Thanks to our partners at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Badin Historic Museum, as well as funding from the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), we are excited to announce new issues of The Badin Tribune are available now on our website!

Ratified in 1919, the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution officially banned the production, sale, and transportation of alcohol in what became known as the Prohibition era. However, North Carolina had barred alcohol from the state twelve years earlier with a referendum vote. This did not stop residents of the Tar Heel state from consuming alcohol, though. Bootleggers transported the illegal goods across state lines, and moonshiners made money by cooking up their own liquor.

Located in Stanly County, Badin also felt the effects of Prohibition. These editions of The Badin Tribune from 1920-1921 report on the successes and failures of Prohibition in North Carolina. Residents saw the initial passing of prohibition law in 1905 as the success of state rights. However, Badin residents became antsy over the passing of a federal amendment, unhappy with the lawmakers in Washington, D.C., passing legislation for the entire country. An August 28, 1920, edition of the paper contains a heated response to this issue, arguing that members of Congress spit on states’ rights by codling extremist prohibition activists. The December 11, 1920, paper echoed a similar sentiment, declaring that although they supported prohibition, they feared the Anti-Saloon League was gaining too much power. The Anti-Saloon League was a political organization pushing national acceptance of the temperance movement. Their efforts were not received well in Badin; once the 18th Amendment passed, residents found the organization irrelevant and more of a nuisance than a champion of moral codes.

Although the Badin residents had their issues with prohibition fanatics, they did embrace the idea of a world without alcohol. The November 27, 1920, paper proclaimed that, like women’s suffrage, the law was “here to stay.” The September 25, 1920, edition reported on the new law’s success, reducing alcohol consumption by millions of gallons.

The addition of the 21st Amendment in 1933 repealed the effects of Prohibition. North Carolina remained a dry state until 1937 with the creation of the Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) system, though bootlegging and moonshine remained commonplace.

To read more about Prohibition in North Carolina, read our article here.

To learn more about the Badin Historic Museum, click here.

To see all editions of The Badin Tribune, click here.

Thanks to our partners at the Moore County Genealogical Society, DigitalNC is proud to announce that over a hundred new issues of The Pilot (Southern Pines, N.C.) are now available! The Pilot has faithfully served the Sandhills region for over a century, and already has an amazing digital presence on DigitalNC with over 3,000 issues currently available. The new issues are from 1970 to 1971 and feature stories fresh from the golf capital of North Carolina.

Excitingly, the illustrations of Glen Rounds are featured in many of these new editions. Rounds was a prominent illustrator and children’s author during the late half of the twentieth century, and he lived in Pinehurst, N.C. for decades. He was a six-time winner of the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, and was a recipient of the Kerlan Award for Children’s Literature. In 1980, Rounds received the North Carolina Award for his achievements—which is the highest civilian award a citizen of the state can receive. His works evoked the splendor of the natural world around him, which often included North Carolina’s flora and fauna. You may recognize his unique style from his illustrations of stories such as Wild Appaloosa, Beavers, or his edition of The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf. The author of this blog grew up in Moore County, and has fond memories of reading Rounds, whose publications often lined the shelves of local libraries and book stores.

Beyond Glen Rounds’ inclusion in these issues, The Pilot chronicles the Sandhills masterfully. During the 1970s, towns such as Pinehurst, Southern Pines, and Carthage were communities unrivaled by any in the state. Pinehurst had been a prominent resort town for decades, and the rest of Moore County was used to hosting a wide range of golfers, tourists, and equestrians within its quiet pines. This focus on hospitality created an atmosphere where local businesses were bolstered and natural beauty was preserved. Many of the businesses advertised in the pages still stand today as local staples, such as The Jefferson Inn or the Sunrise Theater. Transplants to Southern Pines, The Pilot‘s home, often liken the area to fictional communities such as Stars Hollow from the Gilmore Girls or Sleepy Hollow. Looking back on old editions of The Pilot is a wonderful way of learning more about the Sandhills region, one of our state’s gems.

You can find the new editions of The Pilot now online at DigitalNC here. Thanks again to our wonderful partners at the Moore County Genealogical Society for making this collaboration possible. You can learn more about the Society on their partner page linked here. If you’re interested in learning more about Moore County (and who could blame you?), you can find all of DigitalNC’s holdings of The Pilot online here.

Thanks to our partners at The Alliance for Historic Hillsborough, we are thrilled to announce new issues of The News (Chapel Hill, N.C.) and The News or Orange County (Hillsboro, N.C.) are now available online!

These papers span from January 1915 to December 1944, covering local and global events, enticing advertisements, thrilling short stories, and uplifting sermons. Throughout all these editions, World War I and II loomed over Chapel Hill residents as a source of stress and anxiety.

World War I erupted across Europe after Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princip assassinated Austria-Hungary Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The United States remained neutral until April 1917, when President Woodrow Wilson declared war on Germany after repeated maritime attacks on American ships. The decision to battle across the ocean in Europe meant that men would have to join the armed forces and fight.

