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Registers of Students Included in Latest Batch of Mitchell College Bulletins

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campuspublications memorabilia

The logo on the front of a Mitchell College handbook, 1918

Before Mitchell Community College became the school we think of today, it had a long history as Mitchell College, an all-women’s school. Now, with 24 additional bulletins/handbooks from 1915 to 1941 added to our site, you can explore some of that early history yourself. 

A black-and-white photograph of Mitchell College, c. 1918

Mitchell College c. 1918

One of the most noteworthy features of some of these bulletins is the register of students. Here, students are listed alphabetically by last name (possibly, one of the few places where their maiden names might be the ones recorded). The state they come from is also listed, showing that the college served women from both North and South Carolina, as well as Virginia, West Virginia, Georgia, and even one student from Siam (modern day Thailand). Later registers, which focus on graduates, also list the cities that students come from.

You can see all of the bulletins uploaded in this batch here. To browse other handbooks, yearbooks, and campus paraphernalia from around the state, take a look at our North Carolina Yearbooks collection. For more about Mitchell Community College, you can visit their partner page and their website.

 

Additional University of North Carolina at Pembroke Catalogs Now Available

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campuspublications underrepresented

On the left side of the logo there is a Greek column building with a sun peaking over the top and UNC Pembroke written under it. On the right written out is: changing lives through education.

Thanks to our partner, the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, a batch containing four of the university’s catalogs are now available on DigitalNC. This batch adds catalogs from the years 2016 to 2021, expanding our holdings of the University’s catalogs from 1906 to the present day. While the earliest catalog we have available on our site is from 1906, the University of North Carolina at Pembroke has been operating since the late 1880s.

The Croatan Normal School, now the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, was established on March 7, 1887 by the General Assembly of North Carolina. The bill that passed that day allowed for the formation of a secondary school that would educate American Indian teachers and appropriated $500 for teacher’s salaries. Though the teacher’s salaries were provided for, the General Assembly neglected to supply land or funds for building the actual school. This left it up to the Croatan, now called the Lumbee, and the community to raise funds and find the land. The Lumbee quickly secured the funds and began building what would be a clapboard, two-story school building. Less than a year after the bill passed, the Croatan Normal School opened its doors. Over the last 135 years the school has gone through numerous name, curriculum, and building changes, however, time has not changed the integral part that the school continues to hold in the Lumbee community.

To learn more about University of North Carolina at Pembroke, please visit their website.

To view more University of North Carolina at Pembroke catalogs on our website, click here.

To learn more about the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, please visit their website.

Information for this blog post was gathered from the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina website, University of North Carolina at Pembroke website, and the NC Department Natural and Cultural Resources blog.

“Fill In” Issues of the Tyrrell Tribune from 1941 Represent Complete Run

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NCDHC East newspapers

Sepia colored masthead Tyrrell TribuneThanks to the staff at the Outer Banks History Center, we now have a complete run of the 1941 Tyrrell Tribune available online. These papers were scanned at our office in Elizabeth City. 

thumbnail images of sepia and greyscale newspaper front pages

Search results showing the 1941 front pages let you easily see which issues are from microfilm and which from print.

North Carolina has an astounding amount of newspaper on microfilm thanks to efforts of the State Archives, newspaper publishers, local libraries, and other cultural heritage institutions. One thing we really love to do is use DigitalNC to join together microfilmed issues with print issues that have never been microfilmed. The Tyrrell Tribune is one of these cases.

For us, digitizing from microfilm is more cost-effective than digitizing from print. In addition, many papers that were microfilmed were disposed of when organizations were unable to afford storage and care. Microfilmed copies may be the only versions still available. However, there are cases where print issues held by our partners fill in for what was never microfilmed and the 1941 Tyrrell Tribune is a great example.

Published out of Columbia, N.C., the Tribune covers news about local government, coastal industry, agriculture, and events. You can see all of the issues that we have available from the Tribune here. All items we’ve scanned for the Outer Banks History Center are available through their contributor page. Everything we have about Tyrrell County can be found on the Tyrrell County page.

