Posted in History, Memorabilia Moment, On This Day, tagged avery county nc, blowing rock nc, ET & WNC, gene autry, grover robbins jr, tweetsie railroad on June 30, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
On this day in 1957: A coal-burning, narrow-gauge engine that once hauled iron ore from an Avery County mine to a Tennessee smelter returns from retirement as the centerpiece of a Blowing Rock amusement park. The East Tennessee & Western North Carolina Railroad began doing business in the late 1800s. Locals dubbed the ET & [...]
Posted in History, Memorabilia Moment, On This Day, tagged beech mountain nc, defunct theme parks, jack pentes, land of oz, wizard of oz, yellow brick road on June 15, 2012 | 4 Comments »
On this day in 1970: The Land of Oz, a theme park based on “The Wizard of Oz,” opens atop Beech Mountain. The park, imaginatively conceived by Charlotte artist Jack Pentes, proves too low-tech, too small and too remote — and the weather is often dreary. Attendance is 250,000 the first year but only 60,000 [...]
Posted in History, Memorabilia Moment, Postcards, Tar Heelia, Tar Talk on May 25, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Memorial Hall was the University of North Carolina’s first monument to graduates killed in war. Occupied in 1885, the building honored the University’s Civil War dead as well as David Lowry Swain, who served as the University’s president from 1835-1868, and others who served the University. Memorial Hall was the first building erected on campus [...]
Posted in From the Stacks, History, Just A Bite, Memorabilia Moment, On This Day, Tar Heelia on May 14, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
The North Carolina Symphony played its first concert at Hill Hall in Chapel Hill on May 14, 1932. Lamar Stringfield conducted 48 musicians hailing from 11 communities throughout the state. The N.C. Symphony garnered state support in 1943 when the N.C. General Assembly passed the “horn tooter” bill, which provided $2000 yearly from 1943-1945.
Posted in Artifact of the Month, From the Stacks, History, Memorabilia Moment, Tar Heelia on April 16, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Look closely at the autographs on this first day cover and you’re sure to recognize some familiar names. Yes, that does say Jesse Helms, right alongside Terry Sanford and Jim Martin. And that’s Rufus Edmisten and Jim Hunt near the top. The scribble in the middle is John Edwards. The cover, our April Artifact of [...]
Posted in Artifact of the Month, From the Stacks, History, Memorabilia Moment, Tar Heelia on March 15, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
From now through the end of May, visitors to the NCC Gallery can view the exhibit “A Dialogue Between Old and New: Notable Buildings on the UNC Campus.” A quick stroll through the exhibit reveals how much architectural styles have changed since 1793 — but also how much student life has changed in that time: [...]
Posted in Just A Bite, Memorabilia Moment, tagged duke ellington, durham nc, edward merrick, in a sentimental mood, nc mutual insurance company, stanley dance on March 7, 2012 | 4 Comments »
“We had played a big dance in a tobacco warehouse, and afterwards a friend of mine, an executive in the North Carolina Mutual Insurance Company [treasurer Edward Merrick], threw a party for us [at the N.C. Mutual Building in Durham]. “I was playing piano when another one of our friends had some trouble with two [...]
Posted in History, Memorabilia Moment, On This Day, tagged airline mergers, charlotte nc, cincinnati, dc-3, piedmont airlines, us airways, usair, wilmington nc, Winston-Salem on February 26, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
On this day in 1948: Piedmont Airlines, headquartered in Winston-Salem, inaugurates passenger service with a DC-3 flight from Wilmington to Charlotte to Cincinnati. Over the next four decades Piedmont will grow from what competitors dismiss as a “puddle jumper” to the nation’s eighth largest airline. In 1987 Piedmont is bought by Washington-based USAir [later US [...]
Posted in From the Stacks, History, Memorabilia Moment, Tar Heelia, Tar Talk on February 16, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
The real Carnegie Hall audience was in the schools. On Symphony Day the children knew what they were hearing, singing and playing. They had read about the music in Adeline McCall’s Symphony Stories, their teachers had attended her workshops where she not only demonstrated children’s instruments to blow, tap and shake, but got the teachers [...]
Posted in From the Stacks, History, Memorabilia Moment, Tar Heelia on February 7, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
The photo above is one of 66 images of historic schools in North Carolina that the State Library of North Carolina added to its Flickr site. Our colleagues are trying to determine where each of these schools stood. The photos were included in the Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of North Carolina [...]
