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Thanks to our generous community partner, Olivia Rainey Local History Library, and at the request of our partner Wake Forest Historical Museum, the book Connections: 100 Years of Wake Forest History by Carol W. Pelosi is now available to read for free on DigitalNC. You can flip through the pages of Connections and find local history of Wake Forest, NC ranging from 1910-2008. Information covers topics like farms and crops, the railroad, local businesses, holiday celebrations, festivals, and local government leaders.
To learn more about what our community partners, Olivia Rainey Local History Library are up to please visit their website.
To view other materials made available by the Olivia Rainey Local History Library visit their contributors page.
To view more North Carolina historical items visit the North Carolina Digital Heritage Centers website DigitalNC.
Thanks to our partners at Edgecombe County Memorial Library, we are pleased to announce DigitalNC now has over two hundred new records to explore! Pore over records from Tarboro’s history of shipping and manufacturing, read through decades of magazine club programs, or get inspired by dozens of new recipes! This new batch covers a truly dazzling array of subjects, from as far back as 1878 to as recent as 2022. They include correspondences, legal ledgers, and even uniforms! Whatever your historical interest, this collection likely has something for you.
Locals from or around Tarboro will be pleased to find a great quantity of photographs, publications, and records relating to downtown Tarboro’s historic structures. Historians have taken painstaking efforts over the years to preserve the history of this beautiful town, and the fruits of their labor are now easily seen. Many storefronts, churches, and civic buildings have carefully curated profiles, containing detailed photographs, preserved newspaper clippings, and written histories. Perhaps the most detailed of these profiles is Tarboro’s old town hall building, which served as a fixture of community politics before it was demolished in the late-twentieth century. The destruction of the building is detailed in full, even including detailed photographs of its demolition!
Readers interested in women’s history will be elated to discover over a century’s worth of documents related to the Tarboro Magazine Club, a collective of women dedicated to intellectual growth and community. The Magazine Club has graciously provided decades of correspondences between members, detailed lists of membership records, and magazine subscription lists. A vast number of programs are also included, which list the annual theme of the club alongside a schedule of lectures and talks given by members of the Magazine Club. Educational “learn-at-home” courses were also used by the club, and even include materials from UNC Chapel Hill!
Locals may also fondly remember DeBerry’s Colonial Dining Room, a traditional southern kitchen that served the community for years before its unfortunate closing. Fortunately, our collection now includes a host of photographs, postcards, and menus from the dining room. We even have detailed photographs of the famous uniforms worn by the waitresses! Perhaps most tantalizing of all is the inclusion of over one hundred recipes carefully recorded by Ruby DeBerry, the matriarch of the restaurant. The recipes are an absolute gem, reflecting mid-century southern cuisine in a new way. Miss a dish? Now you can recreate it at home!
Hungry for more? You can find this collection (and more) here. Want to know more about Tarboro? Contact our partners at Edgecombe Memorial Library at their website here. Want to test some recipes? Let us know how they turn out!
We at NCDHC are excited to announce our latest batch of materials contributed by Braswell Memorial Library in Rocky Mount, N.C. This addition is mainly comprised of booklets from the Virginia Dare Book Club dating from 1934 to 1969. Booklets include lists of members and officers as well as scheduled events for the year. Many of these booklets are crafted into shapes including roses, butterflies, and the outline of North Carolina, showcasing members’ artistic talent and dedication to the club.
This collection also includes ten years of Bailey High School student newspapers from 1925-1935. Additionally, we have uploaded 1924-1929 commencement programs and a 1949 Future Farmers of America newsletter from Bailey High School, additional yearbooks for Spring Hope and Southern Nash High Schools, as well as a list of rules and regulations from the Wesley Privette Memorial Library in Bailey, N.C. See these records and all of our digitized materials from Braswell Memorial Library here.
Thanks to our partner, the Museum of the Albemarle, several batches of materials are now available on DigitalNC! The first batch adds several new titles and issues of older Elizabeth City, N.C. newspapers spanning from the 1800s to 1900s.
