Thanks to our partner, Historic Hope Plantation, a batch containing Governor Stone Ball programs, a photograph of Hope Mansion pre-renovation, issues of Written in Stone: Historic Hope, a book on Bertie County heritage, and more are now available on our website.
This batch provides those interested in Hope Plantation with numerous materials to learn the site’s history from its completion to modern day. The Governor Stone Ball souvenir programs alone contain a wealth of knowledge for those curious about the early history of the Hope Mansion as well as information on renovations and excavations that have been conducted on site. One of these projects, an archaeological excavation, mentioned in the The Governor Stone Bicentennial Ball Souvenir Program [May 3, 2003] stands out as particularly fascinating.
From December 2001 to April 2002, an archaeological excavation was conducted at Hope Mansion. The archaeological excavation revealed evidence of an enslaved community living close to what is called the Hobson-Stone house. This evidence included a high percentage of colonoware, kitchen artifacts, and holloware vessel fragments. The story mentions that the Historic Hope Foundation planned to have additional excavations to enhance their “interpretation of plantation life at Hope in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.”
To read “Archaeological Excavations Reveal Eighteenth Century Life at Hope” in its entirety, please click here.
To learn more about Historic Hope Plantation’s archaeological efforts, please click here.
To learn more about the Historic Hope Plantation, please visit their website.
This week we have another 41 titles up on DigitalNC! In this batch we have a lot of new papers from Durham and Beaufort, as well as our first additions from Mocksville, Pine Forest, and Kenansville!
Last month we added our first copies of The Nation from Buffalo Springs. The Nation was a handwritten paper published by John McLean Harrington, a Harnett County man who would painstakingly copy each of his papers by hand for his roughly 100 subscribers. This week we have five more of Harrington’s handwritten papers: The Young American from Buffalo Springs, The Weekly Eagle from Pine Forest, and Harrington, N.C.’s The Times, The Weekly News, and The Semi-Weekly News.
Over the next year, we’ll be adding millions of newspaper images to DigitalNC. These images were originally digitized a number of years ago in a partnership with Newspapers.com. That project focused on scanning microfilmed papers published before 1923 held by the North Carolina Collection in Wilson Special Collections Library. While you can currently search all of those pre-1923 issues on Newspapers.com, over the next year we will also make them available in our newspaper database as well. This will allow you to search that content alongside the 2 million pages already on our site – all completely open access and free to use.
This week’s additions include:
- The Clinton Independent (Clinton, N.C.) – 1856-1858
- Eastern Courier (Hertford, N.C.) – 1895-1896
- The Nation (Buffalo Springs, N.C.) – 1858
- The Young American (Buffalo Springs, N.C.) – 1858
- The Weekly Eagle (Pine Forest, N.C.) – 1860
- The Eagle (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1868-1873
- The Semi-Weekly News (Harrington, N.C.) – 1860
- The Weekly News (Harrington, N.C.) – 1860-1864
- The Times (Harrington, N.C.) – 1867-1869
- Eastern Carolina News (Kenansville, N.C.) – 1908-1911
- The Chronicle (Albemarle, N.C.) – 1916-1917
- The Enterprise (Albemarle, N.C.) – 1917-1918
- The Albemarle Enterprise (Albemarle, N.C.) – 1919
- The News (Albemarle, N.C.) – 1919
- Stanly County Herald (Albemarle, N.C.) – 1919
- The Stanly News-Herald (Albemarle, N.C.) – 1919
- The Weekly Record (Beaufort, N.C.) – 1887-1888
- The Beaufort Eagle (Beaufort, N.C.) – 1876
- The Herald (Beaufort, N.C.) – 1893
- Beaufort Journal (Beaufort, N.C.) – 1857-1858
- Carteret County Telephone (Beaufort, N.C.) – 1881-1885
- The Clayton Bud (Clayton, N.C.) – 1883-1886
- The Weekly Bud (Smithfield, N.C.) – 1886-1887
- Creedmoor Times-News (Creedmoor, N.C.) – 1915-1919
- Durham Daily Dispatch (Durham, N.C.) – 1880
- The Durham Herald (Durham, N.C.) – 1876
- The Durham County Republican (Durham, N.C.) – 1884
- The Truth (Durham, N.C.) – 1884
- Daily Record (Durham, N.C.) – 1898
- The Daily Reporter (Durham, N.C.) – 1885
- The Durham Weekly Globe (Durham, N.C.) – 1889-1892
- Durham Globe (Durham, N.C.) – 1895-1896
- Saturday Night (Durham, N.C.) – 1893
- The Patriot (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1826-1827
- The Carolina Beacon (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1836-1837
- Southern Telescope (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1837
- The Carolina Patriot (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1837-1839
- The Davie Times (Mocksville, N.C.) – 1887-1903
- The Davie Record (Mocksville, N.C.) – 1899-1922
- Chatham Observer (Pittsboro, N.C.) – 1901-1904
- Chatham Citizen (Pittsboro, N.C.) – 1897-1899
- The Day (Oxford, N.C.) – 1890-1892
- The Concord Times (Concord, N.C.) – 1895-1897
- The Evening Tribune (Concord, N.C.) – 1904-1910
- Concord Daily Tribune (Concord, N.C.) – 1910-1921
If you want to see all of the newspapers we have available on DigitalNC, you can find them here. Thanks to UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries for permission to and support for adding all of this content as well as the content to come. We also thank the North Caroliniana Society for providing funding to support staff working on this project.
