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Newest Additions to the North Carolina Sights and Sounds Collection, Part 2

Here at the Digital Heritage Center, we’re able to scan or photograph almost all kinds of two dimensional items and even a goodly number of those in three dimensions. However, audiovisual materials are sent off site for digitization to a vendor and, as such, it’s a service we’ve only been able to offer annually. We just concluded our second round of audiovisual digitization and, like last year, our partners came forward with a wide variety of film and audio nominations. This is the second in a series of posts about the accepted nominations, with links to the items in the Sights and Sounds collection.

State Archives of North Carolina

ifhejumpsoffabridge

One of the best parts of “Wildlife Babies” is the footage of baby ducks jumping out of their bird house into a lake.

Appropriate for this election season, the State Archives has shared a number of short spots from the 1968 Governor’s race in which Robert W. Scott compares his policies and campaign tactics to those of his opponent, Jim Gardner. Scott’s criticisms of Gardner and his campaign echo some of what we hear today, and are also reflective of pressing issues in the state at the time, ranging from criticisms about Gardner’s attendance record to “misleading” campaign literature in which Scott was shown standing next to an African American man. There is also footage of a campaign speech made by Scott in Greenville, North Carolina, shortly before election day.

In addition to these are shared a number of films from the Wildlife Resources Commission. Many show both freshwater and saltwater fishing, both for sport and science. If you need your baby animal fix, you can check out “Wildlife Babies,” an award-winning feature that shows baby birds and mammals of North Carolina.

Mauney Memorial Library

We are always pleased to uncover and make available more films by H. Lee Waters, and during this round of digitization the Mauney Memorial Library came forward with two such films from Kings Mountain, N.C. These two most recent films are similar in style to the many produced by Waters, available both here and through an astounding collection at Duke University Libraries. There are many shots of school children walking in front of the camera, sometimes shy, sometimes silly. Some notable features include an aerial view of Kings Mountain, views inside local stores, and a product demonstration of a refrigerator (minute 26).

We’ll be posting several more blog posts in the coming weeks which will introduce the other films from our partners now viewable on DigitalNC.


Newest Additions to the North Carolina Sights and Sounds Collection, Part 1

Here at the Digital Heritage Center, we’re able to scan or photograph almost all kinds of two dimensional items and even a goodly number of those in three dimensions. However, audiovisual materials are sent off site for digitization to a vendor and, as such, it’s a service we’ve only been able to offer annually. We just concluded our second round of audiovisual digitization and, like last year, our partners came forward with a wide variety of film and audio nominations documenting North Carolina’s history. This is the first in a series of posts about the accepted nominations, with links to the items in the Sights and Sounds collection.

Belmont Abbey College

Unidentified man, presumably from Gaston County and interviewed for the Crafted with Pride Project in 1985.

Unidentified man, presumably from Gaston County and interviewed for the Crafted with Pride Project in 1985.

The “Crafted with Pride” project, led by several cultural heritage institutions and businesses in Gaston County in 1985, sought to record and bring public awareness to the textile industry’s impact in Gaston County. During the project, a number of oral histories were collected from those who had worked in textile mills and lived in mill villages in towns like Belmont, Bessemer City, Cherryville, Dallas, Gastonia, High Shoals, McAdenville, Mount Holly, and Stanley. Belmont Abbey College has shared these oral histories on DigitalNC, as well as images and documents from the project. The oral histories touch on the toil of mill work, especially during the Great Depression, and the positive and negative cultural and social aspects of mill villages in North Carolina during the early 20th century.

Cumberland County Public Library

A girl wearing tartans at festivities surrounding Cumberland County's Sesquicentennial in 1939.

An unidentified girl wearing tartans at festivities surrounding Cumberland County’s Sesquicentennial in 1939.

Silent footage of the 1939 sesquicentennial parade in Fayetteville, N.C. combines Scottish customs, local history, and military displays from Cumberland County. This film was nominated by the Cumberland County Public Library, along with a brief advertisement soliciting support for renovation of Fayetteville’s Market House.