Newspapers, Church Minutes, and So Much More from High Point Museum!

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memorabilia newspapers

With special thanks to our partner, High Point Museum,  Digital NC is now added to our collections. The latest items include school newspapers from William Penn High School and Griffin Junior High School in High Points, Church Minutes from the Primitive Baptist Association, The Advocate and Messenger newsletter published in Virginia, and a host of items from the Myrtle Desk Company and the Alama Furniture Company.  

Most unique in this collection is the 1910 High Point Buggy Company catalog. The catalog features a wide variety of High-Grade Buggies for customers to purchase. In addition to the Buggy catalog, High Point, known for being the Furniture Capital of the World, has produced numerous furniture catalogs, from desks to home furnishings.

Picture of High Point High Grade Buggy

Catalog images from the 1910 High Point Buggy Company Designers and Builders of High-Grade Buggers.

The newspapers in this added collection represent William Penn High School and Griffin Junior High School, both local Black high schools in High Point. From newsletters celebrating the 1953 Class Reunion to newspapers discussing the events at the local high school, The Students’ Pen and the Griffin Junior Citizen were staples in the community.  

To see more of our partner, High Point Museum, visit here.  

Be sure to check out our wonderful collection of NC Newspapers and memorabilia.  

Three More Years of Wilson County Genealogical Society News Available

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memorabilia photos

A group of adults standing in a line

The 2022 WCGS Officers

Get excited, North Carolina genealogists—three more years of Wilson County Genealogical Society newsletters are now available on our site! These issues, ranging from 2020 to 2022, offer stories of family lineages and local histories along with WCGS news.

One article from the February 2022 newsletter helpfully explains the differences between older kinds of photographs: daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and tintypes. The authors, James and Margaret Bailey, explain the physical processes for developing each type, which include exposing some kind of metal or glass to light and then treating it with chemicals. One notable quality about these kinds of photographs is that they represent a mirror image of reality. The article includes this example of a person wearing a ring; in the original daguerreotypes, it looks like she is wearing in on her right hand, but in the digitally-flipped image, it’s clear that she is wearing it on her left hand (possibly indicating that she is married). 

A comparison of a photograph and its mirror image. In the photo is a Black adult in a white dress standing and looking at the camera.

For more interesting tidbits, you can see the full batch of newsletters here. You can also see all materials from the WCGS (including older newsletters) here. To learn more about WCGS, visit their partner page or their website.

Celebrate Homecoming with Harnett County Yearbooks

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campuspublications yearbooks

A homecoming queen in a tiara dabs her eye with a tissue as she holds a bouquet of flowers.

Homecoming Queen Mary Sue Godwin from the 1969 Echo

Even if you’re not a fan of cold weather, pumpkin-flavored treats, or changing leaves, you may still have a fondness for the fall football season. It’s the time of year again where students across the state celebrate their schools with the beloved tradition of homecoming.

Thanks to our partner, the Harnett County Public Library, we’ve added 23 more high school yearbooks and a few graduation programs to our digital collections. These yearbooks, which span five schools from 1948 to 1972, give us a look back to homecomings of years past. 

One of the most common traditions in this set of yearbooks is honoring the homecoming court—the group of young women from whom the homecoming queen is chosen. The pageantry of the event takes on various levels at each school; in this 1972 spread from Lillington High School’s Footprints, a few people appear to be arriving on horseback.

A black-and-white photo of football players clustering together on the field, presumably during a play.

Football players from the 1972 Footprints

Another popular tradition of homecoming is the big football game. Although homecoming queens tend to get a fancy portrait in the yearbook, each school seems to have a different way of celebrating its football team. In the case of Erwin High School’s The Hourglass from 1962, that celebration takes the form of action shots of each of the varsity players (plus a spread for the team photo and the coaches). Curiously, there isn’t much recorded about the actual games—who the schools played or who won.

