Viewing entries tagged "campuspublications"

Student Writing and Dorm Room Decorating Featured in the Latest Materials From William Peace University

With the help of our partners at William Peace University, we are excited to announce the addition of new literary magazines from William Peace University and early 20th century photographs taken at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The four latest literary magazines, Prism [2018], Prism [2019], Prism [2022], and Prism [2025], join 97 additional literary magazines that were already on DigitalNC. For over a 100 years of student art and literature, be sure to check out William Peace University’s literary magazine collection available on DigitalNC.

This newest batch also includes some old images of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Taken just 30 miles up the road from William Peace University, these five photographs show the campus environment of William Peace University’s collegiate neighbor. In addition to pictures of still-standing campus buildings like the South Building, this latest batch also includes pictures of bygone structures, like Swain Memorial Hall, which was the predecessor of present-day Memorial Hall. Perhaps most interesting of these pictures are two from around 1903 that show dorm interiors at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In one, a close up of a dormitory mantle shows dozens of pictures fastened to the wall and stacked on top of each other above a mantle. In another, the sitting area of a student’s dorm room is decorated with pictures and flags across the walls and door. Above the array of portraits adhered to the door is a small horizontal sign that reads “Pretty Girls Wanted!!”

More information about our partner, William Peace University, can be found on their website here

More materials including over 100 years of the campus yearbook The Lotus can be found on William Peace University’s contributor page, which is linked here.


Queens University of Charlotte Student Newspaper Documents the Lives of College Students in the Early 2000s

With the help of our partners at Queens University of Charlotte, we are excited to announce the addition of 108 new issues of the Queens University of Charlotte Student Newspaper. This latest batch includes over 900 pages that detail student stories, Queens University history, and world events from 1989 to 2014. This new addition adds to the collection of Queens University of Charlotte Student Newspaper issues already available on DigitalNC, which includes issues dating back to 1920 when it was published under the title “Queens Blues.”

The majority of the newest issues hail from the golden years of the early aughts, during a time when the introduction of technology like social media and cellphones left its mark on the world and radically changed the college experience of students. At the same time, students grappled with global issues like the War in Iraq and the 2009 Financial Crisis. Closer to campus, students at the Queens University of Charlotte fought for issues such as better dining standards and increased accessibility. Across a decade of immense change, students at the Queens University of Charlotte did their best to understand the fast-moving currents of the 2000s. These latest issues of the Queens University of Charlotte Student Newspaper record what was in and what was out both on campus and around the world. Below are some examples of students’ ins and outs:

Visitors can browse all issues of the Queens University of Charlotte Student Newspaper here.

More items including photographs, yearbooks, scrapbooks, and journals can be browsed on Queens University of Charlotte’s contributor page here.

Queens University of Charlotte Archives & Special Collection can be found here. Browse Queens University Digital Archives here.

More information about our partner, Queens University of Charlotte, can be found on their website here. 


Scrapbooks and More From Queens Now Available!

Lined paper with the words FOR WOMEN ONLY written on it in big, black letters.
Page from The Princess [1919]

Thanks to our amazing partners at Queens University of Charlotte, DigitalNC is pleased to announce that over a hundred new literary journals and six new beautiful books are now available online! Four of these new books are scrapbooks created for and by Queens students, while the other two are administrative records. They span from as early as 1919 to as late as 1978; combined, the collection offers a cohesive glimpse into campus life on Queens during the twentieth century. This fantastic collection will join Queens University’s burgeoning presence on DigitalNC, which has added almost three hundred records in the last year!

The highlight of this collection is by far a scrapbook titled “The Princess,” created in 1919. Scrapbooks created by students are often artistic and unconventional, pushing the conventional boundaries of the scrapbooking medium, and this volume is no exception. It chronicles Ms. Effie J. Wall’s first year at Queens, from her arrival at orientation to her departure for summer recess. Ms. Wall’s freshman experience is not unlike many modern college students’ — she quickly forms a tightly knit group of friends, finds a “beau,” makes fun of her professors, and dives in to extracurricular activities. Her handwriting fills the margins of each page, providing color commentary on clippings of newspapers and official campus publications. She also includes a variety of unconventional material in her book, including (but not limited to) peanut bags, candy wrappers, locks of her friends’ hair, and scorecards for bridge. The inclusion of these unusual materials hints at that wide-eyed fascination with the wider world many college students experience after moving away from home, even centuries ago. The Princess is an amazing example of humans remaining humans throughout the years (or, rather, teenagers being teenagers!).

