The front page of the February 11, 1957 issue of the Chapel Hill News Leader features a snapshot of a mule that kept straying onto the property of the local mayor.
We’ve worked with the Chapel Hill Historical Society to share additional materials from their collections. This batch includes more issues of the following newspapers:
The issues of the News Leader discuss town and county news, as well as a hefty amount of news related to UNC-Chapel Hill. Items related to politics and education frequently take center stage on the front page.
In addition to these newspaper issues the Historical Society shared a variety of maps and plans related to Carrboro and Chapel Hill. Included are plans for a sewer project and plans for a local development called “Laketree Center.”
To view all of the items the Chapel Hill Historical Society has shared head to their contributor page.
Much of our newspaper digitization is done from microfilm reels, which typically only have one title on a reel. However, sometimes a paper does not take up a whole reel and to maximize efficiency, when the reel was created, other small runs of papers are included. Often those small runs are simply a few issues of very old papers where the only extant know copies number 2 or 3 issues. This was the case with a reel we digitized this past year for the Bladen Journal. In addition to the Journal, 13 other titles were on the same reel and all have now been added to DigitalNC!
The full list includes:
Enfield Times 2 issues, 1873
Tar River Beacon 2 issues, 1876
Greenville Express 2 issues, 1880-1881
Cape Fear Lance 1 issue, 1899
The Beacon 2 issues, 1888
The Enfield Progress 1 issue, 1887
Old Constitution 2 issues, 1870
Franklinton Weekly 3 issues, 1883, 1886, 1893
The Rural Visitor 7 issues, 1898-1899
Graham Tribune 1 issue, 1900
The Greenville Index 1 issue, 1894
The Western Reporter 1 issue, 1881
The towns the papers represent cover the eastern and western portions of the state, with the oldest issue from 1873 and the most recent from 1900 – over a quarter century of coverage from across the state.
To see more newspapers, check out our North Carolina Newspapers section of the website.
DigitalNC is happy to announce several batches of materials from High Point, NC are now available to view online. These materials include 6 yearbooks, 4 individual newspaper issues, and 19 miscellaneous items. These batches were made available thanks to our two partners; the yearbooks are from the Heritage Research Center at High Point Public Library while the newspapers and miscellaneous items are from the High Point Museum.
The 6 yearbooks, the Pemican, all come from High Point Central High School, spanning the years 1966-1971.
The 4 newspapers are comprised of half school publications, half company publications. The four newspapers are:
Tomlinson News was published by the Tomlinson Manufacturing Company, a furniture manufacturer. Amco News was published by the Adams-Millis Corporation, a textile company.
The batch of miscellaneous items contains interesting memorabilia, such as a 1941 alumni record from Baptist Orphanage of North Carolina, an early 1900s reed organ instruction book, a booklet on the history of the Springfield Monthly Meeting of Friends, a Quaker group, and a pamphlet titled But Everybody’s Doing It!: High Point’s Joint Code of Social Behavior for Parents and Young People. Notably, there are many early to mid 1900s furniture catalogs from Burton, Dalton, The Continental Furniture Company, and High Point Furniture Company. From the late 1880s, High Point has been known for its furniture industry. After World War II, about 60% of all furniture made in the United States was produced within a 150-mile radius of High Point (High Point Museum, paragraph 2).
To view all the digitized materials from our two High Point partners, click here and here. For all the High Point newspapers, click here. For more information on our partners, click here to visit the Heritage Research Center at High Point Public Library’s website and click here to visit the High Point Museum’s website.
References:
High Point Museum. Furniture History: High Point & Furniture. https://www.highpointnc.gov/841/Furniture-History
Twelve new issues of The Shoreline from 2020 are now available online thanks to our partner, the History Committee of the Town of Pine Knoll Shores. This batch caps off DigitalNC’s The Shoreline collection; between 1973 and 2020, we’re only missing issues from 2003.
As the COVID-19 pandemic struck the globe in the early part of 2020, The Shoreline reported on the effects the “shut down” had on the Pine Knoll Shores community. Several events were cancelled in the first half of the year, such as the Kayak for the Warriors Gala. Additionally, due to the pandemic, The Shoreline did not put out an issue in May.
To view the entire collection of The Shoreline, click here. You can also find more digitized content from Pine Knoll Shores by visiting the History Committee’s contributor page. To learn more about Pine Knoll Shores, visit the town website here.
Thanks to our partner, Davidson County Public Library System, three batches of various materials are now available on our website. The first batch features eleven issues of the Erlanger Community paper from 1919 to 1922; a Robbins Elementary School 1931-1932 report card; Bylaws of Hopewell Council No. 1758 Royal Arcanum; and four new brightly colored Lexington Barbeque Festival posters. Batch two includes six new issues of the South Davidson High School yearbook covering from 1948 to 1952. The final batch contains 73 issues of the Thomasville Times, as well as student newspapers from Reeds High School, Denton High School, and Lexington High School.
