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Four new scrapbooks have been digitized and uploaded from the Wayne County Public Library. These scrapbooks follow the career of Bobby Wilson (full name Robert Monroe Wilson) as he played baseball for three baseball teams, the Wilkes-Barre Barons (in 1945 and 1946), the Baltimore Orioles, and the San Diego Padres.
Newspaper clippings from Wilson’s time with the Orioles
Although he played baseball around the country, Bobby Wilson was born in Goldsboro, North Carolina. He played second base and shortstop, and many newspaper clippings discuss Wilson’s speed and his ability to steal bases. As seen in the image above, his base running skills occasionally played a big role in his team’s performance.
Cartoons depicting Bobby Wilson’s base running abilities
The Wayne County Public Library has contributed a number of other scrapbooks pertaining to baseball and local baseball players. To browse all of the material Wayne County Public Library has contributed, you can visit their contributor’s page.
A new batch of slides from the Wilson County Public Library has now been added to DigitalNC. This set mostly shows the county’s agriculture and businesses, with an emphasis on manufacturing between the years of 1974 and 1986.
The images show a number of aspects of life in Wilson County during this time. A number of members of the community are shown working, shopping, and banking. Buildings around the county, including banks, shops and tobacco processing plants can be found, as well as the county’s agricultural pursuits.
You can see all materials from the Wilson County Public Library on DigitalNC here.
Statue of a Seated Man, Oliver Nestus Freeman
We’ve recently partnered with the Oliver Nestus Freeman Round House Museum to add items from their collection to DigitalNC. We visited the Museum back in June, and learned about Mr. Freeman and the impact he had on Wilson, NC. Freeman, a local builder and stonemason, incorporated found materials into many of the objects and structures he created. A number of these still exist around town. Among them is the Round House, which is now a museum dedicated to local African American history and culture.
A photographer in Wilson Library’s Digital Production Center shot a number of tools and objects from the Museum. We also scanned photographs of Freeman, his family (including one of Freeman’s bears, Topsy), and his creations.
Another interesting item included in this batch was an 1907 recommendation for Freeman based on his work as a stonemason at The Presidio in San Francisco. In it, Freeman is described as “Reliable and a strictly temperate man who [the recommender, J. K. Dalmas] would employ in Preference to nine tenths of the Mechanics who have worked here.”
The Museum holds a photocopy of a rare issue of an African American newspaper from 1897 – The Wilson Blade. Our friends in Wilson Library’s North Carolina Collection helped us try to find out more details about this paper. We believe it was only published for a few years (perhaps 1897-1900), by S. A. Smith. We also believe this was the same S. A. Smith who was elected principal of the Wilson Colored Graded School in 1896 (The Daily Times, Wilson, NC, 1896-05-29). The issue contains items typical of papers from this time period: state, local, and personal news; advertisements; a train schedule. There’s also an article on a meeting of the Freedman’s Aid Society and Southern Education Society.
Special thanks goes to Wilson County Public Library, whose staff helped facilitate getting these items online. You can view all of the items digitized for the Museum on DigitalNC.
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 Wilson County Public Library has contributed 16 more yearbooks from its local history collections to be digitized. The yearbooks range in date from 1948 to 1963 and represent several different schools, including:
Early high school yearbooks from Wilson County are now available on DigitalNC. The Wilson County Public Library contributed 35 yearbooks from its local history collections to be digitized. The yearbooks range in date from 1927 to 1963 and represent several different schools, including:
Selected early high school yearbooks from Alamance County are now available on DigitalNC in the North Carolina High School Yearbooks collection. The May Memorial Library in Burlington (part of the Alamance County Public Libraries) contributed 85 yearbooks from a number of different schools, ranging in date from the late 19th century through the early 1960s. Check the list below to see if your yearbook is one of the ones available online.
- Alexander Wilson High School (Graham, 1953-1960)
- Altamahaw Ossipee High School (Altamahaw, 1946-1961)
- Bingham School (Mebane, 1903)
- Burlington High School (Burlington, 1924-1951)
- City Graded Schools (Burlington, 1908-1909)
- E.M. Holt High School (Burlington, 1948-1960)
- Elon College High School (Elon, 1947-1962)
- Fairview Academy (Gibsonville, 1889-1890)
- Gibsonville High School (Gibsonville, 1951-1956)
- Graham High School (Graham, 1948)
- Haw River High School (Haw River, 1948-1962)
- Jordan Sellars High School (Burlington, 1961-1962)
- Mebane High School (Mebane, 1955, 1959)
- Pleasant Grove High School (Burlington, 1957)
- Sylvan High School (Snow Camp, 1948, 1954, 1960)
- Whitsett Institute (Mandale, 1898-1899, 1913-1914)
- Williams High School (Burlington, 1952-1959)
At first glance, the children in this photograph of story time at the Wilson County Public Library seem to be paying pretty close attention to their teacher. But on closer inspection, a few of the children look like they might not be enjoying story time that much, or they find the business of being photographed much more interesting…
Over 300 historic photographs of Wilson County are now available on DigitalNC. These photos, from the Wilson County Public Library, include images of churches and schools and many postcards and photos documenting the long and rich tobacco heritage in Wilson County.
Happy holidays from the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center. This photograph, from the Wilson County Public Library, depicts the First National Bank of Wilson, N.C. decked out in holiday finery in the 1930s.