Posted in From the Stacks, History on March 17, 2009 | 1 Comment »
I’m not Irish, and I don’t look good in green (or anything else for that matter), but I did want to make a contribution in honor of St. Patrick’s Day. According to the The Journal of the American Irish Historical Society (1911, Vol. X, pp. 324-329), there are six North Carolina counties named for a [...]
Posted in History, Tar Heelia on March 16, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Stay in! Don’t venture to far from home today! It’s Old Quawk’s Day! What is Old Quawk’s Day? Well, according to tradition (and William Powell’s Encyclopedia of North Carolina) it is a “day when residents of Ocracoke Island…are advised not to wander far from home.” The legend stems from a man known only as “Old [...]
Posted in Tar Heelia on March 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
New in theaters today is a movie with a strong North Carolina connection: Race to Witch Mountain. It has been advertised by Disney as a 21st century “reimagining” (rather than a remake) of the 1975 movie Escape to Witch Mountain, which in turn was based on a book of the same name. While the new [...]
Posted in From the Stacks, Postcards on March 12, 2009 | 3 Comments »
As I was shelving broadsides the other day, I noticed the item above. Something about it sounded very familiar. After running it by a coworker, we both realized that another coworker had blogged about it in the past: Flivvering. Just who was Berton Braley? Well, I have to admit that I didn’t know. The only [...]
Posted in Tar Heelia on March 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The Johnston County Heritage Center has a small collection of photographs documenting the Catch-Me-Eye Explosion, March 7, 1942. The explosion happened early in the morning when a truck carrying munitions collided with an automobile near the Catch-Me-Eye, which was a popular tourist location and service station on Highway 301 between Selma and Smithfield. According to [...]
Posted in Tar Heelia on March 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
DocSouth has put up a new highlights collection, which features Nineteenth Century Student Writing at the University of North Carolina. This highlight provides an overview of student publications and student writing. An 1842 poem written by UNC student Robert T. Hall stands out as a particularly funny example. DocSouth has presented his work, “Elegy on [...]
Posted in History, Tar Heelia on March 4, 2009 | 1 Comment »
It was New Englanders that gained world-wide fame for their whaling prowess in the 1800s, but did you know that whaling was a small but steady industry in North Carolina for over 200 years? Check out the latest edition of “This Month in North Carolina History” for more details about our state’s shore-whalers.
Posted in Tar Heelia on March 3, 2009 | 6 Comments »
Have you ever wondered why Davie Poplar looks the way it does? One answer is that’s what a few hundred years will do to you. The longer answer involves hurricanes, wind storms, and other natural disasters. The image above comes from the University of North Carolina magazine and shows Davie Poplar after one of those [...]
