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Thanks to our partners at Central Piedmont Community College, we now have five new scrapbooks from the school, spanning 1957-1992. This wide-ranging collection covers the practical nursing program, Phi Theta Kappa, the Student National Education Association, and the “Seminars on Asian Understanding” organized by Willimore “Cy” Hastings in 1971-1972. These scrapbooks include a diverse assortment of formats that give insight into the activities of CPCC students and faculty, and their interactions with the greater Charlotte community — and the world — over the course of nearly forty years.
The Seminars on Asian Understanding is a particularly interesting look at CPCC’s engagement with global politics and its efforts to foster cross-cultural communication. The series hosted American foreign policy experts and ambassadors from Vietnam, China, Thailand, New Zealand, Singapore, Indonesia, Korea, and Malaysia. Newspaper clippings and correspondence reveal Hasting’s work to organize the talks and public interest in the program, which drew attendees from the CPCC community and beyond.
See the rest of our Central Piedmont Community College materials here and our North Carolina Community College digital exhibit here.
Thanks to our newest partner, McDowell Arts Council Association (MACA), a batch containing booklets of poetry by Howard R. McCurry and Alice Koonts Ostrom; script for Voices in the Wind by Billy Edd Wheeler, MACA scrapbooks spanning 1972 through 1987, and more are now available to view on DigitalNC!
Founded by community members in 1972, MACA provides accessible art experiences to all residents while also promoting and preserving cultural life in McDowell County. The Association is a member of the North Carolina Arts Council (an agency of the NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources), which supplies people of the state a network of resources, grants, and county partners. Today, MACA offers events and programs such as classes for various forms of art; plays and musical performances; community band concerts; local artist markets, and more. The materials in this batch, however, give us a glimpse into their 50+ year history of support, art, and work in McDowell County.
Beginning with their inaugural year to 1987, the two MACA scrapbooks offer the most insight into the Association’s history. They feature founding documentation, photographs from different shows, newspaper clippings, correspondence, and—of course—art in various forms! One of these works of art is Will Barnet’s lithograph, Woman and Cats (seen above). The work served as the cover art for an invitation to the NC National Bank’s Graphics and Watercolors traveling exhibition which included several works by North Carolina artists.
Literary art is also heavily featured throughout this batch in the booklets, scrapbooks, and magazine issues. Complimentary to Barnet’s Woman and Cats lithograph, Edward Smith and Archie McPeter’s poem “Cat,” can be found in MACA Musings: McDowell County Poetry Spring Festival [1974]. The booklet is a collection of poems that were selected by the Written Arts Department of the McDowell Arts and Crafts Association (now MACA) as the best efforts of submitted poetry to a contest that was held in May 1974.
Keeping with the cat theme, we felt it important to mention that MACA’s head of security and official greeter is a cat that goes by the name Biscuit (pictured left).
Journey through time by looking at our latest batch of materials from Mitchell Community College. Thanks to our partners, Mitchell Community College, you can now view 10 news scrapbooks. The scrapbooks are composed of newspaper clippings containing announcements about the lives and achievements of students as well as events taking place in the community at large during the 1950’s-1970’s. Visit DigtalNC to take a look at the Mitchell Community College newspaper clipping scrapbooks.
Thanks to our partner, Chowan University, a new batch with six new scrapbooks are now available on DigitalNC! These scrapbooks showcase Chowan University’s 1950s sports teams, 1980s Data Processing Management Association, early years of the Center for Ethics, and student life during the 1920s and 1930s.
Viola Dana Winslow’s scrapbook provides a look into the lives of students of Chowan College in the 1920s. A majority of the photographs in this scrapbook show Viola and her friends having fun. Underneath the photographs Viola writes descriptive captions about what they are doing as well as the name of her friends and their hometowns. Additionally, she documents some of the sites, views, and buildings around campus and downtown including the science building, her church, the tea room, and the homes of some professors. More photographs from Viola’s scrapbook can be seen below!
Lee County Public Libraries has shared a large collection of materials relating to Sanford, Jonesboro, and the greater Lee County area, now available on Digital NC. Here at NCDHC, we are thrilled to work with a new partner and broaden our representation of “the heart of North Carolina.” Visitors to the site can now view nearly one hundred years of documents, including bulletins and directories; county fair and circus programs; personal records; Chamber of Commerce pamphlets; many photographs of residents, homes, and businesses; scrapbooks; school programs, records, and yearbooks; and more. Also available are forty-four years of minutes from the Pierian Club, a women’s club and Sanford’s oldest literary society. Records from these societies, common in the twentieth century, give unique insight into the activities of middle-class North Carolina women.
