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Fuquay Consolidated High School Yearbooks from 1967 and 1968 Now Available on DigitalNC!

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Thanks to a North Carolina Community Contributor, the 1967 and 1968 editions of Fuquay Consolidated High School’s yearbooks are now available on DigitalNC!

Constructed in 1918, the Fuquay Consolidated School was one of the first schools to benefit from the Rosenwald Foundation and one of over 800 Rosenwald schools in the state. The following year, in 1919, the school opened its doors to students. A high school department was added in the 1930s, however, it wasn’t until 1952 that the high school building was added to the property. Interestingly, the school did not hold a graduation in 1942 because the senior class of that year elected to return the following year for the newly added 12th grade.

Individual sits at a desk with an Auto-Tutor Reading machine. Person stands to the left of the desk helping the person sitting to use the machine.
“Our Reading Program,” The Bison [1967]

The 1950s were a period of growth and change for the school with a total of 34 faculty members, 11 new buses, modernization of the home economics department, installation of water fountains, new high school building, and the addition of commercial education and a marching band. Eventually grades one through six were moved in 1964 to the newly constructed elementary school, Lincoln Heights Elementary, while grades seven through 12 remained at Fuquay Consolidated High School. The school remained in operation until 1970. Today, the school buildings have been repurposed by the Fuquay-Varina Community Development Corporation (FVCDC) into a childhood learning center and apartments for individuals 55+.

Man dressed in work pants and shirt with a tie looks over his shoulder while holding a flute.
Mr. W. E. Boney holds a flute in class, The Bison [1978]

To view more materials from North Carolina’s African American high schools, please view our North Carolina African American High Schools Collection. To explore all our digitized high school yearbooks, please view our North Carolina Yearbooks collection linked here.

To learn more about and see more materials from North Carolina Community Contributors, visit their contributor page here.

Information about the former Fuquay Consolidated School campus was gathered from the FVCDC, an organization created in 1991 by graduates of Fuquay Consolidated High School and members of the community. To learn more about the FVCDC, visit their website by clicking the link here.

Learn About 1940s Medical Care in Greene County Thanks to Our Newest Partner!

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Thanks to our newest partner, Greene County Public Library, a new batch of materials is now available on DigitalNC! The Greene County Public Library, located in Snow Hill, North Carolina, is one of eight libraries in the Neuse Regional Library System. The materials in this batch include the only known volume of estate papers for Greene County prior to the 1870s, 1850 Greene County census, and a North Carolina Agricultural Station bulletin that provides a look into 1940s medical care.

Background of the bulletin's cover is a pattern of leaves in a mint green color. At the top reads: Medical care in Greene County. In the bottom right of the page there is a hand holding a sheet of paper. The paper's title says "prescription" below it are bullet points reading: personal and facilities, health education, prepaid insurance."
Medical Care in Greene County [November 1948]

In February 1877, a legislative act was passed that, among other things, created the North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station. This act directed the station to conduct research on plant nutrition and grown, discover which fertilizers were best for each crop, and conduct other needed agricultural investigations. Nearly two months after the act was passed, the first station in the state, as well as in the South, began its work in a one-room chemistry laboratory at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Eventually the management of the station was transferred to the institution that would become North Carolina State University (NCSU); however, the North Carolina Department of Agriculture (NCDA) continued to maintain its relationship with the station. Over time, a total of 15 Agricultural Experiment Stations were opened across the state. Today, the stations are cooperatively operated by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and North Carolina State University.

In November 1948, the Agricultural Experiment Station at North Carolina State College (eventually NCSU) published bulletin no. 363, titled “Medical Care in Greene County.” The bulletin provides a fascinating look into 1940s medical care in the county for both its white and Black residents. In addition to population demographic information, the bulletin provides a breakdown of the county’s medical facilities, medical workers, how far people traveled to receive care, how long patients stayed, who went to these facilities and why, cost for care, how patients paid their bills, and if any had insurance. Based on this information, the North Carolina Agricultural Station includes suggestions in the bulletin for the county’s medical care moving forward.

