Viewing entries by Kristen Merryman

The Wallace Enterprise now on DigitalNC Thanks to New Partner Thelma Dingus Bryant Library

Wallace Enterprise newspaper front page

Front page of the June 17, 1937 issue of the Wallace Enterprise covering both Eleanor Roosevelt’s visit to the town and a better than ever Strawberry Festival that year.

 

Thanks to our new partner, the Thelma Dingus Bryant Library in Wallace, NC (Duplin County), twenty years of the local paper The Wallace Enterprise is now online.  Over 1,000 issues covering 1931 to 1955 were digitized from microfilm.  The paper covers many local topics of the day in Duplin County and wider eastern North Carolina and had the tagline “Devoted to the Best Interests of the People of Wallace and Duplin County.”  The local strawberry festival which brought in crowds from all over the state to “the largest strawberry market in North Carolina” was covered yearly, as were local elections, school board discussions and lots of coverage of agriculture topics, including crop control measures, which directly affected the largely agricultural workforce in the area.  Eleanor Roosevelt visited in 1937 and gained a lot of glowing coverage when she came.  

To view all the issues of the paper, visit here.  To look at all our newspapers, visit our North Carolina Newspaper Collection.  


Contributions of Vance County People of Color now available on DigitalNC

The book Contributions of Vance County People of Color by Ruth Anita Hawkins Hughes is now available on DigitalNC.  Thanks to a request from a community member, the folks at Granville County Public Library, and UNC Libraries, we were able to digitize this book.  

Four black and white photographs, top left is a woman in a large white dress who is sitting posed, top right is a child in a white dress standing posed, bottom left is a woman on the phone and the bottom right is a woman in a white nursing outfit holding a dog

Photographs of people discussed in the book are included

Written in 1988, the book contains vignettes about many Black residents of Vance County during the 20th century.  The book is broken up into chapters about farm families, and town families, and then by different occupations in the county.  An amazing resource particularly for genealogists, Contributions… is full text searchable, making it easy to search names quickly!  

To view more materials about the Black community in North Carolina, visit our African American newspapers collection and our general collection here.


The Star of Zion newspaper now on DigitalNC

Thanks to funding from the North Caroliniana Society and from the UNC Libraries IDEA grants, one of the oldest African American newspapers in North Carolina, and the longest continuously published, is now online.  The Star of Zion, which is still published today, began publication in 1876 by the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Zion Church.  Issues covering 1884 through 1926 are now on DigitalNC, digitized from microfilm.  The earliest years we digitized are published in a few different places, including Petersburg, Va. and Salisbury, NC.  Beginning in 1896, the paper moved publication to Charlotte, NC where it is still published today.  

Front page of the Star of Zion paper, features several formal posed photographs

Issue highlighting the 1923 graduates of students at schools affiliated with the AME Zion Church

The topics covered by the paper are heavily focused on church activities, including reports from pastors across the country about their localities.  Other topics are also covered, including commentary on political issues of the day.  The papers in 1884 feature the full Republican ticket for the presidency and down, which the editors heartily supported.  The issues in the later years have a wider focus on both issues of the day and church news. 

Quote from Star of Zion paper

An editor’s note from the November 19, 1986 issue.

A rather interesting feature that also pops up often in the paper is a presence of a real rivalry with other denomination based African American publications in the state.  One particularly humorous note was posted by the editor in the November 26, 1896 issue of the paper, noting that the Africo-American Presbyterian was lauding the honorary degree Biddle University (now Johnson C. Smith University) had conferred on George White, elected to serve in the 2nd Congressional District from NC (and the last Black Congressman to serve before Jim Crow).  The editors of the Star noted that Livingstone College, the AME Zion affiliated school in North Carolina, had already given one to him in May of that year.  College and religious rivalries are timeless. 

Screenshot of text from a newspaper editorial.

 Note from the Editor of the Star of Zion in the November 26, 1896 issue

To view more North Carolina African American newspapers, visit our exhibit.  To view more projects supported by the UNC Libraries IDEA Action grants, visit these posts.  