Another excellent example of student creativity can be found in the wealth of literary journals included in this collection. Published under a variety of titles during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, these journals embody Queens student’s skills in written and visual art. Each issue contains poems, illustrations, and creative nonfiction created by and for Queens’ faculty and students. The issues span as far back as 1917 to as recently as 2024, meaning DigitalNC now has over a century of published material available online!

We are also pleased to announce that a brand new collection of the Queens University student newspaper has been digitized from microfilm for the very first time! The new issues will join an impressive collection of nearly 500 issues already online, ranging from 1920 to 2005. The papers chronicle campus life at Queens from 1961 to 1985, a period where Queens began accepting male students to its hallowed halls for the very first time. You can find the new issues of the Queens University student newspaper online at DigitalNC here.

You can find The Princess, along with the other scrapbooks and administrative records, online now at DigitalNC here. You can also find the literary journals online now at DigitalNC here. Interested in learning more about Queens University of Charlotte? Try exploring their records online at DigitalNC here, or visiting their website online here. Thanks again to our fantastic partners at Queens University for making this collection, and many other amazing pieces of history, available online at DigitalNC.


Browse Over a Century of Literary Magazines From the Students of William Peace University

With the help of our partners at William Peace University, we are excited to announce that 97 student literary magazines spanning from 1889 to 2024 are now available on DigitalNC. Although living in different worlds and times, generations of students at William Peace University were brought together through producing and reading publications such as this student literary magazine. As with the name of the university itself, the student literary magazine underwent several name changes throughout the years. DigitalNC browsers can view the entirety of this collection here, or, can browse issues from specific titles iterations with the guide below.

William Peace University student literary magazine titles:

More information about our partner, William Peace University, can be found on their website here

More materials including over 100 years of the campus yearbook The Lotus can be found on William Peace University’s contributor page, which is linked here.


Learn About the Almond School in DigitalNC’s Latest Batch

Thanks to our partner, Southwestern Community College (SWCC), a batch containing Student Government Association (SGA) meeting minutes from the mid-1980s to early 2000s along with 20 contractor bid specification packets for materials to build the Almond School in Swain County from October 1943.

Cropped picture of the cover of a contractor packet. The text in the photo reads: CONTRACTOR. Material specifications for Almond School Building for The Board of Education of Swain County. Bryson City, N.C.
Portion of a contractor packet cover.

In the mid-1920s, several small schools located in and around the mountain community of Almond were consolidated into what was referred to as the Almond School. The original school was not used for long, however. A proposal by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to build a dam on the Little Tennessee River at Fontana to provide power and flood control literally sunk the school under the waters of a new lake in 1945. Fontana Dam, known for being the tallest concrete dam east of the Mississippi River, impounds the Little Tennessee River to form the 10,000 acre reservoir of Fontana Lake. According to community members we spoke to during our recent visit to Sylva, North Carolina, parts of the original Almond School can still be seen annually when the lake is drawn down beginning around September when the risk of floods are higher.

Section from a contractor packet titled "War Production Board Regulations." Below the title is written: "Section 7: All orders, regulations and instructions as issued by the War Production Board, Washington, D.C. shall be complied with by the successful bidder in the manufacture, delivery, fabrication, installation (where such is called for) or erection (where such is called for) of the materials called for under these specifications."

The contractor bid specification packets in our newest batch are for the Almond School’s replacement which was moved to Lauada. While this packets may not have the blueprint plans for the school, they provide an extremely detailed list, not only of the specific materials they were going to use, but the location of the proposed building, its priority rating, the nearest railway, payment schedule for contractors, bid deposits, how to format a bid and, interestingly, insight into how building construction was impacted by World War II through War Production Board regulations. According to an article in the August 30, 1943 issue of The Bryson City Times, the plans for the school called for 10 classrooms, principal’s office, teachers’ rest room, library, first aid room, book room, cafeteria, and auditorium. Today, the building continues to be used extensively by the community—though not as a primary school—serving as the primary hub for SWCC’s Nantahala School for the Arts Heritage Arts program, NC State University’s Swain County Cooperative Extension,

To learn more about Southwestern Community College, visit their website here.

To view more materials from across North Carolina, visit our North Carolina Memory Collection linked here.

Information in this blog post was obtained through conversations with community members, WCU’s “Travel Western North Carolina” project, the TVA website, and the National Park Service’s Fontana Dam page.


Publications and Posters from Forsyth Tech Community College!