The second batch of materials contains two magazines and several newspaper clippings highlighting notable Elizabeth City news. Two of the newspaper clippings present in this batch, one from 1902 and the other 1941, directly deal with the infamous Ella Maude “Nell” Cropsey murder in Elizabeth City. The details of the case are provided below using newspaper articles from this batch along with others in our newspaper collection.
According to Ollie Cropsey, her sister Nell Cropsey and James “Jim” Wilcox met in June 1898, just two months after the family moved to Elizabeth City. In the early days, James would come over to see Nell every Sunday and eventually started to come over almost every afternoon. During their time together the two would go on walks, rides, sail, and see shows. However, in the fall of 1901 the two started getting into arguments and spats. After a period of silence and the arrival of Ollie and Nell’s cousin Carrie, the two began speaking again. The night Nell went missing from her family’s waterfront home in Elizabeth City, she was socializing with her visiting cousin Carrie, sister Ollie, LeRoy Crawford, and James Wilcox.
That evening, on November 20, 1901, around 11:10PM, Nell escorted Wilcox presumptively out of the house. About 15 minutes later, Crawford left as well. After the departure of Crawford, Ollie closed the door and windows and went to the bedroom she shared with her sister. She was surprised to find that her sister was not yet in their room, but figured she was either still talking with Wilcox outside or in the dining room and either went to sleep or stayed awake until 12:30AM depending on which newspaper issue you read. Whether she went to sleep or stayed awake, a commotion on the property had Mr. Cropsey getting his gun to defend his pigs. At that point, Ollie told her father to not shoot as James and Nell were potentially in the yard. Not finding Nell in the near vicinity, they began to search for her. Still unable to find her, the family enlisted the help of the community the following day. The search came to an end on December 27th when her body was found close to her home on the surface of the Pasquotank River. Wilcox was found guilty of second degree murder in 1902 and sentenced to 30 years.
According to the newspaper clipping from the March 13, 1941 issue of The Daily Advance, Wilcox’s father—former sheriff of Pasquotank County, Thomas Wilcox—tried several times to have him pardoned on petitions. The pardons were denied by governors two separate times supposedly as a result of Wilcox’s attitude during the search for Nell and towards the Cropsey family during the trial. In 1918, however, Wilcox was pardoned by Governor Thomas Bickett after writing the governor a “humble letter […] declaring innocence.”
The North Carolina Digital Heritage Center is pleased to announce that new materials from our generous partners at North Carolina Central University are now available for viewing and research purposes on DigitalNC! The materials consist of publications from historically Black Churches in and around Raleigh, Durham, Henderson and Oxford North Carolina, a handmade scrapbook consisting of newspaper clippings detailing Black law enforcement officers and agents in Durham and educational materials pertaining to The North Carolina Congress of Colored Parents and Teachers, Inc and the North Carolina Teachers Association. These materials give insight into Black life in the region.
The North Carolina Congress of Colored Parents and Teachers, Inc was founded in 1927 with the mission to improve student attendance rates, promote the overall health of students, lengthen the school year (NCpedia). Additionally local chapters raised money to buy land for schools, beautify campus grounds and to purchase musical instruments and other supplemental educational materials (NCpedia). In the 1950’s and 60’s local units garnered the support of radio and V ads along with a membership of over 300,000 participants to meet financial goals (NCpedia). The materials we have from the North Carolina Congress of Colored Parents and Teacher’s, Inc. are from the mid to late 1960’s. During this time education was still racially segregated by law. However, in 1969 the organization merged with it’s white counterparts and became known as the North Carolina Parent-Teacher’s Association. History of the north Carolina Congress of Colored Parents and Teachers Inc. was gathered from NCpedia.
We have publications for the North Carolina Teachers Association as well. The North Carolina Teachers Association serve African American educators across the state of North Carolina. The organization originated as early as 1881. Educators from across the state would meet annually at various schools for networking and skill sharing sessions. The organization eventually merged with its white counterparts in 1970 when racial segregation ended (NCpedia). We have the a special edition souvenir program from 1970 honoring Mrs. Ruth Braswell Jones, who served as president from 1968-1970. The bulk of materials we have for the North Carolina Teachers Association are standard publications called the Teachers Record that document notable events and accomplishments of Black educators in North Carolina along with their annual conventions. The history of North Carolina Teachers Association was gathered from NCpedia.