Chart titled: Why Were They Hospitalized? Two pie diagrams, one labeled "male" and the other "female." Each circle has percentages for the following categories: surgery, accidents, general medicine, and obstetrics (female only).
Why Were They Hospitalized? Chart

To learn more about Greene County Public Library, visit their website linked here.

To browse materials related to Greene County, visit our Greene County page linked here.

To view materials from Neuse Regional Libraries, visit their contributor page linked here.

Information about the Agricultural Experiment Station(s) were gathered from an NCpedia entry linked here.

Explore Chowan University’s 1920s Campus and Friendships in Newest Batch of Scrapbooks on DigitalNC!

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Thanks to our partner, Chowan University, a new batch with six new scrapbooks are now available on DigitalNC! These scrapbooks showcase Chowan University’s 1950s sports teams, 1980s Data Processing Management Association, early years of the Center for Ethics, and student life during the 1920s and 1930s.

Two people sitting together, one is embracing the other.
Uncaptioned

Viola Dana Winslow’s scrapbook provides a look into the lives of students of Chowan College in the 1920s. A majority of the photographs in this scrapbook show Viola and her friends having fun. Underneath the photographs Viola writes descriptive captions about what they are doing as well as the name of her friends and their hometowns. Additionally, she documents some of the sites, views, and buildings around campus and downtown including the science building, her church, the tea room, and the homes of some professors. More photographs from Viola’s scrapbook can be seen below!

Photograph of a person with short, dark hair smiling. They are wearing a longer, light colored dress with a dark cardigan, dark stockings, and dark shoes. They look to be standing in a field.
Viola Winslow
Two individuals petting an older golden retriever. One person is crouching and the other is bending over, both are looking at the camera and smiling.
“Down Town on a Monday afternoon.”
Three individuals and a dog. Two of the individuals are standing up, looking at the camera. The third is crouched down, petting the dog and smiling at the camera.
“Down Town on a Monday afternoon!”
Two individuals kissing.
“I know it was a sweet one.”
Three individuals standing close with one another. One is looking directly into the camera, one away from, and the other slightly towards it and smiling.
“Carrie says we look like the three bears.”

To learn more about Chowan University, visit their website here.

To view more materials from Chowan University, visit their contributor page here.

To view more scrapbooks from partners all across the state, visit the link to our scrapbooks here.

Check Out What Was Cooking in 1972 and 1973 at Chatham Central High School in Newly Added Yearbooks!

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Two individuals looking at a third person using a rolling pin on cookie dough.
Sandra Williamson, Christine Coleman, and Carolyn Thompson make cookies in food service, [Centralia 1973]

Thanks to our partner, Chatham County Public Libraries, the 1972 and 1973 yearbooks for Chatham Central High School are now available on DigitalNC.

The Home Economics classes at Chatham Central High School offered students instruction and experience in sewing, planning menus and budgets, first aid, child care, and cooking. However, for those interested in learning more about and gaining more experience in cooking, the school offered a food service class. This class provided refreshments for club activities along with catering in the community. And according to The Centralia [1973] Chatham Central’s food service class gained a positive reputation among students and the public for their catered confectioneries!

To learn more about Chatham County Public Libraries, visit their website here.

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

Glimpse into Hendersonville High School’s History!

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Three individuals dressed in typical 1970s fashion.
Hendersonville High School 1973-1974 Class Scrapbook, Photograph from People page

Thanks to our partner, the Hendersonville High School Alumni Association, two batches including over 50 issues of the high school’s student newspaper The Red and White, film of the 1972 3A high school basketball championship game, four class scrapbooks, 1977 report on the high school’s floor plan, as well as two scrapbooks detailing the history of the school’s drama and theatre arts program from 1925 to 1968, are now available to view online. These materials feature the high school’s band, sports, student art, scholarships and awards, activities, programs from various events, theater productions, newspaper clippings, and much more!

To learn more about the Hendersonville High School Alumni Association (HHSAA), visit their website here.

To view more materials from the HHSAA, visit their contributor page here.

To browse more scrapbooks from across North Carolina, please click here.

To view more newspapers from across North Carolina, view our North Carolina Newspapers collection linked here.

