The archives of The Grand Lodge of Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons of North Carolina is one of our newest partners, with photographs, a scrapbook, Lodge publications and more added to DigitalNC.

Chartered in 1771, the Grand Lodge is one of the oldest institutions in the state. Many prominent early North Carolinians–William Hooper and Richard Caswell for example–were members. The archives is currently located in the Executive Office Building on Glenwood Road, in Raleigh; many photos shared through DigitalNC in the current batch show the building, including sketches of the murals in the main lobby created by Allyn Cox, who also provided murals for the U.S. Capitol.

Sketch of one of two murals in the Grand Lodge Executive Office Building in Raleigh. Artist: Allyn Cox.

Photo of mural in Grand Lodge Executive Office Building, Raleigh, N.C. Courtesy the NC Museum of History.

Other items shared through DigitalNC include the following:

• Scrapbook of Masonic Bicentennial Celebrations in North Carolina (1976)
• Photographs of Grand Lodge buildings and staff, as well as the Orphanage at Oxford, NC
• Directories and Bylaws for Lodges around the state
• Programs from several building dedications

We hope to share more from the Grand Lodge in the future. View all of their items currently on DigitalNC.

We’ve recently completed a number of items from Montgomery County Public Library that document the communities of Biscoe and Troy, NC.

• Photographs of Helen Poole’s Elementary School Activities
• Photographs of World War II Veterans
• News of Biscoe Community Scrapbook
• Troy Rotary Club Collection

In an earlier post, we wrote about Helen Poole’s elementary school class and the marionettes she used as a teaching tool over the course of three decades. In addition to the items mentioned in that earlier post, we now have more photographs showing the different types of dramatic productions Poole’s classes created. We have almost no information on the children in these photographs; if you or someone you know went to Troy Elementary in the 1950s-1970s and could supply more information, we’d love to have it.

We have also added photographs of World War II veterans, and a scrapbook documenting the Biscoe community from 1952-1954. The scrapbook includes newspaper clippings showing Biscoe’s growth and social life during that time.

Finally, we’re pleased to help the Library share a considerable number of records of the Troy Rotary Club, from the 1930s to the 1980s. This collection includes attendance records, minutes, rosters, ephemera, and hundres of issues of the club bulletin (“The Wheel Horse”).

“The Wheel Horse” is replete with personal news of the club’s members: birthdays, marriages, births, jobs taken, travel, illnesses, events, and hyperlocal goings-on (one issue discussed someone moving to a new office, and admiration of a particular Christmas tree). We were entertained by the fact that these news tidbits are freely interspersed with factoids, poems, pithy jokes, and groan-worthy puns, many of which showcase a fair bit of 1950s-1970s sexism.

The salesman sat down in the motel restaurant and told the waitress: “Gimme a charred egg burnt toast, a cuppa coffee and then sit down and nag me, I’m homesick.” [April 1968]

Some of these just left us scratching our heads:

At the end of the year an abnormal eel that could swim well, run, climb, and fly a little was made valedictorian. [February 1968]

With all of its names and personal events, this collection could be helpful as well as interesting to a genealogist or local history researcher with an interest in Troy.

You can view all of Montgomery County Public Library’s items on DigitalNC.