the Eno will be held on July 2 and 4, 2022 in Durham, N.C. 


35 Titles added to DigitalNC

Headmast from August 3, 1886 issue of Statesville American Tobacco Journal

This week we have another 35 newspaper titles up on DigitalNC including thousands of issues from the Greensboro Daily News and Charlotte Daily Observer!

In the January 7th, 1898 issue of the Charlotte Daily Observer, we have a story about a little girl who had swallowed a thimble and was saved by a new invention: the x-ray machine. Dr. Henry Louis Smith, a physics professor at Davidson College, was an early pioneer in x-ray technology. Smith’s machine was used in some of the first clinical applications, such as this, and allowed doctors to safely find and remove the foreign object from the ailing girl’s body.

Clipping from January 7, 1898 issue of Charlotte Daily Observer describing how the x-ray machine of Dr. Henry Louis Smith was able to locate a thimble that a young girl had swalloed

Charlotte Daily Observer, January 7, 1898

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:

Asheville

Burlington

Charlotte

Durham

Graham

Greensboro

Highlands

Milton

Salem

Southport

Spencer

Statesville

Tarboro

Thomasville

Wadesboro

Waynesville

Wilson

Windsor

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.


Student Handbooks & Catalogs Available from Roanoke-Chowan Community College

We’re excited to introduce one of our newest partners: Roanoke-Chowan Community College! Our first batch of materials from them is a selection of student handbooks, course catalogs, and Learning Resource Center (LRC) guides representing 50 years of the school’s history. The items range from 1968-2018 and offer a glimpse into the ways that the school has supported students over the years.

The school was founded in 1967 as Roanoke-Chowan Technical Institute. Since then, it has gone through two re-namings and has grown to offer about 20 curricular programs, including visual arts, business, nursing, and cosmetology. One notable landmark for the school was in 2001, when the Board appointed Mary C. Wyatt as President, making her the first Black woman to be a community college president in North Carolina. 

Perhaps one of the most entertaining items in this batch is a handbook called An Introduction to the LRC at Roanoke-Chowan Technical Institute. While the material covers all of the questions that you might expect students to have about the library, AV center and Learning Laboratory, what you might not expect is the absolutely delightful tour guide that walks you through those resources.

A cartoon of a cat holding up one finger   A cartoon of a cat looking around quickly   A seated cartoon cat writing with a pencil on a stack of paper

Another one of the items⁠—perhaps notable for its quaintness⁠—is a guide to using the Dynix Public Access Catalog at the library. (Note: there are actually a couple of Dynix guides in this batch). The handbook explains how to conduct searches and gives examples of how related search topics might also appear in results. There is also a sort of meta illustration of someone using a computer, which gives the handbook some extra personality.

Illustration of a person typing at a computer. Another set of hands typing at a computer is superimposed over their body.

You can see the full batch of handbooks and catalogs here. To learn more about Roanoke-Chowan Community College, visit their partner page or their website. 


Three More Years of the Roanoke-Chowan Times Available

The masthead of the Roanoke-Chowan Times

Thanks to our partner the Northampton County Museum, we now have three additional years of The Roanoke-Chowan Times. These issues, from 1926-1928, feature local news from Rich Square, Roxobel, Seaboard, Potecasi, and Kelford, N.C., as well as other nearby towns. 

The hyper-local news sections from these issues is a big part of their charm. Often, the front page is divided into columns with the name of the town at the top. The news items range from newsworthy (as we would think of that term today) to the intimate. Here are three examples from the September 2, 1926 issue:

A newspaper clipping A newspaper clipping A newspaper clipping listing personal items

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although the personal items are fun to read in retrospect, it’s probably a relief that this kind of journalism is less common today.

Another interesting characteristic of this paper is it’s adoption of the first line of the North Carolina state song in its masthead: “Carolina, Carolina, heaven’s blessings attend her.” The paper speaks to the song’s widespread popularity in the state; the lyrics were written by North Carolina Supreme Court Judge William Gaston in 1835, but the song wasn’t officially adopted until 1927. The first instance in our records where the first line appears is in the April 23, 1903 issue—more than 20 years before it was made official.

