Photo from the McRae Public Library Scrapbook, page 13
The latest batch of items from the Rockingham County Public Library contains several scrapbooks that document the history of several branch libraries in the county. A highlight from this group is the General Publicity scrapbook, which documents a history of activism for libraries in both Rockingham County and around the state– especially through bookmobiles.
The first bookmobile in Rockingham County, General Publicity, page 14
The first bookmobile came to North Carolina in 1936 to serve the largely rural population that had little access to library services within their communities. At the time, the North Carolina Library Association (NCLA) and the Citizens’ Library Movement estimated that more than 1 million people in NC had no access to libraries. NCLA combated this problem by purchasing the state’s first book truck. The truck traveled around to rural counties in the state, demonstrating how small, local libraries could better serve their populations. This idea quickly caught on in Rockingham County and a community member donated a bookmobile to the county in 1937 (pictured above).
The second bookmobile in Rockingham County, General Publicity Scrapbook, page 15
The new bookmobile was widely successful, making 106 stops weekly around the county. It ran as the soul “locomotive library” for more than a decade before it was replaced by another, more unusual edition in 1949. The second book truck (pictured at left) featured machine-powered shelves that extended several feet behind the truck, which allowed space for more than 1200 volumes of books. This was more than double the amount of the previous truck.
The popularity of the bookmobile grew so rapidly that the county added a second bookmobile to the fleet in 1953. The newest model was a refurbished delivery truck that was as large as a “room on wheels.” The new, larger bookmobile (pictured below) allowed for the library to better serve rural patrons, no matter the weather, which had been a problem for the previous model. The older bookmobile went on to serve the McRae Libraries in Rockingham County, which served the African American community (featured photo at the top of the page), providing access to a previously under-served population in the county. The McRae Library scrapbook also offers a look into the vibrant history of library services for the Black community in Rockingham County. If you are interested in learning more about the Rockingham County Bookmobile, check out this unique film from 1939. It demonstrates the first bookmobile in action!
The third bookmobile in Rockingham County, General Publicity scrapbook, page 16
In addition to the scrapbooks containing information about the bookmobiles, this batch also includes several informational booklets about various textile mills in the county, various memorabilia items, and historical information about the area from the early nineteenth century.
You can see several of the other highlights from this batch below:
To learn more about the Rockingham County Public Library and its branches, please the website. To see more items from the library on DigitalNC, please visit their contributor page.
Corn Crib at Locust Point, 1980
Rockingham Community College has shared part of a unique collection of slides that document early architecture in Rockingham County. There are large plantation houses as well as kitchens, barns, and other small buildings found on homesteads. Most of these slides are exterior views of buildings, but interiors and shots of specific architectural details seem to have been taken when the opportunity presented itself. Some of the buildings are still standing and have even been renovated, like the Spray Mercantile Building (before, after). Others have been demolished, making these images both poignant and valuable for research. Family names and locations are included for many as well.
We’d like to share the description from Rockingham Community College’s website about the creators, origin, and extent of this collection:
This collection developed from an interest in the early architecture of Rockingham County, North Carolina by Reidsville native Siler Rothrock, who had grown up working in his family’s building supply business. While completing his master’s degree, he engaged in the antique and refinishing business. Developing an interest in local architecture, he enrolled in the fall of 1978 in Dr. Lindley Butler’s local history class at Rockingham Community College where he met local historian Bob Carter. They agreed to travel the rural sections of the county and photograph the early houses still standing. From 1978 until 1986 they photographed most of the pre-Civil War structures in the county. Bob Carter did the deed research and interviews to identify the builders and occupants of the houses. With this background in architecture, Siler Rothrock established his own construction firm specializing in old home restoration. He has since developed a statewide reputation in the restoration field.
We hope to share additional slides from this collection during the new year. If you’re interested in Rockingham County history, definitely check out the Rockingham County Legacy exhibit. You can view other items shared specifically by Rockingham Community College on their contributor page.
Aiken Pratt House, Exterior View, 1981
5 Scrapbooks, several fliers, a local mill’s employee newspaper, and an assortment of news clippings from the Rockingham County Public Library are the latest additions to the collaborative Rockingham County Legacy project.
Birthdays were a pervasive theme among some of DigitalNC’s new additions from the Rockingham County Public Library. The Welcome to Madison Rockingham County – Wagon Train Scrapbook documents the festivities for the town’s 150th Birthday, including parades, dances, and competitions. Perhaps one of the more interesting competitions was the “Beards of the Week,” featured in the back pages of the scrapbook. Sesquicentennial activities had Madison reliving earlier days, as the clippings demonstrate costumes from several different decades. The most popular period covered in the scrapbook appears to be the early 19th century, with men, women, and children all looking the part in articles from the Madison Messenger. The Madison Sesquicentennial Celebration [1968] folder also features fliers, brochures, and order forms for the different events during the celebration. However, the town of Madison was not the only community celebrating. The congregation of Bethel A.M.E. Church, Reidsville, N.C. documented their Centennial Celebration with a booklet, as well. Speedwell Presbyterian Church and Some Rockingham County Churches are sets of newspaper clippings that document several other churches’ birthdays, anniversaries, and moments.
