Posted in Tar Heelia on April 23, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Generations of Tar Heels have debated whether or not Abraham Lincoln was conceived in North Carolina while his mother, Nancy Hanks, was a servant in the household of Abraham Enloe. Who could have imagined that there might be a connection between Lincoln and the primeval North Carolina story–that of the Lost Colony? Seth Grahame-Smith did. [...]
Posted in Just A Bite, tagged augustin daly, plymouth nc on April 22, 2010 | 1 Comment »
“As we walked home one night, in need of a culminating incident in [his 1867 play 'Under the Gaslight'], my brother said, ‘I have got the sensation we want — a man fastened to a railroad track and rescued just as the train reaches the spot!’ “On the first night the audience was breathless….It became [...]
Posted in From the Stacks, History, Tar Heelia on April 21, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Recently we found in the stacks a “Parking Facilities Study” for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill done by the Office of the University Engineer in 1961. Parking is a sore subject for most of us, and for those of us working in Wilson Library the parking proposal in this study looked like [...]
Posted in New Books, tagged dare stones, david la vere, dram tree books, eleanor dare, lost colony, the lost rocks, virginia dare on April 20, 2010 | 1 Comment »
In the July 2009 North Carolina Historical Review, David La Vere, professor of history at UNC Wilmington, argued for taking seriously the “Dare Stone” found near the Chowan River in 1937: “Scholars have dismissed the stone as a forgery, but a closer look shows it might well be what it purports to be: a last [...]
Posted in History, Literature, Postcards, Tar Heelia on April 19, 2010 | 2 Comments »
The postcard above shows an image of the Nash-Hooper House in Hillsborough, NC. William Hooper, a Revolutionary War hero and signer of the Declaration of Independence, moved into the Nash house in 1782. The caption on the back of the postcard alerted us that Inglis Fletcher featured the Nash-Hooper House in two of her novels. [...]
Posted in Just A Bite, tagged beautification, dr pepper, mailboxes, outhouses on April 18, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
“Not the most beautiful portions of the U. S. are the Carolinas. Apart from the sea islands to the east and the mountains to the west, the bulk of both States is flat, sandy, scrubby, down-at-heel. Yet local pride burns high. The Carolina Motor Club of Charlotte decided that the ugliest excrescences on their land’s [...]
Posted in From the Stacks on April 17, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Check out this oversize coloring book from 1976. If you want to see it, the call number is FFC917 D76n. No one has colored on any of the pages…but beware, we will confiscate your box of crayons if you come to the NC Collection!
Posted in On This Day, tagged appomattox, catherine ann devereaux edmondston, halifax county on April 16, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
On this day in 1865: Catherine Ann Devereux Edmondston, wife of a Halifax County planter, writes in her journal after hearing the news from Appomattox: “How can I write it? How find words to tell what has befallen us? Gen. Lee has surrendered! Surrendered the remnant of his noble Army to an overwhelming horde of [...]
Posted in Just A Bite, On This Day, tagged charlotte nc, fdr, funeral train, legette blythe, my faith looks up to thee, onward christian soldiers, will blythe on April 15, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
“Franklin Roosevelt, honorably discharged from all his wars, rode slowly through Charlotte’s sorrowing thousands last night…. “Stretching the length of the railway station and packing the streets that opened out upon the tracks, the people… paid him the greatest tribute they knew — utter silence. “As the crowd awaited the arrival of the train, they [...]
Posted in Just A Bite, On This Day, tagged fdr, fort bragg, funeral train, hand me down my walkin' cane, salisbury nc on April 14, 2010 | 1 Comment »
“The funeral train plunged through the darkness [on April 14, 1945], changing engines and crews again at Salisbury, North Carolina, where 8,000 people (including 145 honor guards from Fort Bragg), stood in silence — and presented still another floral wreath. Sometime after midnight, the train rumbled through Greensboro. The countryside between the big cities was [...]