Duke University Medical Center Archives

Scene from "The Sound of Mucus," performed by Duke Medical School students in 1989.

Scene from “The Sound of Mucus,” performed by Duke Medical School students in 1989.

The films and oral histories nominated by the Duke University Medical Center Archives describe the history of Duke Hospital and Duke University’s School of Medicine. Included is a Black History Month Lecture by Dr. Charles Johnson, the first Black professor at Duke Medicine, in which he describes his early life and his work at Duke. You can also view “The Sound of Mucus,” a comedic musical created and performed by Duke Medical students and faculty in 1989.  Two interviews conducted with Wilburt Cornell Davison and Jane Elchlepp give first hand accounts of Duke Hospital and Medical School history.

We’ll be posting several more blog posts in the coming weeks which will introduce the other films from our partners now viewable on DigitalNC.


New batch of Francis B. Hays Scrapbooks from the Granville County Public Library are now online

oldunc

DigitalNC is happy to publish seven new additions to one of our staple exhibits, the Frances B. Hays Collection. Contributed by our partner, the Granville County Public Library, the Hays Collection documents the detailed history of Oxford, Granville County, and North Carolina on the whole.

Several interesting highlights from this batch include North Carolina Colleges and Schools, which documents various newspaper clippings and magazine articles about North Carolina’s institutions of higher learning. You will find articles about the organization and history of the University of North Carolina, Duke University, Peace College, Meredith College, and many more.

For any of our users who are familiar with this collection, the Oxford Newspapers and Oxford Newspapers II scrapbooks may be particularly interesting. As many know, all of the 150 Francis B. Hays scrapbooks are also most entirely composed of newspaper clippings; thus these items may be the most “meta” objects in the collection.

All of the scrapbooks highlight interesting news topics and popular information from the mid-twentieth century and are excellent resources for genealogists, historical researchers, or those simply interested in the history of our state.

You can view all of the newest additions to the exhibit below:babies

To learn more about the Francis B. Hays Collection and to see the other 100+ scrapbooks, please visit the exhibit page. To learn more about the Granville County Public Library, please the contributor page or the home page.


Arts in Durham: More than Disco!

Durham has long been a center of the arts in the Triangle, with dance being no exception. The American Dance Festival (ADF) has been a part of the Durham community since 1978. The ADF began in 1934 at Bennington College in Vermont and moved to several other New England campuses, until it finally settled at Duke University, where it has remained for almost forty years. This event helped to foster the many dance and performance organizations in the area and increase the popularity of dance in the local Durham community, as well as around the Triangle.

The “Arts in Durham” television broadcast documented several studios and clubs that stemmed from this popularity during the late 1970’s. Although the ADF focused primarily on modern dance, many different genres were represented in these broadcasts, including disco, ballet, jazz, and clogging. Below are three “Arts in Durham” broadcasts from DigitalNC’s North Carolina Sights & Sounds Collection, highlighting the wonderful and weird dance styles from the Durham community.

Arts in Durham: Arthur Hall Dance Company

arther_hall

Arthur Hall teaching technique at the American Dance Festival.

Arthur Hall, founder of the Dance Company with his name sake, came to the ADF from Philadelphia to teach techniques based in traditional African movements. Trained under a Ghanaian instructor, Hall dedicated his life to creating a space for Black dancers to practice and perform traditional and original choreography. Outside of dance, Hall created a museum, cultural center and archive in Germantown. He has been called the “father of the Black arts movement in Philadelphia,” and his techniques inspired the Durham Arts community during his time with ADF.

 

 

Arts in Durham: C’est La Vie Disco

disco2

C’est La Vie Disco

Although ADF showcased professional dancers and choreographers, professional dance was not all that existed during this period in Durham. C’est La Vie Disco embraced the disco craze of the seventies in a way that amateurs and professionals alike could enjoy. Located in Durham’s old Five Point Neighborhood, C’est La Vie Disco was housed in a restaurant that made room for DJs and dancers in the evenings. The broadcast features several professional teachers, demonstrating disco techniques, but the true highlights are the intro and concluding pieces that showcase community members busting some moves.