You can also browse through materials from historically black churches in and around the region.
The Ladies’ Aid Society minute books are a fascinating resource for learning not only about women’s public life and women’s societies, but noted challenges in Mount Holly and how they were being addressed by a portion of the community. These minute books also feature lists of member names, attendance records, constitution and by-laws, mission statements, and handwritten documents detailing the history of the Society and its different iterations from 1896 to the 1920s.
The Ladies’ Aid Society of the Mount Holly Presbyterian Church was started on October 13, 1896 when the reverend called a meeting of the ladies of the church to organize. The Society was fairly active from 1896 to 1899 with members of the Society making bonnets, aprons, quilts; using dues to help pay for church improvements and debts; and donating to the Barium Springs Home for Children.
Around 1900, there was a period of inactivity until early January of 1906, when the ladies of the church met with the pastor to revive the Society. From 1906 to 1917, the revived Society continued to help pay for improvements to the church and property including the (partial) purchase of a bookcase for the Sunday school; a plate and baptismal bowls; two Psalms and hymns with music for the choir; and a manse. In addition to these improvements, the Society made several donations of clothes to the Barium Springs Home for Children.
In November of 1917, the ladies organized the Missionary Society. Extremely active in their first year, they bought a service flag for the church, pieced a quilt for Barium Springs Home for Children as well as donated to their dining room fund, raised $300 to help build a new church, and sent collection to foreign missions. Nothing is noted about the activities of the Society in the period between 1918 to 1923 in a document outlining the history of the Woman’s Auxiliary found between the pages of the Woman’s Auxiliary Minutes [1928-1932]. However, the Minutes of Missionary Society [1918-1924] fills in the silence of this period with detailed accounts of their meetings and planned activities such as raising money for the dining fund, finishing quilts, appointing ladies to clean up the church on a monthly rotation, and more. The Missionary Society was eventually disorganized in 1923.
However, by the end of 1923, the Woman’s Auxiliary was organized with sixteen enrolled members and contributions given to seven different causes. Similar to previous iterations, the Women’s Auxiliary continued to raise money for various causes and improvements for the church through successful fundraising and events such as the circa 1928 picnic supper at the Kiwanis Club of Gastonia.
To view more materials from the First Presbyterian Church of Mount Holly, view the exhibit page here.
Thank to our partner, Lee County Libraries, batches containing five scrapbooks,1962 yearbook from Sanford High School, and 15 Sanford city directories are now available on DigitalNC! The scrapbooks in this batch adds three Sanford Woman’s Club scrapbooks spanning from 1964 to 1968; a North Carolina’s Finer Committee’s 1955 community projects; and one filled with newspaper clippings related to various Sanford, North Carolina topics from 1957 to 1958. In the second batch are 15 Hill’s Sanford city directories from 1954; 1964; 1966-1978. Included among the city directories are is a yearbook: the 1962 Sanford High School.
In 1955, the Finer Carolina Committee’s head, Dr. J. F. Hulin, reported on the five different community projects from that year. The Sanford, North Carolina’s Finer Carolina Committee Community Projects [1955] scrapbook provides a look into these projects as they were happening using newspaper clippings as well as photographs. Before each new section is a document that provides a detailed list of accomplishments, news, and tasks completed related to that project.
The photographs featured in this post provide a visual for an accomplishment under Project Number Three: General Clean-up and Beautification where neighbors worked together to clean up a littered field and turned the area into a park which featured playground equipment contributed by local Sanford merchants.
Always fun are the photographs from events attended and held by the NCNW Durham Section such as the 2016 Harambee Old School Gala! The Gala pictures feature members along with their friends and families dressed up and having a great time.
