Posted in From the Stacks, Tar Heelia, Tar Talk on October 11, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
As Asheville readies for a visit by Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, it seems fitting to recall another Romney’s visit to the Carolinas some 35 years ago. George Romney, Mitt’s father, was governor of Michigan when he toured South Carolina’s Williamsburg County on September 27, 1967. The senior Romney was several months shy of announcing [...]
Posted in From the Stacks, History, On This Day, Postcards, Tar Heelia, Tar Talk on October 10, 2012 | 1 Comment »
The North Carolina State Fair is set to open for its 145th year tomorrow in Raleigh. The event has changed over the years. Electricity arrived in 1884 and the first Midway ride was erected in 1891. The first food booths opened in 1900. And the first airplane exhibit was held in 1910, almost seven years [...]
Posted in From the Stacks, Literature, Tar Heelia on September 21, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
One-time Raleigh resident Tift Merritt is back in the Triangle today for a live performance at Carrboro’s Town Commons. And on October 2nd, she’ll release her fifth studio album. Merritt has already received some press attention in advance of the album’s release. And, in at least one interview, she’s talked about her love of writing. [...]
Posted in DigitalNC, From the Stacks, Tar Heelia on September 19, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
At the suggestion of the Davie County Public Library, the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center has just published online one of my favorite little books from the North Carolina Collection: Douglas Rights’s A Voyage Down the Yadkin – Great Peedee River. The book describes a journey taken by the author in a rowboat down the [...]
Posted in From the Stacks, History, Just A Bite, Postcards, Tar Heelia on August 17, 2012 | 3 Comments »
There will be lots of recalling Baby and Johnny this weekend as the town of Lake Lure holds its 3rd annual “Dirty Dancing Festival.” Parts of the 1987 film Dirty Dancing, featuring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey as star-crossed lovers Johnny and Baby, were filmed in and around Lake Lure. Scenes of Johnny, Baby and [...]
Posted in DigitalNC, From the Stacks, History, Tar Heelia, Tar Talk on August 2, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Big news from Washington, D.C. And it doesn’t involve tax cuts, jobless numbers or the Presidential campaign. We recently received word from the National Endowment for the Humanities that we’ll receive $303,192 over the next two years to make available online North Carolina newspapers dating from 1836-1922. We’ll be joining the National Digital Newspaper Program, [...]
Posted in DigitalNC, From the Stacks on July 30, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Of the more than 4,000 yearbooks we’ve digitized for the North Carolina College and University Yearbooks collection, one of the most creative that I’ve seen is the 1985 Yackety Yack from UNC-Chapel Hill. The book is arranged like an encyclopedia of the campus and community, with pretty clever entries throughout and some great photographs. It’s [...]
Posted in From the Stacks, History, Just A Bite, Tar Heelia, Tar Talk on July 26, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
The Raleigh Register‘s description of campaigning à la 1850s could spur today’s campaign strategists to return to some methods of old. At the polls, there was a slight lack of that calm Roman dignity ascribed to us by our Fourth-of-July orators—inasmuch as the voters skipped about with the vivacity of Frenchmen, and exercised their tongues [...]
Posted in From the Stacks, History, Just A Bite, Tar Heelia, Tar Talk on July 16, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
The polling-places of such out-of-the way districts as Nantahala Precinct, Swain Co., N.C., where our sketch was made on the day of the late Presidential election, are not provided with all the modern conveniences, nor are the honest voters addicted to vain pomp and personal display. The sacred privilege of the franchise is exercised in [...]
Posted in From the Stacks, History, Just A Bite, On This Day, Tar Heelia, Tar Talk on July 3, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Former UNC President William C. Friday is confirming that Andy Griffith died this morning at his home in Dare County. The Mount Airy native was 86. Griffith’s rise to stardom began at UNC, where he appeared in several Carolina Playmakers productions, including Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado. Griffith also played Sir Walter Raleigh in The [...]
