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Jonesboro Comes to Life in New Historical Society Records

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The title of the Jonesboro Journal.

Thanks to our new partner at the Jonesboro Historical Society, DigitalNC is proud to announce that EIGHTY new records are now available online for the very first time! These materials cover almost every possible aspect of life for Jonesboro residents, from wartime letters and community recipes to yearbooks! Located in Lee County, Jonesboro is now a neighborhood of Sanford, but retains a rich history and was once an independent township. The community retains its independent charm, and has a rich history detailed in the archival record. These new materials range from as far back as 1912, and are as recent as 1996. Mediums run the gamut from the conventional (programs, photographs) to the novel (cookbooks, bulletins). This batch has something for any Tar Heel historian, whether they’re interested in Edwardian fashion or the second world war.

Anyone interested in wartime narratives will be pleased to find an amazing collection of bulletins published by Jonesboro residents. These bulletins were circulated around Lee County, as well as sent overseas to soldiers. Each issue featured letters written by Jonesboro men sent overseas, and often updated their friends and family on their status, station, and well-being. For many families, these letters were often the only news they received on their friends and loved ones, and even those deployed expressed gratitude for updates on where their childhood mates were stationed. During the second world war, Jonesboro men were stationed across the world, including England, northern Africa, and in the Pacific. Home front experiences are also recorded in these newsletters, including prayers written by mothers and clergy. Also included in this collection are photographs of Henry Buchanan, who served in the first world war on mounted horseback!

A photograph of Jonesboro Methodist Church. It is titled "Jonesboro Methodist Church Community Cook Book"
Recipes and more can be found in the Jonesboro Methodist Community Cook Book. A photograph of Jonesboro Methodist Church. It is titled “Jonesboro Methodist Church Community Cook Book!”

For those among us interested in domestic histories, the Community Cook Book published by the Jonesboro Methodist Church will prove particularly appetizing. This book is a wonderful collection of recipes gathered from Jonesboro residents, ranging from soda bread to lobster. Each dish has the name of the community-member who contributed the meal, and they often provide written advice or histories alongside their family recipes. If that’s not enough, the book also provides advice for new couples who may be unaccustomed to hosting guests. The advice features details on setting tables, seating arrangements, silverware, and even proper etiquette once everyone’s seated. Also included are “household hints,” for easy preparation of common ingredients such as tomatoes, pecans, pie crusts, and sandwiches. While some of the etiquette tips may not be as prevalent today (the use of household maids is definitely not as common), this book is a delightful resource for anyone interested in cooking more Southern food, or for those wishing to become “better” hosts.

The collection also includes a wide range of portraits and photographs taken around Jonesboro. If you’re interested in cooking, learning more about the second World War, or just want to look at some gorgeous historic portraits, you can find the batch online now at DigitalNC here. Thanks again to our amazing new partners at the Jonesboro Historical Society for making these records available and for our partner at Lee County Libraries for connecting us.

Medical and Military History Uncovered in the Latest Material from Winston-Salem African American Archive

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memorabilia photos underrepresented

Panoramic photograph of Kate Bitting Reynolds Memorial Hospital (Winston-Salem, N.C.), which served the Black community of Forsyth County from 1938 to 1970. The building pictured to the right of Kate Bitting Memorial Hospital is the nurses' home of the medical facility.
Kate Bitting Reynolds Memorial Hospital and Nurses’ Home
A group of nurses pose on the front steps of Kate Bitting Reynolds Memorial Hospital (Winston-Salem, N.C.).
Nurses at Kate Bitting Reynolds Memorial Hospital

Thanks to our partners at Winston-Salem African American Archive, we are pleased to announce the addition of materials related to African-American military and medical history in and around Winston-Salem, N.C. These latest additions are from two different records groups: the first one related to Kate Bitting Reynolds Memorial Hospital in Winston-Salem, N.C., and the other covering military history from primarily the 1940s. The majority of these new additions are photographs that document African American community care and service. 41 photographs from the Kate Bitting Reynolds Memorial Hospital collection and 25 photographs from the military archive combine for a total of 66 new photographs that are a must-see to DigitalNC.

