The Latest Learn To Read Old Property Surveys With The Latest From Graham Historical Museum! →
Viewing entries by Summer Stevens
Remove Filter

New Yearbooks and Newspapers from Randolph County Public Library are Now on View

Posted on by

newspapers yearbooks

A picture of the title page of The Ramsonian [1956] yearbook. There is a cartoon illustration of a bighorn ram wearing a hat with an "R" on the front. Below the ram, the title, "The Ramsonian," is printed in cursive script.
Title page from The Ramsonian [1956]

With the help of our partners at Randolph County Public Library, we are excited to announce that three yearbooks and issues from five different newspaper titles are now available to browse on DigitalNC. From Randleman to Farmer to Asheboro to Ramseur, this latest batch of materials come from all across Randolph County. With newspaper issues also hailing from Moravian Falls and Greensboro, these new Randolph County Public Libraries materials actually represent history from all across North Carolina! Additionally, two new newspaper titles were added to DigitalNC with the new issues of the Randleman Enterprise (Randleman, N.C.) and the Randleman News (Randleman, N.C.).

Yearbooks that are now available include:

The title design for the Beacon (Greensboro, N.C.). Two lighthouses are illustrated shining beams of light towards each other. The title, "The Beacon" is printed within the beams of light.
Title design from The Beacon (May 6, 1948)
A closeup clipping of an article titled "The Ill Effect of 'Small Talk'" from the February 14, 1923 issue of the Randleman Enterprise (Randleman, N.C.)
“The Ill Effect of ‘Small Talk'” from the Randleman Enterprise (February 14, 1923)

New newspaper issues that are now available include:

More information about our partner, Randolph County Public Library, can be found here. 

Photographs, yearbooks, scrapbooks, and more can be found on the Randolph County Public Library’s contributor page linked here. 

New Photographs from Lee County Libraries Present a Rich Visual Source for Black History in Lee County

Posted on by

photos underrepresented

A black-and-white snapshot of the busy Endor Street (Horner Boulevard) in Sandford. A woman holding the hands of two children appears to be walking across the street, while a man walking behind her holds two younger children in his arms. Numerous cars are in the road and many business signs are prominently visible on each side of the street.
Endor Street (Horner Boulevard) in Sanford

We are excited to announce that new photographs from The Sanford Herald Photographic Print Collection at Lee County Libraries are now available on DigitalNC. In November 2023, The Sanford Herald (1930-present) donated thousands of images, spanning from the 1930s to the 2000s, to Lee County Libraries. This new back of material includes photographs from the 1930s to the 1970s that document Black community members, businesses, churches, and schools across Lee County. A selection of these photographs is featured below!

A photograph of a smiling family on the porch of their new home. The parents of the Womack family stand to the right of the frame, alongside three of their children. Directly below and in front of them is a row featuring five sitting children.
William Womack Family on the Porch of Their New Home in Gilmore Terrace
A snapshot showing a man holding a large object of furniture and moving it with the assistance of another man. To the left of them, a woman is pointing and appears to be directing the moving effort.
Mr. and Mrs. Martin L. White Break Barriers by Moving into Southern Pines Neighborhood
A portrait of a woman sitting outside on a chair. The woman wears eyeglasses, a hat, and a dress covered by a waist apron while looking away from the camera.
Patsy Womack, 100-Year Old Sanford Resident

More photographs from this collection can be found by checking out our Black History in Sanford, Broadway, and Lee County exhibit here.

Visitors can browse even more photographs documenting Lee County’s history here.

More information about our partner, Lee County Libraries, can be found on their website here. Information about Lee County Libraries Local History and Genealogy Room can be found here.

More materials, including yearbooks, directories, maps, and a newspaper title, can be found on Lee County Libraries’ contributor page, which is linked here.

