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Thanks to our partners at both the Pettigrew Memorial Library and Perquimans County Library, over 100 more issues of the Perquimans Weekly are now on DigitalNC. The newest batch includes papers published from 2021-2023. The papers will extend DigitalNC’s collection of The Perquimans Weekly an additional three years, stretching all the way back to the paper’s debut issue in 1934 and joining a collection of over four thousand issues!
This astonishing temporal range allows for some truly amazing comparisons between the newspapers of today and those of centuries’ past.
Newer editions of The Perquimans Weekly also display many modern-day advancements in newspaper organization. While newspapers of century past arranged many articles closely together in defined and rigid columns, contemporary issues of The Perquimans provide margins between columns and articles, which are easier for the average readers’ eyes to follow. Articles are no longer rigidly slotted together, but are stacked and layered artfully with an eye for the overall composition of each page. The sections of each issue, too, are more defined and arranged. This century’s journalists have provided Perquiman County readers with signposted guardrails such as “Opinion,” “Sport,” and “Religion.” Gone are the days where letters to the editor had to fight for space with front page columns. Now is the time of reason, art, and effectively displayed journalism!
Interested instead in reading the paper’s previous pages from the twentieth century? Read each issue of The Perquimans online at DigitalNC here, or find their website online here.
Thanks to a North Carolina Community partner, a new newspaper title is now on DigitalNC, the Boonville Herald. One issue of the paper, from 1911 was sent to us for digitization.
The Foole in question
This issue was the third published by The Boonville Herald, and its pages reflect the paper’s desire to serve the community of Boonville and its surrounding area. Stories featured in the daily news section involve personal updates from citizens of Boonville, as well as global news from the far-flung metropolises of London and New York. Updates on New York being attacked by locusts are nestled between updates on Mr. Graham Holcomb’s sawmill and the singing at Mrs. Wile’s. Though only a brief four pages, the paper’s balance between local and global focus reflects a desire to expand its readership by serving as many interested readers as possible. A highlight of the issue is the jester on the last page, advertising a year-long subscription to the Herald for only 50 cents!
To view more newspapers from across small North Carolina towns like Boonville, visit our North Carolina Newspapers page.
The strength of the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center are the connections and communities we have partnered with to share the history of our beautiful state, from the mountains, across the piedmont, and to the sea. Our staff has had heavy hearts for our fellow North Carolinians in the western parts of the state (WNC) since the devastating impact of Hurricane Helene on September 27th. The loss of life and communities, as well as the long road ahead for recovery and rebuilding is heartbreaking.
While there are many efforts to support this work, we cede information on how to help our western communities to organizations such as Blue Ridge Public Radio, the State of North Carolina, and local WNC libraries. The Blue Ridge Public Radio—who has been a voice for all the communities of WNC—along with the State of North Carolina have compiled great resources which can be viewed hereandhere. Local WNC libraries have shown the vitality and necessity of libraries in the wake of this tragic event by serving as a place for physical and internet connection, as well as a vetted source of information for the community to find where to get help, how to help, and how to move forward.
Resources for Libraries, Museums, and Other Cultural Heritage Organizations
The State Library of North Carolina has put together a comprehensive library guide on resources available to libraries, museums, and cultural heritage organizations – including information on the Heritage Emergency National Task Force (HENTF) which is co-sponsored by FEMA and the Smithsonian Institution and how to apply for assistance through them.
The NC Arts Disaster Relief Fund that is being run through the North Carolina Arts Foundation to provide funding and assistance to artists and arts organizations affected by Hurricane Helene.
Members of the public with questions about saving family heirlooms can contact the National Heritage Responders at NHRpublichelpline@culturalheritage.org.
Review Documenting in Times of Crisis: A Resource Kit, which provides templates and documents to assist cultural heritage responders and archivists in collecting materials on tragedies within their communities. For direct assistance, contact the SAA Crisis Collecting Assistance Team (CCAT), which offers remote assistance and general guidance on crisis collecting. CCAT volunteers include expert archivists who have all faced similar situations in leading and supporting their staff through processing and documenting tragedies great and small.
These resources and links are up to date as of October 10, 2024. We will update this post if more relevant resources come online for us to share. If our partners have any questions or need help navigating this time, please feel free to reach out to us at DigitalNC and we will help to connect you with the right resources.
As the lights come back on, roads are repaired, and water is restored, we wanted to help fellow North Carolina cultural heritage organizations by compiling a list of resources that provide information on getting help to repair damages to collections and the spaces that hold them when they are ready.
Thanks to our partners at Sandhills Community College, we are excited to announce that issues from the Sandhills Community College’s student newspaper are now available on DigitalNC. Spanning 1967 to 1982, this addition of the Sandhills Community College Student Newspaper is filled with fun titles, student news, and music reviews across 101 issues of this newly digitized student publication.