An issue of The Carolinian (Raleigh) newspaper from November 6, 1948.
It’s time to announce our annual round of microfilmed newspaper digitization! As in previous years, we’re asking cultural heritage institutions in North Carolina to nominate papers from their communities to be digitized. We’re especially interested in:
- newspapers covering underrepresented regions or communities, and
- newspapers that are not currently available in digital form elsewhere online.
If your institution is in one of these counties, please consider nominating! These are counties that currently have little content represented on DigitalNC. Bertie, Bladen, Camden, Caswell, Clay, Gates, Hoke, Jones, Northampton, Onslow, Pamlico, Swain, Tyrrell.
If you’re interested in nominating a paper and you work at a cultural heritage institution that qualifies as a partner, here’s what to do:
- Check out our criteria for selecting newspapers, listed below.
- Verify that the newspaper you’d like to see digitized exists on microfilm. Email us (digitalnc@unc.edu) if you’re not sure.
- Be prepared to talk with the rights holder(s) to gain written permission to digitize the paper and share it online. We can give you advice on this part, if needed.
- Send us an email with the name of the newspaper you would like to nominate, along with your priority years for scanning. Please talk briefly about how the paper and your institution meet the criteria below.
Nominations will be taken on an ongoing basis, however don’t wait! We typically get many more requests than we can accommodate. Please contact us at digitalnc@unc.edu with questions. We’re looking forward to hearing from you.
Criteria for Selecting Newspapers to Digitize from Microfilm
Titles to be digitized will be selected using the following criteria:
- Does the newspaper document traditionally underrepresented regions or communities?
- Does the newspaper include significant coverage of the local community or largely syndicated content?
- Does the newspaper come from an area of the state that has little representation on DigitalNC? (Titles that have not previously been digitized will be given priority. Here’s a title list and a map showing coverage.)
- Are the images on microfilm legible, or is it difficult to read the text?
- Is the institution willing to obtain permission from the current publisher or rights holder(s) to digitize issues and make them freely available online?
- If the newspaper is selected for digitization, will the nominating institution promote the digital project through programs and announcements?
*Updated 8/9/2019 to add county list.
A 1952 article about NC Governor W. Kerr Scott and Dr. Clyde Erwin, state superintendent of public instruction, visiting Macon County schools
Seventeen more years and over 10,000 more issues of The Franklin Press and Highlands Maconian newspaper have been newly digitized and put online on DigitalNC, with the help of our partner, the Fontana Regional Library. The Highlands Historical Society has also helped us with making these issues available for the public. While our collection previously only contained 1924-1942, we have nearly doubled the collection, with 1943-1960 now digitized online. Based out of Franklin in Macon County, the Franklin Press and Highlands Maconian was published weekly from 1932-1968.
A full issue in January 1944 wished servicemen victory in the coming year
Many of the newly digitized articles naturally deal with World War II, such as the snippet on the left of a January 1944 paper, which was wholly dedicated to wishing servicemen and soldiers victory in the coming year. After the war ended, the paper went back to its regular local and national coverage. For example, an article in 1955 detailed how excited the townspeople were of the forthcoming 1956 film The Great Locomotive Chase was being filmed in Franklin, Clayton, and Tallulah Falls.
