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Members of the Tarboro High School Band
Over 160 additional photos from Edgecombe County Memorial Library’s M. S. Brown Collection have just been added. This batch features many photos of the Tarboro High School band and majorettes, along with photos of local social functions, Tarboro homes and businesses, and, of course, the community pool.
M. S. Brown owned a Coca-Cola bottling plant and was an avid photographer of Tarboro and the surrounding areas. This latest group of photos joins several hundred already on our site. You can learn more about M. S. Brown in a previous blog post. Yearbooks and other Edgecombe County Memorial Library items on DigitalNC can be seen via their contributors page.
We wrote about May Queens a couple of years ago, but can’t help showcasing them again. This time, we’re bringing you a gown per decade from North Carolina’s High Schools, Colleges, and Universities. (We picked 2 from the 1990s because we just couldn’t decide.)
Maude McCracken, May Queen in 1926
The Messenger Yearbook, 1926 (courtesy Durham Public Library)
The Lotus Yearbook, 1938 (courtesy William Peace University)
The Anchor Yearbook, 1948 (courtesy Gardner-Webb University)
B-Somebody Yearbook, 1958 (courtesy Edgecombe County Memorial Library)
The Zenith Yearbook, 1964 (courtesy High Point University)
The Golden Bull Yearbook, 1972 (courtesy Johnson C. Smith University)
The Circle Yearbook, 1986 (courtesy Mitchell Community College)
Arete Yearbook, 1990 (courtesy Queens University of Charlotte)
The Gate Yearbook, 1991 (courtesy Wingate University)
Self-portrait of M.S. Brown
Photos from the M.S. Brown Collection are now available on DigitalNC. The collection includes hundreds of photographs taken by Milton Steele Brown throughout the early to mid 1900s, and prominently features citizens, organizations, and events taking place in Tarboro, N.C., Rocky Mount, N.C., and surrounding Edgecombe County areas.
Grand Stands in the baseball field
Known locally as “Coca Cola” Brown, M.S. Brown opened a Coca-Cola plant in Tarboro in the early 1900s and served as a town commissioner. He was active in community organizations and local government, regularly attending and assisting with various events. As an avid photographer, Brown documented Coca-Cola sponsored events, town social gatherings — such as baseball games, 4-H Club meetings, and the Gallopade Parade — and historical sites such as the Tarboro Town Common and the Barracks.
Annual Meeting for Edgecombe County Bureau at the baseball field. August 24, 1946. People at the baseball field during a 4-H Club Event, surrounding the Coca-Cola crates.
Additionally, Brown photographed active community members, including the Tarboro Merchants Association secretary Mary Godfrey and Congressman L.H. Fountain.
This extensive collection covers over 40 years of Tarboro and Edgecombe County history. It is an ongoing project with the Edgecombe County Memorial Library, with more images expected in the future.
Mothers of Servicemen portraits, May 1945.
Twenty-two issues of The Home Front News are now available on DigitalNC! The Home Front News was a World War II newspaper produced by the Tarboro Rotary Club in Edgecombe County, N.C.. Edgecombe County Memorial Library provided us with issues from March 20, 1943 to the last issue on September 20, 1945.
The newspapers are full of jokes, clever rhymes, and drawings of pin-up girls. Not only did the paper provide entertainment for the soldiers overseas, but it also served as a register for births, marriages, and deaths.
There was even a dedicated Mothers of Service Men issue in May 1945 which featured portraits of over a hundred local mothers dressed in their Sunday best (pictured above). These portraits were taken by M.S. Brown, a Tarboro resident and photographer who owned the Coca-Cola factory. Brown almost always contributed at least one photograph per issue, usually a full page toward the back of the newspaper with a portrait of a community resident and caption. For more photos taken by “Coca-Cola Brown”, view the M.S. Brown Digital Exhibit.
“Now the point is, you won’t get stuck if you pin me up.” From September 20, 1943 issue.
A few weeks ago, we passed a very exciting milestone at the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center. We added our 1000th high school yearbook to the North Carolina High School Yearbooks collection. The yearbook that got the special 1,000th honor was the Tar-Bo-Rah issue from 1942, published by Tarboro High School. That particular issue, published during World War II, features a fair amount of patriotic insignia. The cover has the Statue of Liberty on it, the pages features bold blue stars with stripes around Tar-Bo-Rah, and the original owner of the yearbook noted by hand that those whose pictures were not included were already serving the U.S.A. The Tarboro High School yearbooks were made available by the Edgecombe County Memorial Library.
To date, 170 different high schools are represented in DigitalNC, coming from 37 counties across North Carolina. The oldest high school yearbook is the 1898-1899 issue of the Whitsett Institute Annual Register. The smallest school represented is Eastern Pines School, whose Souvenir lists only one teacher and twenty students in 1910. To view the over 1,000 high school yearbooks from across North Carolina now available on DigitalNC, visit our North Carolina High School Yearbooks page.
If you are a staff member at a public library or other cultural institution in North Carolina that holds NC high school yearbooks in your collection that have not been digitized by the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center, get in touch with us soon and we can talk about how to participate.
This week our colleagues at the North Carolina State Library are focusing on Halifax County as their county of the week. We are taking the opportunity to again dive a bit deeper into some of our city directories from that county. Two cities from Halifax County have directories in DigitalNC: Roanoke Rapids and Scotland Neck.