Opened in 1938, the Kate Bitting Reynolds Memorial Hospital was the first public hospital in Winston-Salem to exclusively serve the African American community and ensure that African American patients had access to quality healthcare. The Kate Bitting Reynolds Memorial Hospital was also the first to employ African American physicians, who assumed complete managerial control over the hospital eight years after it opened. Additionally, the hospital played a pivotal role in teaching new generations of African American medical professionals through its nursing education program and its physicians’ unparalleled involvement in African American medical education around the city and region. Just years after it was built, the 100-bed hospital quickly expanded to 190 beds, making it one of the largest African American hospitals in the country at the time. Although the hospital ceased operations in 1970 and was demolished by 1973, its impact on Winston-Salem is far from forgotten and can be seen throughout the new additions to DigitalNC.

Service members at Morris Field Air Base (Charlotte, N.C.) receiving instruction from First Sergeant Richard A. Stewart about the .30 caliber machine gun that they stand around.
First Sergeant Richard A. Stewart provides instruction on using a .30 caliber machine gun at Morris Field Air Base (Charlotte, N.C.)

The military records and photographs pertain to African American service members from Winston-Salem and the short-lived Morris Field Air Base in Charlotte, N.C. Known as Charlotte Municipal Airport throughout the 1930s, the site of Morris Field Air Base was converted and expanded for military use by the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1941. The base was closed in 1946, and the site would later become Charlotte Douglas International Airport. Two African American companies at the Morris Field Air Base included the 459th Signal Battalion and the 11th Aviation Service Squadron. The Morris L. Slaughter (128th) American Legion Post of Winston-Salem is also featured in these latest pictures.

Portrait of Savannah Johnson in a Women's Army Auxiliary Corps uniform.
Portrait of Savannah Johnson, a member of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps

A final treasure found in these newly digitized photographs includes the records of African American women who served during World War II. Featured on the left is a portrait of Winston-Salem native Savannah Johnson who served in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps / Women’s Army Corps (WAAC / WAC) during the 1940s. WAAC, which was started in 1941, was renamed the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) in 1943 after President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved legislation to fully combine this service organization with the Army to allow these troops to serve overseas. Another picture of African American women serving in the Women’s Auxiliary Corps features ten women posed in uniform together. Also represented in the records from the Winston-Salem African American Archive are other essential roles that African American women played in the war effort like working with the United Service Organization (USO) and producing supplies.

More information about our partner, Winston-Salem African American Archive, can be found on their Facebook page here. 

More materials, including yearbooks, photographs, maps, and additional newspaper issues can be found on the Winston-Salem African American Archive’s contributor page linked here. 

Visitors can also browse two DigitalNC exhibits, African-American Newspapers in North Carolina and North Carolina African American High Schools, that feature materials from Winston-Salem African American Archive.

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

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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:

Title design for the Fall 2004 issue of Technically Speaking. A tiger appears next to the title text.
Title design for the Fall 2004 issue of Technically Speaking

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.

Steamboats, Historic Post Offices, Class Reunions, Presidential Memorials, and More Documented in the Latest Collection of New Materials from Person County Museum of History!

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Part of a panoramic photograph that depicts military troops organized in a special formation across a large field. The troops are dressed in official military uniforms and many individuals hold flags. Numerous lines of handwriting say, "Memorial Ceremonies for Pres. Harding", "Fort Bragg N.C.", and "August 6, 1923"
The middle section of a panoramic photograph taken at Fort Bragg (now known as Fort Liberty) on August 6, 1923 that captures a memorial ceremony honoring President Warren Harding, who had passed away days earlier.

Thanks to our partners at Person County Museum of History, we are excited to announce a wealth of new materials are now available on DigitalNC. Included in this collection are numerous high school commencement programs and reunion booklets from High Plains School, Person County Training School, Person County High School, and Roxboro High School. Additionally, meeting minutes from the Person County Board of Education, economic development reports, and local business publications are also now available. Photographs from the early 20th century document special historical events like military memorial ceremonies for President Harding, and provide a glimpse of what everyday life looked like at the time, which included having oil delivered by a horse-drawn wagon.

A screengrab of the title displayed on the front cover of the 1900-1903 Push Post Office Ledger.
Front cover of the 1900-1903 Push Post Office Ledger

Historical gems also include two Official Postmasters’ Account & Record Books from 1900 to 1903 and 1903 to 1906 that document local and US Postal Service history. The ledgers were kept by postmaster Nathaniel T. Williams, who ran the Push Post Office that served the unincorporated Push community located in Person County’s Flat River Township. The fourth-class post office was only operational from March 16, 1900, to August 15, 1908, after which the Push community sent and received their mail through the Roxboro Post Office, which had been servicing Person County residents since 1892.