 

Art in Durham: New Performance Dance Company, April 1979

newperformance

Probably the most entertaining of all of the dance-related audiovisual material on DigitalNC, this broadcast features the New Performance Dance Company, once located on Chapel Hill Street in Durham. The company choreographed and performed in the area and taught classes of various styles. The broadcast features several modern performances, disco choreography, and children’s classes. Many of these dance styles are quite unique and definitely worth watching!

 

 

You can see all of the dance-related moving images at the links below or continue exploring the Arts in Durham . Many thanks to the Durham County Library for contributing these pieces of history from the Triangle.


Durham Chose Me: Yusuf Salim Remembered in Moving Image

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Yusuf Salim interviewed for Durham Technical Institute and Arts in Durham.

From Durham Technical Institute’s Community Video Services and the Durham Arts Council, Cynthia Watts interviews Yusuf Salim in Arts in Durham, Brother Yusuf, 1979. This moving image can be found in DigitalNC’s  new North Carolina Sites and Sounds Collection. It was contributed by the Durham Public Library.

Born Joseph Blair in Baltimore in 1929, Yusuf Salim was a lifelong Jazz pianist and composer, performing in several bands in Baltimore, New York City, and Durham. Salim was a well-known figure in Durham, but apart from his small collection of archival material, his memory now resides mainly in the hearts of Durhamites who knew him. He served as a resource for the growing jazz community and often helped and hosted musicians who were settling in or passing through the Triangle. He was also known as a humanitarian and community activist, promoting peace among the rapidly diversifying population in the Triangle.

In the film, Watts askes Salim “Why did you choose Durham?” (3:14)
“Durham chose me.” Salim continued to describe his love of the Triangle area. He discussed the many “points of reference” by which he compared his experience. One such moment was his time as a Marine in Eastern North Carolina. Even in his full Marine uniform he was forced to walk in the dirt to let white people pass. But times had changed in the Triangle and Salim’s attitude and outlook were positive, which he credits to his Islamic faith. Salim also spoke openly about his struggle with heroin and how his faith freed him from his addiction. He went cold-turkey upon his move to Durham in 1974 and was clean from then on.

More than half of the moving image is dedicated to what Salim did best– jazz performance. The film documents 15 minutes of Salim’s skill on the jazz piano.

Two other moving image items from the the Durham Public Library that also feature Salim are available on DigitalNC:

Salim died in 2008 after a battle with prostate cancer. His memorial was held at the Hayti Heritage Center in Durham. This moving image offers a warm memory of a beloved Durham jazz icon and captures a moment of the art scene in the Triangle during the 1970’s. For more information and research about Yusuf Salim and his life in Durham, please visit Duke University’s Rubenstein Library where his collection is housed. It holds many of the original scores that he composed. Related material about Jazz in Durham can be found at the Durham Main Library in the Bus Brown Collection. You can also view many other materials shared by Durham County Library on DigitalNC or in their own digital collections.


North Carolina Newspaper Digitization Part 2: The State of the State

Sign pointing microfilm users to different online resources. Taken in Wilson Library's North Carolina Collection Reading Room, UNC-Chapel Hill.

Sign pointing microfilm users to different online resources. Taken in Wilson Library’s North Carolina Collection Reading Room, UNC-Chapel Hill.

[This post updated July 2017.]

Newspaper digitization is challenging for a number of reasons (refer to our previous post). Although we’re biased, if you’re interested in accessing North Carolina newspapers online you’re actually pretty lucky; North Carolina is positioned well ahead of many other states. Below we’ve listed, in descending order of size, all of the major historic online newspaper databases sponsored by North Carolina institutions that are on our radar.

