Posted in From the Stacks, Recipes, Tar Heelia on December 7, 2005 | 1 Comment »
This holiday season, don’t settle for store-bought egg nog. Make your own, the way they used to in eighteenth-century North Carolina. We found this recipe in William Attmore’s Journal of a Tour to North Carolina, 1787 (James Sprunt Historical Publications vol. 17 no. 2., 1922, pp. 42-43): Tuesday, December 25. This Morning according to North [...]
Posted in History on December 6, 2005 | Leave a Comment »
Most of the media reports of President Bush’s speech yesterday in Kernersville noted that it was the first presidential visit in the town since George Washington passed through in 1791. Washington visited North Carolina on his tour of the southern states in the spring and summer of 1791, as part of his plan to visit [...]
Posted in History on December 1, 2005 | Leave a Comment »
The December This Month in North Carolina History feature looks at North Carolina’s first state constitution, adopted on December 18, 1776.
Posted in History on December 1, 2005 | Leave a Comment »
As a service to our readers, we want to point out that the North Carolina General Assembly has just amended the state law on cockfighting. As of today, “[a] person who instigates, promotes, conducts, is employed at, allows property under his ownership or control to be used for, participates as a spectator at, or profits [...]
Posted in New Books, Tar Heelia on November 28, 2005 | Leave a Comment »
Recent editions of the Polk City Directory include a “Movers & Shakers Section.” We’re guessing that this section was compiled to appeal to marketers trying to reach people described by the publisher as “the most affluent individuals, professionals, business owners and key executives within the community.” Since librarians are, typically, neither affluent nor would we [...]
Posted in From the Stacks on November 23, 2005 | 2 Comments »
Nearing the end of their state tour in 1925, the Carolina Playmakers, traveling in their “Playmakers Special,” narrowly escaped a disastrous crash on the road near Valdez, between Morganton and Hickory. Nobody was hurt, and after the bus was pulled back onto the road by a Standard Oil truck (see the photo below), the troupe [...]
Posted in From the Stacks on November 17, 2005 | Leave a Comment »
One of the little-known treasures in the North Carolina Collection is the impressive collection of scrapbooks documenting the early history of the Carolina Playmakers. Frederick Koch, the pioneering faculty member who brought the idea of a folk drama to the University of North Carolina, maintained scrapbooks filled with programs, letters, newspaper clippings, and photographs about [...]
Posted in From the Stacks on November 15, 2005 | 1 Comment »
While perusing the North Carolina Collection’s massive collection of newspaper clippings, we came upon an odd subject heading: “Lying-In-Road Deaths.” We went to the clippings and found two articles from 1986 reporting on a study by Dr. Lawrence Harris, a medical examiner in Greenville, who reported that between 1980 and 1984, 136 North Carolinians were [...]
Posted in From the Stacks, History on November 10, 2005 | 1 Comment »
With a new state lottery about to begin, we decided to have a look at Alan D. Watson’s article, “The Lottery in Early North Carolina” (North Carolina Historical Review, October 1992) to see how it worked a few centuries ago. Watson pointed us to the early laws of North Carolina, which contained a provision for [...]
Posted in History on November 10, 2005 | Leave a Comment »
We’ve recently discussed a couple of North Carolinians — George Badger and John J. Parker — who failed to be confirmed by the Senate after being nominated for the Supreme Court. We should point out that not every Tar Heel proposed for the Court has met with this fate. It’s just been a little while [...]