In addition to the Post Office ledgers, one of the more unexpected histories found in this diverse collection of new materials are told by two additional ledgers that originate over a hundred miles away from Person County. The 1887 to 1889 and 1889 to 1890 record books kept by Reuben M. Hearne, an agent for the Old Dominion Steamship Company, illuminate a long past era in North Carolina history when steamboats and river travel were in their golden age. Each ledger contains meticulous logs chronicling the daily passengers and trips of the R. L. Myers, a river steamboat that traveled between the cities of Greenville (Pitt County, N.C.) and Washington (Beaufort County, N.C.). The R. L. Myers was just one of the many river steamers that would traverse the Tar River throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries as they transported goods or passengers between the coastal and inland regions of the state. The Tar River begins on the eastern edge of Person County, adding the age of river travel and steamboats as yet another rich history of Person County.

A travel entry for the day of December 17, 1887 that features the steamboat's name written in calligraphy
A travel entry for December 17, 1887, that features the steamboat’s name written in calligraphy.

Alongside the historic ledgers, photographs, and publications found in this new batch of material from the Person County Museum of History, dozens of new issues of local and student newspapers are also now available on DigitalNC. Included issues are from the following newspapers:

More information about our partner, the Person County Museum of History, can be found here. 

More materials, including yearbooks, photographs, maps, and additional newspaper issues can be found on the Person County Museum of History’s contributor page linked here. 

Visitors can also browse two DigitalNC exhibits, African-American Newspapers in North Carolina and North Carolina African American High Schools, that feature materials from the Person County Museum of History.

A Legacy of Historic Engagement is Preserved in New War of 1812 Records

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memorabilia scrapbooks

Interested in learning more about the War of 1812? Thanks to our new partners at the North Carolina Society Daughters of 1812, now you can! For the first time ever, six scrapbooks chronicling historic preservation, research, and reenactment are now available. Each scrapbook records written histories, historic banquets, and a variety of materials gathered by daughters of War of 1812 veterans in or around North Carolina. The scrapbooks date from as far back as 1940, to as recently as 2012, covering almost a century of historic engagement.

A photograph of two women in historic colonial dress.

Each scrapbook contains a variety of records related to the operation of a historic preservation society. These range from letters written by Senators, to awards granted to members for their service in historic programming and outreach. A personal highlight are the colorful photographs of the Daughters’ reenactment events, where each member would dress in period-appropriate attire (often including their husbands, children, or even grandchildren!). Each members’ dress is evidence of their breathless devotion to historical accuracy, as well as their skill in sewing and tailoring!

The written histories in each scrapbook are also an amazing way to find out more about North Carolina’s involvement in one of the lesser recognized aspects of American history. North Carolina witnessed several historic battles during the course of the war, and its coast bore witness to a rogues’ gallery of privateers, pirates, and buccaneers. Many histories are concerned with one Johnston Blakely, captain of the Wasp. During the War of 1812, Captain Blakely captured many British boats and disrupted countless others. He was a graduate of the University of Chapel Hill in its early days, and remained in North Carolina after his service. Another prominent name mentioned in the scrapbooks is Theodosia Burr, the daughter of Aaron Burr. Theodosia went missing off the coast of the Carolinas around the War of 1812, and several oral histories in the scrapbooks speculate on her fate.

You can read these histories and discover North Carolina’s involvement in the War of 1812 online now here. Thanks again to our amazing partners at the North Carolina Chapter of the Daughters of the War of 1812 for making this collaboration possible. You can find their partner page on DigitalNC here, or visit their website online here.

Scrapbooks Chronicle the History of Community Recreation and Public Parks in Alamance County

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memorabilia scrapbooks

With the help of our partners at Alamance County Public Libraries, we are pleased to announce the addition of several scrapbooks on DigitalNC. These scrapbooks include newspaper clippings dating back to the late 1960s and 1970s, and were compiled by Alamance County Recreation and Parks Department (also known as Alamance Parks). The clippings collected related to community services, events, and news related to the parks and public spaces managed by Alamance Parks.