Madison Public Library, Page 42
The Madison Public Library Scrapbook documents the successes and trials of several library branches in Rockingham County during the 1950’s. While Madison Public Library experienced growth, both in the collection and in numbers of users, it also faced budgetary and resources constraints.
Rockingham County People Vol. I, Page 34.
Rockingham County People, Volumes I-III, could serve as an interesting research tool to those seeking genealogical research about members of the Rockingham County community. The scrapbooks, sorted alphabetically, feature profiles of people who once resided in the county. Some profiles document the daily lives of everyone from church leaders to stay-at-home mothers, while others highlight the interesting and important accomplishments of people that represent the county. One such example is the story of newspaper editor, Horace Carter, who waged a print war against the Ku Klux Klan during the 1950’s. Carter attacked the Klan through his paper and aided the FBI and SBI in undercover work. He eventually won several awards including the Pulitzer Prize.
To see any of the items featured here in full, along with the entire collection, visit the Rockingham County Legacy exhibit page. For more information about the Rockingham County Public Library and their materials, visit their contributor page on DigitalNC or their website.
From the booklet celebrating the 150th year of Madison, NC.
The Digital Heritage Center just finished digitizing a large batch of materials from Rockingham County Public Library as part of the collaborative Rockingham County Legacy project, which gathers materials from various contributors relating to the history and heritage of the county.
Chief among the items are local and family histories. One volume, entitled Roots and Branches, contains research from the Genealogical Society of Rockingham & Stokes Counties on various families in the region. However, the majority of the research was conducted and collated by local historian John T. Dallas.
Several new family histories have been added as well. The Alcorn/Alcon, Blair, Dallas, Downs, Gates, Grubb and Settle, Jarrell, Stephens, Thomas, and White families all have newly published volumes containing a profusion of Rockingham/Stokes county genealogical research.
Numerous advertisers dressed up in historic clothing to celebrate Madison’s long history.
Several town and other regional histories have also been published: Smithtown, Draper, Leaksville, Spray, the Mont View/Galloway Farm, and Sugartree Primitive Baptist Church in Virginia, which also contains information on the Dallas family and Wesley Chapel Church. Additionally, there is a Rockingham County employee directory from 1960, a book of employees of Marshall Field and Company Manufacturing Division who served in World War II, and the fifth volume of the history of Wentworth High School series. The booklet celebrating the 1968 sesquicentennial celebration of the town of Madison (pictured above) showcases the rich history of the town and includes many excellent historic photographs.
There is also a booklet on the history of the Saura, a small Siouan tribe who lived in the Rockingham and Stokes counties area. The booklet was written as an introduction to the Native American tribe for students in Rockingham county schools. The volume, though slightly dated, is nevertheless a useful resource for both the history of the tribe and as a record of how the history of Native people was taught to students in that time. The tribe itself is no longer extant but persists at least in name in the Sauratown mountains of Stokes county; the range includes the popular destinations Pilot Mountain and Hanging Rock State Park. For more information about the Saura, also known as the Cheraw, visit the NCpedia page.
Lastly, baseball! John Dallas compiled a two-volume history of Reidsville, NC’s short-lived minor league baseball team, the Luckies. They are also mentioned in the Sugartree Church volume, linked above.
To explore more items from the Rockingham County Legacy project, please see the exhibit page.
Postcard showing The American Tobacco Company cigarette plant in Reidsville, North Carolina.
We’ve recently finished digitizing and publishing online more local history materials from Rockingham County Public Library. This is another batch coordinated as part of a 2014-2015 Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) EZ Digitzation Grant, and we’re excited to share these with you.
Periodicals added with this batch include Insights to Jerusalem, a newsletter published by the Jerusalem United Holy Church of America in Reidsville, NC. These volumes, from 1990-1994, include church news, recipes, short essays, and more. Old Rockingham County Magazine, also published during the 1990s, is a variety magazine with stories, historical anecdotes, household hints, ads, and local lore.
There are also a number of additional volumes of research on a variety of Rockingham County residents and topics by local historian John T. Dallas.
The remaining items include materials about the American Tobacco Company (The Story of Lucky Strike, and a postcard of the plant in Reidsville), two reports on civil rights in Reidsville, and a scrapbook full of newspaper clippings and ephemera documenting Washington Mills.
