Thanks to our partner, New Bern-Craven County Public Library, a batch containing 14 yearbooks from Craven County Farm Life School and West Craven High School are now available on DigitalNC.

The Craven County Farm Life School was the first to be established in the state after the Farm Life School law was passed by the North Carolina State Legislature in March 1911. Though growth was slow at first, the school soon saw a rapid increase in their student enrollment. By 1918, they outgrew their one brick building which served as a boys’ and girls’ dormitory as well as an administration building. A five room administration building was built using money borrowed from state building funds which were paid off using county funds. The new building, however, appears to not have alleviated the space issue at all. Less than 12 months later, four rooms were added to one of the buildings. Then, in 1920, a $100,000 bond issue was made by Craven County for the building of the boys’ dormitory.

In the 1921-1922 school term, the school opened with 131 students enrolled and the following equipment: a brick dormitory for girls, boys dormitory, administration building, a dairy, wash house for girls, farmer’s cottage, barn, and stock buildings. In the 1922 yearbook, which can be viewed here, the writers point out that the students used to be only from the town and boarders, but students began coming from twelve miles away in trucks. Over the years, the curriculum shifted from agriculture to general high school education and by 1941 students were no longer required to reside on campus and instead commuted from the surrounding area. In 1971, the Craven County Farm Life School was closed and Vanceboro students began attending West Craven High School.

To learn more about the New Bern-Craven County Public Library, visit their website here.

To view more materials from the New Bern-Craven County Public Library, visit their contributor page here.

To view more yearbooks from across North Carolina, view our North Carolina Yearbooks collection here.

Information about the Craven County Farm Life School was taken from their 1922 yearbook and New Bern Sun Journal article, “Farm Life School marks 100 years of education in Vanceboro.“

Thanks to our partner, Henderson County Education History Initiative, 19 yearbooks from Henderson County high schools are now available online. The batch includes yearbooks spanning from 1949 to 1971 from East and West Henderson High Schools, Dana High School, Fletcher High School, and Mills River High School.

An interesting find from this batch comes from East Henderson High School. In their 1971 yearbook, The Highlander staff briefly note the change in dress code policy which allows women to wear pantsuits to school. They cite cold weather, increased absences, and students’ desire to be different as reasons for the change. Considering how commonplace the practice is today, it is discombobulating to discover that women wearing pants in public has only fairly recently become socially acceptable in Western society.

While women have been wearing pants since before the Victorian era, it was not until the early 20th century that state laws and a 1923 statement (not an official ruling) from the United States Attorney General declared that it was ok for women to wear pants in public. Despite the legal acceptance, societal pressures and policies continued to limit the wearing of pants only to situations where women were exercising, doing chore work, or in private.

Societal acceptance of pants began to shift with the outbreak of World War I and then World War II when women were called upon to fill vacant positions in line production, factories, mechanics, shipyards, etc. In these positions, pants were an absolute necessity for women for practicality, safety, and comfort. After World War II, the popularity of pants lingered amongst women, but remained a socially unacceptable garment to wear as fashion returned to centering dresses and skirts. From the mid-1950s to 1970s, the United States went going through a period of social reform which included the Civil Rights Movement as well as Second Wave Feminism which changed a lot of what was previously seen as socially acceptable. Second Wave Feminism (also sometimes referred to as the women’s liberation movement) sought social and political equality for women—prioritizing issues of reproductive rights, financial independence, domestic violence, workplace equality, and gender roles.

Successful campaigns helped to pass legislation such as the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which focused on women’s rights to equal pay and preventing employers from discriminating on the bases of race, religion, sex, or national origin. *It is important to note that white women were the primary benefactors of these efforts, while Black women continued to be disenfranchised. Undoubtedly, the efforts and successes of Second Wave Feminism led to pants becoming a socially acceptable and commonplace clothing option for women.

In addition to The Highlander [1971], the societal shift to accepting pants as an appropriate clothing choice for women can be tracked through materials available on DigitalNC such as the St. Mary’s School course catalogs from 1970 and 1971, the Winston Salem Journal‘s inclusion of an article from the Philadelphia Record discussing legislation that allows women to wear pants in 1921, grievances listed by Winston Salem State University students in the June 1, 1965 issue of their student newspaper, and more.

To learn more about the Henderson County Education History Initiative, please visit their website linked here.

To view more materials from the Henderson County Education History Initiative, please visit their contributor page linked here.

To explore more yearbooks from across the state, please visit our North Carolina Yearbook Collection linked here.

Information about Second Wave Feminism was taken from the National Women’s History Museum, to learn more about Second Wave Feminism, please visit the National Women’s History Museum’s online exhibit titled “Feminism: The Second Wave,” linked here.

Fifteen new yearbooks from Burke County, dating from 1941 to 1974, are now available on DigitalNC. This latest addition includes a variety of Burke County schools: Drexel High School, Valdese High School, Glen Alpine High School, Hildebran High School, North Carolina School For The Deaf, Oak Hill High School, West Concord School, and Freedom High School.

To view more North Carolina yearbooks, visit our yearbooks collection on Digital NC and see the 163 yearbooks and one newspaper contributed by Burke County Public Library at their partner page here.

Three more yearbooks from Glenwood High School in Glenwood, N.C. are now available, thanks to our partners at McDowell County Public Library in Marion, N.C. Visitors to the site can now see issues from 1969, 1970, and 1971. Though Glenwood High School is now closed, these yearbooks may be a great resource for alumni and local researchers.

See all of the Glenwood High School yearbooks on DigitalNC, dating from 1948 to 1971, here. To view more North Carolina yearbooks, visit our yearbooks collection on Digital NC. Finally, see all of the materials contributed by McDowell County Public Library at their partner page here.

Chatham County Public Libraries have contributed five yearbooks from Pittsboro and Siler City that are now available on DigitalNC! The Eagle [1959] from Silk Hope High School, Imprints [1974] from Northwood High School, and Phantomaire [1968], Traces [1972], and JMHS [1974] from Jordan-Matthews High School are the most recent additions to the site. Check them out to view some classic fashion from the era, see what clubs and activities students were involved with, and maybe come across familiar faces.

See everything we have digitized from Chatham County Public Libraries at their partner page here. To view more yearbooks from other schools across North Carolina, visit The North Carolina Yearbook collection linked here.

Two new yearbooks have just been added to the site, thanks to the Haywood County Public Library in Waynesville, N.C. Both from 1974, these volumes come from Tuscola High School in Waynesville and Pisgah Senior High School in Canton. The pages are interspersed with meditative poems and quotes concerned with growing up and the passage of time — check them out to be immersed in nostalgia.

See many more yearbooks from Haywood County, as well as photographs and textual records, at their contributor page. To view more yearbooks from across the state, visit our Yearbooks Collections on Digital NC.