Thanks to our partners at the Ocracoke Preservation Society, DigitalNC is proud to announce decades worth of Ocracoke history are now available online! This upload is a collection in multiple parts and includes The Mullet Wrapper newsletter, a compilation of marriage records, half a century’s worth of obituaries and funeral programs, books detailing Ocracoke’s cemeteries, and a detailed list of historic sites from the National Register of Historic Places. Almost every aspect of island life is represented within these records: from parades and exhibits, to local nuptials and obituaries, to the discovery, exploration, and conservation of historic sites.
One of the best ways to become acquainted with the history of Ocracoke Island is to read through The Mullet Wrapper, Ocracoke Preservation Society’s biannual newsletter. Named after the practice of wrapping freshly bought fish in newspapers, The Mullet Wrapper provides a detailed glimpse into the myriad efforts made to preserve Ocracoke history. Within its pages are articles teaching historic home preservation, profiles on notable locals, and news on upcoming educational talks and events. Our collection spans from The Mullet Wrapper’s inception in 1997 to 2017, and even includes two years of newsletters published before The Mullet Wrapper received its name! A highlight of this period is seeing the development of historians understanding of Fort Ocracoke, a sunken structure resting underneath Ocracoke’s bay. The Mullet Wrapper’s publication begins around the fort’s discovery, and as the issues progress more and more articles are released detailing information, eventually ending in the construction of a Civil War memorial near the site.
Additional context is provided for Ocracoke’s history in the form of an extensive report from the National Register of Historic Places. This report details every single historic building, landmark, or structure within Ocracoke’s Historic District, a neighborhood nestled around the bay’s shores. Two maps (one highlighted and one untouched) provide an essential key for understanding the layout of the island, and are themselves a part of preservation history. If you desire additional context, we’ve also uploaded two books containing records of the island’s over eighty historic cemeteries. Each book includes records of the interred, maps of cemetery layouts, and additional context for family or particular sites.
The society’s records also include almost four decades of deaths in or around Ocracoke Island. Funeral programs, obituaries, and hand-written eulogies have been collected and collated for every Ocracoke native’s death, including those occurring hundreds of miles away. Beginning in 1973 and ending in 2021, each year contains a list of every recorded death alongside any related written material. This includes articles published outside of Ocracoke (in the instance of former state senator George Warner), prayer cards for the deceased, and a massive collection of eulogies written by local pastor Jimmy Creech. Reading through these records imparts the sense of just how interconnected community becomes on an island.
Whenever you need a break from the weight of death, refresh with a wedding! Our uploads include a log of local marriages in and around Ocracoke Island that extends as far back as 1735, featuring an extensive list of nuptials, dates, and locations. More recent marriages also include copies of individual marriage certificates from the deed of registers, dating back to the middle of the twentieth century. A personal highlight of the collection are a pair of authentic marriage records from a ceremony taking place in 1912: one between E. Spencer and N. Gaskill, and the other between Albert Stephen and Marnie Spencer.
You can access this absolute bumper crop of history online at DigitalNC here. Still not satisfied? Read more about Ocracoke’s history and preservation at our partners website here, or look through more Ocracoke material on their partner page.
Thanks to our partners at the Raleigh Fire Museum, we’re proud to announce that a new collection of fire records are now available on DigitalNC! This batch contains annual financial reports, fire protection reports, and even a booklet detailing the rules and regulations of Raleigh’s fire department. Ranging from as early as 1948 to as late as 1984, these documents capture the development and growth of Raleigh through the eyes of its firefighters.
Perhaps the most interesting document in the batch is a collection of internal receipts, forms, and records collected over thirty years from Raleigh’s Emergency Rescue Squad. This collection of ephemera reflects the various needs and duties of the rescue squad: fire engine upkeep and maintenance, flyers for events show public outreach, and preserved news reports highlight the pride in a job well done. Many of these documents have handwritten notes on them, giving the reader a closer connection to the firefighters handling the documents.
You can look at more documents from our partners at the Raleigh Fire Museum here. You can also visit their website and learn more about Raleigh’s history with fire here.
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.
