Today we are highlighting new partner, Andrews Public Library, who has partnered with the NCDHC to digitize notes and documents related to board meetings and annual reports. The library is a Carnegie Library and much of the materials relate to the library being built and it’s earliest days serving the community.  Among the collection is a Minutes of the Board of Trustees, notebook that covers 1916- 1924. Inside the notebook is a newspaper clipping related to the significance of what a Carnegie Library is in regards to origin and design.

Minutes of the Board of Trustees 1916-1924

Newspaper clipping on Andrews’ Carnegie Library

There is also another notebook that covers more than thirty years of Board of Trustees meetings.

Board of Trustees Meeting Notes, 1953-1984

To learn more about Andrews Public Library, visit their partner page here or their website here.  

Andrews Carnegie Library Annual Report, 1922

Charter Members of Raleigh Lodge No. 500, 1899-1900

Twenty new items from the Grand Lodge of Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons of North Carolina are now online, thanks to their continued partnership. These recently digitized materials are mostly comprised of minute books recording various lodges’ meetings, but also includes some petitions for establishing or reestablishing new lodges, a charter for a new lodge, members listings, an address to a lodge, and a scrapbook. Geographically, the new additions document masonic activities in Raleigh, Halifax, High Point, Trenton, Charlotte, Oxford, Lincolnton, Smithfield, and Wilmington, North Carolina. The materials span centuries, with a copy of the Charter for the Royal White Hart Lodge No. 403 of Halifax from 1767 and a scrapbook from the Numa F. Reid Lodge No. 344 of High Point from the 1960s.

Charter of Royal White Hart Lodge No. 403, August 21, 1767

To learn more about The Grand Lodge of Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons of North Carolina, visit their partner page or their website.

The ripples of the Civil War still resonate throughout the United States, especially in the south. North Carolina seceded from the Union in 1861 and joined the confederacy in its fight to maintain the institution of slavery. North Carolina was host to numerous battles during the war and there has been much historical research of those encounters and how towns and people were affected by those tumultuous events. Primary source materials from the Civil War and Reconstruction era are useful for better understanding our past, present, and improving our future as fellow citizens of North Carolina.

Letter certifying that Hollowell was a prisoner of war

Now on our site you can read, though it may be disconcerting at times, original letters and correspondence from J.M. Hollowell, thanks to our partner Wayne County Public Library.  Hollowell was a confederate soldier from North Carolina who was imprisoned by Union troops for a period of time during the Civil War. Included in this collection is a memoir, of sorts, by Hollowell that was published in 1939. Based on a series of articles he wrote in 1909 for the Goldsboro Weekly Record,  this memoir published nearly thirty years after his death, gives the reader insight into the life, culture, and prejudices of a North Carolina citizen and confederate soldier. Reflecting the views of his peers at the time who were also fighting to maintain the status quo of slavery in the South during the Civil War, this collection of Holloway’s letters and writings gives insight into the daily thoughts of those fighting for the confederacy and how they reacted to Reconstruction, racial progress, and politics following the war.  Explore J.M. Hollowell’s documents here.

War-Time Reminiscences and Other Selections by J.M. Hollowell

A photo showing damage to a tobacco warehouse in Wallace, North Carolina after Hurricane Hazel

A new batch of newspaper clippings and articles that tell the story of Duplin County are now available on DigitalNC, courtesy of our partner, the Duplin County Library. This is the first material of its kind that they have donated and we are privileged to have it.

A 1951 photo of Duplin County Rev. L.C. Prater sawing timber that would go to rebuilding the local Universalist Church.

Included in this collection are clippings from the Duplin Times from 1949-1962, clippings from the Raleigh News & Observer from 1950-1965, and clippings from the Wallace Enterprise from 1953-1964. Many of these assorted clippings focus on Duplin County activities, highlighting important figures of the community, the goings-on at local schools, and what regular people were doing in Duplin County in the middle of the 20th century. There are other articles included here, as well. One of the articles from the Duplin Times also includes a transcribed letter from General Sherman in March 1865, and the clippings from the Raleigh News & Observer include profiles about the life of Dr. John Atkinson Ferrell, a doctor who fought the spread of hookworm in North Carolina.

This is the first material of its kind from the Duplin County Library, and it is a valuable addition to DigitalNC. To learn more from the Duplin County Library, please take a look at their partner page or visit their website.