Name: Newspapers.com
Dates: 1751-2000
Coverage: Statewide
Amount Online: 3,500,000+ pages
Details: The North Carolina Collection at UNC-Chapel Hill Library recently partnered with Newspapers.com to digitize millions of pages of North Carolina newspapers. These are accessible for free at the State Archives of North Carolina or UNC-Chapel Hill’s Library, or you can view them anywhere at newspapers.com for a monthly fee. As of July 2017, NC LIVE also makes these papers available to member libraries and their card holders. While there are other vendors out there with historic North Carolina newspapers, this is the most comprehensive to date.

Name: The North Carolina Digital Heritage Center
Coverage: Statewide
Dates: 1824-2013
Amount Online: 640,000+ pages
Details: Each year we receive LSTA funding from the State Library of North Carolina to digitize newspapers. Part of that funding goes toward papers on microfilm, for which we ask for title nominations from libraries and archives. We also digitize some newspapers from print (mostly college and university student newspapers) as well as small runs of community papers that have not been microfilmed.

Name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, National Digital Newspaper Program Grant Award
Coverage: Statewide
Dates: 1836-1922
Amount Online: 100,000+ pages
Details: UNC-Chapel Hill is currently in its second round of providing selected historic newspapers for digitization and sharing through the Library of Congress’ Chronicling America website. These issues are searchable along with a selection of titles from other states.

Name: University of North Carolina at Greensboro Library / Greensboro Museum
Dates: 1826-1946
Coverage: Town of Greensboro and surrounding area
Amount Online: 5,000+ issues
Details: The Greensboro Historical Newspapers collection includes a variety of papers from that area, including World War II military base papers.

Name: The State Archives of North Carolina
Dates: 1752-1890s
Coverage: Statewide
Amount Online: 4,000+ issues
Details: The State Archives of North Carolina actively preserves, microfilms, and digitizes newspapers. While most of these are not currently available online, they have shared some of the earliest on their website.

Name: East Carolina University Library
Dates: 1887-1915
Coverage: Town of Greenville and surrounding area
Amount Online: 1,800+ issues
Details: ECU’s Digital Collections include The Eastern Reflector, a community paper published in Greenville.

While more focused, college and university papers (especially earlier issues) often included local community news. In addition to those featured on DigitalNC, here’s a list of other school papers online:

This isn’t to say others aren’t scanning their local newspapers – we know some heard of local entities (businesses and libraries) working toward that goal. But this post was intended to list the largest, statewide, and (mostly) freely searchable endeavors. Know of others? Tell us.

In Part 3 of this Newspaper Digitization series, we’ll get technical and describe how we digitize newspapers here at the Digital Heritage Center.


Two related notes:

  1. Looking for a newspaper that isn’t online (yet)? Through your local public library, you can most likely loan and view newspaper microfilm from the State Library of North Carolina. This Newspaper Locator may be helpful if you want to determine some of the titles published in a specific area.
  1. North Carolinians are heavily involved in efforts to preserve born-digital news. The Educopia Institute, located in Greensboro, is spearheading a conversation that brings in news producers and cultural heritage professionals to talk about our disappearing journalistic heritage.  At their website you can learn more about the Memory Hole events and read a white paper on Newspaper Preservation.

Sam Lacks and the Carolina Hotel

Monday Matchup

Here on our blog, we’ll occasionally be featuring “matchups” that showcase relationships between different items in our collection. Today’s matchup? An image from the Tufts Archives in Pinehurst and newspapers from the Southern Pines Public Library.

Photo of Sam Lacks in a checkered suit

Sam Lacks

It’s probably easy to understand why this photo caught our eye. From the Tufts Archives of Pinehurst, NC, it’s of Sam Lacks in 1928. Who was Mr. Lacks?

