Read About Stanly Community College in Newspaper Clippings Collection

Thanks to our new partner Stanly Community College, we now have newspaper clippings about the school from the 1974-1975 academic year to 2021. Many of the articles describe the activities and accomplishments of the Stanly Community College chapter of Phi Beta Lambda (PBL), a professional organization for students studying business.

A newspaper clipping from 1981 with a photograph of Stanly Community College students in the Phi Beta Lambda professional organization and Albemarle, N.C., community leaders. They are attending a ceremony celebrating the return of American citizens and diplomats after the Iran Hostage Crisis.

While several articles detail the impact that the SCC Phi Beta Lambda chapter had in the Albemarle community, a few connect the organization to a larger context. In 1981, for example, PBL students partnered with community leaders to hold a ceremony celebrating the safe return of United States citizens and diplomats after the Iran Hostage Crisis. The PBL president, vice president, historian, and treasurer were supported by Albemarle Mayor Carlton B. Holt and Tony Lowder, chairman of the Stanly County Board of Commissioners, along with several church leaders.

Most of the newspaper clippings come from The Stanly News & Press, a local paper of Stanly County.

To learn more about Stanly Community College, please visit their website.

The full Stanly Community College collection can be found here. To see more newspapers from around North Carolina, please click here.


40 Titles added to DigitalNC this week!

Header for August 31, 1888 issue of Durham, N.C. paper The Daily Tobacco Plant

This week we have 40 more titles on DigitalNC from all across North Carolina! Most of these papers are from Raleigh (such as the long-running Raleigh Evening Times and the Methodist Episcopal paper Raleigh Christian Advocate) as well as many papers from smaller communities. We have Rich Square’s Roanoke-Chowan Times, The Warrenton Gazette from Warrenton, The Roanoke News from Weldon, and Richmond County’s Rockingham Rocket. Whether it’s marriage announcements, classifieds for lost pets, or local elections where the winner barely reaches 100 votes, these newspapers give a glimpse into what small town life in North Carolina was like over a hundred years ago.

Header for the August 14, 1875 issue of Raleigh, N.C. paper Southern Illustrated Age

Over the next year, we’ll be adding millions of newspaper images to DigitalNC. These images were originally digitized a number of years ago in a partnership with Newspapers.com. That project focused on scanning microfilmed papers published before 1923 held by the North Carolina Collection in Wilson Special Collections Library. While you can currently search all of those pre-1923 issues on Newspapers.com, over the next year we will also make them available in our newspaper database as well. This will allow you to search that content alongside the 2 million pages already on our site – all completely open access and free to use.

This week’s additions include:

If you want to see all of the newspapers we have available on DigitalNC, you can find them here. Thanks to UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries for permission to and support for adding all of this content as well as the content to come. We also thank the North Caroliniana Society for providing funding to support staff working on this project.


New Issues of “The Pilot” from Southern Pines Public Library now on Digital NC

Front Page of The Pilot

Front Page of “The Pilot” newspaper from Southern Pines, NC, dated August 7th, 1968

Thanks to our partner, Southern Pines Public Library, Digital NC now has available new additions of the local newspaper “The Pilot” ranging in the years 1956 to 1968. A local staple in the community, “The Pilot” covers news stories in Southern Pines and the surrounding areas of Moore County. Still active today, “The Pilot is published twice a week.

To see more of the newspaper collection for “The Pilot”, visit here. To view the collection from our partner, Southern Pines Public Library, visit here.

You can also check out our wide selection of newspapers throughout North Carolina by visiting our North Carolina Newspaper Collection.


48 Titles on DigitalNC this week!

Header from Charlotte, N.C. paper The Southern Mechanic

This week we have 48 titles up on DigitalNC! One of the newspapers added this week is The Holden Record. The short-lived Raleigh publication, solely dedicated to discrediting gubernatorial candidate W.W. Holden, was created by abolitionist and Raleigh Register co-publisher H.H. Helper. Holden went on to be elected governor, even though the paper painted him as a violent man and blamed him for the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Holden took an anti-Klan stance and this tension led to the Kirk-Holden War. He served until 1871, was impeached, and charged on eight counts for alleged crimes committed during this time. While the impeachment was politically motivated due to his suppression of the Klan, he is still the only North Carolina governor to have been impeached.