Medical and Military History Uncovered in the Latest Material from Winston-Salem African American Archive

Posted on by

memorabilia photos underrepresented

Panoramic photograph of Kate Bitting Reynolds Memorial Hospital (Winston-Salem, N.C.), which served the Black community of Forsyth County from 1938 to 1970. The building pictured to the right of Kate Bitting Memorial Hospital is the nurses' home of the medical facility.
Kate Bitting Reynolds Memorial Hospital and Nurses’ Home
A group of nurses pose on the front steps of Kate Bitting Reynolds Memorial Hospital (Winston-Salem, N.C.).
Nurses at Kate Bitting Reynolds Memorial Hospital

Thanks to our partners at Winston-Salem African American Archive, we are pleased to announce the addition of materials related to African-American military and medical history in and around Winston-Salem, N.C. These latest additions are from two different records groups: the first one related to Kate Bitting Reynolds Memorial Hospital in Winston-Salem, N.C., and the other covering military history from primarily the 1940s. The majority of these new additions are photographs that document African American community care and service. 41 photographs from the Kate Bitting Reynolds Memorial Hospital collection and 25 photographs from the military archive combine for a total of 66 new photographs that are a must-see to DigitalNC.

Opened in 1938, the Kate Bitting Reynolds Memorial Hospital was the first public hospital in Winston-Salem to exclusively serve the African American community and ensure that African American patients had access to quality healthcare. The Kate Bitting Reynolds Memorial Hospital was also the first to employ African American physicians, who assumed complete managerial control over the hospital eight years after it opened. Additionally, the hospital played a pivotal role in teaching new generations of African American medical professionals through its nursing education program and its physicians’ unparalleled involvement in African American medical education around the city and region. Just years after it was built, the 100-bed hospital quickly expanded to 190 beds, making it one of the largest African American hospitals in the country at the time. Although the hospital ceased operations in 1970 and was demolished by 1973, its impact on Winston-Salem is far from forgotten and can be seen throughout the new additions to DigitalNC.

Service members at Morris Field Air Base (Charlotte, N.C.) receiving instruction from First Sergeant Richard A. Stewart about the .30 caliber machine gun that they stand around.
First Sergeant Richard A. Stewart provides instruction on using a .30 caliber machine gun at Morris Field Air Base (Charlotte, N.C.)

The military records and photographs pertain to African American service members from Winston-Salem and the short-lived Morris Field Air Base in Charlotte, N.C. Known as Charlotte Municipal Airport throughout the 1930s, the site of Morris Field Air Base was converted and expanded for military use by the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1941. The base was closed in 1946, and the site would later become Charlotte Douglas International Airport. Two African American companies at the Morris Field Air Base included the 459th Signal Battalion and the 11th Aviation Service Squadron. The Morris L. Slaughter (128th) American Legion Post of Winston-Salem is also featured in these latest pictures.

Portrait of Savannah Johnson in a Women's Army Auxiliary Corps uniform.
Portrait of Savannah Johnson, a member of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps

A final treasure found in these newly digitized photographs includes the records of African American women who served during World War II. Featured on the left is a portrait of Winston-Salem native Savannah Johnson who served in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps / Women’s Army Corps (WAAC / WAC) during the 1940s. WAAC, which was started in 1941, was renamed the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) in 1943 after President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved legislation to fully combine this service organization with the Army to allow these troops to serve overseas. Another picture of African American women serving in the Women’s Auxiliary Corps features ten women posed in uniform together. Also represented in the records from the Winston-Salem African American Archive are other essential roles that African American women played in the war effort like working with the United Service Organization (USO) and producing supplies.

More information about our partner, Winston-Salem African American Archive, can be found on their Facebook page here. 

More materials, including yearbooks, photographs, maps, and additional newspaper issues can be found on the Winston-Salem African American Archive’s contributor page linked here. 

Visitors can also browse two DigitalNC exhibits, African-American Newspapers in North Carolina and North Carolina African American High Schools, that feature materials from Winston-Salem African American Archive.

New Additions from Forsyth Tech Community College Span Across 36 Years of Campus History.

Posted on by

campuspublications memorabilia

With help from our partners at Forsyth Tech Community College, we are excited to announce that over one hundred new records related to Forsyth Tech and its students are now available on DigitalNC! This latest batch of materials includes student publications, weekly newsletters, news clippings, and college press releases from 1984 to 2020.