The information with the photo states he was the “Carolina Bellman.” But you can start to fill in more details about Lacks’ life from our collection, using local newspapers. DigitalNC includes issues of The Pilot from 1920-1948. Courtesy of the Southern Pines Public Library, The Pilot was and is published in Moore County. Using The Pilot, we find out the following:

Mr. Lacks was the “genial” “veteran doorman” of the Carolina Hotel (now part of the Pinehurst Resort). He and his wife, known only as “Mrs. Lacks,” had at least two children: Stanley and Leonard. In 1932, Mrs. Lacks was grade mother for the 11th grade and Leonard Lacks was a junior at UNC Chapel Hill. The family summered in New Hampshire.

Both Stanley and Leonard attended Duke University. The family had connections with Massachusetts, especially Boston, and traveled there frequently. They lived in Marlboro Apartments in Pinehurst.

lacksarticleMr. Lacks unfortunately made headlines when he broke his leg in an auto accident in 1931 (see right), but we’re kindly informed that he was making a “satisfactory recovery” two weeks later. In 1936, he served as Santa Claus at one of the annual Children’s Christmas parties at the hotel. That article calls him the hotel’s “general factotum.”

The last reference we could find, in 1941, mentions Mr. and Mrs. Lacks, their son Stanley, and Stanley’s new bride — all returning from a trip to Massachusetts.

If Mr. Lacks was as popular as the newspaper suggests, he may still be well remembered around Pinehurst.


North Carolina City Directories Collection Continues to Grow

The North Carolina City Directories collection in DigitalNC continues to grow. There are now more than 900 directories online, spanning more than a century. Published from early 1860s to the early 1960s, the directories cover cities and towns across North Carolina. There are 107 cities and 63 counties represented in the online collection. Most of the directories that were digitized come from the North Carolina Collection at UNC-Chapel Hill, though several other libraries have contributed copies, including the Durham County Library, Duke University, the Forsyth County Public Library, and the Hickory Public Library.

We are making an effort to include every available North Carolina city directory published through 1963 (later editions have a different copyright status). If you know of city directories in North Carolina libraries that are not included on this site, please let us know.

New Slideshow — Caro-Graphics: Do You Know Your State?

Caro-Graphics, a single panel cartoon focused on North Carolina history, trivia, and oddities, ran in The Pilot (Southern Pines, N.C.) from 1935-1937. We have assembled a slideshow of a sample of Caro-Graphics from this run, highlighting the variety of reader submissions illustrated for the comic.
 
Primary creator, Murray Jones, Jr. of Durham, worked on Caro-Graphics during his time as a student at Duke University – we have included a photo of him from the 1934 edition of Duke’s yearbook, The Chanticleer. He went on to become a prominent artist and professor of the arts.  He died in 1964; today would have been his 97th birthday.
 
Caro-Graphics have been featured previously on NC Miscellany, through which the strip garnered the attention of comic strip historian Allan Holtz. Soon afterward, Caro-Graphics were featured as the “Obscurity of the Day” in Holtz’s blog on American newspaper comic strips.  Earlier this year, Murray’s career and personal life were described in an “Ink-Slinger Profile” on the blog.  Thanks to Holtz and his colleague Alex Jay for their help in providing more contextual information about Jones and Caro-Graphics.
 
These home-grown comics provide another lens through which to look at North Carolina history, culture – and humor!

Brevard College Yearbooks Available Online

Student yearbooks from Brevard College are now available on DigitalNC.

The online collection includes a few yearbooks from two of the schools that preceded Brevard College: Weaver College and Rutherford College.

The Brevard yearbook has been called “The Pertelote” since 1935, the name coming from “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale,” one of the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, and referring to the relationship between Brevard and Duke University. The editors of the 1935 volume write, “The name of this book signifies our relationship to our big brother, Duke University. The title of Duke’s annual is ‘The Chanticleer’. In Chaucer’s old tale, Pertelote was the hen most loved by the valiant Chanticleer. So, since we are in various ways connected with Duke, and particularly of the same religious denomination, we elected to call our annual The Pertelote.”

The Pertelote, 1938


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