You can see all of the yearbooks in this batch—featuring Erwin High School, Lillington High School, Dunn High School, Anderson Creek High School, and Boone Trail High School—here. You can also see the three graduation programs from Erwin High School here. To browse our entire collection of high school yearbooks, visit our North Carolina Yearbooks page. To find out more about Harnett County Public Library, you can visit their partner page and their website. 

Seaboard Coast Line Railroad Photographs Now Online from Braswell Memorial Library

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memorabilia photos

Our latest batch of materials from the Braswell Memorial Library includes a set of photographs showing the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad in the 1970s and 1980s.  The Will, List of Heirs, and a Decree of Sale of Lands associated with Samuel E. Westray who died on February 15th 1894 is also included. Other documents associated with the Rocky Mount (N.C.) area are scans of a Christmas Card from James Phillips Bunn along with an invitation to the Grand Celebration Ball.

There are photographs showcasing different aspects of the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad operation throughout the multiple locations across North Carolina. You can see derailed trains, individual parts of the trains, candid photographs of people near the railroad along with portraits of products being transported.

Picture of The Family Lines System train sitting still on the railroad track

The Family Lines System train          

You can view the Westray will, Bunn’s Christmas card, Grand Ball Celebration invitation and all Railroad photographs here. These materials are now apart of the NC Memory collection. To see more materials from from the Braswell Memorial Library you can visit their partner page.

 

Band, Ten Hut! Granville County Store Ledgers and Six New Yearbooks Now Available on DigitalNC

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yearbooks

Thanks to our partner, Granville County Public Library, we now have ledgers from Granville County’s Woodworth Store and Townesville Store available on our website as well as six new yearbooks added to our North Carolina High School Yearbooks collection! These yearbooks are from Vance County High School (1970 and 1971), Franklinton High School (1971), J.F. Webb High School (1971), and Henderson High School (1964 and 1971). 

With the start of the fall semester and football season here in North Carolina, marching bands are officially back on the field and in the stands supporting their teams and entertaining audiences with favorites such as Fight Song, Hey Baby, and You Can Call Me Al. While we all appreciate what marching bands adds to these sporting events, no school has shown as much appreciation for their marching band than Henderson High School.

In the school’s 1964 yearbook, an overwhelming amount of page space is given to the school’s band. Some of these photographs show the students rehearsing in the band room with band director W. T. Hearne, but a majority of them show the students in their full marching band and majorette uniforms. The photographs included in this post from the 1964 Pep Pac showcase the amazing size of their band as well as their snazzy uniforms.

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

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

 

 

New Issues of The Sandhill Citizen now available on DigitalNC

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newspapers

Newspaper

Front Page of “The Sandhill Citizen”, January 7th, 1954

Digital NC now has new issues of The Sandhill Citizen thanks to our partners, the Moore County Library and the Moore County Genealogical Society. Published on Fridays, the newspaper covered news in Southern Pines (1919 – 1925) and Aberdeen (1949 – 1954).

Local stories included stories about small organizations such as events for the March of Dimes, which took on the initiative of helping citizens affected by Polio. In January of 1954, the organization raised $1,000 to help with its initiatives.

To see other issues of  The Southern Pines, visit here.

Special thanks to the Moore County Public Library and the Genealogical Society for their support in helping to digitize these newspapers.

Be sure to check out DigitialNC’s extensive North Carolina newspaper collection here.

Montreat College 1972 Yearbook now on DigitalNC

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yearbooks

Just in time for their 50th! reunion, the 1972 Montreat College (then known as Montreat-Anderson College) yearbook, the 1972 Walrus Figleaf, is now on DigitalNC, joining many other past yearbooks, student newspapers, and other materials from the school.  The yearbook is a work of art, both photography and drawing, and fun to look through even if you’re not celebrating your 50th reunion this year.

Collage of black and white photographs of students at Montreat College

Black background with white outlines of drawn faces

A reminder to all partners – even if we haven’t worked with you in a while, we at DigitalNC are always happy to fill in materials gaps when more are found!  To view more yearbooks from around North Carolina, visit our North Carolina Yearbooks section of our site.  To learn more about Montreat College, visit their website 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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