Some highlights from the collection include:

Title design for the Fall 2004 issue of Technically Speaking. A tiger appears next to the title text.
Title design for the Fall 2004 issue of Technically Speaking

More information about our partner, Forsyth Tech Community College, can be found on their website here. 

Information about Forsyth Tech Community College’s Library resources and offerings can be found here.

More materials, including yearbooks, scrapbooks, catalogs, and a newspaper, can be found on Forsyth Tech Community College’s contributor page, which is linked here.

Celebrating Sixty Years of Richmond Community College with Brand New Records

Posted on by

campuspublications

Richmond Community College written out next to its logo, a torch and gear symbol that are surrounded by a red circle.

First and foremost, a big congratulations is in order for our partner Richmond Community College, who celebrated their 60th anniversary in 2024! Richmond Community College was founded as Richmond Technical Institute in 1964 to provide technical, vocational, and higher education for students across Scotland and Richmond Counties. Although Richmond Community College might have had a couple of name changes, campus development projects, and major expansions in curriculum over the past 60 years, its core mission to serve the students of Richmond and Scotland Counties has always rung true. Richmond Community College, along with the 57 other community colleges in the state of North Carolina, play invaluable roles in providing high-quality, accessible education and opportunities for the people in the communities they serve across our state.

The cover illustration for the 1967-1968 Catalog of Richmond Community College (then Richmond Technical Institute). An aerial color drawing depicts a large rectangular white building. Trees and a small lake are seen behind the building, while a large parking lot with cars is in the foreground in front of the building.
Illustration of the Lee building from the 1967 General Catalog

At DigitalNC, some of our favorite moments are when we get to celebrate our partners, whose collaboration helps us show DigitalNC visitors all of the communities and collective histories we share across our beautiful state. As we ring in Richmond Community College’s six decades of service to students in North Carolina, we are excited to announce that new records documenting Richmond Community College’s more recent history are now available on DigitalNC. Course catalogs from 2010 to 2023, as well as student handbooks from 2016 to 2024, join our digital collection from Richmond Community College that spans back to 1967.

More information about our partner, Richmond Community College, can be found here. 

More materials, including yearbooks, handbooks, and even more course catalogs can be found on Richmond Community College’s contributor page linked here. 

Visitors can also find materials from Richmond Community College and other community colleges across the state in DigitalNC’s exhibit, North Carolina Community College Collections.

Steamboats, Historic Post Offices, Class Reunions, Presidential Memorials, and More Documented in the Latest Collection of New Materials from Person County Museum of History!

Posted on by

memorabilia newspapers photos

Part of a panoramic photograph that depicts military troops organized in a special formation across a large field. The troops are dressed in official military uniforms and many individuals hold flags. Numerous lines of handwriting say, "Memorial Ceremonies for Pres. Harding", "Fort Bragg N.C.", and "August 6, 1923"
The middle section of a panoramic photograph taken at Fort Bragg (now known as Fort Liberty) on August 6, 1923 that captures a memorial ceremony honoring President Warren Harding, who had passed away days earlier.

Thanks to our partners at Person County Museum of History, we are excited to announce a wealth of new materials are now available on DigitalNC. Included in this collection are numerous high school commencement programs and reunion booklets from High Plains School, Person County Training School, Person County High School, and Roxboro High School. Additionally, meeting minutes from the Person County Board of Education, economic development reports, and local business publications are also now available. Photographs from the early 20th century document special historical events like military memorial ceremonies for President Harding, and provide a glimpse of what everyday life looked like at the time, which included having oil delivered by a horse-drawn wagon.

A screengrab of the title displayed on the front cover of the 1900-1903 Push Post Office Ledger.
Front cover of the 1900-1903 Push Post Office Ledger

Historical gems also include two Official Postmasters’ Account & Record Books from 1900 to 1903 and 1903 to 1906 that document local and US Postal Service history. The ledgers were kept by postmaster Nathaniel T. Williams, who ran the Push Post Office that served the unincorporated Push community located in Person County’s Flat River Township. The fourth-class post office was only operational from March 16, 1900, to August 15, 1908, after which the Push community sent and received their mail through the Roxboro Post Office, which had been servicing Person County residents since 1892.