1960s era yearbooks from Columbia High School now on DigitalNC

Seven yearbooks from Columbia High School in Columbia, NC are now online, thanks to our partner Tyrrell County Public Library.  The yearbooks, which cover several years in the 1960s, help to fill out the set from Columbia already on DigitalNC, with now almost a full set running from 1947 to 1972.  

Black and yellow plaid cover of a yearbook

1964 yearbook cover

Yearbook cover for 1966 Columbian with orange paw prints

1966 yearbook cover

Blue text on a gray background for the 1967 Columbian

1967 yearbook cover

To learn more about Tyrrell County Public Library, please visit their partner page.  To view more yearbooks, visit our North Carolina Yearbooks Collection.


Videos from Mitchell Community College now on DigitalNC

Over 30 videos from Mitchell Community College are now on DigitalNC.  They include fall convocations, variety shows from the 1990s, and even a set of commercials that promoted Mitchell Community College programs such as computer technology that aired in 1990.  

Two students sit at a table looking at notebooks with bookbags on the table.

Two students in the library in a clip from footage shot around Mitchell Community College’s Statesville campus.

To view more content on DigitalNC from Mitchell Community College, visit their partner page.

To view more community college content from across NC, visit our Community College exhibit here. 


Several small town North Carolina newspapers from the 19th century now online

Front page of the Enfield Times in 1873

Much of our newspaper digitization is done from microfilm reels, which typically only have one title on a reel.  However, sometimes a paper does not take up a whole reel and to maximize efficiency, when the reel was created, other small runs of papers are included.  Often those small runs are simply a few issues of very old papers where the only extant know copies number 2 or 3 issues.  This was the case with a reel we digitized this past year for the Bladen Journal.  In addition to the Journal, 13 other titles were on the same reel and all have now been added to DigitalNC!  

The full list includes:

Enfield Times 2 issues, 1873
Tar River Beacon 2 issues, 1876
Greenville Express 2 issues, 1880-1881
Cape Fear Lance  1 issue, 1899
The Beacon  2 issues, 1888
The Enfield Progress 1 issue, 1887
Old Constitution  2 issues, 1870
 Franklinton Weekly 3 issues, 1883, 1886, 1893
The Rural Visitor  7 issues, 1898-1899
 Graham Tribune 1 issue, 1900
The Greenville Index  1 issue, 1894
The Western Reporter  1 issue, 1881

Header of the Graham Tribune 1900 newspaper

The towns the papers represent cover the eastern and western portions of the state, with the oldest issue from 1873 and the most recent from 1900 – over a quarter century of coverage from across the state.

To see more newspapers, check out our North Carolina Newspapers section of the website.  


Bertie County materials now on DigitalNC, including W.S. Etheridge HS yearbook and Hope Plantation materials

black and white brochure with a drawing of a plantation style home on it

Our second partner in Bertie County is Historic Hope Plantation, which is a foundation that runs the Hope Plantation historic site in Windsor, NC.  The Foundation was established in 1965 by Bertie County citizens concerned about the fate of the decaying Hope Mansion. According to their website, the site’s “mission is to provide educational, cultural and recreational benefits for the public by the preservation, maintenance and the administration of Historic Hope Plantation as an element of the heritage of the Roanoke-Chowan Region and as an illustration and interpretation of agrarian life in Eastern North Carolina from 1760 to 1840.”Brochure with a color picture of a table with 4 chairs around it

The majority of materials in our first batch from Historic Hope are materials relating to the running of the site, including a very large collection of brochures and programs detailing fundraisers for the museum, as well as visitor pamphlets.  The brochures tell a story themselves, showing how historic house museum interpretation has evolved over time, since the earliest one in 1956 to present day 21st century interpretation that is less decorative arts focused and more focused on telling the story of all those who lived and worked at the plantation, particularly enslaved people.  Some of the staff’s research is also included in the batch, including the court documents of those newly freed men and women who attested their cohabitation before the Civil War ended in order to gain recognition of marriage from the state, as well as research papers written by those affiliated with the site. 

