This page covers two overlapping sets of books at OCPL: the Orange County works in the index that the library holds, and the Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection, the library’s wider local history room, from county deed and will abstracts to North Carolina histories. Some books belong to both. Start with the plan of the room, or go straight to either list.
About these counts
The index counts works, not copies or editions: the editions of one book are gathered under one entry, so the library’s own catalog lists more titles than the 357 here. The Wall Collection figure is the library’s inventory of that collection as of September 2026, counted by catalog title; the Orange County works shelved there are in both counts.
The Local History Room
Find your way around the local history room
Find the books, maps, research equipment, and displays of the Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection at the Main Library in Hillsborough. The lettered locations below match the plan; tap or hover one to see what stands there.
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Locked cabinet
Fragile items that mending would damage. Above it, a platter Rebecca Wall painted of the law office of Thomas Ruffin, an ancestor of hers, at 201 South Cameron Street, and a pastel portrait of her in her fifties.
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Gray file cabinet
Microfilm of the local newspaper and federal census returns from the 1800s; Orange County court records, vital statistics, tax lists and Confederate soldier records reaching back to the 1700s. On top, a photograph of Rebecca Wall in her twenties and a wooden model of the Burwell School.
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Research computer with microfilm reader and scanner
Read and scan the microfilm here, and search Ancestry and other research sites.
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Genealogy bookshelf, D-1
Historical records of many kinds, color-coded and labeled by county and record type, with books on how to do genealogical research.
Browse this shelf → -
Genealogy bookshelf, D-2
Published family histories, biographies and genealogical journals; the colonial and higher-court records of North Carolina; lives of local figures from William Tryon to John Blackfeather.
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Genealogy bookshelf, D-3
More about Rebecca Wall.
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North Carolina history bookshelf, E-1
North Carolina histories of every kind, from the university and the State Fair to natural history and Durham’s Hayti.
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Reference bookshelf, E-2
Traditional general reference books, still valuable as comprehensive, authoritative sources.
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Framed print: the courthouse
Hope Summerell Chamberlain’s 1926 pen-and-ink rendering of the county courthouse; she was an author, artist and civic worker.
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Framed print: the 1892 county map
George W. Tate’s 1892 map of Orange County.
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Framed print: Hillsborough, County Down
Views of the Irish town the county seat is named for.
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Framed print: the Nash and Kollock School
Chamberlain’s 1926 interpretation of a late-1800s photograph of the school, which stood at 137 West Margaret Lane, the Main Library’s address today.
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Framed print: Hillsborough Military Academy
Uniform buttons from the academy, which ran from 1859 to 1861 off Barracks Road in West Hillsborough; outbuildings still stand.
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Framed print: the 1768 town plan
C. J. Sauthier’s 1768 map of the town of Hillsborough.
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Black file cabinet
Family and local histories researched, compiled and donated by patrons, with local history odds and ends. On top, a model of the county courthouse by Allen Alexander Lloyd (1914 to 2006), lifelong Hillsborough resident and keeper of the town clock, who with his wife Pauline wrote the histories of the town and of its churches that stand in this room.
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Assorted maps
Maps of the county and the town.
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Elizabeth Keckly display
Keckly was enslaved in Hillsborough by her half-brother Robert Burwell, minister of the Presbyterian church and founder of the Burwell School. A seamstress of rare skill, after her emancipation in 1855 she became dressmaker and confidante to Mary Lincoln.
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Elizabeth Keckly display, continued
The second panel of the Keckly display.
On the shelves
Orange County works at OCPL
These works connect to Orange County and are held at OCPL. Search by title, author, or description, or pick a section to browse it in call-number order. Open the catalog record for location and availability.
Art, architecture, music and crafts 700 to 789: 6 works as they shelve at OCPL, in call-number order. All 357, with filters by place, theme, and material, in the search →
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Hillsborough Artists Cooperative and Skylight Gallery, 1990-2020
Miller, Jennifer E. · 2021 · Histories
Jennifer E. Miller's account of the Hillsborough Artists Cooperative and its Skylight Gallery across their first thirty years, 1990 to 2020. Topics include art in Hillsborough for that period and the history of both the cooperative and the gallery. Published in 2021, it records a local institution in the town's art scene that would otherwise leave little written trace.
