Many things have been written about the Republican Party’s rise to power in the South during the last half of the 20th century. Well, I’m not going to recap or dissect all of the theories here, but I will share with you some of the political ephemera we’ve collected in an attempt to document this resurgence and North Carolina politics in general. I’ve included two images below. On the left is a pamphlet from Jesse Helms’ first campaign for US Senate, which occurred in 1972. On the right is a pamphlet from Jim Holshouser’s campaign for governor of North Carolina in 1972. Holshouser defeated Skipper Bowles, becoming the first Republican governor elected in North Carolina in the 20th century. Both pamphlets (and more) can be found in the North Carolina Collection’s political ephemera collection.

Read Harry McKown’s most recent “This Month in North Carolina History,” which discusses the Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919 and its effect on North Carolina.

The North Carolina Collection and the NCC Gallery held a very nice event last night, focusing on the Gallery’s current exhibit, “SOAPBOXES AND TREE STUMPS: Political Campaigning in North Carolina.” Lew Powell, forum editor for the Charlotte Observer and donor of the Lew Powell Memorabilia Collection, gave a gallery talk, highlighting items from his collection that were used in the exhibit. In addition, Rob Christensen, political columnist for the Raleigh News and Observer, spoke about his recent book, The Paradox of Tar Heel Politics: The Personalities, Elections, and Events That Shaped Modern North Carolina. In honor of the event and exhibit, the North Carolina Collection created a keepsake poster (partial image below). The pinback buttons used in this poster can all be found in the Powell Collection at the North Carolina Collection, Wilson Library. Thanks to the hard work and web wizardry of Andy Jackson from the Davis Library Systems Department, you can view and read about all of the buttons featured in the poster at Vote For Me: Political Campaigning in North Carolina (2008 Poster).

From now until November 4, we are going to share with our readers some of the political ephemera and memorabilia that the NC Collection collects and maintains. Today’s feature is a pamphlet from the 1968 Democratic primary race for lieutenant governor, which featured the first female candidate for that position, Margaret Harper. Prior to running, Harper was a businesswoman and newspaper administrator, serving as the editor of the The State Port Pilot while her husband was in the military during World War II. Though she did not receive the nomination, Harper did win 23 percent of the vote. She tried again and lost again in 1972…this time garnering 20 percent of the vote.

My research for an exhibition this coming February has led me to a pamphlet, Small Farms in “The Great Winter Garden” published in or about 1915 by the Carolina Trucking Development Company, owed by Hugh MacRae, in Wilmington. The pamphlet’s purpose is to describe and offer for sale farms and homes owned by the company—with illustrations, facts, and statistics aplenty—as part of its larger effort to create agricultural colonies in the area. What interests me at this stage of my digging is the slogan, “The Great Winter Garden,” created by the Bureau of Soils of the United States Department of Agriculture.

A map inside the pamphlet illustrates its geographic range along the mid and southern Atlantic coast; I am trying to determine the date of its origin, and how widely the slogan may have been adopted. Initial explorations are yielding minimal leads. I’ve only located one thus far: an article entitled, “Truck Soils of the Atlantic Coast Region” by Jay A. Bonesteel in the Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture for 1912, which includes the same map used in the pamphlet. Do you know of other items or references to The Great Winter Garden?

Loyal NCM reader Kevin Cherry recently pointed out a website dedicated to the history of Cliffside, North Carolina, a mill village in southeastern Rutherford County. The website, Remember Cliffside, is maintained by the Cliffside Historical Society and contains photos, transcribed letters, maps, historical articles, and other memorabilia of the community.

If you’re like me, you’re having a blast surfing around the new North Carolina Maps digital project. However, all of the great information on these maps can be a little overwhelming at times. One website that we have found to be particularly useful in figuring out information about North Carolina roads is NCRoads.com Annex: More Highways of North Carolina. The site has maps, routes, dates of creation, and comments on state and federal highways and interstates. Thanks to loyal contributor and NC Miscellany “founder” Nick Graham for pointing this out!

On September 15, 2008, the North Carolina Collection Gallery will open “Soapboxes and Tree Stumps: Political Campaigning in North Carolina.” The exhibition will examine 100 years of political campaigning in North Carolina, focusing on significant elections from 1890 to 1990 and what they reveal about the state’s political history. This exhibition will use broadsides, posters, and photographs from the North Carolina Collection to explore the changing nature of campaigning from the nineteenth to the late twentieth centuries. Exhibition highlights include pinback buttons and ribbons from the Lew Powell Memorabilia Collection, as well as several photos and broadsides on loan from the Southern Historical Collection.

Our friends and coworkers on the 4th floor of Wilson Library have just posted “A Nursery of Patriotism: the University at War, 1861-1945.” This online exhibit examines how the Civil War, World War I, and World War II impacted students and faculty at the University of North Carolina.

I am pleased to see that our colleagues at Duke Homestead State Historic Site are adding 282 spittoons to their collection (read the news article), making it the largest in the United States. Although they have virtually disappeared in modern life, spittoons were ubiquitous in nineteenth and early twentieth century America. In a time when tobacco was regularly chewed by millions, the need for a place to spit was acute, particularly indoors. Whether brass, glass, or porcelain, the spittoon was everywhere. This all reminds me of my own first and last experience with chewing tobacco. I was working in a textile printing plant between college and graduate school. A fellow worker offered me some of his chewing tobacco and, when I told him that I didn’t use it, responded that “it would pay a man who had never had a chew just to try one.” This made sense to me, and for the first few minutes I enjoyed the experience. Unfortunately, things went down hill from there. At the time I really appreciated a place to spit and have had a spot in my heart for spittoons ever since.