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Chatham County Public Libraries have contributed five yearbooks from Pittsboro and Siler City that are now available on DigitalNC! The Eagle [1959] from Silk Hope High School, Imprints [1974] from Northwood High School, and Phantomaire [1968], Traces [1972], and JMHS [1974] from Jordan-Matthews High School are the most recent additions to the site. Check them out to view some classic fashion from the era, see what clubs and activities students were involved with, and maybe come across familiar faces.
See everything we have digitized from Chatham County Public Libraries at their partner page here. To view more yearbooks from other schools across North Carolina, visit The North Carolina Yearbook collection linked here.
Looking to connect Raleigh to Wilson, the Raleigh and Pamlico Sound Railroad (later named Norfolk and Southern Railroad) investors sought to lay track through the already established Town of Wakefield, but were turned down by property owners. Instead, the investors moved the connection site 1.5 miles south of Wakefield. From this connection site, the Town of Zebulon was born, receiving its charter on February 17, 1907. In addition to the train connection site, Zebulon’s increased growth can be attributed to its status as having the best soil for growing tobacco in eastern North Carolina as well as a tobacco market which opened in 1917. Tobacco, however, was not the only crop grown in Zebulon.
Originating in South or Central America, sweet potatoes have been grown in North Carolina since at least 1723. Linked to the decline in tobacco, North Carolina farmer began using their surplus land to grow sweet potatoes. Since then, North Carolina has risen to the largest producer of sweet potatoes in the United States. In 2021, the state produced 64% of America’s total production.
At a Zebulon Farm Bureau meeting in February 1955, Foster Finch proposed farmers grow sweet potatoes on the land that would be unused that season as a result of reduced tobacco allotments. Finch, the Wakelon Trading Corporation operator, even agreed to provide storage space for the sweet potatoes (minimum 15,000 bushels of course), along with taking responsibility for curing them. However, without a marketing outlet for the sweet potatoes at the time and lack of confidence that they would be able to produce the minimum bushels, farmers were timid to join the project.
To combat this, a marketing specialist from the North Carolina Department of Agriculture [May 13, 1955] as well as sweet potato and NC State Extension experts were brought to Zebulon to teach farmers the best growing techniques and discuss factors they should consider in producing and marketing their sweet potatoes. View our newly added issues from 1956 to 1963 of The Zebulon Record to learn more about the outcome of the sweet potato project.
Two new yearbooks have just been added to the site, thanks to the Haywood County Public Library in Waynesville, N.C. Both from 1974, these volumes come from Tuscola High School in Waynesville and Pisgah Senior High School in Canton. The pages are interspersed with meditative poems and quotes concerned with growing up and the passage of time — check them out to be immersed in nostalgia.
See many more yearbooks from Haywood County, as well as photographs and textual records, at their contributor page. To view more yearbooks from across the state, visit our Yearbooks Collections on Digital NC.
Our collection of The Bessemer City Recordhas just expanded, thanks to our partners at the Bessemer City History and Arts Society. Since 1995, The Bessemer City History and Arts Society has preserved and shared the town’s history, and we are excited to help make these newspapers available digitally for anyone to read. With this newest addition, DigitalNC now hosts complete runs of the paper from 1964-1967, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1979-1981, as well as various issues from 1958-1960, 1968, 1970, 1972-1977, and 1994. Additionally, this batch includes a single issue of The Gastonia Gazette from December 4, 1968. With thirty years now at least partially covered on the site, researchers and genealogists can take advantage of the amazing resource that is The Bessemer City Record to gain insight into the local and national issues that concerned Bessemer City residents.
See all digitized issues of The Bessemer City Record here, and visit the Bessemer City History and Arts Society contributor page here to learn more. To browse all of the newspapers we have available on DigitalNC, you can find them here.
Thanks to a contribution from the Chapel Hill Historical Society, two new Chapel Hill High School yearbooks from 1972 and 1973 are now available on DigitalNC! Chapel Hill High School has a long history of over 100 years. It has been in its current location since Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools were integrated in 1966, and Chapel Hill High School and Lincoln High School were merged. In classic 1970s fashion, these yearbooks are filled with photos that are richly illustrative of teenage life, interspersed with student poetry and musings on the uncertainty of life after high school.
Visitors to the site can view the extensive collections contributed by the Chapel Hill Historical Society at their contributor page here, and more Chapel Hill High School yearbooks here. Learn more about the Chapel Hill Historical Society at their website here. To view more yearbooks from other schools in the Triangle and across North Carolina, visit The North Carolina Yearbook collection linked here.
Together with our partners at Buncombe County Public Libraries, DigitalNC is proud to announce that years worth of Community Connections issues are now available. Community Connections was a monthly publication that focused on supporting and highlighting Asheville’s LGBT+ community. The new collection includes almost a dozen issues spanning from 2001 to 2003, and are the most recent issues to be uploaded. They will join over a hundred issues currently online at NC Digital, which go as far back as 1987!
Cover of the November 2002 issue of Community Connections
Within the pages of Community Connections are local events, national news stories, and regular columns written by local Buncombe County residents. Local businesses often advertised their services in the paper, highlighting their support of the publications’ purpose. Each issue also includes a community calendar with meeting times for local groups, ranging from historical talks and potlucks to Wicca classes and pagan support networks. The publication provided a vital service to an often underrepresented community in North Carolina.
