Inscribed: “A toll gate on the Blowing Rock – Lenoir Turnpike (?), 4000 ft. above sea level. Photography by Miss Juliana Royster, Raleigh, N.C.”

As a follow-up to Bridget’s post about the “N.C. I.O.O.F.,” here are several I.O.O.F.-related items from the Lew Powell Memorabilia Collection.

I have to say that I love the somewhat-racy button showing the lady’s leg, garter, and her “Tar Heel.”

I love flipping through old phone books in the NC Collection; I’m always amazed at what I find. While looking at a Red Springs and Maxton, North Carolina, phone book from 1923 (Cp971.78 R31c 1923), I found the following list of instructions.

[Be sure to read the sections on "Always Call By Number--Not By Name," "Unauthorized Use of the Telephone," and "Attachments to Telephone."]

From the Cape Lookout National Seashore (National Park Service) webpage:

“On the evening of November 1, 1859, Lighthouse Keeper John Royal climbed the 216 steps to the lantern carrying a 5 gallon container of whale oil. Carefully stepping inside the giant glass lens, Keeper Royal filled the lamp with oil and installed and carefully trimmed the wicks. Then exactly at sunset, Keeper Royal lit the lamp and the new Cape Lookout Lighthouse shone its light out to sea for the first time.”

Happy 150th!

I wanted to alert NCM readers to a new blog maintained and updated by Elon University’s Belk Library Archives and Special Collections staff, “Under the Oaks.”

Take a look and add it to your feed reader!

This item was recently used in the North Carolina Collection reading room. I couldn’t help but notice the attached advertisement (which, I suppose, is the point), and I really couldn’t help but notice the service it offered.

Covered bridge over Richland Creek, near Moffitt (Randolph County), North Carolina. Copied from an original in the NCC Photographic Archives.

The North Carolina Highway Historical Marker Program was recently in the news. Read more about it here: N.C.’s roadside history markers generate 600K words.

If you have not seen or used the revamped Highway Marker database, I highly recommend checking it out: North Carolina Highway Historical Marker Program.

“In late December 1700, John Lawson and a group of eight Englishmen and Native Americans set off on a 500-mile, two-month trek into the Carolina backcountry. The expedition began in Charles Town and headed north and west as far present-day Hillsborough, North Carolina, and then turned east, ending up in the settlement of Bath on the Pamlico Sound in February 1701. During the journey, Lawson kept a detailed journal, made sketches and maps, and gathered specimens of plants and animals. This month, Documenting the American South celebrates the 300th anniversary of the first publication of Lawson’s journals…”

Read more from DocSouth’s highlight here.

For your Friday morning viewing pleasure…

We think that this man and woman are making apple butter.