Aerial Photograph, 1983
Thanks to our partners at Johnston Community College, DigitalNC is proud to make more photographs, a scrapbook and a 1988 class schedule available online. This batch follows a previous set of about 750 photographs from the college, and continues along themes of education, community, and the campuses in Smithfield and Four Oaks.
Some of the most notable photos are of campus personalities, including Dr. A. Curtis Phillips, President Donald Reichard, other faculty and staff, and several that focus on President John Tart as he was about to retire.
John Tart, his wife Marjorie Tart, and their grandchildren pose by a series of cakes meant to look like the Johnston Community College at President Tart’s retirement party, 1998
The batch also includes the first scrapbook of news clippings produced by Johnston Community College. This book, filled with clippings from 1969 to 1972, is the first of many scrapbooks assembled by College faculty and staff. This book documents the origins and early days of the school, which opened as Johnston County Technical Institute in Fall 1969.
To see all of the photographs on DigitalNC from Johnston Community College, click here. DigitalNC also hosts several yearbooks from Johnston Community College from this time period–click here to view them. To learn more about Johnston Community College, visit their partner page here or their website here.
The receipt for a tuition payment from the Eason Thomas Papers.
The beginning of the letter to James Johnson regarding the death of his son in 1861.
A collection of manuscripts provided by Edgecombe County Memorial Library is now available on DigitalNC. This collection is comprised primarily of personal financial papers from Edgecombe County residents dating back as far as 1777, with the most recent documents dating to 1917. The manuscripts are separated out by the name of the individual or family to which the documents pertain. Items like land deeds, receipts of payment, and court documents concerning the transfer of money and debt are frequently found in these collections. Additionally, some letters of personal correspondence are included. One striking letter was written from Redding W. Thomas and J. W. Gardner to James Johnson informing him about the death of his son Charles during the the Civil War.
These manuscripts are useful for tracking family history as well as land use and the economic activities of Edgecombe County during the last 1700s through the 1800s. Families represented include the Long, Woodard, Barnes, Thomas, Horn, Johnston, Johnson, Batts, Farmer, and Price families of Edgecombe County.
Make sure to browse through these new manuscripts on DigitalNC and learn more about the papers on the Hugh Johnston Collection exhibit page. To see more materials from Edgecombe County Memorial Library, please check out their DigitalNC partner page and take a look a their website.
The Practical Nurse Club in the 1972 edition of Retrospect
Yearbooks from Johnston Community College are now available on DigitalNC. These yearbooks date from 1972-1992 and follow the school’s shift in focus from a technical institute to a community college. Johnston Community College, first called Johnston County Technical Institute, was established in 1969 and became a community college in 1987. JCC is located 30 miles east of Raleigh and offers a range of degrees and certificates in fields such as health science, business, and education.
Image from the 1992 edition of Retrospect
The Retrospect yearbooks give a glimpse of student life at the school and document clubs, activities, events, and academic programs. The earlier yearbooks feature sports like basketball and cheerleading, and clubs like the Practical Nurse Club and the Business Club. Later yearbooks feature a greater range of activities including Floriculture Design Club, Art Club, and many more. This change reflects an increase in student body and growth in programmatic offerings through the years.
To browse these yearbooks, click here. To learn more about Johnston Community College take a look at their partner page, or visit their website.
The Johnstonian-Sun, October 30, 1930, page 2
Nearly 20 years of newspapers are included in the latest batch from the Johnston County Heritage Center.
These issues of the Johnstonian-Sun cover the 1930’s through the 1950’s, which were fascinating times in North Carolina. Issues from the 1930’s have a strong focus on business and the local economic temperature, especially in Selma. The depression-era coverage also focused on politics, elections, and party platforms, many of which were printed in the paper weekly. The heading above is featured in several issues. Stories like these could be useful for teachers creating lesson plans centered on elections, demonstrating how every vote counts. The 1940’s issues often have detailed coverage of War World II, both at the local, national, and international level.
The Johnstonian-Sun, July 20, 1933, page 2
The Johnstonian-Sun, October 10, 1940, page 2
There are no known copies of these issues on microfilm and DigitalNC is excited to help make them more accessible.
To learn more about the Johnston County Heritage Center please visit the contributor page or the website. To see more historical newspaper from North Carolina, check out the North Carolina Newspapers Collection.
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:
- New Bern High School (New Bern, N.C.) – 1965
- New Hope High School (Goldsboro, N.C.) – 1964
- Dillard High School (Goldsboro, N.C.) – 1965
- Goldsboro High School (Goldsboro, N.C.) – 1965
- Bethel High School (Bethel, N.C.) – 1955, 1957–1958
- Grainger High School (Kinston, N.C.) – 1956-1959, 1961-164
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.
