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North Carolina masons who died in WWI and more now online

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memorabilia photos

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A member in full regalia at the 175th anniversary of the Grand Lodge of North Carolina

New materials from out partner The Grand Lodge of Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons of North Carolina are now online. This batch includes several Minute Books and an Account book from St. John’s Lodge no. 1, Minute books and an account book from Zion Lodge no. 81, speeches from well known North Carolina Free Masons such as William Lander and J.M. Lovejoy, letters of correspondence, and more.

One item that may be of particular genealogical interest is a collection of lists of masons who died in World War I. The list is organized by name of lodge and includes the member’s rank, date and place of death, and where he was buried.

Additionally several photographs have been added including images from the 175th anniversary celebration of the Grand Lodge of North Carolina at the Raleigh Memorial Auditorium. The photos show members in full regalia, as well as men in colonial costumes as part of the celebration.

To learn more about The Grand Lodge of Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons of North Carolina, take a look at other digitized items on their partner page, or visit their website.

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Colonial costumes as part of the anniversary celebration

WWII Letters and other materials from Mauney Memorial Library

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directories memorabilia

New materials from Mauney Memorial Library are now up on DigitalNC. This batch includes two City Directories from Kings Mountain, as well as a time book for Kings Mountain Manufacturing Company, and a collection of monthly letters to men in armed forces during WWII from Neisler Mills.

Believing that employees from Neisler Mills serving in World War II would wish to hear news from home, C.E. Neisler Jr., the President of Neisler Mills, organized an occasional letter “of news and happenings” to be sent. The first letter in the collection was sent in August of 1942, and the last was sent in April of 1945. All letters are signed with the pseudonym, “the Old Mountaineer.” The letters include updates about the mill, political happenings, the health and goings on of residents of Kings Mountain, and listings of new Neisler Mills entrants into the armed forces. The Old Mountaineer kept a light tone in many of his letters. One letter includes news that “Will Parrish’s face had been red for the past two weeks” for telling an off-color joke by accident in front of Mrs. Gamble at the filling station. Many of these letters also include a section called, “The Home Front News,” which gathers short excerpts from letters sent in by service members.

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A sign off from the Old Mountaineer

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A bit of humor in the Home Front News section

Take a look at the new materials by clicking the links below:

To see more materials from Mauney Memorial Library, visit their partner page or website.

Valentine’s Day with Rex Hospital

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rex1990003-1In honor of Valentine’s Day, an article in Volume 2, Issue 6 of Nursing Perspectives, published in 1990 by Rex Hospital in Raleigh, discusses the origin of Valentine’s Day, and casts it as an important day to honor those in the field of healthcare. According the the article, like St. Valentine, who died helping others, healthcare professionals consistently “care for the victims of poverty, hunger, and carry the spirit of brotherly love throughout the year.”

Click here to take a look at this issue and read more about this interesting perspective on Valentine’s Day, and here to see other materials provided by Rex Healthcare Library. rex1990003

Pine Knoll Shores newspaper issues through 2016 now online

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newspapers

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A pine woods snake hatching and adult shown in the December 2016 issue of The Shoreline

Issues of the Pine Knoll Shores Newspaper, The Shore Line, from 2015 through 2016, are now online courtesy of the History Committee of the Town of Pine Knoll Shores. These issues join 4 decades of The Shoreline that were added to DigitalNC a year ago.

The Shoreline is a monthly publication that covers various aspects of life in Pine Knoll Shores, and includes articles on community events and clubs, stories about local businesses, notes from the mayor, book reviews, and more. As Pine Knoll Shores is a beach town located along Bogue Banks, there is an emphasis on the great outdoors, including  news stories and event coverage pertaining to fishing, hunting, hiking, and beach-going.

A recent article in the December 2016 issue of The Shoreline tells the story of the 1871 discovery of a new species of snake, the pine wood snake, by botanist Dr. H.C. Yarrow, in present day Pine Knoll Shores. Pine wood snakes are common throughout the southeastern coastal plain, and are completely harmless to humans and pets. They are considered in the article to be “a living piece of Bogue Banks history.”

Click here to view over 40 years of The Shoreline. To learn more about the History Committee of the Town of Pine Knoll Shores, take a look at their partner page, or website.

High Point Scrapbooks now up on DigitalNC

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memorabilia scrapbooks

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From the title page of the High Point Centennial Festival Celebration program

Five scrapbooks provided by the Heritage Research Center at High Point Public Library are now up on DigitalNC. These scrapbooks collect newspaper clippings that focus on municipal issues in and around High Point, Greensboro, and Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Each scrapbook covers topics in chronological order, with the first volume starting with articles from early 1951, and the last volume ending with articles from 1954. Many newspapers are represented in these scrapbooks including The High Point Enterprise, Greensboro Daily News, and The Beacon.

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From the cover of the High Point Centennial Festival Celebration program

Also collected in volume 29, is a program from High Point’s 1951 centennial celebration, which focused on a “Dramatic Historical Spectacle” called “Then & Now” that told the history of High Point. The program also contains many advertisements for High Point businesses, including many furniture companies for which High Point continues to be known today.

Click here to take a look at these 5 scrapbooks, and learn more about the Heritage Research Center at High Point Public Library by visiting their partner page and website.

Recent issues of The Charlotte Jewish News are now online

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A stained glass window by artist Alan Schaefer, as shown in the June 2015 issue of The Charlotte Jewish News.

New issues of The Charlotte Jewish News from 2013 through early 2016 are now online courtesy of The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Charlotte, located at the Levine-Sklut Judaic Library and Resource Center. The new issues join previously digitized issues that go back as far as 1979.