Learn About Dr. Moses Ray of Tarboro With New Edgecombe County Materials

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memorabilia photos underrepresented

Thanks to our partners at the Edgecombe County Memorial Library, Digital NC has digitized new materials from Tarboro and Edgecombe County, North Carolina. These documents include architectural photographs; minutes, photographs, invitations, and other records from the Edgecombe Magazine Club; a new W.S. Clark ledger from 1909; a scrapbook from the Gettysburg Veterans Reunion of 1913; and a family Bible from the Bridgers family of Edgecombe County.

Additionally, we have added a new collection of materials from Dr. Moses A. Ray (1920-1995), a dentist, mayor, community advocate and leader in Tarboro. Dr. Ray was a graduate of Shaw University and Howard University, where he earned his doctorate in dentistry. After settling in Tarboro in 1946, he helped establish the Edgecombe Credit Union for African-Americans, was a trustee of the Edgecombe Technical Institute, led the East Tarboro Citizens League, was a member of the North Carolina Board of Transportation, and served on the Tarboro Town Council and as the first post-Reconstruction African-American mayor of Tarboro. This list comprises only a portion of the many leadership roles he held in Tarboro over the second half of the twentieth century. His community service was honored with many certificates and plaques that are now available as a part of the collection on Digital NC.

Visitors to the site can also see photographs from throughout Dr. Ray’s life depicting some of his work in the Tarboro community. We have also added a program from a 2015 Phoenix Historical Society educational program honoring his life of service, which further details some of his accomplishments like helping establish low-income housing and paved roads in East Tarboro. The Phoenix Historical Society records and promotes the African-American history of Edgecombe County; researchers can learn more online or in the East Carolina University Manuscript Collection. View the Dr. Moses Ray Collection here and see the rest of our Edgecombe County Memorial Library materials here.

Materials From New Partner Lee County Public Libraries Now Available!

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Lee County Public Libraries has shared a large collection of materials relating to Sanford, Jonesboro, and the greater Lee County area, now available on Digital NC. Here at NCDHC, we are thrilled to work with a new partner and broaden our representation of “the heart of North Carolina.” Visitors to the site can now view nearly one hundred years of documents, including bulletins and directories; county fair and circus programs; personal records; Chamber of Commerce pamphlets; many photographs of residents, homes, and businesses; scrapbooks; school programs, records, and yearbooks; and more. Also available are forty-four years of minutes from the Pierian Club, a women’s club and Sanford’s oldest literary society. Records from these societies, common in the twentieth century, give unique insight into the activities of middle-class North Carolina women.

Sanford has historically been an important site for manufacturing and industry, and was established at the junction of the Raleigh and Augusta Air Line and Western Railroads. The early twentieth century saw rapid expansion, thanks to Sanford’s location on the railways and its official incorporation as a city in 1907, as well as the growth of manufacturing throughout the Piedmont. Tobacco in particular contributed to Sanford’s growth, which is reflected in many of the photographs and documents now available on the site. Many of the newly digitized materials are concerned with attracting more business to Sanford and advertising its various commercial enterprises. Sanford suffered economic downturns in the Great Depression and again in the 1960s and ’70s as tobacco and manufacturing declined.

Thanks to investment in economic diversification at the end of the twentieth century, Sanford has again become a vibrant and growing community with many manufacturing jobs and a diverse population of over 60,000 residents. Researchers can learn more about Lee County here and view all of our digitized materials from Lee County Public Libraries here.

Newspapers, Yearbooks, and Newsletters from Granville County Public Library!

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Six yearbook covers spanning from 1953 to 1967

Here we have materials spanning three decades from our partners over at the Granville County Public Library! These additions include issues of the Oxford Public Ledger, a student paper from Henderson High School, and yearbooks from Henderson and Dabney, N.C.!

Henderson High School football players from 1938 sitting on a set of stairs with the caption "Bulldog's Greatest Year"
The Bulldog, December, 1938
A cheerleading cone with the letter "M" painted on it sitting in a field
The Carrier, 1955
Five people hanging out the windows of a school bus with the caption "Bus Drivers"
The Carrier, 1967

To find more information about Granville County Public Library’s resources, services, or events, feel free to visit their site here!