This week we have another 70 titles up on DigitalNC including over 1,000 issues of The Robesonian, 1,000 issues of The Western Sentinel, 3,000 issues of The Reidsville Review, 4,000 issues of The News and Observer, and almost 4,000 issues of the Salisbury Evening Post!
In the March 8th, 1914 issue of The News and Observers we have an article detailing a practice game played by the Baltimore Orioles while in Fayetteville. This happens to be the game where a 19 year old George Herman “Babe” Ruth hit his first home run as a professional baseball player. Ruth was also given his iconic nickname “Babe” while in Fayetteville on this trip.
The News and Observer, March 8th, 1914
Image via The Fayetteville Observer
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:
Asheboro
Asheville
Belhaven
Brevard
Charlotte
Cherryville
Clayton
Concord
Cooleemee
Creedmoor
Durham
East Bend
Elizabeth City
Forest City
Gastonia
Goldsboro
Greenville
Kenly
Leaksville
Lenoir
Lincolnton
Lumberton
Mocksville
Mooresville
Moravian Falls
New Bern
Raleigh
Red Springs
Reidsville
Rocky Mount
Rutherfordton
Salisbury
Selma
Shelby
Smithfield
Spruce Pines & Burnsville
Statesville
Taylorsville
Washington
Waynesville
Wilmington
Windsor
Winston-Salem
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.
Thanks to funding from the State Library of North Carolina’s LSTA Grant and our partner, Johnston County Heritage Center, over five hundred issues from 1911 to 1925 of The Smithfield Herald are now available on our website. These issues expand DigitalNC’s previously digitized issues from 1901 all the way to 1925.
The paper was first published weekly in Smithfield, North Carolina in 1882 under the name The Weekly Herald. In the late 1880s, the paper was renamed a second and final time to The Smithfield Herald. Articles in the paper focus on local as well as national news. Over one hundred years later, The Smithfield Herald continues to be published in Smithfield, North Carolina.
A special Sunday edition of the paper was printed when William B. Cole, a rich mill owner in Rockingham, North Carolina, was acquitted of the charge of murder. According to the paper, Cole was on trial for the murder of his daughter’s lover and former serviceman—William B. Ormond. The paper is unclear about what motive Cole had to murder Ormond.
After several hours of deliberation and pressuring one of their fellow jurors, the jury concluded that the mill owner was not guilty of the murder of Ormond. The writer’s mention of the defendant as a wealthy man in the article points to the suspicion that he may have been acquitted thanks to his money.
Although found not guilty, the judge would not release the defendant until he proved that he was sane. A day after the verdict was read, Cole attended a hearing in Wilkesboro to determine whether or not he should be sent to the State Hospital for the Insane in Raleigh. It is not mentioned in the two articles about this story if Cole was released or sent to the hospital.
To read more about the William B. Cole case, click here and here.
To learn more about the Johnston County Heritage Center, please visit their website.
To view more newspapers from across North Carolina, please click here.
Back in December, we announced our annual call for microfilmed newspaper digitization. We asked institutions throughout North Carolina to nominate papers they’d like to see added to DigitalNC. As it is every year, it was an incredibly tough choice – we are typically able to choose between 40-60 reels out of over 500+ nominated. This year we’ve chosen the following titles and years.
| Title |
Years |
Nominating Institution |
| The Elkin Tribune (Elkin, N.C.) |
1942-1949 |
Elkin Public Library |
| The Enterprise (Williamston, N.C.) |
1943-1954 |
Martin Community College and Martin Memorial Public Library |
| Gates County Index (Gatesville, N.C.) |
1942-1956 |
Gates County Public Library |
| Green Line (Asheville, N.C.) |
1987-1994 |
Buncombe County Public Libraries |
| The News of Orange County (Hillsborough, N.C.) |
1944-1964 |
Orange County Public Library |
| The Pamlico News (Bayboro, N.C.) |
1976-1987 |
New Bern-Craven County Public Library |
| The Pilot (Southern Pines, N.C.) |
1965-1968 |
Southern Pines Public Library |
| The Smithfield Herald (Smithfield, N.C.) |
1911-1925 |
Johnston County Heritage Center |
| The Wallace Enterprise (Wallace, N.C.) |
1931-1955 |
Thelma Dingus Bryant Library |
| Winston-Salem Chronicle (Charlotte, N.C.) |
2017-2018 |
Forsyth County Public Library |
For our selection criteria, we prioritize newspapers that document underrepresented communities, new titles, papers that come from a county that currently has little representation on DigitalNC, and papers nominated by new partners. After selection, we ask the partners to secure permission for digitization and, if that’s successful, they make it into the final list above.
