The Air-O-Mech is a newspaper published at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base (known at the time as Seymour Johnson Field) during World War II. It is now on DigitalNC thanks to our partner Wayne County Public Library. The paper’s first issue was published on January 8, 1943 and asked readers to submit a name for the paper and have a chance to win $5 if their name was selected. The initial paper also quotes Brigadier General Walter J. Reed’s support of the paper, with him stating “This field newspaper widens the scope of our news service. It will let you know about changes in Army regulations which concern you. It will describe the services available to you and your dependents through the Red Cross, the Army Emergency Relief and other agencies. It will tell you about your fellow soldiers, and pass on to you information on what is happening on the field.”
The headlines in the paper display both the humor of those stationed at Seymour Johnson as well as the seriousness of serving during the war, alternating between things such as “Hold Your Hats, Gang, All-Girl Revue is Here!” and “GI Wash Day Blues to End” (on a story about a new laundry facility opening) to “In our time of trial give us strength.” On the whole though, the paper definitely leans towards a light-hearted take on life on the base, and even includes in one issue a handy guide on how to get married in Wayne County where the base is located and the excitement over a new soda fountain being installed in the service cafeteria
The issues now on DigitalNC cover January 1943 to January 1944 and joins a number of other military newspapers on our site.
To learn more about our partner Wayne County Public Library, visit their partner page here and their website here.
Thanks to our partner, the Wayne County Public Library, we have added several issues of The Goldsboro News from the years 1927-1929 to our website. The paper included a mix of local, national, and international news stories from major world events to local festivities and events.
The November 6, 1928 edition of the newspaper (see below) largely reports on Election Day and the presidential race between Republican Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover and Democratic Governor Al Smith of New York. Ironically, the paper reports that specialists predicted that Smith would be the “easy winner” of the election. However, Hoover was elected that day to his only term in office, which would be marred by the stock market crash of 1929, less than one year later.
The cover page of the November 6, 1928 issue of The Goldsboro News.
The February 15, 1929 issue of the paper (see below) features the breaking of the news of several famous historical events. The headline for this issue centered around the infamous “St. Valentine’s Day” Massacre of seven gang members in Chicago that had occurred the day before publication. The issue also reported a happier historical event, the engagement of famed pilot Charles Lindbergh to his future wife, Anne Morrow, who would soon change her name to Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Just over one year later, Morrow would give birth to the couple’s first child, Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr., who was infamously kidnapped and killed by his abductors in 1932.
The cover page of the February 15, 1929 issue of The Goldsboro News.
For more information about the Wayne County Public Library, please visit their website.
Back in August, 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 a thousand nominated. This year we’ve chosen the following titles and years.
| Title |
Years |
Nominating Institution |
| Black Mountain News |
1945-1948 |
Swannanoa Valley Museum |
| Carolinian (Raleigh) |
1959-1972 |
Olivia Raney Local History Library |
| Dunn Daily Record |
1950-1962 |
Dunn History Musem |
| Eastern Carolina News |
1898 |
Trenton Public Library / Neuse Regional Library |
| Goldsboro News |
1923-1927 |
Wayne County Public Library |
| Tryon Daily Bulletin |
1928-1942 |
Polk County Public Libraries |
| Tyrrell County Herald/Progress/Times |
1928; 1944-1945 |
Tyrrell County Library |
| Tyrrell Tribune |
1939-1941 |
Tyrrell County Library |
| Zebulon Record |
1925-1956 |
Little River Historical Society |
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 2020. 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 2020.
Nearly 1400 issues of The Goldsboro News have recently been digitized and added to DigitalNC. This daily paper, with issues from 1922 to 1927, provides a robust account of Goldsboro and Wayne County. This paper is made available thanks to a nomination from our partner Wayne County Public Library.
This daily paper shared all manner of news with its readers. The clippings below are a sample of its headlines:
To learn more about The Goldsboro News, click here, and to view all 1400+ issues online, click here.
*Post edited 9/2019 to reflect The Goldsboro News as separate from the News-Argus.
DigitalNC is pleased to announce the addition of a special issue of the newspaper the Goldsboro News-Argus. Thanks to our partner at the Wayne County Public Library, we are glad to provide access to an issue of the paper from April 26, 1957, which honors Lieutenant Seymour Johnson, U.S. Navy.
Lt. Seymour Johnson portrait
A native of Goldsboro, Lt. Johnson died in a plane crash near Norbeck, Maryland, on March 5, 1941. Johnson was “one of the first young men from Goldsboro to adopt aviation in the armed forces as a career.” He had been a test pilot for five years and his “friends in Goldsboro often heard reports that he safely brought to port airplanes which had developed mechanical trouble and it seemed all but impossible to land them.” The Air Force base in Goldsboro was named for Lt. Johnson in 1942.