Other related Bertie County materials are also included, particularly a 1954 yearbook from W.S. Etheridge High School which served the Black community of Bertie County before integration.

To learn more about Historic Hope Plantation, visit their partner page.


Over 100 videos from UNC-Pembroke now on DigitalNC

Over 100 videos from UNC-Pembroke, transferred primarily from U-Matic and VHS, are now available on DigitalNC. Thanks to our colleagues in the Southern Folklife Collection, these audiovisual materials were digitized utilizing funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

screenshot from WPSU-TV promo showing a graphic of the main UNCP building

Screenshot from a WPSU-TV promo that aired in 1995

The films cover a range of topics, from promotional films about degree programs at the school, to graduation videos from the 1980s and 1990s.  Some of the films document a trip to Georgia to do a cemetery cleanup at the Croatan Indian Memorial Cemetery.

A substantial portion of the videos are from student produced programming including the Pembroke Forum, and Crosscurrents.

There are also several shows produced by students at Robeson Community College, including RCC Today and Robeson Watch.

To view all materials on DigitalNC from UNC-Pembroke, visit their partner page here.  To view more films and other audio-visual materials from around NC, visit our Sights and Sounds collection.


Issues from 1951 of the Carolina Times are now on DigitalNC

Thanks to funding from an IDEA grant from UNC Libraries, the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center is pleased to now have the full run of 1951 issues of the Carolina Times digitized.  The issues from 1951 were never microfilmed, so they were not included in previous projects to digitize the newspaper which were done from film.

Front Page of July 21, 1951 Carolina Times

 The Carolina Times, edited by Louis Austin from 1927 to 1971, was a paper of national significance. Targeted primarily to the African American community in Durham, the Times covered the long struggle for equal rights for all Americans. The newspaper’s motto was “The Truth Unbridled,” an accurate description of Austin’s honest and forthright depiction of racial injustice in North Carolina and beyond.  It ceased publication in 2020, after just over a century of being the voice of the African American community in Durham and the wider state and South.  

Front page of June 9, 1951 Carolina Times reads "UNC MUST ADMIT NEGROES"

1951 was an pivotal year in many ways for the Civil Rights movement.  It was in June 1951 that UNC finally allowed Black students admission to the school, with admission of Harvey Beech, J. Kenneth Lee, and Floyd McKissick into the law school.  Headlines from the paper throughout the year speak to other efforts to integrate other institutions of higher education, the fight for better funding for Black educational institutions, and early efforts at integration of primary education institutions.  Other topics, including the presence of the Ku Klux Klan across North Carolina and the violence of white supremacy, Jim Crow’s impact on all aspects of Black life, and the work of so many Black North Carolinians to fight the system are all covered throughout the year.  Regular columns on education, religion, and other topics are also included in the paper, as well as Society pages, and regular news about the children of Durham that shows the moments of Black joy to be found in the community as well. 

To view more Black newspapers on DigitalNC, visit our African American Newspapers exhibit.  To learn more about the IDEA grant that funds diversity, equity, and inclusion work at UNC Libraries, visit here


Early yearbooks from Fayetteville Technical Community College now on DigitalNC

Yearbooks covering 1963 to 1969 from Fayetteville Technical Community College are now online.  Fayetteville Tech started in 1961 as the Fayetteville Area Industrial Education Center (IEC) to provide adult education and industrial training to those in Cumberland County and the surrounding area, with a particular draw for former military members, which have a large presence in that area of the state due to Fort Bragg.  In 1963 the institution joined the North Carolina Community College system and became the Fayetteville Industrial Institute, which is remained until becoming Fayetteville Tech in 1988.  

3 black and white photographs of students in a shop, students in a classroom, and students putting up an air duct

Photographs from the Air Conditioning Technology program in the 1963 yearbook

To view more materials from Fayetteville Technical Community College, visit their partner page.  To view more materials from North Carolina community colleges, visit our NC Community College collection here


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