The directories from Roanoke Rapids, which cover 1938 until 1963, were all published by the Southern Directory Company, which was based in Asheville, NC, and are all Miller’s Directories. Roanoke Rapids, which is Halifax County’s county seat, was a rapidly growing town during the period the directories were published. In addition to the expected listings of businesses and addresses of citizens of Roanoke Rapids, the directories all include detailed descriptions of facilities in the town, including public works, churches, schools, and amusements. There are also descriptions of the population of the town and all the counties in NC, and the tax rates in the town and county at the time.
Directory of local facilities in town from the 1938 Roanoke Rapids City Directory
Information about facilities in town from the 1958 city directory
Taxes in Roanoke Rapids from the 1958 city directory
There are two directories from Scotland Neck, which cover 1960-1962. Scotland Neck’s directories were published by Hill Directory Co., Inc., based out of Richmond, VA. These directories do not included detailed descriptions of the town, just the basic ads, telephone directory and address directory for Scotland Neck and the surrounding area. The ads in the Scotland Neck directories all include well done drawings by the publication company, making that section more appealing for consumers compared to the Miller directories for Roanoke Rapids.
To learn more about city directories, check out past blog posts here. And to view more city directories from across North Carolina, visit the City Directories Collection on DigitalNC.
Governor Robert W. Scott receives a “Bob Jr.” license plate in this footage of his inauguration and subsequent celebrations. Contributed by the State Archives of North Carolina.
Almost one year ago, we asked our partners for nominations of audio and video media from their collections to digitize, using funding from the Digital Public Library of America. From all corners of North Carolina came suggestions for moving images and sound. Some items were well documented, with descriptions or finding aids [?] in tow. Others were accompanied with the words “We think this is … but we really have no idea.” Thanks to George Blood, L. P., who digitized these items for us, and Andrea Green, our former Community Digitization Manager, we ended up with over 140 physical items digitized from 11 institutions.
Here’s an overview of what’s been added to DigitalNC to our new Sights and Sounds collection (some of our partners will be posting their digitized media on their own digital collection sites instead). Stay tuned over the next few weeks for more posts taking a closer look at some of our favorites.
Braswell Memorial Library
Throughout the 1990s, Mary Lewis Deans spearheaded an ambitious and well-documented oral history campaign in Nash County. She and her colleagues spoke with long-time residents about rural farming life, military service during World War II, segregation, and family traditions. Deans was businesslike yet friendly, no-nonsense and yet genuine. Listen to and read Deans’ oral histories.
Charlotte Mecklenburg Library
Three of the films contributed by Charlotte Mecklenburg Library help document the history of Charlotte. The Charlotte Mecklenburg United Appeal campaign from 1952 shows numerous Charlotte places.
Davie County Public Library
From Davie County Public Library comes a two-part series on Davie County History, and a home video of local personality Louise Graham Stroud, who performed monologues as her self-created character, “Miss Lizzie.”
Cynthia Watts (left) interviews actress Joan Bennett in one of the Arts in Durham films contributed by the Durham Public Library.
Durham Public Library
Love Durham? Love the Arts? Love the late 70s? Some of our staff favorites come from Durham Public Library’s collection of “Arts in Durham” films. Produced by the Durham Arts Council, these films showcase local bands, dance groups, visual artists, and more. We’ll definitely be blogging about our favorite moments. Durham Public Library also contributed a taped lecture by Dr. Charles Watts on the history of Lincoln Hospital, and two-part coverage of the Durham County Centennial Parade of 1981.
Edgecombe Memorial Library
Tobacco Perspectives is an amateur recording of a two-night event in the early 1980s during which a historian, a political scientist, and representatives from farm, industry, and public health agencies lectured on the tobacco industry both past and present.
Rockingham County Public Library
We’ve already announced the bookmobile film from Rockingham County, but we’re still looking for someone who can identify the school that’s shown. In this film boys and girls eagerly peruse and check out books from local librarians. It’s even got Jim, the library dog.
State Archives of North Carolina
We were pleased to join for the first time with the State Archives during this project, as they chose a number of films that document the state’s history. Among the films from the Archives that we’ve added online are coverage of Governor R. W. Scott II’s inauguration and U. S. Coast Guard Appreciation Day (1970).
No Handouts for Mrs. Hedgepeth, 1968, documented a Durham family living below the poverty line. Contributed by the North Carolina Collection, UNC-Chapel Hill.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
From 1962-1965, the North Carolina Film Board produced films tackling some of the most pressing issues in North Carolina: race relations, education, and economic opportunity. Eight of those films join others from the North Carolina Collection and Southern Historical Collection at UNC-Chapel Hill on DigitalNC. As might be expected, some are about UNC and Chapel Hill. Fans of the Hugh Morton Collection will also see several films believed to have been filmed by Morton or his colleagues. There’s even footage of Mildred the Bear.
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
In 1960, Dr. Bertha Maxwell-Roddey became the first chair of what is now the Department of Africana Studies at UNC-Charlotte, which contributed three items related to her career. A scholar, educator, and community icon, one of these shows children in a classroom being taught by Maxwell-Roddey’s students. The others show a night of live poetry and music.
We hope you enjoy North Carolina’s Sights and Sounds. Click to view all of the films and oral histories together.
