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32 Titles now up on DigitalNC!

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Header from July 1, 1887 issue of Kernersville, N.C. newspaper "The Southern Home"

Another 32 newspaper titles are up on DigitalNC this week! Three of these titles are from North Carolina towns that either changed their names or just don’t exist anymore.

First, we have the North Carolina National from Company Shops, North Carolina. Company Shops was a community formed around the railroad car construction and maintenance industry in Alamance County, between Graham and Gibsonville. Due to growing anti-railroad sentiments, the community of Company Shops decided to appoint a committee to change the name of the town in 1887. This committee decided on the name ‘Burlington.’

Next up is Our Home from Beaver Dam, North Carolina. It’s hard to determine exactly where Beaver Dam would have been, but knowing that the paper is from Union County, it seems possible that it was located near Beaverdam Creek, just south of Wingate and Marshville, North Carolina.

Lastly, we have The Hokeville Express from what was once known as Hokeville, or ‘Lincoln Factory,’ North Carolina. It seems likely that the community was named after the affluent Hoke family of Lincolnton. Col. John Hoke was one of the owners of the profitable Lincoln Cotton Mills. Col. Hoke died in 1845 and passed ownership on to his son, also named John Hoke. The factory burned down in 1862, and the following year the Confederate Army began constructing a laboratory on the site to manufacture medicines, such as ether, chloroform, and opiates. Since then the community has gone by the name ‘Laboratory.’

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.

 

Chadbourn High School Materials Now on DigitalNC

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A batch containing various materials related to Chadbourn High School’s Class of 1952 are now available on our website. The batch includes Chadbourn High School’s 1952 yearbook, the May 19, 1952 issue of The Purple and Gold student newspaper, a program for the 1952 commencement exercises, and photographs from two of the Class of 1952’s reunions.

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

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

For more images from across North Carolina, visit our Images of North Carolina collection here.  

New Yearbooks from Rowan County High Schools Now on DigitalNC

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Thanks to our partner, Rowan Public Library, a batch containing new Rowan County high school yearbooks spanning from 1937 to 1961 are now available on our website. This batch adds three new schools to our Rowan County high school yearbooks list—Landis High School, Rockwell High School, and Granite Quarry High School. 

Landis High School
1937, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1957, 1959, and 1961

Rockwell High School
1942, 1943, 1944, 1951, 1952, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, and 1959

Granite Quarry High School
1943, 1944, 1945, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1955, 1956, and 1957

To learn more about the Rowan Public Library, please visit their website.

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

35 Newspaper titles added to DigitalNC!

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Header from the 1858 Buffalo Springs, N.C. handwritten newspaper The Nation

This week we have added issues from 35 different newspaper titles! One of the titles we have is a paper from the now non-existent town of Buffalo Springs, North Carolina. According to this News & Record article, the Harnett County town ceased to exist when the turpentine industry in the area died out. But the intriguing thing about these papers isn’t the ghost of this town, it’s the man who wrote them: John McLean Harrington. Professor and author Michael Ray Smith penned this fascinating paper about Harrington and his newspapers, in which he writes: “Shortly before the Civil War, the son of an affluent Southern family began a journalism career unlike any in his community, his state, or even the nation and produced 305 handwritten newspapers, perhaps the greatest single output of handwritten newspapers by any American journalist.” Harrington had a subscription list of roughly 100 people and would painstakingly copy each individual paper by hand, even though printing presses were widely available at the time. In 1858, when Harrington was writing issues of The Nation, he was only 19 years old. The young man’s ambitions didn’t stop with just being a journalist. He also apparently worked as a bookkeeper, surveyor, educator, sheriff, and postmaster in Harnett County. While his accomplishments were quite impressive, he was also a man of contradiction. Smith writes this of the rural Renaissance man: “He talked of a partner but never revealed the colleague’s identity—if he indeed had one. He discussed the evil of drinking but died an alcoholic. He served as a member of the Confederate militia only to swear an oath that he would always remain a loyal Unionist. Perhaps Harrington tended to do or say whatever was expedient or expected at the time. Maybe he was himself just conflicted in numerous ways.”

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.

 

Clear Run High School Annual Reunion Programs Now Available on DigitalNC

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Thanks to our partner, Clear Run High School Alumni Association, a batch expanding our holdings of Clear Run High School’s annual reunion programs to include 2010 to 2013 are now available on our website. These programs include lists of Alumni Association officers, a schedule of events, lists of students in graduating classes, a history of Clear Run High School, and special features on alumni.

A result of consolidating two high schools that served Sampson County’s Black community, Clear Run High School opened its doors in 1957. The school’s first class included about 260 students and 11 staff members with enrollment increasing each year until the integration of North Carolina schools in 1969.  As a result of the integration, Clear Run students were moved to Union High School while the Clear Run building was converted to a middle school.  Today, the Clear Run High School Alumni Association remains active by hosting annual reunions, having quarterly and annual meetings, and awarding an annual scholarship for descendants of Clear Run graduates.

Cover from the 12th annual reunion for Clear Run High School. In elegant script, the page reads "Clear Run High School Twelfth Annual Reunion." Below the script is an image of the high school. In the top left corner there is an image of the school mascot--a green hornet with yellow wings.

To view more Clear Run High School annual reunion programs, please click here.

To learn more about the Clear Run High School Alumni Association, please visit their website.

To view more materials from African American high schools in North Carolina, please click here.

Henderson Institute School Census Cards Now Available on DigitalNC

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Thanks to our partner, Henderson Institute Historical Museum, a batch containing Henderson Institute school census cards from the early 1900s are now available on our website. These cards feature various information on students including their name, grades, marriage status, address, birth dates, birthplace, and more.

Back side of a individual school census card for a student who attended Henderson Institute named E. Roy Brandon. The card includes his parent's name (Cleveland Brandon), birth date (July 28, 1919), sex (boy), race (African American), birthplace (Vance County), address, and years he attended school.

Individual school census card for Henderson Institute student E. Roy Brandon.

Established and operated by the Freedmen’s Board of the United Presbyterian Church to educate the Black community, the Henderson Institute opened its doors to students of Vance County in 1887. The school remained opened for 83 years before its operations as an official high school ceased in 1970 due to integration. During its years of operation, the school served as the only secondary school open to Black individuals in Vance County. In 1986, the Vance County Board of Education deeded the school’s Library Science Building to the Henderson Institute Alumni Association. With funding from graduates, friends, and the general assembly, the association restored and renovated the property. Today the building houses the Henderson Institute Historical Museum.

To learn more about the Henderson Institute Historical Museum, please visit their website.

To view more materials from North Carolina’s African American high schools, please view our North Carolina African American High Schools Collection.

61 New titles on DigitalNC!

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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.

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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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