It’s football season! North Carolina’s football history goes back to 1888, when the first games between college teams were played. In 1892, North Carolina hosted the first game ever played between African American colleges when Livingstone College in Salisbury hosted the Biddle Institute (now Johnson C. Smith University).

The photo here, from 1914, shows the first football team at the State Normal School, now Elizabeth City State University.

At first glance, the children in this photograph of story time at the Wilson County Public Library seem to be paying pretty close attention to their teacher. But on closer inspection, a few of the children look like they might not be enjoying story time that much, or they find the business of being photographed much more interesting…

This photograph, from the Davie County Public Library, might be the most literal depiction of the phrase ‘beef on the hoof’ that I’ve ever seen. While these women were probably getting tips on what to ask for from the local butcher, I guess the cow had no idea what its future held in store. More images depicting the history and culture of Davie County can be found in the Digital Davie collection on DigitalNC.

I thought the carts and wagons you often see hitched behind horses in old photos and postcards were pretty simple contraptions. That was until I saw the Hackney Brothers Body Company catalogue of prints, probably published in the late 19th or early 20th century. The catalog shows a variety of models and options comparable to what you find in a modern car dealership. If I was shopping for myself, I think I’d go with the Full Panel Top Delivery Wagon, pictured below.

The Hackney Brothers company, based in Wilson, N.C., showed an impressive ability to adapt to the changing times. They went from producing horse-drawn ice wagons to becoming a leading manufacturer of refrigerated trucks. The company remained active and locally owned under the Hackney Brothers name until the 1990s.

The catalog and more are shared by the Wilson County Public Library.

Over 300 historic photographs of Wilson County are now available on DigitalNC. These photos, from the Wilson County Public Library, include images of churches and schools and many postcards and photos documenting the long and rich tobacco heritage in Wilson County.

Life at the Oxford Orphanage wasn’t all work and no play, as this earlier post might suggest – other photographs from the same album show students engaged in more recreational activities than making shoes. I especially enjoy a series of photographs taken at their swimming pool. I like to imagine the second photograph was taken seconds after the first, maybe just after the woman in the foreground blew a whistle.

These images are shared by the Sallie Mae Ligon Museum & Archives & Masonic Home for Children at Oxford.

Gladstein’s Men’s Shop at 209 N. Magnum Street

Gladstein’s men’s clothing shop, formerly located at 209 W. Mangum Street, was owned and operated for many years by the Gladstein family of Durham, N.C. According to a recent article from the Herald Sun, Gladstein’s used to be THE place to buy Levi’s blue jeans. If the mural in this photograph from the Durham Urban Renewal Records project is to be trusted, you could get your Lee’s there as well. The building was demolished during the 1970s, and the spot where it stood is now a parking lot.

The stories of some members of the Gladstein family, who came to Durham from New York through an association with tobacco magnate Buck Duke, are told in a new publication from UNC Press, Down Home: Jewish Life in North Carolina by Leonard Rogoff, as well as a corresponding exhibit at the North Carolina Museum of History.

The Durham Urban Renewal Records collection is shared online by the Durham County Library.

The Images of North Carolina collection features many fascinating images from the Sallie Mae Ligon Museum & Archives & Masonic Home for Children at Oxford. One of my favorites is a 1922 album containing a series of photos taken around the campus. The orphanage in the 1920s looked like a pretty self-sufficient place, with its own bake shop, livestock, printing press, and shoe shop. The photos here show one of the boys at work on a pair of brogans and, below, the impressive results of their labor.