Clippings from 1868 newspaper The Holden Record where they blame W.W. Holden for the assassination of Abraham Lincoln

Over the next year, we’ll be adding millions of newspaper images to DigitalNC. These images were originally digitized a number of years ago in a partnership with Newspapers.com. That project focused on scanning microfilmed papers published before 1923 held by the North Carolina Collection in Wilson Special Collections Library. While you can currently search all of those pre-1923 issues on 

Newspapers.com, over the next year we will also make them available in our newspaper database as well. This will allow you to search that content alongside the 2 million pages already on our site – all completely open access and free to use.

This week’s additions are the following:

If you want to see all of the newspapers we have available on DigitalNC, you can find them here. Thanks to UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries for permission to and support for adding all of this content as well as the content to come. We also thank the North Caroliniana Society for providing funding to support staff working on this project.


New Partner Wake Forest Historical Museum and DuBois School Materials Now Available on DigitalNC

Thanks to our newest partner, Wake Forest Historical Museum, an array of materials related to the DuBois School including yearbooks, student newspaper issues, posters, and a binder of DuBois School memories compiled by Myrlin Skinner are now available here and here.

The DuBois School was one of several African American schools in built in North Carolina that was funded by Julius Rosenwald. The school, which was later renamed to Wake Forest-Rolesville Middle School in the 1960s, is one of only five Rosenwald schools that are still visible today. The binder of materials compiled by Skinner is a wonderful resource for researching the DuBois school. It provides an in-depth look at the history of the school from materials such as letters from alumni, faculty names, photographs, yearbook scans, and newspaper clippings.

We are pleased to introduce our newest partner the Wake Forest Historical Museum. The museum is located in the Calvin Jones House in Wake Forest, North Carolina. They feature variety of exhibits on life in the Town of Wake Forest and surrounding areas as well as the history of Wake Forest College. The museum’s collections and exhibits are continuously expanding and changing with the donation of artifacts from community members and organizations.

To learn more about the Wake Forest Historical Museum, please visit their website.

To view more materials from North Carolina’s African American high schools, please view our North Carolina African American High Schools Collection.


New Partner Person County Museum of History and The Roxboro Courier 1919 Issues Now Available on DigitalNC

The Roxboro Courier header.

Thanks to our newest partner, Person County Museum of History, four new issues of The Roxboro Courier are now available on our website. This batch expands our current holdings of the newspaper to cover from 1919 to 1946. Many of the articles in this batch relate to the aftermath of World War I and President Woodrow Wilson’s negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference.

One of the issues features an article on the creation of “grenade banks.” Hand grenades manufactured in the United States for World War I were being taken and repurposed (after the careful removal of the explosives) into miniature saving banks. The saving banks were then lent to children by community banks as a way to fundraise through War Saving Stamps. After saving for a certain period of time, the children would bring their money-filled grenades to the bank to be counted. If the child had enough money to buy a War Savings Stamp, the grenade would belong to the child. If there was not enough money for the War Savings Stamp, the money had to be invested into Thrift Stamps and the child would have to try to save enough money to keep the grenade bank during the next cycle. To view a picture of a grenade bank or to read the entire article, please click here.

The Person County Museum of History is located in Roxboro, North Carolina in the home of former North Carolina governor W. W. Kitchin. The museum has several interesting exhibits related to Person County history which discuss topics such as Sappony heritage and baseball legend Enos Slaughter. The site also features seven other historic buildings which can also be toured. Currently, the museum is temporarily closed for exhibit renovations and inventory but plans to be opened again soon.

To learn more about the Person County Museum of History, please visit their website.

To view more issues of The Roxboro Courier, please click here.

To view more newspapers from across North Carolina, please click here.


New Yearbooks from Orange County on Digital NC

Digital NC now has 15 new yearbooks available thanks to our partner Orange County Public Library.  The yearbooks highlight the only Black high school for Black students in Orange County. Founded in 1938 as Hillsboro High School, the school was built in the 1930s. Later in 1943, the school changed its name to Central High School. The last class to graduate from Central High was in 1968 due to the integration of schools in Orange County.

CentralHigh1962

The Guidance Club and Student Council at Central High School in 1962.

CentralHigh1962

Girls’ and Boys’ Basketball teams in 1962 at Central High School.

Yearbooks include images from the students’ life such as the Guidance Club and Student Council. Most interesting are the images of the girls’ and boys’ basketball teams. Due to the school not having a gym, the teams would have to play at different locations.

Yearbooks from the white school at the time, Hillsborough High School, are also included in this batch. 