You can read the newest issues of Community Connections online at DigitalNC here. You can find more information about our partners at Buncombe County Public Libraries online, either at DigitalNC or at their website here.
We have just added issues of the Tryon Daily Bulletin from 1951-1953, 1980-1982, 1990-1992. These join the issues already on our site from 1928-1951. Contributed by the Polk County Public Libraries, the issues from the 50s were added from microfilm. In addition, the Libraries’ staff scanned print issues from the 80s and 90s to add to our site. “The World’s Smallest DAILY Newspaper” is a true example of a local paper, with contents created locally and confined mostly to county or regional news.
Published 5 days per week, the Bulletin from these different time periods have things in common! On the left side of every front page is the column “Curb Reporter.” Starting with the day’s weather, it has brief snippets of local to international news.
In all decades, you’ll find classified ads, committee and government meeting reports, and personal notes and mentions that have all but dropped off of newspapers today.
In 1883, the Citizen covers the establishment of Asheville’s Free Library. Free libraries were an increasingly popular idea in a time where use of many libraries required a paid membership. For the Asheville Free Library, memberships were encouraged to support the purchase of books, the rent, and the librarian’s salary, but were not required for use of the library. The articles mention the purchase or donation of Scientific American, Harper’s, and other long-standing periodicals. Calls for support like the one in the image below mention the sentiment that even if contributors never set foot in the library, the presence of one improved their community as a whole. This sentiment is still shared by many today.
North Carolina Citizen, March 18, 1882, page 1.
Another fun find is a picture of the proposed Central Methodist Church (now Central United Methodist Church) found on the front page of the August 2, 1901 issue of the Citizen. R.H. Hunt, the architect, had recently presented plans to the congregation. The article describes the proposed church in detail, including the various rooms and the materials to be used. If you’ve been to Asheville, this church is a striking part of downtown near Pack Square.
Semi-Weekly Citizen, August 2, 1901, page 1.
On July 25, 1889, The Weekly Citizen published an illustrated edition which focused entirely on highlighting the beauty of western North Carolina along with Asheville’s development. The sketches, some of which are below, feature Hickory Nut Gap, Mount Mitchell, a viaduct near Round Knob, Asheville Female College, and Arden Park.
You can view additional newspapers from Asheville by using the filters on our newspapers home page. For all of the materials on DigitalNC for Buncombe County, try the county page.
Thanks to our partners at the Winston Salem African American Archive, DigitalNC is proud to announce that nearly five hundred new records are now available online! This collection contains an astonishing variety of records from Winston-Salem’s African American history, and include records from businesses, churches, sports teams, and more. The records date from as far back as 1848 to as recent as 2020, covering nearly two centuries of history. While many of these records are from Winston-Salem proper, there are an astounding variety from towns such as Kernersville, Clemmons, and Lewisville.
The church records predominantly hail from Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches. There are mid-century Sunday Service Bulletins, newspaper features on prominent pastors, and many photos of churchgoers, choir-members, and church events. A personal highlight of this collection is the inclusion of The Spotlight, a monthly newsletter published by New Bethel Baptist Church. Each issue of The Spotlight featured updates on the lives of its congregation, schedules for church events, and photos of previous events. This batch includes seven issues of The Spotlight, ranging from 1956 to 1974 and chronicling over a decade of New Bethel’s flock.
Also included in this collection are an excellent series of records highlighting Black owned businesses from 20th century Forsyth County. Two issues of the N.C. Minority Business Directory provide resource guides for the years 1995 and 1992, and a set of photographs picture business owners relaxing, smiling, or working in their shops. Businesses featured in this collection include the Twin City Bus Line, WTOB Radio Broadcasting, and Wilson’s Grocery Store.
Perhaps the most colorful feature of this batch, however, is the amazing arrangement of sports records from Winston-Salem’s history. This collection has an amazing variety of material, from color photographs to football programs to sticky notes. The author’s personal favorite (perhaps of this entire batch!) are the two football programs from Atkins High School. Each of these programs feature amazing cover illustrations, photographs, and team rosters. The programs are filled to the brim with care and attention, with margins in each program featuring notes on referee signals, illustrated in an iconic mid-century copy.
If you’re interested in digging in to this treasure trove of Forsyth County history, you can find all of the new records online at DigitalNC here.
For over 50 years, Forsyth Technical Community College has been providing higher education across 12 locations in Forsyth and Stokes counties. DigitalNC is excited to add our first Forsyth Tech materials with a large batch that includes newspapers, catalogs, handbooks, magazines, yearbooks, and scrapbooks. These documents provide a comprehensive look into Forsyth Tech’s history and how it became a community staple. With documents dating back to the 1960s, visitors to the site can read articles by longtime president Dr. Bob H. Greene, follow legislative debates concerning education funding, or revisit President Obama’s visit to the campus in 2010.
Peruse the Forsyth Technical Community College Student Newspaper here, and see all of the Forsyth Tech materials at their contributor page here. To view more materials from community colleges across North Carolina, please view our North Carolina Community College Collections exhibit here.
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.