With this new increase in pages from The Franklin Press and Highlands Maconian, DigitalNC becomes much closer to having the entire publication of the newspaper in our collection. To browse other materials from the Fontana Regional Library or the Highlands Historical Society, click on their partner pages, or visit their websites Fontana Regional Library and Highlands Historical Society here.
A new video has been digitized and added to DigitalNC, courtesy of our partner, Davie County Public Library. The original 16mm film shows Dr. S. Clay Williams Jr. walking around the garden at Willsherr Lodge on Win-Mock Farm in uniform in 1945. Click here to view the film.
A frame from the video, showing Dr. S. Clay Williams Jr walking in the garden
Win-Mock Farm is a plot of land along the Yadkin River built by S. Clay Williams, president of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, located halfway between Winston-Salem and Mocksville. The Willsherr Lodge acted as the large family home, which is very briefly visible in the film.
To learn more about Win-Mock Farm, their website is here. To see more materials from Davie County Public Library, visit their partner page, or take a look at their website.
Have you been interested in working with the Digital Heritage Center but find it difficult to get to Chapel Hill, or have concerns about having your materials off site? We want to come to you! We’ll be working with two or three cultural heritage institutions over the next nine months to try out on-location scanning. If you’d like to nominate your institution, read on and use the nomination form linked at the end of this post.
What We Do
Here’s what nominated institutions will receive as part of this process.
- We will bring our scanners, computers, and staff to your institution to digitize and describe materials from your collections. We would be there for one full weekday, at a minimum.
- We’ll host the scanned images and associated metadata on DigitalNC.org, and give you copies of the original scans to use in any non-profit context.
- Optionally, we can do a presentation for staff and/or the public related to any of the following topics:
- The Digital Heritage Center’s services (for staff at your institution and/or other local cultural heritage institutions)
- A demonstration of what we’re doing while we’re there (for staff at your institution)
- The variety of resources you can find on DigitalNC.org and other fantastic digital collections in North Carolina (staff or the public)
What We’ll Need from Partners We Visit
If you’re chosen, we’d need:
- At least one conference call before arrival to clarify expectations, work with you on scheduling, and talk through the materials you’d like scanned.
- Description and a light inventory of the items we’ll be scanning, if there isn’t one already available.
- Some assembly and preparation of the materials you’ve chosen. This might include physically pulling all of the content together before we arrive and removing staples if the materials are stapled at the top corners.
- A designated staff contact regularly available to ask questions regarding what we’re scanning while we’re there, and to help with logistics like getting equipment in and out of the building, etc.
- An indoor location that has:
- at least two power outlets,
- internet connectivity,
- a work area large enough for 2 scanners and 4 laptops as well as extra room for materials handling,
- seating for four people, and
- is away from the public so we can get the most scanning accomplished in our limited time (ideal but not required).
Additional Guidance for Nominations
- We’ll be giving priority to nominations from institutions furthest from Chapel Hill and to new partners. If you are a prospective partner, please check to make sure you’re eligible.
- The materials have to be owned by your institution.
- The materials should cover North Carolina subjects, events, and people.
- For these on-location sessions, we’re accepting nominations for the following types of items:
- photographs (prints) and/or postcards
- looseleaf print materials up to 11×17”
- bound items may be considered, but in very limited numbers and only if transporting them to Chapel Hill would be impossible
- Materials can be fragile but should be stable enough to withstand gentle handling and placement on a flatbed scanner.
We’ll review nominations according to the following criteria, so you may want to address these in your nomination form:
| Category |
Point Value |
| New partner |
1 |
| New town |
1 |
| New county** |
2 |
Materials document an underrepresented
community or population |
1 |
| Materials are well described/inventoried |
5 |
| Majority of materials date from 1945 or earlier |
1 |
| Materials are believed to be unique |
1 |
** We have yet to work with any institutions in the following counties: Alexander, Bertie, Bladen, Camden, Caswell, Chowan, Clay, Currituck, Dare, Gates, Graham, Greene, Henderson, Hoke, Jones, Mitchell, Northampton, Onslow, Pamlico, Swain, Tyrrell, Yancey
Use this nomination form to submit!
We’ll start reviewing nominations on September 30 and will notify selected institutions shortly thereafter. If a selected institution ends up not being able to host us, we’ll continue down the list.
We’re excited about trying out this new service. Please contact us with any questions and share this with any institutions you think might be interested.
