Superlatives from the 1958 Tyshac; from left is Donald McKinney (most popular), Pauline Crisp (most studious), and Richard Buchanan (most likely to succeed). 

Nineteen yearbooks from eight high schools in McDowell County have been digitized by our partner, the McDowell County Public Library, and added to our site. The batch includes:

• Glenwood High School’s The Nushka (1955, 1967, 1968)
• Clevenger College’s The Tyshac (1958)
• Pleasant Gardens High School’s The Pines (1961, 1969, 1970)
• Old Fort High School’s Arrowhead (1969, 1970, 1971)
• Marion High School’s Hylander (1969,  1970, 1971)
• Nebo High School’s Pioneer (1969, 1970, 1971)
• North Cove High School’s Conasoga (1971)
• McDowell High School’s Odyssey (1972, 1973)

Margaret B. Norris, dedicatee of the 1967 Nushka

One delightful hallmark of yearbooks from this era is the dedication to a beloved teacher or administrator. One sweet example is the dedication to Margaret Norris (who has a little bit of a Meryl Streep look) at the beginning of the 1967 edition of The Nushka. It reads, “It would be impossible to estimate the number of ways in which she has made our days a little brighter, our paths a little easier to travel, and our lives a little more worthwhile.”

Another dedication from the 1969 Pioneer celebrates “our friend” and “a man unafraid to stand for right, even though he may stand alone,” Jack Kirstein. It reads, “Dedicated to making young people better citizens, he presents himself as a living example of the love, patience, and understanding human beings must have for one another.”

You can read more heartwarming dedications in the full batch of yearbooks, available here. You can also browse our full collection of high school yearbooks by school and year in our North Carolina Yearbooks collection. To see more materials from the McDowell County Public Library, visit their partner page and their website.

More yearbooks are in—and they are from the golden age of yearbook graphic design! Thanks to our partner, the Page-Walker Arts & History Center, we’ve added the 1968-1972 yearbooks from Cary High School to our site.

Although the artistry of these yearbooks can’t be captured by excerpts alone (you can look at the full yearbooks here), some of the artistry of Cary High’s curriculum could be. The yearbook staff was able to make classes look fun—even if that contradicts some of the student opinions. Here are some examples that will make you want to enroll.

From The Yrac, 1968

#1: ICT

This student looks like they might be at work, but in fact, this is part of an ICT class—which stands for “industrial co-operative training.” Myra, the caption explains, is in Rex Hospital at a nursing station. From the rest of the yearbook spread, it seems like the ICT program helped students get a sense of what certain jobs were really like. 

From The Yrac, 1969

#2: Band

Of course band is on the list! Look at those uniforms! The wrap-around marching tuba! Who wouldn’t see the appeal of goofing around with your friends while you play instruments? Then again, you always run the risk of having a trumpet played right next to your ear.

From The Yrac, 1968

#3: Auto mechanics

For those who find sitting in desks and taking notes dreary, there are always hands-on classes. The yearbook notes that these students are at West Cary, then a satellite school for first year students that was separate from the senior high school. The extra space meant more room for vocational classes.

From The Yrac, 1970

#4: Spanish

Apparently, having to sing in front of your foreign language class is a tradition that goes back decades. While some students may find the assignment harrowing, these three performers decided to adapt a favorite song, “Where have all the flowers gone?” (You can listen to a 1967 Spanish adaptation here, though it isn’t by students.)

From The Yrac, 1970

#5: History

Nothing brings history to life like costume role-play—or so might argue these students. The caption describes these students as “mobsters” deciding on “the fate of their fellow classmates,” but there looks to be at least one Charlie Chaplin and perhaps a soldier in there.

From The Yrac, 1972

#6: Yearbook

Especially for the staff members of this era, yearbook was kind of a fine art. The real perk of the job, though, was getting to use that camera.

From The Yrac, 1968

#7: Drama

Who knows what was happening here? I suppose the caption warns you that you’re liable to see “weird” things near the drama department. Bill does not seem eager to have this photo taken.

You can see the full batch of The Yrac yearbooks here or browse our North Carolina Yearbooks collection by school and date. To see more materials from the Page-Walker Arts & History Center, you can visit their partner page and their website. 