In addition to the Post Office ledgers, one of the more unexpected histories found in this diverse collection of new materials are told by two additional ledgers that originate over a hundred miles away from Person County. The 1887 to 1889 and 1889 to 1890 record books kept by Reuben M. Hearne, an agent for the Old Dominion Steamship Company, illuminate a long past era in North Carolina history when steamboats and river travel were in their golden age. Each ledger contains meticulous logs chronicling the daily passengers and trips of the R. L. Myers, a river steamboat that traveled between the cities of Greenville (Pitt County, N.C.) and Washington (Beaufort County, N.C.). The R. L. Myers was just one of the many river steamers that would traverse the Tar River throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries as they transported goods or passengers between the coastal and inland regions of the state. The Tar River begins on the eastern edge of Person County, adding the age of river travel and steamboats as yet another rich history of Person County.

A travel entry for the day of December 17, 1887 that features the steamboat's name written in calligraphy
A travel entry for December 17, 1887, that features the steamboat’s name written in calligraphy.

Alongside the historic ledgers, photographs, and publications found in this new batch of material from the Person County Museum of History, dozens of new issues of local and student newspapers are also now available on DigitalNC. Included issues are from the following newspapers:

More information about our partner, the Person County Museum of History, can be found here. 

More materials, including yearbooks, photographs, maps, and additional newspaper issues can be found on the Person County Museum of History’s contributor page linked here. 

Visitors can also browse two DigitalNC exhibits, African-American Newspapers in North Carolina and North Carolina African American High Schools, that feature materials from the Person County Museum of History.

Scrapbooks Chronicle the History of Community Recreation and Public Parks in Alamance County

Posted on by

memorabilia scrapbooks

With the help of our partners at Alamance County Public Libraries, we are pleased to announce the addition of several scrapbooks on DigitalNC. These scrapbooks include newspaper clippings dating back to the late 1960s and 1970s, and were compiled by Alamance County Recreation and Parks Department (also known as Alamance Parks). The clippings collected related to community services, events, and news related to the parks and public spaces managed by Alamance Parks.

A newspaper clipping featuring the title "150 Participate in County Fishing Rodeo." The page features on aerial photograph of the Alamance Wildlife Club Lake and three photographs of community children posing with a fish they caught, holding a fishing pole, and sitting in the grass.
Alamance Parks Scrapbook [1972-1976], page 40

DigitalNC visitors can browse the newly available Alamance County Recreation and Parks Department Scrapbooks by clicking the blue, hyperlinked titles below.

Clippings of three images organized around a newspaper title "County Park". The top image features a close up of a birds nest situated on a tree branch and is cut out in oval shape. The bottom left image is snapshot of multiple people canvassing a wooded area, as seen from distanced view that features the trunk of a closer tree taking up the left side of the image. The bottom right image features the trunk of a tree that has a shadow from a nearby tree branch overlayed on it.
Alamance Parks Scrapbook [1972-1976], page 25

Current information about Alamance County Recreation and Parks Department can be found on their Alamance Parks website here.

More information about our partner, Alamance County Public Libraries, can be found here. 

More materials, including yearbooks, photographs, maps, and four newspaper titles can be found on the Alamance County Public Libraries’ contributor page linked here. 

Franklin County Library System Brings a New Partnership and New Family Records!

Posted on by

memorabilia underrepresented

Thanks to our new partners at Franklin County Library System, we are excited to announce that nearly a thousand new funeral programs and obituaries are now available on DigitalNC. The funeral programs and obituaries are divided by name and date and can be found in three records on our site:

These funeral programs and obituaries, dating from 1944 to 2022, represent generations of history for many African American families from or associated with Franklin County. The majority of these programs can be found divided among Franklin County Funeral Programs, Alston to Kingsberry, and Franklin County Funeral Programs, Alston to Kingsberry – both of which include indexes at the beginning that list the individuals included in the record.

A screenshot of the DigitalNC viewer for 'Franklin County Funeral Programs, Alston to Kingsberry' that shows a yellow arrow directing users to a query bar labeled "search within this item:"

To easily search for names within each record, users can locate the search bar titled “Search within this record:” at the bottom of the record viewer and type in the last name of the individual(s) they are looking for. Although many last names are found in several programs and obituaries, this search feature is still a great place to start narrowing down a search. The location of the search bar is indicated by a yellow arrow in the screengrab to the right!

