Over 300 new photos from the M.S. Brown Collection are now on DigitalNC courtesy of the Edgecombe County Memorial Library. M.S. Brown was an avid amateur photographer, and these new additions document a wide variety of aspects of daily life in Tarboro and Edgecombe County. Included are new photographs of Tarboro High School, the Tarboro town clock, businesses in Tarboro, portraits of Tarboro citizens, and much more.

A folder of M.S. Brown memorabilia is also now available, which includes “The M.S.B. March”, an original piece of music composed by Roy L. Russel and dedicated to M.S. Brown in light of all of his important contributions to the Tarboro community.

To learn more about the MS Brown collection, view previous posts about materials digitized from it here.  To learn more about Edgecombe County Memorial Library, visit their partner page here.

DigitalNC has published more than 700 photos from the Benson Museum of Local History in Johnston County. The photos document various aspects of the Benson community from as early as the mid nineteenth century through the 1990s. From family portraits to the “Mule Day” celebrations, these photos give a unique look into many aspects of life in Benson across the decades.

The most recent batch includes photos of little pageant contestants, community awards, family portraits, hog killings, and more.

To learn more about the Benson Museum of Local History please visit their contributor page, homepage or the DigitalNC blog.

DigitalNC has a new exhibit focused on North Carolina architecture, courtesy of our partner, the Transylvania County Library.

This new exhibit contains nearly 1500 images, added to the Images of North Carolina Collection.

The exhibit, Transylvania: The Architectural History of a Mountain County, features nearly 1,500 images taken during an architectural survey done of the county in the early 1990s.  Architectural surveys are inventories of built, intact structures in a given area. These images document structures and communities in Brevard, Rosman, Lake Toxaway, Cedar Mountain, Pisgah Forest, and other areas. The County was founded in 1861 as an agricultural community, which is evident through the survey. Hundreds of images depict homes, barns, spring houses, smokehouses, chicken houses, silos, and many other structures that reflect the activities and roots of the rural community.

In addition to farms, the survey also documents churches, cemeteries, local businesses, and schools, some of which have since been demolished. These resources include corresponding data that describe locations, family names, and historical information that could serve as excellent resources for genealogists or researchers.

To view more images of architecture in North Carolina, check out the Images of North Carolina Collection or the Rockingham County Legacy Exhibit, which also contains an architectural survey.

To learn more about the Transylvania County Library, please visit the contributor page or the website.

Butler Tobacco Factory

Featured in the latest batch of architecture slides from Rockingham Community College to be digitized by DigitalNC are several well known homes, including the Hermitage, Chinqua-Penn Plantation, and the David Settle Reid house.  Also included are mills, barns, and even a saloon.  Taken in the early 1980s, these photographs include multiple exterior as well as interior views of the buildings. Some of buildings still stand today and others no longer exist, but location, owners’ names, and building dates are included in the descriptions of the photographs.

Crafton House, interior view

David Settle Reid House

You can learn more about these slides and the architecture depicted  in the Guide to the Early Rockingham County Architecture Slide Collection. See more from Rockingham Community College on the contributor page and learn more on their website.

Kraft Family Bat Mitzvah Celebration. 1954

Digital NC is happy to welcome more additions from Jewish Historical Society of Greater Charlotte located at the Levine-Sklut Judaic Library Resource Center! 30 new photos add rich documentation of the Jewish community in Charlotte, with images dating from 1890 t0 1983.

These are the first images provided by the Judaic Library and they offer a window into Charlotte’s past. Many of the images include well-researched descriptions that provide the names and dates of important people and businesses that helped Charlotte become the Queen City that we know today. Most of the descriptions contain  specific locations, making it possible to Geo-tag the images, which are in prominent places at the city center.

Below are a few highlights from the collection:

Harry Golden at his former home in Charlotte.

Jewish young people, 1915

To learn more about the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Charlotte located at the Levine-Sklut Judaic Library Resource Center, please visit the contributor page or their home page.

Library Children’s Program

Charlie Gilbert and Otis Porter in the Barber Shop

Nearly 100 new photos are now available on DigitalNC thanks to our partner, the Benson Museum of Local History!

Many of these photos have excellent documentation of names, locations, and dates. Genealogists, local historians, or Benson residents may find these resources helpful.

These images add to the many others from this collection available online, documenting Benson and the surrounding communities. The photos depict individuals and families, schools and businesses, and many of the local traditions that shape the culture of this small community, like the Mule Day Parade.

To see more images from the Benson Museum of Local History, please visit their contributor page. To learn more about the museum and plan your next visit, please their homepage.

William G. McLamb family, Mary Stewart Community

Rufus Ira Pleasant Sr.

Above photos: 1939 Fair and Helldrivers, Image 37, 38, 39

The Hell Drivers (pictured above) were a prominent feature at the 1939 State Fair in Raleigh, N.C. They were also a prominent feature of amateur photographer, M.S. Brown’s, documentation of the fair.  Fires, stunt drivers, flipped vehicles, and crashes were all part of this exciting show!

In addition to these photographs of the State Fair, more than 200 other new photos are now available on DigitalNC, added to the M.S. Brown Collection. Thanks to the Edgecombe County Memorial Library, this collection continues to grow.

Boy Scout Camporie – Tarboro, Image 15

Milton Steele Brown, now well known to DigitalNC, owned a Coca-Cola bottling plant and Tarboro and was an active amateur photographer. With hundreds of individual and groups of photos already available online, this latest batch adds to the depth of the collection. Branching across many of Brown’s different subject interests, the batch includes additions to his Majorettes, Coca-Cola Bottling Plant and Horse Show objects. Some of the new subjects include Boy Scouts, Easter Egg Hunts, the Tarboro Milk Plant and trains.

To learn more about M.S. Brown and see all his photos available on DigitalNC, please visit the exhibit page or check out the DigitalNC Blog. To see all of the items contributed by the Edgecombe County Memorial Library, visit the contributor page or see their homepage.