We hope to have these titles coming online in the first half of 2021. If your title didn’t make it this year don’t despair! We welcome repeat submissions, and plan on sending out another call in Fall 2021.
Program from the 1942 Smithfield High School Junior-Senior banquet
DigitalNC has added additional photos and ephemera from Smithfield High School, located in Smithfield, Johnston County, North Carolina. This most recent batch documents SHS Junior-Senior banquets, music and drama, and graduates/graduations, and also includes issues of the student newspaper, the Smithfield High Times. This addition was made possible thanks our partners at the Smithfield High School Alumni Association.
Thirty-five issues of the High Times have been added, spanning the early 1950s to the late 1960s. Starting in 1937 and lasting until 1969, High Times was published semi-regularly by students at Smithfield High School As a high school newspaper, topics ran the gamut, from informational to entertaining. Examples of material covered include school clubs, contests, career days, scholarships, field trips, sports, honor roll announcements, gossip, and fashion. While the newspaper wasn’t published on a set schedule, issues often came out around Thanksgiving, winter break, and at the end of the school year. Each issue features a hand drawn cover page while various smaller drawings add homemade detail to columns within the newspaper. There is a marked switch to a more professional layout in 1968, only spanning two issues.
Among the photos and ephemera added in this most recent batch you’ll find photographs of graduating classes, along with ephemera about graduates dating from 1909-1969. Snapshots and programs from Junior-Senior banquets are another highlight, with handmade menus based on each banquet’s theme. Finally, there are collections of programs, newspaper clippings, and photos related to music and drama activities at the school.
To view all issues of the Smithfield High Times by cover page, click here. You can view everything the Alumni Association has shared on DigitalNC on their contributor page. You can view the items by subject on their exhibit page. To learn more about the Smithfield High School Alumni Association, you can visit their homepage here.
Cover of the 1962 Johnston County Training School yearbook.
Beginning in the early 1900s, North Carolina citizens segregated their schools. African American and Native American children were forced to attend separate schools from their white counterparts. Sometimes within the students’ own towns, sometimes a county away, these segregated schools often operated with fewer resources and poor infrastructure.
We help cultural heritage institutions scan high school yearbooks. To date we’ve added over 8,200 to DigitalNC. Less than 5% come from African American high schools*. There are a lot of reasons for this – sometimes African American schools couldn’t afford to create a yearbook, or few members of their student population could purchase one. There were a lot fewer African American schools compared to white schools, too. Many cultural heritage institutions, due to implicit or explicit bias, haven’t collected them over the years. In addition, families may be less likely to give them up to a predominantly white collecting institution. We’re always so glad to see them come through our doors, with an awareness of the fact that they represent vibrant communities flourishing within a repressive social structure.
To highlight the rarity of these yearbooks and to possibly help locate more, we’ve created a list of the names and locations of all of the public African American high schools compiled from the North Carolina Educational Directory around the time that the schools were desegregated.
You can see from the image above that the list includes
- the school’s name along with any variants we’ve uncovered,
- city,
- county,
- whether or not we have any yearbooks on DigitalNC.org,
- a link to a known alumni association’s website, and
- links to the Educational Directories where the school’s name was located.
The Educational Directory series was compiled and produced by the State Department of Public Instruction. These directories are incredibly useful for researching public school history. They list the names of schools along with locations and statistics. In the years leading up to 1964, “negro” schools were listed separately from white schools for each county, as shown in the excerpt below.
This excerpt comes from page 95 of the 1963 North Carolina Educational Directory. It notes the White and “Negro” schools of Rocky Mount, NC.
Beginning in the 1964-1965 Educational Directory – a full 10 years after the federal abolition of school segregation – schools were no longer designated as “negro” or white. Full integration in North Carolina took even longer, only completing in 1971.
In addition to the list of schools, we’ve created a North Carolina African American High Schools exhibit page through which you can more easily browse or search the African American high school yearbooks currently available on DigitalNC.
We hope that both the exhibit page and the list are useful for those who may not know the name of the African American high school that used to exist in their county or community, or who may be looking for yearbooks from a particular school or area of the state. Both will be updated if our partners are able to locate more yearbooks for digitization. If you have questions, check our Yearbook Digitization page for more information or contact us.
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* During segregation Native Americans were a significantly smaller portion of the population compared to African Americans. Native American children were not allowed to attend white schools. In a few cases they had their own schools; in many they were sent to the “negro” schools. We use the term “African American high schools” for brevity, acknowledging that these institutions educated students with many identities.