A newspaper clipping featuring the title "150 Participate in County Fishing Rodeo." The page features on aerial photograph of the Alamance Wildlife Club Lake and three photographs of community children posing with a fish they caught, holding a fishing pole, and sitting in the grass.
Alamance Parks Scrapbook [1972-1976], page 40

DigitalNC visitors can browse the newly available Alamance County Recreation and Parks Department Scrapbooks by clicking the blue, hyperlinked titles below.

Clippings of three images organized around a newspaper title "County Park". The top image features a close up of a birds nest situated on a tree branch and is cut out in oval shape. The bottom left image is snapshot of multiple people canvassing a wooded area, as seen from distanced view that features the trunk of a closer tree taking up the left side of the image. The bottom right image features the trunk of a tree that has a shadow from a nearby tree branch overlayed on it.
Alamance Parks Scrapbook [1972-1976], page 25

Current information about Alamance County Recreation and Parks Department can be found on their Alamance Parks website here.

More information about our partner, Alamance County Public Libraries, can be found here. 

More materials, including yearbooks, photographs, maps, and four newspaper titles can be found on the Alamance County Public Libraries’ contributor page linked here. 

Scrapbook Showcases Community Projects That Won Sanford CP&L’s First Finer Carolina Contest

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Thanks to our partner, the Sanford Woman’s Club, six new scrapbooks with materials related to the Sanford Woman’s Club, Sanford Junior Woman’s Club, and community projects in Sanford are now available to view online.

Cartoon style person wearing a cowboy outfit and spinning a lasso.
Cowboy from Finer Carolina scrapbook.

From 1952 to 1959, cities and towns in Carolina Power and Light Company (CP&L) service areas—including South Carolina—competed with one another for cash awards in the Finer Carolina community improvement contest. In the seven years it was active, the competition incited 4,600 projects aimed at attracting new industry, improving cultural opportunities, upgrading municipal facilities, and more. These improvements were typically documented by the community’s Finer Carolina committee (or similar group) in the form of a scrapbook. Over the years we have digitized several of these scrapbooks, including several from Burgaw and Asheboro. We are excited to share that with our latest batch we now have the Finer Carolina scrapbook for the first ever winner of CP&L’s Finer Carolina contest in North Carolina—Sanford!

For the first Finer Carolina contest, participants had one year—from November 1, 1951 to November 1, 1952—to make their community improvements. Sanford selected construction of new buildings, public school improvements, recreational improvements, industrial and commercial expansion, and improvements initiated by community effort and a program of clean-up and beautification as their broad categories of improvement. Under each of these were several projects headed by one to two community members. A newspaper clipping in the 1951-1952 Finer Carolina Project Sanford Scrapbook lists the proposed projects for each category:

  1. Construction of new buildings: construction of an addition to Lee County Hospital, new woman’s club building, and Central High School library building, along with the landscaping for the buildings.
  2. Public school improvements (all at Central High School): completion of the football stadium, initial effort of developing a botanical garden, construction a new baseball field, and landscaping.
  3. Recreation improvements: installation of irrigated grass greens on Sanford Municipal golf course, construction of a recreational park at the municipal swimming pool, development of McIver Park, and persuading the state highway commission to extend Washington Avenue to give access from what was the “colored residential areas of the city to the colored playground.”
  4. Industrial and commercial expansion: construction of a new industrial building for Schneierson Co., modernization of storefronts, landscaping of grounds of Saco-Lowell shops, and creation of a special committee to obtain new industries for the Sanford area.
  5. Cleaning up and beautification: put up attractive signs advertising Sanford on the highway, sponsorship of civic clubs of a clean-up campaign among property owners and residents, clean-up of city and county-owned property, railroad and bus station property clean-up and special clean-up of service stations, hotels, and stores, and installation of guide curbs and safety zones in front of service stations.
Image showing the corner of an intersection where there are many trees.
Building Sanford Woman’s Club: Before.
Image of a house with a sign posted our front that reads: Sanford Woman's Club.
Building Sanford Woman’s Club: After.

View more progress and finished products in Sanford that won them the Finer Carolina contest, like the building of the new Sanford Woman’s Club building seen above, in the 1951-1952 Finer Carolina Project Sanford Scrapbook.

To view more materials from the Sanford Woman’s Club, visit their contributor page here.

To view more scrapbooks from across North Carolina on DigitalNC, please click here.

