DigitalNC.org Blog Feed

1911 Charlotte News Available Online

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:02:07 +0000

Featured Institution(s):

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Issues of the Charlotte News from 1911 are now available through the North Carolina Newspapers project. The Charlotte News was a daily paper published throughout most of the 20th century. It's the first urban daily papers we've worked on, and the amount and variety of stories covered here are fascinating. It looks a lot like a modern newspaper in that it includes national and international news, sports coverage, classifieds, and even some comic strips.

The paper will be used by the recently-launched Digital Innovation Lab at UNC-Chapel to continue development of the already fascinating Charlotte 1911 project.

Groundhog Day 100 Years Ago

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:22:27 +0000

This morning I looked through the North Carolina Newspapers collection to see how early I could find a mention of Groundhog Day. The oldest piece I found is this one, from the Sylvan Valley News in Brevard, published on February 5, 1904:

I also liked this piece, from the Winston Sentinel, reprinted in the Mebane Leader on February 9, 1911, with a great reference to "his hogship":

A Finer Carolina

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:46:15 +0000

From 1952 to 1959 the Carolina Power and Light Company (CP&L) hosted a "Finer Carolina" contest, in which cities and towns in the CP&L service area vied for cash awards by engaging in community improvements. From a history of CP&L I learned that over the seven years the competition was held 4,600 projects were undertaken, including those aimed at "beautifying residential areas, improving cultural opportunities, upgrading municipal facilities, stimulating business, and attracting new industry".

Some materials on DigitalNC are evidence of the participation of North Carolina's communities, such as this 1954 scrapbook from the town of Burgaw documenting their Finer Carolina activities. The year 1954 was a banner year for the contest, according to a front-page article in the February 25, 1954 issue of the Raeford News-Journal. During this year there were 160 entries, including Raeford, N.C., competing for $6,750 in prizes. The Architectural History of Randolph County, N.C., also mentions the Finer Carolina contest, as the city of Asheboro took home the winning prize in 1954, as well as 1955, 1956, and 1958. But perhaps these awards weren't such a boon for Asheboro after all, as the history describes the city's improvement projects as resulting in "the nearly total destruction of the city's nineteenth-century heritage".

Saint Augustine's at 145

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:09:13 +0000

Featured Institution(s):

Saint Augustine's College

Happy birthday to Saint Augustine's College in Raleigh, which is celebrating the 145th anniversary of its founding with full program of Founder's Week activities.

A large collection of student yearbooks from Saint Augustine's are available on DigitalNC, and we've recently added materials from the vertical files at the Harrison Library in Raleigh, which include many documents related to Saint Augustine's College, including programs, pamphlets, and brochures.

Pender County Jaycees Scrapbooks Now Online

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:02:22 +0000

Featured Institution(s):

Pender County Public Library

We've just finished digitizing a dozen scrapbooks from the Pender County Public Library documenting the diverse activities of the Burgaw Jaycees, primarily in the 1950s. The scrapbooks contain photographs, newspaper clippings, and a few documents related to the work of the Jaycees.

I especially like the "For a Finer Carolina" volume, compiled in 1954 in celebration of the town's Diamond Jubilee (the 75th anniversary of the incorporation of the town of Burgaw). The scrapbook includes photos from parades, contests, and celebrations and is an interesting look at life in southeastern North Carolina in the mid 20th-century. It also includes this great photo of "Carolina Beach's Famous Whale Float."

Rocky Mount Weekly Reporter, 1884

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:04:25 +0000

Featured Institution(s):

Braswell Memorial Library, Rocky Mount, N.C.

Whenever we start a new digitization project in the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center, we like to work with materials that are in the best possible condition, in order to preserve the often fragile original items and to get the highest quality image we can. How, then, did we end up with this?

This is the only known surviving issue of The Weekly Reporter, a newspaper published in Rocky Mount in the 1880s. This issue was printed on this date in 1884. These are the best images we could get without having expensive conservation work done on the paper. Even with all of the fading, folding, torn pages, and stains from old attempts to tape it together, the images capture a fair amount of detail. If you look closely, you can make out parts of the social column, selections from jokes and stories reprinted from other pages, and some ads for companies and products ranging from the Rocky Mount Iron Works to "Mexican Mustang Liniment."

This paper is in the Local History & Genealogy section of the Braswell Memorial Library in Rocky Mount.

Friday the 13th

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 20:01:00 +0000

Featured Institution(s):

Tufts Archives, Pinehurst, N.C.

This Friday the 13th you'd be hard pressed to do more to ward off ill luck than this golfer, who took a string of horseshoes and not just a rabbit's foot but an actual live rabbit out on the course with him.

The photo, taken January 13th, 1933, is from the great collection held by the Tufts Archives in Pinehurst.

Target Practice

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:43:56 +0000

Featured Institution(s):

Greensboro Historical Museum

Hopefully the flu shot you received this winter was a little less dramatic than the immunization -- complete with targets on each arm -- administered to Cpl. Paul "Tiny" Evensen at the Overseas Replacement Depot in Greensboro in 1944.

From The ORD News, September 14, 1944.

1935 Cheerwine Ad

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:29:08 +0000

Featured Institution(s):

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

I found this great, old Cheerwine ad in the 1935 Salisbury City Directory (p. 35):

I like how they describe the taste as a "cool, keen tang." And they should definitely bring back that "Good for You" slogan.

North Carolina Newspapers on Twitter

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 13:58:18 +0000

If today’s headlines have you down, trying reading old news instead. The NC Digital Heritage Center makes its first foray into Twitter with @ncnewspapers, where we’ll be tweeting a historic headline every day from that day in history. The stories we feature will span the full range of North Carolina history from the 19th and 20th centuries. It’s a fun way to peek into our state’s past, and a great introduction to the wealth of material available in these historic papers.