The Rockingham County Public Library has recently contributed a new batch of materials to the Rockingham County: A Digital Heritage Project digital exhibit on DigitalNC.
A Scrapbook: Mayodan, North Carolina People (Cover), 1909-1944
Grace Baptist Church Sunday Program from the 57th Anniversary Service, 1981
The emphasis of this batch was on local history. Pictorial histories of Reidsville and Rockingham County generally are joined by self-published booklets by a local historian, a scrapbook of Mayodan people and events from 1909 to 1944, and materials related to church histories from the vertical files.
Grace Baptist Church in Mayodan, N.C. celebrated its 57th Anniversary in 1981. A history of the church was published and distributed along with the Sunday Program on August 23, 1981. The vertical files include newspaper clippings, programs, and cemetery surveys to flesh out the history of various local churches in Mayodan, Ellisboro, Reidsville, and Madison.
While the vertical files focused primarily on church history, booklets published by John T. Dallas tackled more diverse topics. Dallas compiled fifteen booklets containing archival research, newspaper clippings, registers, and photographs between the years of 2006 and 2012. Seven of these booklets are dedicated to genealogical studies of notable families, while others cover topics such as murder, gambling, and confederate history.
These materials were digitized as part of a 2014-2015 Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) EZ Digitzation Grant, as distributed by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, administered by the State Library of North Carolina.
We are very excited to share a new addition to the DigitalNC collections: video! Over the winter we began work on a new effort to digitize a selection of audiovisual materials from around the state. We gathered a wide variety of films, videotapes, and audio cassettes from some of our partner libraries and worked with a vendor to have everything digitized. The results are starting to come in, and they’re a lot of fun.
In honor of National Library Week, and in special recognition of National Bookmobile Day, we are sharing our first film: a terrific recording of the Rockingham County bookmobile visiting a local school in 1939. The film enables us to take a glimpse into the past as we watch a pretty fancy looking bookmobile pull up to the school, some earnest and well-dressed librarians getting ready for the kids, and then we can see the excitement of the children as they browse and pick out books from the mobile shelves. And of course, there’s Jim the library dog, who liked to ride on the front seat and was a fixture at every bookmobile visit.
The film is from the Rockingham County Public Library, which has also contributed a great selection of photographs of the bookmobile in action. Digitization was made possible by a grant from the Knight Foundation through the Digital Public Library of America. Look for more moving images and audio recordings coming to DigitalNC very soon.
We’ve just added scrapbooks, a town ledger, and several additional yearbooks from Rockingham County Public Library, part of the collaborative Rockingham County Legacy project.
Two Rockingham County Library programs from the 1970s are documented in these digitized scrapbooks. The Drop-in-Library (DIL) was a grant-funded initiative to bring resources, especially audio-visual ones, to children who couldn’t get to a physical library branch. The DIL van “dropped in” to residential areas, head start programs, day cares, schools, and other parts of the community, where staff would present filmstrips, read books, and provide the children with a variety of activities. The scrapbooks include newspaper articles, promotional materials, and documentation about the program, as well as photographs showing children taking advantage of the DILmobile’s resources. The Special Outreach Services (SOS) program similarly offered services to those who had trouble getting to a branch. This service delivered large print books and other materials via station wagon to the homebound.
This most recent batch also includes a Property Tax Register from the town of Madison, as well as more yearbooks for Booker T. Washington High School, John Motley Morehead High School, and Stoneville High School. There are now over 120 yearbooks from Rockingham County institutions available on DigitalNC.
Example page from the Public School Register, showing list of students in attendance as well as general school information at the top.
We’ve just added a mixture of items from Rockingham County Public Library to DigitalNC. Of interest to genealogists will be an early public school register that lists students from 1891-1897, along with the names of their parents/guardians. At the top of each two-page spread is a list of textbooks used by the class, and the school teacher’s salary (usually around $22.00).
We’re also excited about providing full-text searchability to seven volumes of obituaries clipped from the Madison Messenger as well as other newspapers. See links to these items below.
Finally, this batch includes a number of ledgers documenting activity at Rockingham libraries, and records of a local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
These items are all a part of the Rockingham County Legacy Project, which brings together resources from several institutions in that county.
Honor Roll of Rockingham County, page 46.
New items for the Rockingham County Legacy: A Digital Heritage Project exhibit, contributed by the Rockingham County Public Library, are now available on DigitalNC.
Of note is the Honor Roll of Rockingham County. This book is full of portraits of Rockingham county men and women who served during World War II. Beneath each portrait are details including the names of parents, hometown, and service dates. African American servicemen are included separately at the last few pages.
Also new are the following scrapbooks, ledgers, cards, and yearbook:
