To Celebrate 100th Birthday!

Thanks to our partner New Bern-Craven County Public Library and funding from the State Library of North Carolina through IMLS’ LSTA program nearly 600 issues spanning 1976 to 1987 of our newest newspaper, The Pamlico News, is now available on our website.

The paper was first published in the late 1960s as The Pamlico County News, but in 1977 the paper’s name was changed to The Pamlico News. The newspaper is still published under this name today.

Published weekly in Bayboro, North Carolina, the paper focuses on local and broader North Carolina news including topics on community history, events and festivals, citizen accomplishments, education, and more.

A frequent feature of the paper is celebrating older citizens of Pamlico County’s birthdays. One article featuring Mr. Frank Styron’s 100th birthday is especially fascinating. The piece includes a picture of Mr. Styron as well as information on his family history.

To learn more about New Bern-Craven County Public Library, please visit their website.

To view more newspapers from around North Carolina, please click here.

Captain Raleigh T. Harrington

Thanks to our partner Martin Community College and funding from the State Library of North Carolina through IMLS’ LSTA program, new issues of The Enterprise are now available on our website. This batch adds over 1,000 issues from 1943 to 1954.

The Enterprise was published biweekly and focused primarily on community news such as town meetings, citizen’s achievements, deaths, festivals, and more. A frequent feature in issues published during the World War II years are articles highlighting Martin County citizens who joined the war effort and their accomplishments while in the service.

To learn more about Martin Community College, please visit their website.

To view more newspapers from around North Carolina, please click here.

Thanks to our partner Cleveland County Memorial Library and support from the North Caroliniana Society, issues of The Shelby Daily Star from 1923 to 1936 and 1945 are now available on our website.

Originally named the Shelby Review, the newspaper has provided Shelby, North Carolina with local and national news since 1894. Since its first issue, the paper has gone through several name changes. In the late 1890s, the name was changed to the Cleveland Star, which it remained until 1936 when it was then changed to The Shelby Daily Star. After nearly 50 years, the paper was renamed to The Shelby Star in 1984. In 1998, the paper was renamed a final time to The Star, which it still goes by today.

New York City’s Time Square VE Day Celebration, May 7, 1945.

Two particularly interesting articles from this paper come from 1945 on Victory in Europe (May 8) and Victory Over Japan (August 15) Day. Instead of just providing information on the celebrations of the end of the war in large cities such as New York City, these articles provide the reader with a unique and interesting look into how small towns such as Shelby celebrated VE and VJ Day.

Victory Over Japan Day, August 15, 1945

Victory in Europe Day, May 8, 1945

As the May 8th article mentions, Victory in Europe Day was “celebrated calmly and prayerfully in Shelby,” with no “boisterous noise-making like that which marked the close of World War I.”  Many people in the town congregated in churches and auditoriums to sing and pray.

The Victory Over Japan Day article on August 15 presents a different scene in the Town of Shelby. After Japan’s surrender was announced, the courthouse square in Shelby, “was a rootin’ tootin’, yelling, laughing, crying mixture of hilariously happy folk and overloaded automobiles. […] The celebration continued far into the night, and business was at a standstill today with stores, banks, and public buildings closed. Most industrial plants closed down last night soon after the victory signal was received.” Other articles discussing the war and the effects it had on the town can be found in the 1945 issues of the newspaper.

To learn more about the Cleveland County Memorial Library, please visit their website.

To view more newspapers from across North Carolina, please visit our newspapers collection.

Thanks to our partner, University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC), 55 new issues of UNCC’s student newspaper The Carolina Journal are now available on our website. This batch expands our current holdings of the newspaper to include issues from 1976 to 1978. The Carolina Journal covers topics such as college athletics, social events, problems and issues related to campus, and more. 

One problem reported on by The Carolina Journal was the lack of beer at the Jam-Up UNCC event. Traditionally, the event had included “bare legs, bare feet, good music, sunshine and beer,” according to writer Brad Rich. But that year, 1977, the beer was missing and students were curious as to why.

Rich’s investigation into the problem did not yield any definitive answers, but created even more questions. According to the Dean of Students, student fees were considered state money and since they were considered the state’s money, it was against state ABC laws for the University to buy alcohol. The Dean says the reason they were allowed to buy beer before was simply because no one was held directly responsible for the purchase of the alcohol. The former Attorney General, however, stated that the administration at UNCC did not definitively know if student fees counted as state money, but were afraid if they asked that all the money, such as what they earn on athletics, could fall under the control of the Board of Governors. To read the “Why No Beer? article in its entirety, please click here.

“Why No Beer?,” April 12, 1977.

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

To view more newspapers from across North Carolina, please click here.

Thanks to our partner, Greensboro History Museum, new issues of Greensboro High School’s (now Grimsley High School) student newspaper High Life are now available on our website. This batch fills in previous holes from 1921 all the way to 1974. A majority of the articles in the newspaper discuss school related news such as band concerts, athletics, student council elections, fundraisers, student achievements, opinions on life at GHS, and more.

All-State Band Members from Grimsley High School, 1974.

To view more newspapers, please visit our North Carolina Newspaper Collection.