Over 250 new postcards from the Braswell Memorial Library have been recently added to DigitalNC.

Before the ease of digital cameras and Instagram, postcards were the way that travelers documented and remembered their trips. Today, postcards are often seen as archaic souvenirs, though thoughtful; however, in the early to mid-twentieth century, they were a primary form of documenting travel, even in small towns across the United States.

Many of the postcards include personal notes, detailing some aspects of their travels. From these recent additions to Images of North Carolina you can track the travels of children writing home to their parents on summer adventures, farmers documenting the sales of produce as they traveled to markets, and couples reminding themselves of each motel where they stayed during a long road trip.

City Water Tower, Rock Mount, N.C.

Not only do the postcards tell small snippets of individuals’ travels, but this collection highlights many small businesses in Rocky Mount, N.C. and the surrounding areas of Edgecombe and Nash counties. Today’s postcards highlight the most prominent sites and views in a city, but these postcards display roadside motels, bar-b-cue restaurants, and downtown streets in small towns. Even the local high schools and churches were common features of postcards from this period.

These images of North Carolina offer a unique look at travel, tourism, and advertising from the early half of the twentieth century.

To see more from Braswell Memorial Library in Rocky Mount, N.C., please visit the contributor page. To see the more of the recently added postcards, limit the format of items from Braswell Memorial Library to “postcards.”

DigitalNC has added more photographs to the M.S. Brown Collection, provided  by the Edgecombe County Memorial Library. Milton Steele Brown, perhaps best known for opening a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Tarboro, was also an amateur photographer. This latest batch of photographs is the last of the collection that is housed by the Edgecombe County Memorial Library. Mr. Brown photographed a large variety of events and subjects, providing a glimpse into the lives of Tarboro and Edgecombe County citizens.

High School Dance

Tarboro High School Majorettes

United Daughters of the Confederacy Arch at Old Town Cemetery

Tarboro Open Air Market

More photographs of some of Mr. Brown’s more common subjects are included in this batch, including the Tarboro High School Band and Majorettes, many events where Coca-Cola was served or promoted, homes and businesses around the county, and much more.

Man standing by an iced cart of Coca-Cola

Girls at pool sitting on the Coca-Cola truck

For more information about what is included in the M.S. Brown Collection, visit the exhibit page or see these previous blog posts.

A number of new photographs from the Benson Museum of Local History have been uploaded to DigitalNC. These photos feature some of the prominent citizens of Benson, North Carolina, as well as everyday activities and life. Viewers who have been keeping up with the photographs provided by the Benson Museum of Local History will find some familiar surnames, such as McLamb, Parrish, Woodall, and Whittington, as well as some new faces.

Sutton and Phoebe Lee Holmes

This batch of photos also contains a few individuals who might be called local heroes. One man, Stephen O’Neal, was a wealthy businessman and donated land for Benson’s First Baptist Church. Another is an obituary for Bruce McLamb, who died in action in France during World War II.

Stephen O’Neal

Bruce McLamb

Also included in this batch is a number of drawings from a book published by the Eastern Carolina Chamber of Commerce. These drawings feature Benson men who were members of the Chamber and prominent in the financial and political life of town. In addition to the drawings of the men themselves, there are cartoons depicting some of their activities and business ventures as well as a short biography.

Preston Woodall

John W. Parrish

All photos provided by the Benson Museum of Local History can be viewed here. For more information about older batches, see our previous blog posts from June and September, and for more information about the museum itself and their collections, visit their contributor page or their website.

Bellamy Mansion Carriage House 1st and 2nd Floor Power Plan

21 building plans of the Bellamy Mansion restoration are now available on DigitalNC.

The Bellamy family began construction on the mansion in 1859, in Wilmington, N.C. The Bellamy grandchildren maintained possession of the historic home until the late twentieth century; however, the mansion was in need of major renovations due to years of decay and an arson that took place in 1972. In 1992, Preservation North Carolina took over control of the home in order to open it to the public and began the restoration process. Boney Architects oversaw the structural renovations and published all of the recently added plans. Several feature the Carriage House on the plantation property, which is now the Visitors Center of the museum.

All of the Bellamy Mansion site and building plans found on DigitalNC offer a picture of what structural restoration can look like for a major historic home. Many of the maps feature the hand-written notes of contractors on the project. They demonstrate the work that lies beneath the finished product of restorations.

For more information on the building plans of Bellamy Mansion, please see the blog post for the previously added plans. For further research on the Bellamy Mansion, visit the website.

A new batch of photographs from the Benson Museum of Local History has been uploaded to DigitalNC. Many of these enlarged photographs feature prominent members of the Benson community throughout the years. Whether formal or informal, these portraits let viewers see the faces of the individuals who played important roles in the town, and some show quite a bit of their personalities as well!

Mr. and Mrs. Preston Woodall

Reverend and Mrs. Noah McLamb

Another theme in this batch of photos is the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad that ran through Benson, and was later known as the Seaboard Coast Line. The photographs range in time from the early days of the railroad in the early 1900s up through more modern times with portraits of workers.

Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Water Tank

Telegram Operator, W. Ralph Barbour Jr.

Smith, Seaboard Coast Line Railroad Worker

To see other photographs the Benson Local History Museum has shared on DigitalNC, check out their contributor page on our website, or this previous blog post. For more information about the Benson Local History Museum and their collection, visit their website.

A new batch of photographs from the Benson Museum of Local History has been added to DigitalNC. These photographs depict a wide variety of people and places, and range in time from the late 1800s, when the family from whom the town of Benson received its name was alive, up to the Bicentennial of the American Revolution.

A group of men standing outside of a store in Benson, N.C.

Many of the individuals captured in these photographs appear in multiple images, and certain surnames, such as Barefoot, Parrish, and Godwin, make regular appearances.

The family from whom the town of Benson received its name

These photographs taken as a whole provide a rich and interesting view into the town of Benson. Multiple street views of the town show the progression of building and development, and the photographs of regular people going about their business gives a sense of the culture and everyday lives of the town throughout its history.

World War II Veterans’ Program

For more information about the town of Benson, N.C. and what the Benson Museum of Local History has to offer, visit their website. DigitalNC also has a number of other items from the museum, including yearbooks, scrapbooks, and a city directory.

The Bellamy Mansion Museum has provided a number of site plans for their building to be digitized and added to DigitalNC. These plans show details of the building’s floor layout, utility centers, ventilation, heating, and cooling systems, lighting layouts, and mechanical details of the building. All of the plans were drawn up in part by Boney Architects, a family firm located in Wilmington. Consulting engineers were also involved in making the plans. Roughly half of the documents were done by David Sims & Associates, another Wilmington firm, and the others were done by Cheatham & Associates. All firms are still in business today.

Third Floor Mechanical Plan of Bellamy Mansion

The plans were all drawn up in 1992, after Preservation North Carolina had come into ownership of the building. They began an intensive restoration project  that sought to repair damage from a fire that had been set by arsonists twenty years earlier. The project was a success, and today the house is open to the public. For more information on the Bellamy Mansion Museum, visit their website.