Sanford has historically been an important site for manufacturing and industry, and was established at the junction of the Raleigh and Augusta Air Line and Western Railroads. The early twentieth century saw rapid expansion, thanks to Sanford’s location on the railways and its official incorporation as a city in 1907, as well as the growth of manufacturing throughout the Piedmont. Tobacco in particular contributed to Sanford’s growth, which is reflected in many of the photographs and documents now available on the site. Many of the newly digitized materials are concerned with attracting more business to Sanford and advertising its various commercial enterprises. Sanford suffered economic downturns in the Great Depression and again in the 1960s and ’70s as tobacco and manufacturing declined.
Thanks to investment in economic diversification at the end of the twentieth century, Sanford has again become a vibrant and growing community with many manufacturing jobs and a diverse population of over 60,000 residents. Researchers can learn more about Lee County here and view all of our digitized materials from Lee County Public Libraries here.
Thanks to our partner, Graham Historical Museum, a Sanborn Insurance Map of Graham, North Carolina, a program from the 1963 Miss Graham pageant, along with six scrapbooks that chronicle Jeanne Flinn Swanner’s Miss North Carolina appearances, telegrams, and Graham’s trek to Atlantic City to cheer her on at the Miss America 1963 pageant are now available to view on DigitalNC!
In 1963, Jeanne Flinn Swanner was named the winner of the Miss North Carolina crown. During the pageant, Swanner quickly became a favorite, winning the swimsuit competition and receiving a standing ovation for her performance of original songs on the ukulele. In the same year, she competed in the Miss America pageant held in Atlantic City, New Jersey. She did not win the Miss America crown, but was voted Miss Congeniality.
Following the completion of the pageants, Swanner returned to Auburn University and completed a bachelors degree in physical education. After receiving her degree, she started teaching during the week while giving speaking engagements on weekends. After nearly a decade of teaching, Swanner decided to pivot her career into professional speaking full-time. She credits the year following her Miss North Carolina win, when she traveled to nearly every corner of the state giving over 500(!) speeches, for her career as a professional humorist.
Miss Jeanne Swanner pictured in the Graham High School yearbook, The Wag [1961]
Two new scrapbooks have been added to Digital NC thanks to our partner, the Heritage Research Center at High Point Public Library. William Bencini served as the mayor of High Point, North Carolina in Guilford County from 1971-1973. In 1971 and 1972, Mayor Bencini and his wife were invited by Eastern Airlines and the City of Atlanta, Georgia to join their inaugural flights to Mexico and Jamaica out of Atlanta.
These scrapbooks depict these voyages through photographs, guest lists, itineraries, menus, and more. They provide interesting insight into air travel in the 1970s, document the activities of Mayor Bencini, and represent the history of the now-defunct Eastern Airlines. Additionally, the guest lists show some of the prominent figures in Atlanta and surrounding areas at the time. Through these images, researchers can witness the beaches, people, food, and tourist attractions that Mayor Bencini enjoyed on these trips. Perusing these scrapbooks, one feels transported to a bygone era as well as foreign countries. Access the scrapbooks here, and see more documents from the Heritage Research Center at High Point Public Library here.
Thanks to our partner, Wayne County Public Library, a batch containing 18th and 19th century land grants for some of the earliest settlers of Wayne County; photographs of individuals protesting segregation; scrapbooks of materials detailing the history of Goldsboro City Schools; Goldsboro newspapers; family photographs; history of The Cultural Movement African Dance Company; and much more are now available to view on our website.
A portion of the materials in this batch were digitized by staff during a community scan day at the Wayne County Public Library. Using materials brought in by community members during the event, the Wayne County Public Library Community Collections exhibit has been added to DigitalNC.
Among the materials brought to Wayne County Public Library’s community scan day was a collection of family photographs spanning from circa 1880s to circa 1950s. Snippets of boating adventures, pets, children playing, architecture, and more can be found throughout the record. A small selection of these fascinating photographs can be viewed below.
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.