These newsletters were published on a monthly basis, and contain news stories relating to the Jewish community in and around Charlotte, North Carolina. Included are stories covering local holiday celebrations, speakers, and workshops, as well as essays and editorials. As time has gone on, the newsletter has become more and more expansive, with the first newsletters in 1979 being only a few pages long, and more recent issues often topping 40 pages. from the start, the newsletter focused on community building with each issues containing listings of upcoming activities and events. News about different Synagogues and community facilities is also covered in the newsletter. The above photo shows a series of stained glass panels dedicated at Temple Kol Tikvah in 2015 that include twelve Jewish symbols illustrating the Hebrew concept of Kavod, which the artist Alan Schaefer describes as meaning “tribute, honor, and homage.”

Click here to see all the digitized issues of The Charlotte Jewish News. To learn more about the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Charlotte, visit their contributor page, or the website for the Levine-Sklut Judaic Library and Resource Center.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in Black Ink, a publication of UNC’s Black Student Movement

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newspapers underrepresented

image_638x817_from_079_to_27673621-1The above image is the front page of the February 2001 edition of Black Ink, a publication started by the Black Student Movement at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1969. According to the Black Student Movement website, “Black Ink started off as a newsletter, revolutionized into a newspaper, and later transformed into a magazine…it grew to become the source of communication for Black students, a voice for Black issues and the training grounds for Black journalists and business leaders at UNC.” DigitalNC has digitized 212 issues of Black Ink from 1969-2001.

To see more materials from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, visit their partner page. To see more recent issues of Black Ink, visit the Black Ink Magazine’s website.

UNC student handbooks now available

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campuspublications

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Cover of the 1926-1927 Carolina Student Handbook

24 Carolina Student Handbooks from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are now available on DigitalNC. These handbooks span the years 1926-1952 and provide insight into what life was like as an incoming student during that time. The handbooks include academic calendars, campus maps, a welcome from the university president, and helpful information about what to expect as an incoming freshman. The 1926-1927 handbook includes a section about “packing your trunks” and advises freshmen to bring items familiar to current college students such as a set of bed linens, two towels, and a laundry bag, as well as items that may not make it on college packing lists today such as white duck pants, a typewriter, and a dresser scarf. The handbooks also serves as a reminder of how much UNC Chapel Hill has changed over the years. The 1926-1927 handbook has a section on student statistics that lists the student body as including 1,997 undergraduate students, 179 graduate students, and 125 “women students”. That is a far cry form the over 25,000 women and men that make up the current UNC Chapel Hill undergraduate and graduate student body.

These handbooks were published by the Young Men’s Christian Association of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and each handbook includes a special section detailing the association’s objectives, student officers, and campus YMCA facilities.

To see more materials from UNC Chapel Hill, visit their partner page.

1920s student survey and other new Stanly County Museum materials

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memorabilia scrapbooks

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An excerpt from student Cora Belle Lee’s survey

New materials from Stanly County Museum are now up on DigitalNC. Included in this batch is a student survey from the 1920s, a 1944 ledger from the Albemarle Canteen, an attendance register from the Efird School, an Albemarle City Directory Supplement Edition from 1937, four issues of American and Efird Mills News & Views, and two scrapbooks.

The student survey from a girls boarding school in the 1920s gives a fascinating glimpse into the lives of the girls at the school, and includes information like each student’s favorite expression, flower, song, dish, and their “greatest desire”. Greatest desire responses ranged greatly from girl to girl and included, “to be a nurse”, “love and be loved”, “to see Europe”, “to get married”, “play a piano”, “go out west”, “to be a stage acteur”, “to be a missionary”, and “to go home (now)”. These questions also give us insight into the personalities of the individual girls. While some answered the questions dutifully, others had a bit of fun filling in their answers. In one survey, a girl responded that the color of her hair was white and that she was 8 ft tall. A few girls, in what must have been an inside joke, responded that their “first date with a boy” was in “1492”, with one girl responding “Aug. 9, 1922. (a real date)”. This fun notebook would be a good resource for investigating popular songs, slang, and dishes of the period, and it offers a wonderful personal connection to the girls at this school.

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An excerpt from student Elva Jane Cathey’s survey

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Candy recipes pasted directly onto the pages of the Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture, 1918

Another unique object in this batch is an extensive scrapbook comprised of various news clippings pasted over the pages of the Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture, 1918. It includes recipes in the first few pages, and then newspaper articles about births, marriages, and deaths in and around Albemarle.

To see the new materials click the links below:

To learn more about the Stanly County Museum, take a look at their partner page, or visit their website.

Additional issues of the Wake Forest Student now online

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campuspublications

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A poem from volume 24 issue 5 of the Wake Forest Student

New issues of the Wake Forest Student from our partner Wake Forest University are now upon DigitalNC. These issues are from 1900-1906, and  join the previously digitized issues from 1892-1900.

The Wake Forest Student is a literary magazine that was started in 1882 by the Euzelian Society at Wake Forest University. This magazine contains stories, poems, and essays by local authors, reprints of well-known stories and poems, and editorials and news items specific to Wake Forest University.

One recurring section, “In and About college”, lists sentiments and happenings around campus in successions of increasingly long statements. Included are updates on what faculty, staff, and students have been up to, facilities renovations and information, and recounts of special events. While this section always starts off with a few words on each subject, it ends in longer and longer paragraphs about Wake Forest happenings.

To learn more about Wake Forest University, visit their partner page, or take a look at their website.

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The beginning of an “in and about college” section from volume 24 issue 4 of the Wake Forest Student

 

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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.

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