A student emptying an interesting bin. From the 1972 Tuscola Mountaineer.

Two generations of high school students are represented in the three yearbooks we’ve added to our site; one from Fayetteville in the 1933 and 1934 editions of The Lafamac, and one from Waynesville in the 1972 Tuscola Mountaineer thanks to our partner, the Haywood County Public Library.

Perhaps one of the most obvious differences between these two eras is the way that the fashions and hairstyles changed. Long hair seems to be in style more for these smiling students of the 1970s. Perhaps their expressive pictures are a result of trying to stand out on a more crowded page. Their predecessors from the 1930s may not look as jolly, but at least they each have a couple of lines describing their personalities. 

You can see all digitized issues of the Tuscola Mountaineer here. To see more materials from the Haywood County Public Library, you can visit their partner page or their website. You can also browse our full collection of high school yearbooks in our North Carolina Yearbooks page.

Homecoming Queen Mary Sue Godwin from the 1969 Echo

Even if you’re not a fan of cold weather, pumpkin-flavored treats, or changing leaves, you may still have a fondness for the fall football season. It’s the time of year again where students across the state celebrate their schools with the beloved tradition of homecoming.

Thanks to our partner, the Harnett County Public Library, we’ve added 23 more high school yearbooks and a few graduation programs to our digital collections. These yearbooks, which span five schools from 1948 to 1972, give us a look back to homecomings of years past. 

One of the most common traditions in this set of yearbooks is honoring the homecoming court—the group of young women from whom the homecoming queen is chosen. The pageantry of the event takes on various levels at each school; in this 1972 spread from Lillington High School’s Footprints, a few people appear to be arriving on horseback.

Football players from the 1972 Footprints

Another popular tradition of homecoming is the big football game. Although homecoming queens tend to get a fancy portrait in the yearbook, each school seems to have a different way of celebrating its football team. In the case of Erwin High School’s The Hourglass from 1962, that celebration takes the form of action shots of each of the varsity players (plus a spread for the team photo and the coaches). Curiously, there isn’t much recorded about the actual games—who the schools played or who won.

You can see all of the yearbooks in this batch—featuring Erwin High School, Lillington High School, Dunn High School, Anderson Creek High School, and Boone Trail High School—here. You can also see the three graduation programs from Erwin High School here. To browse our entire collection of high school yearbooks, visit our North Carolina Yearbooks page. To find out more about Harnett County Public Library, you can visit their partner page and their website. 

From the 1929 Oak Leaf

Did your high school graduating class have a class poem? It might’ve been borrowed from a famous poet, or it could have been written by one of your classmates. Class poems seem to be especially popular in yearbooks from the 1920-1930s, and we’ve got some good one thanks to our latest batch of yearbooks from our partner, the Olivia Raney Local History Library.

From the 1930 Latipac

The 1930 Latipac‘s poem from Raleigh High School was written by class poet Alice Beaman, who decided to focus on the bittersweet feeling of nostalgia in her poem.

“‘Tis true school days were happiest, / But they passed too quickly by,” she writes in the last stanza. Whether or not most high school students today would agree with that sentiment is up for debate.

Perhaps a feeling more relatable to graduates today appears in the first stanza: “Ah! Tho’ our hearts be sad at parting, / They will all with gladness swell, / At our victory in attaining / The goal for which we fought so well.”

From the 1929 Oak Leaf

Less concerned with rhyme scheme than Beaman was class poet Lula Belle Highsmith, who wrote the class poem for the 1929 graduating class of Hugh Morson High School (Raleigh, N.C.). 

Highsmith’s poem takes a more somber tone; she writes, “And we half regret departing, / Wish we might step back a little, / But no, no, the door is closing— / We are pushed into the Future— / Let us go with lofty courage, / Ready for the work before us.”

Considering that less than 5% of students completed four years of college in 1940, these poems reflect the feelings that many young people had at the end of their formal education. The feeling of loss, or of learning yet to be had, runs parallel to the well-known poem “The School Where I Studied,” by Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai. One line reads, “All my life I have loved in vain / the things I didn’t learn.” 

To see more class poems and all the yearbooks in this batch, click here. To see all materials from the Olivia Raney Local History Library, visit their partner page or their website. All of our North Carolina Yearbooks can be found here.