Information about the Finer Carolina contest was taken from a previous Finer Carolina blog post in 2012 and the January 23, 1953 issue of The Zebulon Record.

Franklin County Library System Brings a New Partnership and New Family Records!

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Thanks to our new partners at Franklin County Library System, we are excited to announce that nearly a thousand new funeral programs and obituaries are now available on DigitalNC. The funeral programs and obituaries are divided by name and date and can be found in three records on our site:

These funeral programs and obituaries, dating from 1944 to 2022, represent generations of history for many African American families from or associated with Franklin County. The majority of these programs can be found divided among Franklin County Funeral Programs, Alston to Kingsberry, and Franklin County Funeral Programs, Alston to Kingsberry – both of which include indexes at the beginning that list the individuals included in the record.

A screenshot of the DigitalNC viewer for 'Franklin County Funeral Programs, Alston to Kingsberry' that shows a yellow arrow directing users to a query bar labeled "search within this item:"

To easily search for names within each record, users can locate the search bar titled “Search within this record:” at the bottom of the record viewer and type in the last name of the individual(s) they are looking for. Although many last names are found in several programs and obituaries, this search feature is still a great place to start narrowing down a search. The location of the search bar is indicated by a yellow arrow in the screengrab to the right!

More information about our partner, Franklin County Library System, can be found on their website here. 

Visitors can find all collections contributed by the Franklin County Library System on their partner page here.

Visitors can also browse funeral programs and related items from other partners across the state here.

Maps and More from High Point Now Available!

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maps memorabilia

Thanks to our partners at High Point Museum and the Heritage Research Center at High Point Public Library, a new batch of materials including a beautiful series of programs from swim competitions, booklets on High Point manufacturers, and full-color maps of Guilford County. The materials range from as far back as 1920 to as recent as 2018, encompassing nearly a century of North Carolina memory. They will join an already massive collection of High Point Museum materials already online at DigitalNC, with nearly four hundred objects already digitized.

A purple and white map of High Point, North Carolina.
This is just one of the many gorgeous maps in the collection!

The highlight of this collection is absolutely the nine beautifully illustrated maps that detail the geography of High Point and its surrounding area. These nine maps each date from different eras of Guilford County history, and reflect the changing landscape of one of North Carolina’s largest manufacturing centers throughout the years. Care is taken with many of the maps to label the individual streets and businesses, and include meticulously maintained directories. Event maps, such as for the Henredon Classic and North Carolina Shakespeare Festival, include historic blurbs and art for visitors to appreciate. A truly massive amount of care and attention for High Point was poured into the creation of each map, and that care leaps from the page even today.

You can find these new maps, along with the rest of this batch, online now at DigitalNC here. Interested in learning more about High Point’s history? You can find the partner page for our friends at High Point Museum here and the Heritage Research Center at High Point Public Library here. Interested in looking at more historic maps? Try our maps collection online here!

New Hyde County Courthouse Record Now Available

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Thanks to our new partner at the Friends of Hyde Countys Historic 1854 Courthouse, DigitalNC is pleased to announce a brand new report on the courthouse is now available online! This report, from 2011, is an exhaustive body of research drafted by the Historic Research Committee Chairman. It records the names of presiding Superior Court Judges as well as the names of Court Pleas Justices, sorted both chronologically and alphabetically. The report also includes a wonderfully detailed history of the 1854 courthouse, including details on the building’s architectural design and its placement on the National Register of Historic Places.

Image of the side of a brick two story courthouse with each addition marked by the date it was built (1838; 1892; 1909)

The Chairman’s report also includes biographical excerpts on each presiding court justice, alongside notes on additions and improvements made to the courthouse (such as a secure vault in 1909). This body of work is full of amazing historical anecdotes about significant figures in North Carolina’s history. For example, did you know that Joseph W. Todd is said to have been the only lawyer ever to successfully make a joke to the State Supreme Court? He also coined the name “red-legged grass-hoppers” to the state senate’s internal revenue service, who were the first to wear leather leggins in their walks through the Appalachians in search of moonshine stills. Or that Romulus M. Saunders, a longtime legislator for the state, is said to have a “defective” early education?

Interested in learning more about the eighth oldest courthouse in North Carolina? You can find more materials from the Friends of Hyde Countys Historic 1854 Courthouse online at their partner page.

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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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