Thanks to our new partner, the Tyrrell County Public Library, several issues of The Tyrrell County Herald are now available on our website. These issues are from the years 1928-1929 and 1944-1945. The papers mostly recount local news in the county, with a few reports on major national and international events.

All of the newspaper issues from the years 1944-1945 are dedicated to “Tyrrell County Men in the Military Service,” as a result of the country’s involvement in World War II. Each paper includes a listing of citizens who were wounded, taken prisoner, or killed in action during their military service. Several issues from this period also include a section called “Service Men Write”, in which citizens serving in the military were encouraged to write to the paper and these letters were then published for the paper’s readers to see. Most of the messages include thanks from the servicemen for the issues of the paper that they are able to read and how they remind them of home.

Front page of the May 1945 issue of The Tyrrell Times.

A few of these issues report on national and international events and issues that might be familiar to those familiar with 1940s history. The May 1945 issue reports on the celebration of V-E (Victory in Europe) Day, marking the end of the World War II conflict in Europe. The August 1944 issue reports that schools were deciding when to open based on the polio epidemic, in an interesting parallel to current events.

The front page of the August 1944 issue of the The Tyrrell Times.

For more information about the Tyrrell County Public Library, visit their website.

Thanks to our partner, the Wayne County Public Library, we have added several issues of The Goldsboro News from the years 1927-1929 to our website. The paper included a mix of local, national, and international news stories from major world events to local festivities and events.

The November 6, 1928 edition of the newspaper (see below) largely reports on Election Day and the presidential race between Republican Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover and Democratic Governor Al Smith of New York. Ironically, the paper reports that specialists predicted that Smith would be the “easy winner” of the election. However, Hoover was elected that day to his only term in office, which would be marred by the stock market crash of 1929, less than one year later.

The cover page of the November 6, 1928 issue of The Goldsboro News.

The February 15, 1929 issue of the paper (see below) features the breaking of the news of several famous historical events. The headline for this issue centered around the infamous “St. Valentine’s Day” Massacre of seven gang members in Chicago that had occurred the day before publication. The issue also reported a happier historical event, the engagement of famed pilot Charles Lindbergh to his future wife, Anne Morrow, who would soon change her name to Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Just over one year later, Morrow would give birth to the couple’s first child, Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr., who was infamously kidnapped and killed by his abductors in 1932.

The cover page of the February 15, 1929 issue of The Goldsboro News.

For more information about the Wayne County Public Library, please visit their website.