Across the 18 years of the Sandhills Community College Student Newspaper now available on DigitalNC, the publication’s name changed quite a few times. While titles likeThe Spartan Reflector (Sept. 1971 – Jan. 1974), The Sandhills Reflector(May 1974 – May 1977), and SCC Miscellanea (Sept. 1978 – Mar. 1982) may have enjoyed the longest run time, other titles like True Grit (Dec. 1969) and The Looking Glass (May 1970 – Feb. 1971) snuck their way into the front-page spotlight – even if just for an issue or two! Student publishers also showed off their creativity with fun illustrations to accompany some of these titles.
Although student journalists at Sandhills Community College may have changed the title of this paper quite a few times, one thing they did not waver in was their ear for good music. Across years of different titles, student newspaper staff, and music genres, columnists never failed to deliver excellent reviews on some of the most anticipated albums of the time. These campus music critics kept busy – from reviewing what would become Stevie Wonder’s best-selling album, Songs in the Key of Life (1976), to assuring readers that “the vocals are even tolerable” on Bob Dylan’s Slow Train Coming (1979), to being just as excited about Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours (1977) as a lot of us still are today.
Students’ great taste and interest in music comes as no surprise, however, when browsing through countless stories in the Sandhills Community College Student Newspaper that show the students’ commitment, involvement, and patronage of the arts. The paper’s “Artist of the Month” series highlights the young students and aspiring artists at Sandhills Community College. Also recorded in the paper are stories about campus events in the arts, such as the week-long Sandhills Community College Fine Arts Festival and the Art Department’s annual Art Week. Literary arts also had a significant impact on the culture at Sandhills Community College, and entire pages dedicated to student poetry can be found throughout the Sandhills Community College Student Newspaper.
More information about our partner, Sandhills Community College, can be found here.
Visitors can view issues of the Sandhills Community College Student Newspaper here.
More materials, including minutes, catalogs, and yearbooks can be found on Sandhills Community College’s contributor page linked here.
To browse our entire collection of student newspapers, select the “Student Papers” filter on our “Newspaper Titles” search page here.
It’s time for our annual round of microfilmed newspaper digitization! As in previous years, we’re asking cultural heritage institutions in North Carolina to nominate papers from their communities to be digitized. We’re especially interested in:
newspapers covering underrepresented regions or communities, and
newspapers that are not currently available in digital form elsewhere online.
If you’re interested in nominating a paper and you work at a cultural heritage institution that qualifies as a partner, here’s what to do:
Check out our criteria for selecting newspapers, listed below.
Verify that the newspaper you’d like to see digitized exists on microfilm*. Email us (digitalnc@unc.edu) if you’re not sure.
Be prepared to talk with the rights holder(s) to gain written permission to digitize the paper and share it online. We can give you advice on this part, if needed.
Review the Criteria for Selecting Newspapers to Digitize from Microfilm listed below.
Nominations will be taken on an ongoing basis, however don’t wait! We typically get many more requests than we can accommodate. Please contact us at digitalnc@unc.edu with questions. We’re looking forward to hearing from you.
Criteria for Selecting Newspapers to Digitize from Microfilm
Titles to be digitized will be selected using the following criteria:
Does the newspaper document traditionally underrepresented regions or communities?
Does the newspaper include significant coverage of the local community or largely syndicated content?
Does the newspaper come from an area of the state that has little representation on DigitalNC? (Titles that have not previously been digitized will be given priority. Here’s a title list and a map showing coverage.)
Is the institution willing to obtain permission from the current publisher or rights holder(s) to digitize issues and make them freely available online?
* What about print newspapers? These are much more costly to scan – we only work with a very limited number. Information about capacity for print newspapers can be found here.
Thanks to our partners at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, we are excited to announce a new batch of student newspapers available online. Spanning from June 1981 to April 1982, these 49 freshly digitized issues of The Carolina Journal are a great addition to our digital collection of this student newspaper. With this new addition, 629 issues from 1947 to 1982 are now available on DigitalNC.
Although our digital collection of The Carolina Journal spans across times of intense change, the curiosity, creativity, and ambition of students at UNC Charlotte remain a timeless fixture across 35 years of issues from this student newspaper. Our new batch from the ‘81-‘82 school year reflects how students made sense of the world around them and fought for a better future during a time when rekindled Cold War tensions stoked the fear of nuclear war and cuts to the federal education budget threatened to slash aid for college students.
