From the title page of the High Point Centennial Festival Celebration program

Five scrapbooks provided by the Heritage Research Center at High Point Public Library are now up on DigitalNC. These scrapbooks collect newspaper clippings that focus on municipal issues in and around High Point, Greensboro, and Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Each scrapbook covers topics in chronological order, with the first volume starting with articles from early 1951, and the last volume ending with articles from 1954. Many newspapers are represented in these scrapbooks including The High Point Enterprise, Greensboro Daily News, and The Beacon.

From the cover of the High Point Centennial Festival Celebration program

Also collected in volume 29, is a program from High Point’s 1951 centennial celebration, which focused on a “Dramatic Historical Spectacle” called “Then & Now” that told the history of High Point. The program also contains many advertisements for High Point businesses, including many furniture companies for which High Point continues to be known today.

Click here to take a look at these 5 scrapbooks, and learn more about the Heritage Research Center at High Point Public Library by visiting their partner page and website.

An excerpt from student Cora Belle Lee’s survey

New materials from Stanly County Museum are now up on DigitalNC. Included in this batch is a student survey from the 1920s, a 1944 ledger from the Albemarle Canteen, an attendance register from the Efird School, an Albemarle City Directory Supplement Edition from 1937, four issues of American and Efird Mills News & Views, and two scrapbooks.

The student survey from a girls boarding school in the 1920s gives a fascinating glimpse into the lives of the girls at the school, and includes information like each student’s favorite expression, flower, song, dish, and their “greatest desire”. Greatest desire responses ranged greatly from girl to girl and included, “to be a nurse”, “love and be loved”, “to see Europe”, “to get married”, “play a piano”, “go out west”, “to be a stage acteur”, “to be a missionary”, and “to go home (now)”. These questions also give us insight into the personalities of the individual girls. While some answered the questions dutifully, others had a bit of fun filling in their answers. In one survey, a girl responded that the color of her hair was white and that she was 8 ft tall. A few girls, in what must have been an inside joke, responded that their “first date with a boy” was in “1492”, with one girl responding “Aug. 9, 1922. (a real date)”. This fun notebook would be a good resource for investigating popular songs, slang, and dishes of the period, and it offers a wonderful personal connection to the girls at this school.

An excerpt from student Elva Jane Cathey’s survey

Candy recipes pasted directly onto the pages of the Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture, 1918

Another unique object in this batch is an extensive scrapbook comprised of various news clippings pasted over the pages of the Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture, 1918. It includes recipes in the first few pages, and then newspaper articles about births, marriages, and deaths in and around Albemarle.

To see the new materials click the links below:

• A & E News and Views
• Albemarle Canteen Ledger
• Albemarle City Directory Supplement
• Efird School Register
• Stanly County Scrapbook
• Student Survey
• Yearbook 1918 Scrapbook

To learn more about the Stanly County Museum, take a look at their partner page, or visit their website.

Francis B. Hays Collection Volume 122, Women’s Clubs I, page 115

The latest batch of scrapbooks from the Francis B. Hays Collection at the Granville County Public Library are now available on DigitalNC. Volumes 116 – 125 include subjects relating to women’s and men’s clubs in Oxford, politics in North Carolina, and weather.

Four of the scrapbooks highlight clubs in the Granville County area. Women’s Clubs I and Women’s Clubs II document the activities of intellectual and service organizations, such as literary societies and girl scouting groups. Men’s Club I and Men’s Club II highlight a variety of fraternal and service organizations, like the Shriners and Lions Clubs. There is also information and clippings about the Masons, which can be researched in context with other materials on DigitalNC, like those from the Grand Lodge of North Carolina. All of the newspaper clippings and print materials in these scrapbooks are full-text searchable and could be useful for genealogy researchers.

Francis B. Hays Collection Volume 124, Weather I, page 165

Francis B. Hays Collection, Volume 124, Weather I, page 175

Additionally, the scrapbooks concerning weather might also be of interest. These scrapbooks contain state and national newspaper clippings about extreme whether incidents, especially during the 1940’s and 1950’s. The images above feature two weather extremes from the triangle area– deep snow in downtown Durham and swimsuit weather in Raleigh in January! Check out Weather I and Weather II for more images and stories like these.

All the recent additions are linked below:

• Banks II
• Women’s Clubs I
• Women’s Clubs II
• Men’s Club I
• Men’s Club II
• Politics I
• Politics II
• Nocalore Vol. III
• Weather I
• Weather II

To learn more about Francis B. Hays and the scrapbooks he created, browse the exhibit page. For more information about Granville County Public Library, visit the contributor page or the website.

A 1961 newspaper headline from an article about foreign language classes being introduced to the school curriculum

A new batch of scrapbooks from the McDowell County Public Library are now available on DigitalNC. These scrapbooks include three volumes about McDowell County schools and two volumes about hospitals in McDowell county. Mary Margaret Greenlee (1892-1965), an educator and historian who began her career in McDowell County, began the compilation of these scrapbooks, which were then continued and completed by her family members.

The McDowell County School scrapbooks span 1960-1992, and include newspaper clippings about school facilities, administration, student activities and clubs, and more. The Hospitals in McDowell County scrapbooks span 1908-1992 and include clippings about hospital staff, expansions, programs and news.

A newspaper clipping showing school children performing a puppet show about car safety

To view these scrapbooks, click the links below:

• Hospitals in McDowell County Vol. 1
• Hospitals in McDowell County Vol. 2
• McDowell County Schools Vol. 6
• McDowell County Schools Vol. 7
• McDowell County Schools Vol. 8

To take a look at other materials from the McDowell County Public Library, including the first five volumes of McDowell County school scrapbooks, visit their partner page. You can also learn more about McDowell County Public Library at their website.