A huge batch of 65 yearbooks is now on our site thanks to our partner, the Forsyth County Public Library. These yearbooks span 60 years, from 1913 to 1973, and include some of the high schools of Winston-Salem that are now closed. This batch also has one edition of The Yellow Jacket (1955) from Carver High School and The Maroon and Gold Yearbook (1953) from Atkins High School, two of the few historically Black high schools in the state that remained open through school integration.

Since there are so many yearbooks in this batch, there is a wide assortment of creative yearbook titles—some of which are stronger than others. As an alumna of R.J. Reynolds High School, I’ll admit that I have some bias toward the Black and Gold, but even I have to acknowledge that it’s a pretty generic name (in this batch alone, we’ve also got The Maroon and Gold from Atkins, the Blue and White from Old Town High School, and the Blue and Gold from Griffith High School).

Rather than opt for the usual school colors-based title, here are the top five yearbooks that aimed for something a little different.

#5: The Keyhole (Rural Hall High School)

I like that this team of young yearbook editors took a philosophical approach to their title. Like looking through a keyhole, a yearbook can only give a limited picture of what the culture and experience of Rural Hall High School was like. They continue this slice-of-life theme on the inside of the yearbook as well with this comical drawing featuring some of their classmates.

#4: The Iliad (Southwest High School)

There’s something so quintessentially high school about being assigned The Iliad, possibly reading it, and then using it as a metaphor for the obstacles you face (a move perhaps only topped by a comparison of your personal journey to The Odyssey). This literary homage is made even better by the fact that the mascot for Southwest was the Trojan, meaning that this yearbook likely describes the siege and fall of the school by means of wooden horse.

#3: Quill Pen (Salem Academy)

Third place on this not-at-all subjective list was initially selected because of its overlap with the editorial column of James Mackintosh Qwilleran, a fictional detective and journalist who writes “The Qwill Pen” in the mystery series The Cat Who… by Lilian Jackson Braun. However, based on the uniforms required for yearbook photos, it does also seem possible that the students of Salem Academy really were writing with quills.

#2: Dress Parade (Oak Ridge Military School)

As someone with no military experience, when I initially picked this title, I had a different mental image of what the “dress parade” might include. However, given the fact that students at Oak Ridge did have to wear their uniforms on display for the yearbook, it still seems like a really fitting title. Plus, this edition has some cool woodblock prints and this one inexplicably tiny photo of a gazebo.

#1: Ye Olde Towne Crier (Old Town High School)

I don’t even know where to begin with this absolute chef’s kiss of a yearbook title. I love the old-timey spelling. I love the idea that a yearbook is the modern equivalent of a person who yells out the town news. I love the font choice and the inclusion of “Ye.”

Old Town High School experimented with a couple of names before this (see Blue and White and The Log), suggesting that it might take a few tries before you can land on the perfect name. The icing on the cake is that every time I read it, I can hear the opening notes of Lil Nas X’s 2019 hit “Old Town Road” in my mind. (Sadly, Old Town High School was not located on Old Town Road, though such a road does exist in Winston-Salem).

You can decide for yourself which titles are best by looking through the full batch of yearbooks, available here. You can also browse all of our digital yearbooks from Forsyth county and beyond in our North Carolina Yearbooks collection. To see more from the Forsyth County Public Library, you can visit their partner page and their website.

Twenty-one more yearbooks from Henderson county have been added to our site thanks to one of our newest partners, the Henderson County Education History Initiative (HCEHI), as well as the Hendersonville High School Alumni Association. These yearbooks span from 1913 to 1972 and include materials from eight different schools in the area: Flat Rock High School, Etowah High School, East Henderson High School, Fletcher High School, Hendersonville High School, Mills River High School, and West Henderson High School.

Though this batch of yearbooks covers so many different eras of high school throughout the 20th century, one consistent element among several editions is a focus on uniforms. The 1970 edition of The Falcon, for example, shows a representative from the school’s various teams showing off their athletic uniforms. This 1970 cheerleading uniform is a bit of a departure from the cheerleading uniforms of the 1950s, as evidenced by this squad from Mills River High (though the dance teams’ preference for shiny uniforms seems to be evergreen).

You can see all of the yearbooks in this batch here. You can also explore all of our digital yearbooks by school, location, and date in our North Carolina Yearbooks collection. To learn more about HCEHI and their work, you can visit their partner page and their website. To see more materials from the Hendersonville High School Alumni Association, visit their partner page and their website as well.

A batch of 41 yearbooks from Burke county has just been added to our site thanks to our partner, the Burke County Public Library. This batch ranges from 1948-1973 and includes yearbooks from 11 schools: George Hildebran High School, Valdese High School, Drexel High School, Glen Alpine High School, Oak Hill High School, Morganton High School, Hildebran High School, the North Carolina School for the Deaf, Grace Hospital School of Nursing, and Salem High School.

One thing that many of the Burke county yearbooks have in common is a shared admiration for animal mascots. In addition to the adorable tiger seen on the 1956 edition of the Impersonator from Valdese High School, you can’t overlook the endearing little guy on the front of the 1965 Calvacade from Drexel High School. (Though you may think he is a funny bear or perhaps a fox, further investigation reveals he is, in fact, a wolverine.) This set also includes a fighting eagle, a turkey, wildcats, bulldogs, and one fancy horse giving a knight a lift.

You can browse all yearbooks in this batch here or look through all of our digital yearbooks by school, location, and date in our North Carolina Yearbooks collection. To see more from the Burke County Public Library, you can visit their partner page and their website.

