Newly digitized yearbooks from Wayne County Public Library are now available on DigitalNC.org. This batch features yearbooks from six high schools, dated 1955-1965. The high schools are from Wayne, Lenoir, Craven and Pitt counties:
In addition to this selection of yearbooks is a 1926 senior yearbook and scrapbook from Goldsboro High School called Just Seniors. The yearbook features portraits of the 66 seniors as well as mementos, newspaper clippings, postcards, pressed flowers, personal messages, and programs collected by the copy’s owner Louise Johnston Spoon.
From left to right, clockwise: Louise Johnston Spoon’s yearbook photo, page 12; 1925 Junior-Senior Banquet Program, p. 47; Postcards, p. 58; pressed flower and personal notes, p. 106.
To browse more yearbooks, click here. To explore more materials from Wayne County Public Library, click here.
From Carver High School in Mount Olive, N.C., 1961.
The Digital Heritage Center staff just uploaded several items that brought our partner Wayne County Public Library past a milestone: over 1000 items on DigitalNC! This summer we’ve been busy digitizing a range of Wayne County materials, including school yearbooks and all types of scrapbooks. The scrapbooks range from 4-H club records (pigs galore!) to several on the Major-League Baseball player and pickle salesman Ray Scarborough.
Most recently uploaded are the Wayne County War Memorial scrapbooks from 1923-1925. The two scrapbooks cover the history of the building from inception to completion, and are an excellent record of post-war sentiment in Wayne County. The building, which opened in 1925, was a monument to the Wayne County soldiers who fought in the first world war. For almost 80 years, it functioned as a community center, administrative office building, and recreational facility (an indoor swimming pool was added in 1935). It also served as a monument not only to World War I soldiers but to honor those who served in subsequent wars as well. Sadly, the building burned down in 2004; in its place the Wayne County Veterans Memorial was constructed. For more information on the memorials, visit the Wayne County Veterans Memorial website.
Also digitized are several yearbooks from two Wayne County high schools. The African-American Carver High School in Mount Olive, NC now has six volumes from 1959-1964 available, and Pikeville High School in Pikeville, NC has six new volumes from 1958-1961.
For all items from Wayne County Public Library, click here.
The NC Digital Heritage Center has just added more materials online from Wayne County Public Library including scrapbooks covering 4-H activities in Wayne County, Ray Scarborough, a major league baseball player from Mount Olive, and yearbooks from several Wayne County high schools including Goldsboro High School and Nahunta High School.
The 4-H scrapbooks are from the 1950s and show the focus on pigs in Wayne County’s 4-H program at the time. The scrapbooks also show in detail the amount of record keeping that 4-H members had to maintain to participant in the livestock and crop competitions. The scrapbooks include photographs, worksheets, and essays on “What 4-H Means to Me.”
To view more materials from Wayne County Public Library on DigitalNC, visit here.
Four scrapbooks featuring baseball players who went into the big leagues from Wayne County are now online on DigitalNC.
From Sunday Star Sports, a Washington, D.C. paper on April 17, 1949. President Harry Truman threw the opening pitch at the game that day.
Two of the scrapbooks feature Ray Scarborough (1917-1982), a pitcher from Mount Olive, NC who played for the Chicago White Sox, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Detroit Tigers, and Washington Senators, and he served as a scout for the Baltimore Orioles. During his time on the Yankees, they went to the 1952 World Series and Scarborough was a scout with the Orioles when they went to the World Series in 1966. The scrapbooks have a mix of materials from his baseball career and as a boy growing up in Wayne County and as a student at Wake Forest University. The materials in the scrapbook are a mix of photographs, letters, and newspaper clippings and cover the 1940s through 1980s.
Tim Talton and his rival for top batting average in the Eastern League Pedro Gonzalez in 1960.
The other two scrapbooks feature Marion (Tim) Talton of Pikeville, N.C., who played as catcher for the minor league teams the St. Cloud Rox in Fargo, ND and the Springfield Giants in Springfield, MA. Known for his exceptional hitting, Talton had the second highest batting average in the Eastern League in 1960 with a .331. One scrapbook covers his time on the St. Cloud Rox in 1959 and the other, his time on the Giants in 1960. Talton moved up to the major leagues in 1966 and played for the Kansas City Athletics.
The scrapbooks were made available through Wayne County Public Library. To view more baseball materials in DigitalNC, visit here.