The News followed the increasing American military presence closely. By May 10, 1917, large groups of male students from the University of North Carolina: Chapel Hill had already departed for Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, to report for duty. The front page of the paper’s May 31, 1917 edition has news of the war and messages urging men to register for the Selective Service. World War I began to consume the paper with more frequent updates from the front lines and continued calls for men in the armed forces. Those who could not serve were encouraged to volunteer with the Red Cross. The News was also responsible for sharing the draft numbers with their readers, with the selection taking up a two-page spread in the July 26, 1917 edition. The entire country felt the effects of the war, and Orange County ensured their subscribers had access to the latest news.

Stories about World War I did not disappear after Armistice Day. Peace talks soon occupied the world stage as leaders from across the globe arrived in Paris, France, to negotiate. The News reported on progressing peace talks across the Atlantic, sharing stories of fragile alliances and international trials. Allied powers placed the majority of the blame on Germany and used the Paris Peace Talks to assign heavy punishments to their enemy. The May 22, 1919, issue of The News reported on the Kaiser’s troubled trial and the German government’s staunch objections to potential treaty terms. Negotiations dragged on for a year, and by the time President Wilson returned from France in July 1919, the treaty was still not finalized. The News reported Wilson’s homecoming and desire to see the United States enter the League of Nations.

The US re-entered a period of isolation following the Treaty of Paris. Wilson’s dream to join the League of Nations ultimately failed, and America retreated from international politics. The Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, thrust the United States back onto the world stage as they officially entered the conflict. The 1944 editions of The News highlight citizens’ war efforts and news from the front. The patriotic slogan “One Week Nearer Victory” is at the top of the front page of each edition in an attempt to inspire Orange County residents. Advertisements for victory gardens, war bonds, and rationing became weekly staples in the paper. Propaganda posters were commonplace in the newly minted The News of Orange County (renamed in February of 1944), reminding Americans to stay strong in their fight against foreign enemies. Once again, the entire country had become involved in the conflict and quest for victory.

These issues of The News and The News of Orange County highlight how world conflicts rocked American soil. Orange County residents sacrificed time, money, and men to support the American efforts overseas, and the staff at the newspaper were there to capture the stories every time.

View other issues of The News of Orange County on our website here. 

To learn more about The Alliance for Historic Hillsborough, visit their website here.

Thanks to our partners at Madison County Public Library, as well as generous funding from the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), we are excited to announce that nearly 600 new issues of The News-Record (Marshall, N.C.) are now available on DigitalNC. These newest additions help fill in 11 years of DigitalNC’s collection of The News-Record (Marshall, N.C.), which includes over 3,500 issues spanning from 1902 to 1988.

DigitalNC visitors can now browse issues from the following years:

• 1917
• 1918
• 1919
• 1920
• 1930
• 1931
• 1932
• 1933
• 1934
• 1935
• 1936

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

More collections, including scrapbooks and over 50 yearbooks, can be found on the Madison County Public Library’s contributor page linked here. 

Thanks to our amazing partners at the New Hanover County Public Library, DigitalNC is proud to announce that new issues of the Wilmington Morning Star are now available online! These new issues cover daily life in Wilmington from over a century ago — in the far-flung year of 1924. They will join over twenty thousand issues currently available online, ranging from as far back as 1867 and as recently as 1947!

The 1924 issues of The Wilmington Morning Star cover a revolutionary and exciting period of American life — Wilmington residents wrote fervently on international politics, women gained increased autonomy in social and professional spheres, and advancements in technology increased both quality of life and access to information. For the first time ever, mankind could fly, speak through airwaves, and even file for divorce. In a time when societal and technological advancements revolutionized America’s understanding of possibility, the unbelievable became believable. All of these factors lead to some interesting articles in The Wilmington Morning Star — such as Laddie the hero dog answering phone calls, or psychic visions reuniting lost sons with their mothers.

Closer to home, The Wilmington Morning Star paid special mind to the nuptials of the Biltmore Vanderbilts. In 1924, Miss Cornelia Vanderbilt announced her nuptials only two years after her societal debut. In an announcement to the Times, Miss Cornelia Vanderbilt announced her engagement to the Honorable John F. A. Cecil, the then secretary of the British embassy in Washington. The paper breathlessly followed the engagement, wedding, and reception over the span of 1924, and updates were frequently posted on the front page of its society section. Common topics include Miss Vanderbilt’s wintering at the Biltmore, her rumored meeting of Cecil, and their many appearances in polite society. These articles were often sandwiched between updates on the proliferation of divorce across the country, which struck many with apprehension on marriage. Reading through these stories evokes an atmosphere similar to a Regency romance: is John Cecil marrying into the Vanderbilt family for the right reasons? How do Miss Vanderbilt’s parents feel about her engagement? Will the marriage take place at the Biltmore in Asheville, or even Raleigh? Who will cater? It’s reassuring to see the cult of celebrity through the retrospective lens of a century, and one is struck by the similarities between the idle rich of yesteryear and today.

You can read all about psychic dogs and Vanderbilt family right now at DigitalNC here. Interested in reading more issues of The Wilmington Star? You can find our collection of over twenty thousand issues online now at DigitalNC here. Thanks again to our amazing partners at the New Hanover County Public Library for making this collection available. If you’re interested in learning more about our partners, you can find their page on DigitalNC here, or visit their website online here.