This week we have another 34 titles up on DigitalNC! In this batch we have an article from the Durham Tobacco Plant describing the construction of a new factory being built by W. Duke, Sons & Co., which contained a machine that would revolutionize their tobacco business: The Bonsack machine.

Durham Tobacco Plant, July 16, 1884

In 1881, Virginia native James Bonsack created the first industrial cigarette rolling machine, a task that was done meticulously by hand up until this point. Bonsack partnered with W. Duke, Sons & Co. in 1884 and supplied them with one of his machines that could roll 250,000 cigarettes in a single day, the equivalent of 48 employees. While this acquisition would make the Dukes the leading cigarette producer in the country, the automation of the process forced many skilled rollers out of work.

W. Duke, Sons & Co. 1884 factory. Image via opendurham.org

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:

• The North Carolinian (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – 1869-1903
• The Yadkin Valley News (Mt. Airy, N.C.) – 1880-1895
• The Index (Wilkesboro, N.C.) – 1880-1881
• The News Reporter (Whiteville, N.C.) – 1912-1924
• The Montgomery Vidette (Troy, N.C.) – 1886-1891
• The Southern Vidette (Norwood, N.C.) – 1891-1892
• Carter’s Weekly (North Wilkesboro, N.C.) – 1920-1922
• The Alexander County Journal (Taylorsville, N.C.) – 1887-1888
• Washington Progress (Washington, N.C.) – 1892-1913
• The Chronicle (Wilkesboro, N.C.) – 1890-1911
• The Wilson Mirror (Wilson, N.C.) – 1887-1894
• Windsor Public Ledger (Windsor, N.C.) – 1887-1889
• Windsor Ledger (Windsor, N.C.) – 1889-1915
• The Daily Southerner (Tarboro, N.C.) – 1889-1922
• The Carolina Mountaineer and Waynesville Courier (Waynesville, N.C.) – 1917-1923
• Raleigh Christian Advocate (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1914
• The Elizabeth-City Star (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – 1822-1824
• The Elizabeth-City Star and North-Carolina Eastern Intelligencer (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – 1825-1833
• The North-Carolinian (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1839-1864
• The Greensboro Patriot (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1888
• Durham Tobacco Plant (Durham, N.C.) – 1872-1885
• The Enquirer (Tarboro, N.C.) – 1871-1873
• The Times (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1856-1861
• Halifax Compiler (Halifax, N.C.) – 1818
• Halifax Minerva (Halifax, N.C.) – 1829-1830
• The Edenton Gazette, and North-Carolina Advertiser (Edenton, N.C.) – 1806-1809
• The Edenton Gazette (Edenton, N.C.) – 1809-1813
• The Edenton Gazette, and North-Carolina General Advertiser (Edenton, N.C.) – 1814-1822
• Edenton Gazette (Edenton, N.C.) – 1827-1831
• The N.C. Republican, and Civil Rights Advocate (Weldon, N.C.) – 1884
• The Weldon Patriot (Weldon, N.C.) – 1852-1859
• Railroad Ticket (Weldon, N.C.) – 1881
• The Semi-Weekly State (Weldon, N.C.) – 1867
• Webster’s Weekly (Reidsville, N.C.) – 1881-1916

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.