More information about our partner, Franklin County Library System, can be found on their website here. 

Visitors can find all collections contributed by the Franklin County Library System on their partner page here.

Visitors can also browse funeral programs and related items from other partners across the state here.

New Issues of the Olin News Offers a Unique Glimpse at a Mountain Community Built Around a Paper Factory

Posted on by

newspapers

With the help of our partners at Transylvania County Library, we are excited to announce that new issues of the Olin News (Brevard, N.C) are now available on DigitalNC. Adding to our preexisting digital collection, which has issues from September 1967 to October 1979, this new batch includes 129 issues dating from November 1955 to July 1967.

Olin News was the publication of the Ecusta Paper Corporation, the first paper mill to manufacture cigarette papers in the United States. Located along the Davidson River in the Pisgah Forest, the Ecusta Paper Corporation was founded by Henry Straus in 1939 and became a major source of employment in Transylvania County. Before the company was sold to the Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation in 1949, the first iteration of the Ecusta Paper Corporation’s newspaper called The Echo, was published in February of 1940. After acquiring the Pisgah Forest plant, the new ownership maintained the tradition of publishing monthly newspapers for its employees with the Olin News.

Factory newspapers like the Olin News are often overlooked, yet uniquely rich resources for community news. Alongside the growth of the Ecusta Paper Mill, Olin News records the history of the Brevard, N.C. community that is inseparably connected with the successes, challenges, and life history of its local mill. The Ecusta Paper Mill brought families to Brevard and supported generations of residents as a major employer in the area. The mill’s monthly publication included the recurring section “Look Who’s Here,” which welcomed the arrival of Brevard’s newest residents who were born to families employed by the company. The company awarded scholarships to local students and announced the achievements of its employee’s children. Additionally, the newspaper routinely published an opinion section, prompting employees across different departments to share their thoughts on specific questions like “When you have a bad day, what do you do to get it off your mind?” and “Who has the hardest job, the housewife or the breadwinner?“.

Underneath the heading "Swimming Area Is Center Of Activity At Camp Straus This Summer" a picture shows a person moments after jumping off a diving board at Camp Straus' lake. The person is pictured in mid-air with their arms outstretched and body parallel to the water below.
Olin News, July 1957

The Ecusta Paper Corporation also ran Camp Straus, a company park named after its founder. The company park was open to employees and their families, as well as local community groups for special events. Amenities included swimming and fishing areas, a central lodge, a small golf course, and outdoor sports courts. Community members from Brevard gathered here for events like the annual company picnic, seasonal youth and adult sports leagues, community swimming and sports lessons, and simply just beat the summer heat. A favorite spot for many, the activities of Camp Straus are extensively chronicled throughout issues of Olin News. While the site of Camp Straus has been mostly demolished and repurposed as a housing development, pictures of the lodge and a sketch of the park’s original layout can be found on DigitalNC here.

Although the sun might have set on Camp Straus and the Ecusta Paper Mill, which closed operations in 2002, the long history of the company and its tight-knit community continue to live on through resources like DigitalNC’s collection of the Olin News and photographic collections from the Transylvania County Library. For DigitalNC visitors with family ties to Brevard or the Ecusta Paper Mill, or visitors simply interested in learning more about the community members of this factory town, DigitalNC allows users to easily find material related to specific individuals through our searchable text technology. Visitors can access this feature to search across issues of the Olin News by using the “Keyword(s)” search bar found here, and can learn more about this technology from a blog post found here.

Four aerial photographs of the location of the Ecusta Paper Mill in the Pisgah Forest. The first photograph, from 1938 before the Ecusta Mill was built, shows a valley of cropland with a river running through it. More aerial photographs from 1940, 1942, and 1950 continue to document the growth of Ecusta Paper Mill.
Olin News, September 1964

DigitalNC also has more 20th-century company newspapers available to browse, including the titles featured below:

Visitors can view more issues of the Olin News here.