Call number 708.156 MILLERHillsboroughArts, Music & Performance View in OCPL catalog → -
Montrose
Goodwin, Nancy Sanders · 2005
Nancy Goodwin's month-by-month account of a year in the gardens at Montrose, the nineteenth-century estate in Hillsborough that she and her husband Craufurd moved to in 1977. Beginning in late January and running through the following January, the chapters record what is in bloom and in progress across the more than twenty acres of gardens she developed there, with a map of the grounds. Published by Duke University Press in 2005, 313 pages; this is the e-book edition.
Call number 712.609 GOOHillsborough View in OCPL catalog → -
A House in the South: Old-fashioned Graciousness for New-fashioned Times
Schultz, Frances · 2006 · Pictorial works
Frances Schultz writes about houses of the American South and the way they are furnished, published by Clarkson Potter in 2006, 160 pages with color illustrations. The Capel House in Chapel Hill is among the dwellings shown. Subjects include interior decoration, house furnishings and social life and customs in the southern states.
Call number 747.215 SCHChapel HillBuildings & PreservationEveryday Life & Traditions View in OCPL catalog → -
Looking Down 2017: Bike Lane Art 9 -- Through the Looking Glass, Gone Fishing
White, Peter · 2017 · Pictorial works
Peter White's 2017 photographs of the bike lanes of Chapel Hill and Carrboro, the ninth in his Looking Down series and subtitled Through the Looking Glass, Gone Fishing. A work of artistic photography depicting bicycle trails in both towns.
Call number 778.9 WHITECarrboroRoads, Rail & Transportation View in OCPL catalog → -
A Really Strange and Wonderful Time
Maxwell, Tom · 2024
Tom Maxwell's 2024 account of Chapel Hill's alternative rock scene in the 1990s, set against North Carolina's longer musical history. Maxwell writes as a musician who played in that scene, and the book follows the bands, clubs and labels that drew national attention to the town. Subjects include alternative rock music, Chapel Hill, 1991-2000, history and criticism. Published by Hachette, 310 pages with plates.
Call number 780.903 MAXWELLChapel HillArts, Music & PerformanceThe Cat’s Cradle and the “Chapel Hill sound” of the 1990s View in OCPL catalog → -
Step It Up and Go: The Story of North Carolina Popular Music
Menconi, David · 2020 · Histories
David Menconi's history of popular music in North Carolina, from the working-class roots of the state's traditions to the Chapel Hill and Carrboro rock scene of recent decades. Menconi, who covered music for the Raleigh News and Observer for nearly thirty years, builds the book on interviews and reporting, and Black musicians' contributions run through it. First issued in print by UNC Press in 2020; this is the online edition, 329 pages with illustrations.
Call number 781.64 MENCONINorth Carolina (statewide)Arts, Music & PerformanceLiterature & Publishing View in OCPL catalog →
The Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection
Browse the full Wall Collection
The wider local history collection, named for Rebecca Wall, the retired librarian whose 1986 bequest built it: genealogy, North Carolina history, and regional reference works, alongside the Orange County titles. Browse it shelf by shelf or search by title, author, subject, or description.
Genealogical and historical journals PER: 3 titles as they stand on the shelf at OCPL, in call-number order. Genealogy bookshelf, D-2: Published family histories, biographies and genealogical journals; the colonial and higher-court records of North Carolina; lives of prominent local figures, from William Tryon to John Blackfeather.
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Hillsborough Historical Society Journal
1998 Foundational
Journal of the Hillsborough Historical Society, seven illustrated volumes dated 2004. Articles cover the history and antiquities of Hillsborough and Orange County, so the run is a standing source for county history. Volumes measure 23 centimeters.
Call number NC PER HILLSBOR View in OCPL catalog → -
The North Carolina Genealogical Society Journal
1975
The quarterly journal of the North Carolina Genealogical Society, published in Raleigh since 1975, with articles on North Carolina family research and transcriptions of original records. William D. Bennett compiled a consolidated index to its first ten years, 1975 to 1984, published in 1997, and Heritage Books has reprinted early volumes.
View in OCPL catalog → -
The North Carolina Historical Review
1924 Start here
North Carolina's quarterly history journal, published at Raleigh since 1924, first by the North Carolina Historical Commission and from 1943 by the State Department of Archives and History and its successor offices. Issues carry illustrated articles and book reviews; the first volume included a section listing recent publications on North Carolina. A fifty-year index covering 1924 to 1973, edited by Beth Gilbert Crabtree and Ruth Clow Langston, came out in 1984.
View in OCPL catalog →
Research help, online and in the room