Amongst the insightful headlines, op-eds, and cartoons that feature students’ opinions on the issues of nuclear war and education budget cuts, student newspaper staff also highlight the accomplishments and fun shared by students at UNC Charlotte. From snow day parties and free beer at concerts to the basketball team’s spectacular season start and the debate team’s award-winning performance, The Carolina Journal captures students’ commitment to find moments of fun and reasons to celebrate even when faced with uncertain times.
Visitors can view more issues of The Carolina Journalhere.
More materials, including photographs, catalogs, yearbooks, and directories can be found on the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s contributor page here.
More information about the University of North Carolina at Charlotte can be found on their website available here.
To browse our entire collection of student newspapers, select the “Student Papers” filter on our “Newspaper Titles” search page linked here.
The Craven County Farm Life School was the first to be established in the state after the Farm Life School law was passed by the North Carolina State Legislature in March 1911. Though growth was slow at first, the school soon saw a rapid increase in their student enrollment. By 1918, they outgrew their one brick building which served as a boys’ and girls’ dormitory as well as an administration building. A five room administration building was built using money borrowed from state building funds which were paid off using county funds. The new building, however, appears to not have alleviated the space issue at all. Less than 12 months later, four rooms were added to one of the buildings. Then, in 1920, a $100,000 bond issue was made by Craven County for the building of the boys’ dormitory.
In the 1921-1922 school term, the school opened with 131 students enrolled and the following equipment: a brick dormitory for girls, boys dormitory, administration building, a dairy, wash house for girls, farmer’s cottage, barn, and stock buildings. In the 1922 yearbook, which can be viewed here, the writers point out that the students used to be only from the town and boarders, but students began coming from twelve miles away in trucks. Over the years, the curriculum shifted from agriculture to general high school education and by 1941 students were no longer required to reside on campus and instead commuted from the surrounding area. In 1971, the Craven County Farm Life School was closed and Vanceboro students began attending West Craven High School.
The winning hunt team of Weymouth’s First Hunter Trials: Dan Boyd, Tiny Whittlesy, and Alex Alexander.
Thanks to our new partners at the Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities, DigitalNC is proud to announce that a wonderful collection of equestrian history is now available online for the first time. The record? An absolutely stunning photographic portfolio chronicling the early days of the Moore County Hounds, the oldest pack of foxhounds and foxhunters registered in North Carolina. The organization was founded by James and Jack Boyd, longtime residents of Moore County, all the way back in 1914, and the portfolio records the organizations accolades, meets, and activities over the breadth of the twenty first century.
Frank Capot on “Diamont” winning at a Dublin tournament in 1958.
But this monumental portfolio doesn’t just record the oldest foxhunting organization in the state in breathtaking photography, it also contains an amazing collection of vintage horse names! Identifications of both horse and rider are noted next to each image, preserving some truly fantastic equestrian appellations for posterity. Particular gems include “Hush Puppy,” “Moon Glow,” “Bumper Pass,” and “Ten Flags.” Dog lovers need not despair, however, as each hound-dog’s name has also been recorded in the annals of the scrapbook, with virtuous (and perhaps aspirational) titles such as “Vitality,” and “Energy.”
Janet Carter posing with her champion hound-dog, “Wilful”
Thanks again to our new partners at the Weymouth Center for making this collection of history available online. You can find the Moore County Hounds portfolio online now at DigitalNC here. Interested in learning more about the Weymouth Center? You can visit their partner page online at DigitalNC here, or find their website here.
Hopalong Cassidy is a fictional character created by Clarence E. Mulford who was brought to life by actor William Boyd who appeared as the character in 66 movies between 1935 and 1943. When television started to become popular in the late 1940s, Hopalong Cassidy became the first cowboy hero series with Boyd making 106 television shows and 104 radio shows.
Unlike Mulford’s books, Boyd portrayed the character as a clean living cowboy who didn’t smoke, drink, curse, or gamble. The cowboy’s popularity amongst children’s Western heroes allowed Boyd to become “King of Cowboy Merchandisers.” He endorsed over 2,000 items, several of which can be seen in this batch, including a lunchbox, thermos, shirt, commemorative plates, and even a board game!
Most of the newspaper issues available on DigitalNC are digitized from microfilm. While runs can be very comprehensive, there are often missed issues. We love it when those missed issues get filled in so we were especially excited when staff at Appalachian State University’s library offered to gather and digitize fill-in issues of Blowing Rock’s wonderfully named Blowing Rocket newspaper.
Issues were provided for digitization from App State, Blowing Rock Community Library, Blowing Rock Historical Society, and Watauga County Historical Society. You can easily see the new issues in this search, as they are in full color. The issues include the first issue of the paper, shown above, and scattered issues through 1948. You can view all of the newspapers available on our site at the newspapers home page.
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.