With help from our partners at Forsyth Tech Community College, we are excited to announce that dozens of new materials including newsletters, commencement programs, handbooks, and posters are now available on DigitalNC! This latest batch of materials includes publications from and about Forsyth Tech Community College from 1991 to 2024. Be sure to check out new issues of Information Weekly, the weekly newsletter published by the college, and new issues of InTouch, the faculty and staff newsletter!

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.


Football Programs From Hendersonville High School Now Online!

Thanks to our partner at Hendersonville High School Alumni Association, we have a new batch of materials that includes decades of the Red & White, Hendersonville High’s premier student newspaper, along with dozens of athletic programs. These programs date as far back as the 1950s, when students danced the sock-hop at Homecoming, to as recently as 2015! Issues of the Red & White will join an existing collection of nearly three hundred issues, nearly doubling the digitized collection. Both the athletic programs and the newspapers are suffused with the love that students and alumni hold for Hendersonville High School, and are an amazing example of community publications.

Going through decades of Hendersonville High School’s athletic programs are an amazing way of feeling this love. Each issue is full of sponsors from local businesses, many of which tout their Bearcat Pride. Older issues of the programs even have full-color illustrations and covers sourced from students and local artists. As the decades progress, these programs get thicker and thicker, as more sports (and alumni sponsors!) are added to the school’s athletic season. While a sport’s uniforms, players, and coaches may change throughout the years, Bearcat Pride stays the same!

At this point, non-Hendersonville-onians may be curious what a Bearcat is. According to student journalists at the Red & White, a bearcat (also known as a binturong) is a weasel-like creature native to South and Southeast Asia. It has dark fur, short legs, and smells strongly of freshly popped popcorn. Decades of lore surrounding Hendersonville High School has given rise to myriad theories as to the origins of this unusual mascot, which is often depicted in the newspaper wearing a sporting tuxedo. Unfortunately, there is no definitive support for any of these theories.

If you’re interested in learning more about Bearcat apocrypha, you can find the newly digitized issues of the Red & White online now at DigitalNC here. More athletically minded readers can find the new collection of Bearcat athletic records online here. You can also find every digital record from the Hendersonville High School Alumni Association available on NC Digital at their partner page here. Thanks again to our wonderful partners at the Hendersonville High School Alumni Association for making this collaboration possible!


Dedication, Education, Featured in New W. B. Wicker Materials, our 350th! partner

Thanks to our new partners at the W. B. Wicker Alumni, DigitalNC is proud to announce that records from the W. B. Wicker School are available online! They also hold the distinction of being our 350th partner at NCDHC! This new collection includes both yearbooks from the school, and paper records published by the school during its operation. Originally named the Lee County Training School, the W. B. Wicker School was founded in 1927, and is one of the oldest educational institutions in Lee County. The school was constructed in part with funds from The Rosenwald Fund. For years, the school was one of the only ways for Lee County’s African-American students to receive a public education in years dominated by Jim Crow legislation and segregation. In the 1960s the school was renamed W. B. Wicker School as a way to honor W. B. Wicker, the school’s longtime popular principal and primary supporter. The school was decommissioned as a high school in 1969 as part of integration efforts for the Lee County schools. Today the building serves as an elementary school for Lee County.

The cover of the 23rd Anniversary program for the Lee County Training School. The cover includes a photograph of the school and a headshot of W. B. Wicker.
The front page of the 23rd Anniversary Program of the Lee County Training School, now online at DigitalNC.

This batch includes a program from the 23rd anniversary of the school, a bulletin from Sanford City Schools, and a booklet advertising the campus’ recent renovations in the twenty-first century. Each record embodies a different aspect of the campus’ history — from its operation by W. B. Wicker in the 1940s, to its status as a national historic landmark in the twenty-first century. A highlight of this batch is “the bulletin of the Sanford City Schools,” which features a front-page story of W. B. Wicker as a place “where excellence is traditional.” The bulletin features stories on the school’s administrative growth, with the school gaining a new librarian, secretary, and full-time assistant principal. Many of the teachers and faculty-members working at W. B. Wicker went to the school as students, or in the case of then-principal Benjamin T. Bullock, worked as a teacher for sixteen years before becoming W. B. Wicker’s successor as principal. Dedication and commitment to the school’s purpose as a space for education are apparent in each of these stories, and readers gain a deeper sense of the importance schools like W. B. Wicker played in their communities.

You can read these new materials online now at DigitalNC here. Thanks again to our amazing new partners at the W. B. Wicker School Alumni for making these records available and our partners at Lee County Libraries for connecting us. If you’re interested in learning more about our new partners, you can visit their new partner page online at DigitalNC here.


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

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:

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

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.


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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.

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