More information about our partner, Transylvania County Library, can be found here. 

More materials, including scrapbooks, yearbooks, photographs, maps, and six other newspaper titles can be found on Transylvania County Library’s contributor page linked here. 

Visitors can browse Transylvania: The Architectural History of a Mountain County, a digital exhibit featuring a curated selection of items from our partner here.

A Sneak Peak at the Newly Available Sandhills Community College Student Newspaper!

Posted on by

campuspublications

Thanks to our partners at Sandhills Community College, we are excited to announce that issues from the Sandhills Community College’s student newspaper are now available on DigitalNC. Spanning 1967 to 1982, this addition of the Sandhills Community College Student Newspaper is filled with fun titles, student news, and music reviews across 101 issues of this newly digitized student publication.

An illustration for the newspaper's front page that features the title "Spartan Reflector" in bubble letters above a bird with outstretched wings. A man and woman holding an issues of a newspaper are illustrated on both sides of the title.
A student illustration done for the The Spartan Reflector, October 10, 1973

Across the 18 years of the Sandhills Community College Student Newspaper now available on DigitalNC, the publication’s name changed quite a few times. While titles like The Spartan Reflector (Sept. 1971 – Jan. 1974), The Sandhills Reflector (May 1974 – May 1977), and SCC Miscellanea (Sept. 1978 – Mar. 1982) may have enjoyed the longest run time, other titles like True Grit (Dec. 1969) and The Looking Glass (May 1970 – Feb. 1971) snuck their way into the front-page spotlight – even if just for an issue or two! Student publishers also showed off their creativity with fun illustrations to accompany some of these titles.

A clip of text featuring a heading that says "Fleetwood Mac - Rumours", followed by a body of text that starts with the emphatic sentence "AAAALLLL-RIIIIIIGHT!!!!!!!"
A student’s first words about Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours The Sandhills Reflector, February 24, 1977

Although student journalists at Sandhills Community College may have changed the title of this paper quite a few times, one thing they did not waver in was their ear for good music. Across years of different titles, student newspaper staff, and music genres, columnists never failed to deliver excellent reviews on some of the most anticipated albums of the time. These campus music critics kept busy – from reviewing what would become Stevie Wonder’s best-selling album, Songs in the Key of Life (1976), to assuring readers that “the vocals are even tolerable” on Bob Dylan’s Slow Train Coming (1979), to being just as excited about Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours (1977) as a lot of us still are today.

An illustration for the newspaper's music section that includes a sketch of a man's head with a musical staff and notes flowing into one of his ears. On the other side of his head the words "stick this in your ear" is written in bubble letters, with the word "this" being especially emphasized.
Illustration for the music section SCC Miscellanea, November 1, 1978

Students’ great taste and interest in music comes as no surprise, however, when browsing through countless stories in the Sandhills Community College Student Newspaper that show the students’ commitment, involvement, and patronage of the arts. The paper’s “Artist of the Month” series highlights the young students and aspiring artists at Sandhills Community College. Also recorded in the paper are stories about campus events in the arts, such as the week-long Sandhills Community College Fine Arts Festival and the Art Department’s annual Art Week. Literary arts also had a significant impact on the culture at Sandhills Community College, and entire pages dedicated to student poetry can be found throughout the Sandhills Community College Student Newspaper.

More information about our partner, Sandhills Community College, can be found here. 

Visitors can view issues of the Sandhills Community College Student Newspaper here.

More materials, including minutes, catalogs, and yearbooks can be found on Sandhills Community College’s contributor page linked here.  

To browse our entire collection of student newspapers, select the “Student Papers” filter on our “Newspaper Titles” search page here.

DigitalNC Blog Header Image

About

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.

Social Media Policy

Search the Blog

Tags

10 for 10 12daysofncdhc audio behind the scenes campuspublications directories howto maps memorabilia moving images NCDHC East NCDHC Impact news newspapers onsite oral histories photos primary source set scrapbooks teacher resources underrepresented use yearbooks

Archives

Subscribe

Email subscribers can choose to receive a daily, weekly, or monthly email digest of news and features from the blog.

Newsletter Frequency
RSS Feed