This batch of papers is particularly exciting for us because it’s the first set of papers scanned on the new equipment at our satellite location, NCDHC East at Elizabeth City State University. 

You can see all of our issues of The Roanoke-Chowan Times here and our entire collection of digitized newspapers in our North Carolina Newspapers collection. To learn more about the Northampton County Museum, you can visit their partner page or their website


New Scrapbooks from McDowell County now on Digital NC

newspaper clipping

Newspaper Clippings of Volunteer Efforts in McDowell County

New scrapbooks from McDowell County Public Library are now available on Digital NC. The new scrapbooks include a wide variety of pictures, newspaper articles, and information about community members who have served in various wars such as the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and even World War II.  Most notable is the newspaper clipping of the many volunteer community efforts within McDowell County, showing how the community can come together to help others. 

The new collections include previous materials from McDowell County, such as the 4-H Club and McDowell Technical Community College materials.  

Special thanks to our partner, McDowell County Public Library, for the chance to scan these items. If you would like to see more materials related to NC memorabilia, visit them here.  


Another 60 Newspaper Titles on DigitalNC!

Headmast for January 20, 1900 issue of Winston-Salem's Elite

This week we’ve added another 60 titles to DigitalNC. Included in this batch is the possible origin of a classic North Carolina ghost story!

The Maco Light story tells of a train conductor name Joe Baldwin who was decapitated in a tragic railway accident near the small community of Maco, North Carolina. Legend has it that the ghost of Mr. Baldwin could be seen walking the tracks at night, carrying a lantern and searching for his misplaced head, but once the railroad was removed in the 1970s he was never seen again.

Article from January 12, 1856 issue of The Southerner detailing a train accident in which Charles Baldwin is killed after suffering head injuries

The Southerner, January 12, 1856

As is the case with most folk tales, the story is passed down and embellished over the years and the origin becomes a little fuzzy. There is no record of a “Joe” Baldwin being involved in a wreck, but the January 12th, 1856 issue of The Southerner has an article detailing a train accident that took place just outside of Wilmington a week earlier. The deceased in this incident is Charles Baldwin, who suffered a fatal head injury during the crash. Given the similarities in these stories, it seems our ghost might have actually stayed in one piece.

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:

Elizabeth City

Greensboro

Hendersonville

Oxford

Rutherfordton

Salem

Salisbury

Southern Pines

Southport

Tarboro

Taylorsville

Warrenton

Washington

Williamston

Wilson

Winston

Winston-Salem

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.


Lincoln County Historical Association Yearbooks Anticipated Some of Today’s Trends

A decorative photo collage of senior year students laughing and spending time with friends

From The Acorn, 1945

It’s easy to blame lots of things on “kids these days”—has there ever been a generation that hasn’t? But the latest batch of yearbooks from the Lincoln County Historical Association might prove that some of today’s trends are older than you think.

Photo of two teenagers standing beside each other and looking into a mirror

From The Newboldlite, 1958

Photo of two teenagers standing beside each other and looking into a mirror. In the mirror, their faces are smiling.

From Le Souvenir, 1956

For example, mirror selfies seem like they would’ve come out of an era when many teenagers have cell phones and social media accounts. Not so! According to the 1958 edition of The Newboldlite from Newbold High School and the 1956 edition of Le Souvenir from North Brook High School, mirror selfies were the way to show off your fashionable outfits. Thanks to the mirror in these two “Best Dressed” superlative shots, you can get a front and back view of four of the best looks from these teen style icons.

 

 

 

Two students posing in front of a white house

From Le Souvenir, 1957

Two students standing together in front of a brick building

From Le Souvenir, 1954

Another trend that may surprise you is the rise of influencers 50 years before the invention of Instagram. Apparently, these four students had a natural talent for influencing before it was even a formalized role. Both superlatives are from Le Souvenir; Flora Ann and Milton are from the 1954 edition, and Jimmie and Dorothy are from the 1957 edition.

 

To see more superlatives and the full batch of yearbooks, click here. You can browse our entire collection of high school and college yearbooks in our North Carolina Yearbooks collection. To learn more about the Lincoln Count Historical Association, you can visit their partner page or their website.


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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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