The remainder of the issue provides news about Goldsboro and the Air Force base, frequently emphasizing how glad the town is to welcome those associated with the base.
To view this issue of the Goldsboro News-Argus, click here. To learn more about the Wayne County Public Library, visit their partner page here or their website here.
We love filling in gaps in the DigitalNC yearbook collection as new volumes are uncovered. Today’s post mentions three such volumes from Wayne and Wake Counties.
Wayne County Public Library contributed the 1922 Tarpitur, one of the earliest volumes on our site from Goldsboro High School. You can also view all of the yearbooks we have available for Goldsboro High School.
We’ve also added the 1945 Latipac from Needham B. Broughton High School and the 1958 E’corde from Cardinal Gibbons High School, both in Raleigh.
Looking on the High School tab on our Yearbooks page is an easy way to discover what years we might be missing. Contact us if your institution can help fill in gaps!
Back in August, 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 hundreds or thousands nominated. This year we’ve chosen the following titles and years.
| Title |
Years |
Nominating Institution |
| Carolinian (Raleigh) |
1945-1959 |
Olivia Raney Local History Library |
| Chatham Record (Pittsboro) |
1923-1930 |
Chatham County Libraries |
| Chowan Herald (Edenton) |
1934-1956 |
Shepard-Pruden Memorial Library |
| Concord Times |
1923-1927 |
Cabarrus County Public Library |
| Goldsboro News |
1922-1927 |
Wayne County Public Library |
| Yancey Record / Journal |
1936-1977 |
AMY Regional Library System |
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 mid-2019. 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 2019.
Front Page of the Goldsboro Hi New from November 15, 1927
A new issue of the Goldsboro Hi News from Goldsboro High School in Wayne County is now online at DigitalNC. The issue dates from November 15, 1927 and details the regular goings-on at Goldsboro High School. It includes news about school clubs and organizations, teachers, contests, events, opinions, and much more. The issue is a valuable addition to the already substantial collection of Goldsboro Hi News issues available at DigitalNC.
This issue of Goldsboro Hi News is held by UNC Libraries as part of the North Carolina Collection. Click here to learn more about the other UNC materials hosted online at DigitalNC.
A senior superlative from page 48 of the 1963 Nuhosca
The yearbook typing staff shown on page 61
The 1963 edition of the Nuhosca by New Hope High School in Goldsboro, North Carolina is now on DigitalNC. This yearbook joins previously digitized editions of the Nuhosca from 1947-1966, all of which were provided by our partner, Wayne County Public Library. The 1963 yearbook documents goings on at school and includes school portraits, class photos, sports photos, and images of student clubs and activities.
The student yearbook staff is a group that is particularly well-documented in this edition. The 1963 Nuhosca has a two page spread enumerating different yearbook committees and showing some behind the scenes photos of how the yearbook was made. The student typing staff who typed all the work to send to the publisher is given a special mention, as are the photographers and ad committee.
To see all the digitized editions of the Nuhosca, click here. To learn more about out partner Wayne County Public Library, visit their partner page or take a look at their website.
The Nuhosca yearbook ad committee on page 60
Digitization is faceless work – you rarely see the hands that carefully place fragile scrapbooks under the camera and click capture, or hear the voices debating the best description of that great photograph a partner sent us. And we don’t stick a price tag on each item, parsing out how much our funders contributed to get that item online.
So today’s post is about two things I think don’t get noticed often enough. The first thing is money. All of the accomplishments of the Center have been supported in very large part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, through Library Services and Technology Act funding disbursed by the State Library of North Carolina. In other words, we run on IMLS. Digital libraries often include funders in footers or on “About” pages, but I decided to take this opportunity to bring it up front. Together, IMLS, UNC-Chapel Hill, and the State Library of North Carolina are the why, how, and whether DigitalNC exists. The power of this funding partnership is in its efficiency, its statewide view, and the way our work boosts what’s being done by counties and towns in their local institutions. It’s how our partners supercharge their collections, moving them beyond shelves to your screen. And we really hope it sticks around.
A rare shot that includes the gloved hand of a student worker as they gently lift up a document to capture the letter underneath.
The second thing is people. Behind each of the hundreds of thousands of images on DigitalNC.org are multiple individuals from multiple communities, who want YOU to see, share, build upon, question, and participate in North Carolina’s culture, wherever you are. These are the caring librarians, archivists, curators, or history-minded individuals with a passion not only for preserving their community’s history but also for giving that history legs. These are the full-time NCDHC staff who answer questions, juggle schedules, write code, and try to best serve users. These are the 20 student workers who have scanned, and scanned, and scanned over the last six years, whose professional development we have fostered and who were exposed to information-rich, quirky, poignant, and various special collections from all over the state.
Our goal is to make the materials front and center so you don’t see us or think about us. But next time you find that great article on your hometown’s history, we hope you’ll think about who helped get it there and the funding it took to make it happen.