Chronicles of Jeanne Swanner’s Miss North Carolina Reign Now Available on DigitalNC!

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Thanks to our partner, Graham Historical Museum, a Sanborn Insurance Map of Graham, North Carolina, a program from the 1963 Miss Graham pageant, along with six scrapbooks that chronicle Jeanne Flinn Swanner’s Miss North Carolina appearances, telegrams, and Graham’s trek to Atlantic City to cheer her on at the Miss America 1963 pageant are now available to view on DigitalNC!

In 1963, Jeanne Flinn Swanner was named the winner of the Miss North Carolina crown. During the pageant, Swanner quickly became a favorite, winning the swimsuit competition and receiving a standing ovation for her performance of original songs on the ukulele. In the same year, she competed in the Miss America pageant held in Atlantic City, New Jersey. She did not win the Miss America crown, but was voted Miss Congeniality.

Three individuals standing together on a stage. Each person has on a long evening dress, long white finger gloves, and a crown. The person in the middle is holding a bouquet of roses and is wearing a sash that reads: Miss North Carolina - 1963.
Miss North Carolina – 1963, Jeanne Flinn Swanner (middle)

Following the completion of the pageants, Swanner returned to Auburn University and completed a bachelors degree in physical education. After receiving her degree, she started teaching during the week while giving speaking engagements on weekends. After nearly a decade of teaching, Swanner decided to pivot her career into professional speaking full-time. She credits the year following her Miss North Carolina win, when she traveled to nearly every corner of the state giving over 500(!) speeches, for her career as a professional humorist.

Individual in a light colored dress and long white finger gloves holding a rose while sitting in a chair.
Miss Jeanne Swanner pictured in the Graham High School yearbook, The Wag [1961]

To learn more about the Graham Historical Museum, please visit their website linked here.

To view more materials from the Graham Historical Museum, please visit their contributor page linked here.

To explore more yearbooks from across the state, please visit our North Carolina Yearbook Collection linked here.

Information about Jeanne Flinn Swanner was gathered from her obituary, the newspaper clippings within this batch, and the New York Times article announcing her passing in 2021.

Moore County Papers from 1923-1940 Feature Golf News and … Screen Beans?

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Masthead with the title Pinehurst Outlook and black and white illustrations of people playing sports or and socializing
Masthead from the April 12, 1940 issue of The Pinehurst Outlook

Thanks to funding from the Moore County Genealogical Society a variety of Moore County newspapers dating from 1923-1939 have just been added to DigitalNC. The titles include:

The Pinehurst Outlook is more like a magazine. It almost exclusively covers golf and news from other sports. It’s a handsome paper with custom mastheads and covers and a lot of photos, all reflective of the wealth brought to Pinehurst as a renowned golf destination and resort town. The Pinehurst Daily Press (which continues as the Sandhills News-Press) also heavily features sports news. Articles about PGA (Professional Golfers’ Association) tournaments, a listing of daily golf tee times, and updates on local golfers’ careers are some of the news items frequently included. The Moore County News is a paper covering broader local topics and a lot of syndicated content. There’s agriculture news like the “Annual Dewberry Special” issue. (A dewberry is similar to a blackberry.) Social and business news from Aberdeen, Carthage, and Cameron can be found as well.

One fun find was an article about a Moore County pastor named Rev. Wade C. Smith who created simple comics to illustrate Christian principles to his pupils. Dubbed “Litte Jetts,” the figures in the comics look a lot like Screen Beans, ubiquitous stick figures found in Microsoft clip art from the mid 1990s to around 2014. This article from the March 12, 1931 issue of The Moore County News talks about Smith’s work and its popularity, and includes the comic below.

Black and white stick figures acting out Biblical story of Cain and Abel under headline "Those Famous 'Little Jetts'"
The Moore County News March 12, 1931

Here’s another comic I could locate, from March 19, 1931. I’ve added a Screen Bean to the right for comparison.

Black and white stick figures acting out carrying a heavy bag under title "Another Little Jett" with additional running black and white stick figure to the right
The Moore County News March 19, 1931

To view more Moore County newspapers as well as other materials documenting that area visit the county page.

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