The Dillard High School yearbooks in particular are worth a glance. The 1957 Dillardite is full of delightful details, like teachers photographed with props from their classroom, a photo of the City Schools supervisor that carefully mirrors the illustration, and lighthearted cartoons that replaced students who had missed picture day (collaged below).
The yearbooks are available courtesy of Wayne County Public Library. To view more North Carolina High School Yearbooks, visit here.
Principal Richard Sale Leftwich from 1924 Goldsboro High School Yearbook, page 12
New materials digitized for the Wayne County Public Library are now available on DigitalNC. A list of the new items is below, and includes yearbooks from Wayne County schools, the Goldsboro High School Newspaper, and more.
We are very excited to announce that our site has expanded to include four new sets of primary source teaching resources available for any teachers, researchers, or curious explorers to use. Each of these sets focuses on a particular topic in North Carolina history and includes a curated selection of 15-20 primary sources from our 300+ partners around the state. Within each set is a blend of visual materials (photographs, videos), written materials (newspaper articles, speeches, letters), and audio materials (interviews, oral histories) from the DigitalNC collections.
Each set also comes with short context blurbs for each item, as well as general background information, a timeline, a set of discussion questions, and links to genre-specific worksheets (ex. How to Analyze a Newspaper Clipping). While some of these topics are more concentrated in particular regions, our goal is to connect these broad themes in history to local examples that students can recognize. Here’s a look at the four initial primary source sets:
While you may be familiar with some of the national stories around school integration after Brown v. Board of Education, this teaching set samples North Carolina yearbooks, photographs, newspapers, and oral histories to ground this topic in familiar places. It draws primarily on our collections from historically Black high schools, many of which were closed during this period (though their alumni associations remain strong!). This collection also implements local materials from the Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Supreme Court case over busing.
This set was inspired by the popular NCPedia page, “Analyzing Political Cartoons,” which explains some of the strategies for understanding cartoons in their historical context. Here, we’ve selected examples from over a century of newspapers that include topics such as the 1898 Wilmington Coup, women’s suffrage, economics, and a few contemporary political issues. Each example comes with a bit of historical context and some background on the newspaper itself.
North Carolina’s history of labor is inextricably tied to the legacy of the textile industry. This set uses photographs, memorabilia, speeches, and newspaper clippings of two famous examples—the Loray Mill strike of 1929 and the activism of Crystal Lee Sutton—to weave together an understanding of North Carolina’s economy and culture through one of its major industries of the 20th century.
It would be impossible to fully understand the history of North Carolina in the 20th century without talking about the tobacco industry. This set uses photographs, newspapers, videos, and oral histories to explore the lives of tobacco farmers and factory workers as well as the major families who controlled the vast tobacco wealth. Additionally, it includes examples of how the industry affected culture, including a new generation of advertising that attempted to combat public health concerns.
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.
To explore the Wayne County Public Library Community Collections, please visit the exhibit page.
From the 1958 Goldsboro Business and Professional Women’s Club Scrapbook
Thanks to our partner, Wayne County Public Library, we’ve got several additional scrapbooks from the Wayne County Business and Professional Women’s Club. The scrapbooks range from 1948 to 1974-75 and document many of the club’s leaders, events, and impacts in the area.
From the 1950 Goldsboro Business and Professional Women’s Club Scrapbook
The Business and Professional Women’s Clubs of North Carolina (BPW/NC) began in 1919 with representatives from Asheville, Charlotte, Greensboro, Raleigh, Salisbury, and Winston-Salem. It grew to encompass several more chapters, including one in Goldsboro. The clubs advocated for women’s interests in the state, like money for a women’s dormitory at UNC-CH and the ratification of the 19th Amendment, and they protested against discrimination, such as that against unaccompanied women in hotels. Today, the BPW/NC still works to “promote the general advancement of working women in North Carolina.”
This ad is one of many targeting Wayne County residents during the heyday of rural electrification in North Carolina. It’s from the January 12, 1939 issue of the Goldsboro Herald.
The Goldsboro Herald is full of local information with little syndicated content. You’ll see stories related to the tobacco market, crime, and personal news items like births, visits, and deaths. Special columns cover Baker, Eureka, Pikeville, and Patetown – all in Wayne County. Also prominent is sports news, with coverage of the Goldsboro “Goldbugs” baseball team frequently right on the front page. As the paper progresses into 1940 the front page increasingly has news related to world events leading up to the second World War.
It’s unclear how long the Herald ran – if you have more information on this let us know in the comments. You can view more items from Wayne County Public Library on their contributor page, including links to a number of other Goldsboro newspapers.
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.