A recent batch of yearbooks from Alamance County Public Libraries gives a special look into the life of high school students in the area in the early 1970s—especially 1972, a year with four yearbooks from across the county. The four high schools with editions from this year—Western High School, Hugh M. Cummings High School, Walter M. Williams High School, and Gibsonville High School—show a distinctive time in both student life and yearbook editing.

It may help to take a moment for context: 1972 was a big year for national an international news—against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, there was also the Watergate scandal, the launch of Apollo 16, and Bloody Sunday. Meanwhile, high school students were still dealing with the classic problems of being a teenager (trying out for sports, forming relationships, staying out of the principal’s office, etc.). Apparently, these elements combine to form one of the most exciting times to be a high school yearbook editor.

In addition to the embrace of hyphenated yearbook titles, 1972 was a year of dramatic openings, bold new fonts, collages, and—you guessed it—the mandatory iteration of the hit folk song “Turn, Turn, Turn.” But compared to yearbooks of past decades, 1972 has a lot to offer in terms of student photography, which is probably part of the reason that they are so fun to look at.

You can see the full batch of yearbooks here. You can also browse our entire collection of high school yearbooks by location, school, and year in our North Carolina Yearbooks collection. To see more materials from Alamance County Public Libraries, you can visit their partner page and their website.

Eighty high school yearbooks from Randolph County have been added to our site thanks to our partner, the Randolph County Public Library. This batch includes yearbooks from 15 schools: Trinity High School, Randleman High School, Star High School, Asheboro High School, Gray’s Chapel High School, Eastern Randolph Senior High School, Franklinville School, Coleridge High School, Biscoe High School, Farmer High School, Seagrove High School, Ramseur High School, Staley High School, Bennett High School, and Troy High School.

These yearbooks also span several decades of the county’s history, starting in 1944 with The Ash-Hi-Life and running through 1973, with four yearbook editions from Trinity, Randleman, Asheboro High, and Eastern Randolph.

Some of the special features in these yearbooks include a homecoming court straight out of a Ralph Lauren ad, the requisite reference to The Byrds, and pages of heartfelt notes from classmates. But one yearbook staff got especially creative, designing a board game that students can play with just their yearbooks and a coin to toss.

The game, presumably modeled after the game Life, describes events that still sound familiar to contemporary high school students. One square reads, “Back to school. Laugh at sophomores — get lecture on maturity. Lose 1 turn.” Others are less relatable: “Term papers: your typist charges you $1.50 a page and you run out of money on page 2 — Lose turn.” While the board does seem to be weighted toward academic and social pitfalls, at least all players start with a credit (since “Everybody passes biology first time around!”).

You can see all 80 yearbooks (so many!) here. You can also explore all of our digitized high school yearbooks by school name, location, and year in our North Carolina Yearbooks collection. To see more from Randolph County Public Library, visit their partner page and their website.

One more edition of Tuscola High School’s The Mountaineer has been added to our digital collections thanks to our partner, the Haywood County Public Library. This edition is from 1973, giving us a continuous run of the Waynesville school’s campus publications from 1967-1973.

Tuscola High School’s mascot, the Mountaineers (colloquially referred to as “The Mounties”) is appropriate for this campus, which is nestled in the North Carolina mountains (as you can see in the photo to the left). According to the school’s website, the school is “affectionately referred to as ‘The Hill’ due to our commanding view of the Smoky and Balsam Mountain ranges.”

In addition to the sweeping mountain views, a common sight in the 1973 edition of The Mountaineer is students arranging themselves into the shape of mountains. Apparently, this was the hottest formation for taking your club photo—especially if you got to be on the top.

Who can say why so many students felt the need to literally climb on top of each other this year? Maybe they were trying to camouflage in their mountainous surroundings. Perhaps it is a social commentary on relationships or teamwork. Though we may never know for sure, there are plenty of examples in this yearbook for the intrepid researcher.

You can see all editions of Tuscola High School’s The Mountaineer here. You can also browse our entire collection of high school yearbooks by school, location, and date in our North Carolina Yearbooks collection. To see more from the Haywood County Public Library, you can visit their partner page and their website.

A batch of yearbooks from Watauga county has just been added to our North Carolina Yearbooks collection thanks to our partner, the Watauga County Public Library. This batch includes yearbooks from four different high schools in the county and one edition of Parkway from Parkway Elementary (1953).

From Blowing Rock High School, we’ve added four volumes of The Breezes from 1953 to 1956. From Cove Creek High School (in Sugar Grove), we’ve added three volumes of The Coveteer from 1952-1956. From Boone, we’ve also got 18 more editions of The Laurel from Appalachian High School (1947-1965) and seven more editions of The Musket from Watauga High School (1966-1972).

Even though these yearbooks might make it seem like high school was just yesterday, there have been at least a few changes to the curriculum since the 1960s and ’70s. For instance, the Business Department at Watauga High School was much more typewriter-centric than business programs today. Some of the classes taught in 1970 included Typing (I and II), Shorthand, Bookkeeping, General Business, and Business English. Perhaps the focus on problem-solving skills has remained the same, though—the caption for the photo above reads, “Tony Hagler, and member of one of the typing classes, seems deeply involved with the completion of his problems.”

You can see the full batch of Watauga county yearbooks here. You can also browse our full collection of digitized North Carolina Yearbooks here by location, school, and year. To see more from the Watauga County Public Library, you can visit their partner page and their website.