36th Annual Lexington Barbeque Festival Poster
35th Annual Lexington Barbeque Festival Poster
To learn more about the Davidson County Public Library System, please visit their website.
For more yearbooks from across North Carolina, visit our yearbook collection.
To view more newspapers on DigitalNC, visit our North Carolina Newspapers collection.
Today’s post announces the addition of 9 issues of Bladen County newspapers. Much of our newspaper digitization relies on newspapers microfilmed by the State Archives of North Carolina, which has a long history of preserving the state’s papers in film format. To date, only 9 Bladen County issues have been filmed, and we’re pleased to add them to the site on behalf of the Bladen County Public Library.
Bladen County is located in the southeastern part of the state. It’s county seat is Elizabethtown. The newspaper additions are as follows:
Elizabethtown
Clarkton
The newspapers are all a varied mix of national and local news along with ads, with the Cape Fear Lance appearing to have the most local content.
Digitization of these issues was funded in part by the North Caroliniana Society. Visit the homepage of the Bladen County Public Library to learn more. You can also search all of our newspapers on our North Carolina Newspapers landing page or visit our Bladen County page to see other items related to that part of the state.
This paragraph from the May 26, 1899 issue of The Cape Fear Lance states that you could get a newspaper subscription in trade for “anything it can handle.”
177 new issues between 2012-2018 of Elon University student newspapers The Pendulum and The Edge are now available for online browsing. These new resources are available on DigitalNC thanks our partners at Elon University.
Elon University is a private university located in Elon, Alamance County, North Carolina. Originally founded in 1889 as Elon College, Elon University obtained it’s current name in 2001. Elon University’s first student-run newspaper, Maroon and Gold, began publication in 1919 but was discontinued in 1970. The campus news outlet was eventually reinstated in 1974 as The Pendulum. In addition to the many audio and visual news shows Elon University now provides, The Pendulum continues weekly publications to this day. As it is a student-run newspaper, they follow the academic calendar year, which means issues fall off during the winter, spring, and summer breaks.
Holding multiple awards from the Associated Collegiate Press, The Pendulum informs both the campus and local community of news within and beyond the university. Besides updates on sports and campus initiatives, students actively use this space to voice opinions on topics ranging from politics to religion to activism. These recent uploads cover the before, during, and after effects of the 2016 U.S. presidential election on Elon University’s student population, highlighting the many intersections of student experience.
The Edge, formerly known as Elon Edge, is a supplemental magazine affiliated with The Pendulum. Much of the content covered in the Edge is focused on entertainment, such as music, fashion, local events, and interest pieces.
To take a look at the entire collection of Elon University student newspapers from years 1910 to 2018 by front page, click here. For more information about Elon University, you can visit their homepage.
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.
DigitalNC is happy to announce that additional newspapers from Northampton County, N.C. are ready to view online. With the contributions from our partners, Northampton County Museum, we were able to fill gaps and add a new title, The Northampton County Times-News, to our online collection. Specific additions include:
While we shed light onto the The Patron and Gleaner and Roanoke-Chowan Times in a recent blog post, we have yet to expand on one of the succeeding titles, The Northampton County Times-News.
In circulation from 1960 to 1974, The Northampton County Times-News published from Rich Square and Jackson every Thursday, but served all towns in Northampton County. Highlighting both local and global news, this title served its various communities with periodicals such as the Farm Review & Forecast and consistently updated (not to mention wittily titled) want ads. Football reigned in this area as a popular sport for all ages and genders to participate in and, as such, was frequently reported on.
For a full view of all Northampton County titles mentioned, click here. To view more of The Northampton County Times-News, click here. And if you would like information on the Northampton County Museum, you can visit their homepage here.
Thanks to our partners at The University of North Carolina at Asheville, DigitalNC is proud to host over 200 new issues of UNCA student newspapers, with years ranging from 1948 to 2018. This upload includes issues from the following titles:
The Blue Banner continues as the current student newspaper, but the previous iterations formed the building blocks it still adheres to. While these titles all kept UNCA students abreast of current events happening around the campus, city, and world, The Rag and Bone Shop didn’t shy away from controversy (click here for the Easter cover and here for the response cover) and Kaleidoscope wrote weekly entertainment reviews on local and national music. The Blue Banner continues these themes today, frequently reporting on current politics such as The Woman’s March, school shootings, and DACA recipients. Other periodic articles of note include Ink of the Week and Beat from the Street.
To learn more about the student newspapers of UNCA and see all issues, click here. For more information on UNCA and to view their other contributions, click here.
![One page from the Pemican [1971] yearbook. It features three photos of students in math class.](https://www.digitalnc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-14-at-1.56.13-PM-217x300.png)