To view more from our partner, Orange County Public Library, visit them here.

To view our NC yearbook collection, visit here.

To view our NC African American High Schools collection, visit here.


Additional Smithfield Herald Issues Now Available

The Smithfield Herald header. The subtitle reads: Smithfield, N.C., Friday, January 6, 1911.

Thanks to funding from the State Library of North Carolina’s LSTA Grant and our partner, Johnston County Heritage Center, over five hundred issues from 1911 to 1925 of The Smithfield Herald are now available on our website. These issues expand DigitalNC’s previously digitized issues from 1901 all the way to 1925.

The paper was first published weekly in Smithfield, North Carolina in 1882 under the name The Weekly Herald. In the late 1880s, the paper was renamed a second and final time to The Smithfield Herald. Articles in the paper focus on local as well as national news. Over one hundred years later, The Smithfield Herald continues to be published in Smithfield, North Carolina.

A special Sunday edition of the paper was printed when William B. Cole, a rich mill owner in Rockingham, North Carolina, was acquitted of the charge of murder. According to the paper, Cole was on trial for the murder of his daughter’s lover and former serviceman—William B. Ormond. The paper is unclear about what motive Cole had to murder Ormond.

After several hours of deliberation and pressuring one of their fellow jurors, the jury concluded that the mill owner was not guilty of the murder of Ormond. The writer’s mention of the defendant as a wealthy man in the article points to the suspicion that he may have been acquitted thanks to his money.

Although found not guilty, the judge would not release the defendant until he proved that he was sane. A day after the verdict was read, Cole attended a hearing in Wilkesboro to determine whether or not he should be sent to the State Hospital for the Insane in Raleigh. It is not mentioned in the two articles about this story if Cole was released or sent to the hospital. 

To read more about the William B. Cole case,  click here and here.

To learn more about the Johnston County Heritage Center, please visit their website.

To view more newspapers from across North Carolina, please click here.


New Materials Added to the Crystal Lee Sutton Collection from Alamance Community College

Color photograph of two smiling individuals with raised fists facing camera, Lenin's tomb with line of visitors in the background

Crystal Lee Sutton and Richard Koritz in Red Square, 1984

Crystal Lee Sutton was a union activist whose story rose to prominence after she was fired from her position at a Roanoke Rapids, N.C. textile plant, J. P. Stevens, because she supported the establishment of a union and advocated for better working conditions and pay. Her story was documented in the movie Norma Rae, and Sutton’s life changed greatly due to the fame that followed the movie’s success. She went on to support unionization efforts in a variety of industries during the rest of her life. Sutton passed away in 2009. 

On behalf of Alamance Community College we have digitized additional materials from the Crystal Lee Sutton collection, which was donated directly to the College’s Library before her death.

This batch of materials contains some of Sutton’s school report cards, correspondence to various supporters, newspaper clippings about her activism and the movie, unionization booklets, and a few photos of Sutton. There are also quite a few of her speeches, both handwritten and typewritten, including those she lists as the first speeches she gave after being fired in 1973

Due to copyright or privacy concerns, not all of the materials from the Sutton collection are online. If you are interested in those items, take a look at this list. You can contact the Alamance Community College Library for access to the items listed there.

You can view the most recent batch along with all of the items we have been able to share online on the Crystal Lee Sutton exhibit page


44 Titles added to DigitalNC this week!

Headers from Raleigh, North Carolina newspapers The State Journal, The Field and Fireside, The Home Rule, and The Rasp.

This week we have 44 newspaper titles up on DigitalNC ranging from 1799 t0 1919! The vast majority of these are Raleigh papers, but we also have some from Charlotte, Asheville, New Bern, Winston-Salem, and Chapel Hill.

Over the next year, we’ll be adding millions of newspaper images to DigitalNC. These images were originally digitized a number of years ago in a partnership with Newspapers.com. That project focused on scanning microfilmed papers published before 1923 held by the North Carolina Collection in Wilson Special Collections Library. While you can currently search all of those pre-1923 issues on Newspapers.com, over the next year we will also make them available in our newspaper database as well. This will allow you to search that content alongside the 2 million pages already on our site – all completely open access and free to use.

This week’s additions are the following:

If you want to see all of the newspapers we have available on DigitalNC, you can find them here. Thanks to UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries for permission to and support for adding all of this content as well as the content to come. We also thank the North Caroliniana Society for providing funding to support staff working on this project.


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

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