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.
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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.
Biography BIO, 920: 17 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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A Dream About Lightning Bugs: A Life of Music and Cheap Lessons
Folds, Ben · 2019 · Biography
Singer and songwriter Ben Folds (born 1966), whose band Ben Folds Five came together in Chapel Hill, looks back on his life in music. Chapters cover his music teachers and 'cheap lessons', a stretch in Nashville, the band's first albums and the music business, 'Rockin' the suburbs', going solo, and the years after a low point, told through anecdotes and working advice. Published in a first edition of 2019, 311 pages with illustrations.
Call number BIO FOLDS FOLArts, Music & PerformanceLiterature & Publishing View in OCPL catalog → -
James J. Freeland
Freeland, Maxine · 1999 · Biography
Maxine Freeland's biography of James John Freeland (1918-1999), a Hillsborough man of the twentieth century, compiled in 1999.
Call number BIO FREELAND FREHillsborough View in OCPL catalog → -
Ghost Fields
Bradley, John · 2021 · Histories
John Bradley's interview with John Blackfeather Jeffries, an elder of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, whose tribal grounds lie in northern Orange County near Hillsborough. Occaneechi history and Native history in North Carolina and Virginia, the tribe's older homeland, are its subjects. Published in 2021.
Call number BIO JEFFRIES BRAHillsboroughIndigenous Peoples & ArchaeologyThe Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation today View in OCPL catalog → -
Behind the Scenes; or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House
Keckley, Elizabeth · 1868 · Biography
Elizabeth Keckley's memoir of 1868, thirty years in slavery and four years in the White House as dressmaker and confidante to Mary Todd Lincoln. Keckley spent part of her enslaved youth in Hillsborough, which ties the book to Orange County. This edition is the Oxford University Press reprint, with a portrait, 371 pages.
Call number BIO KECKLEY KECHillsboroughBlack Life & Civil RightsThe Burwell School and the Burwell household View in OCPL catalog → -
The Courage to Lead: One Man's Journey in Public Service
Lee, Howard N. · 2008 · Biography
Howard N. Lee (born 1934) tells his own story, from a farm childhood in Lithonia, Georgia, through college, army service in Korea at Camp Casey and the move from Savannah that planted him in Chapel Hill, to his election as mayor of Chapel Hill in 1969 and his later run for Congress and years in the state legislature. Published by Cotton Patch Press of Chapel Hill in 2008, 199 pages with plates.
Call number BIO LEE LEEChapel HillBlack Life & Civil RightsHoward Lee’s election as mayor of Chapel Hill, 1969 View in OCPL catalog → -
Warm Firesides Wide Porches
McPherson, Sally Ann Webb · 2013 · Biography
Sally Ann Webb McPherson remembers Hillsborough in the 1940s, subtitled as an authentic Southern town, in a 2013 memoir of the town's anecdotes, social life and customs. Personal recollection rather than formal history, it records daily life in the town during and after the Second World War.
Call number BIO MCPHERSO MCPHillsboroughEveryday Life & Traditions View in OCPL catalog → -
Proud Shoes: The Story of an American Family
Murray, Pauli · 1956 · Biography
Pauli Murray's account of her grandparents, Robert and Cornelia Fitzgerald, and of a family that came together out of enslaved people, free Black people, white slaveholders and Cherokee ancestors in the years before and after the Civil War. Murray, born in 1910 and raised in Durham, follows the Fitzgeralds from Pennsylvania to North Carolina, where Cornelia had been born enslaved in Orange County near Chapel Hill. First published by Harper in 1956; this edition runs 280 pages.
Call number BIO MURRAY MURChapel HillBlack Life & Civil RightsChurches & Faith View in OCPL catalog → -
Jane Crow: The Life of Pauli Murray
Rosenberg, Rosalind · 2017 · Biography
Rosalind Rosenberg's 2017 biography of Pauli Murray (1910-1985), lawyer, poet and Episcopal priest, raised in Durham. Its six parts follow a Southern childhood, the move to New York, the 1938 application to the University of North Carolina that was refused because Murray was Black (the chapter is titled 'Members of your race are not admitted'), law school and the coining of the phrase Jane Crow, the Cold War years, the push toward 'an NAACP for women', and a late-life ordination. 494 pages with portraits.
Call number BIO MURRAY ROSChapel HillBlack Life & Civil RightsChurches & Faith View in OCPL catalog → -
Vignettes
Shetley, Frances Lloyd · 2025 · Biography
Frances Lloyd Shetley's self-published collection of short recollections, issued in 2025, drawn from the author's own life in Calvander and Carrboro. Calvander is the crossroads community northwest of Carrboro.
Call number BIO SHETLEY SHECalvander View in OCPL catalog → -
Clover Garden
Simpson, Bland · 2024 · Biography
Bland Simpson's memoir of country life in the Clover Garden community of Orange County, in the North Carolina Piedmont, published by UNC Press in 2024. Short chapters take in cabin life, neighbors like the Binghams and Mr. Stacy, hounds, owls and turkeys, an auction, Merritt's and Lewis Allen's store, the sculptor of White Cross School, Maple View, Saxapahaw, the Devil's Tramping Ground, storms and snows, and a carol for Cane Creek. 182 pages with illustrations.
Call number BIO SIMPSON SIMNorth Carolina (statewide)Eno & EnvironmentEveryday Life & Traditions View in OCPL catalog → -
Dimestore: A Writer's Life
Smith, Lee · 2016 · Biography
Lee Smith, the novelist who lives in Hillsborough, recalls a mountain childhood in Grundy, Virginia, and the writing life that followed. The essays also take in her mother's mental illness, and later her son's own illness and his death at a young age, alongside pieces on the recipe box, marble cake and moonshine, lady lessons and a life in books. Published 2016, 202 pages.
Call number BIO SMITH SMIEveryday Life & TraditionsLiterature & Publishing View in OCPL catalog → -
Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn
Hajdu, David · 1996 · Biography
David Hajdu's biography of Billy Strayhorn, the composer and pianist who spent much of his career writing with and for Duke Ellington, and who passed part of his boyhood with grandparents in Hillsborough. Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 1996, 305 pages with illustrations. Topics include jazz musicians, composers and African American gay composers.
Call number BIO STRAYHOR HAJArts, Music & PerformanceBlack Life & Civil Rights 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.
Civil War and Reconstruction 973.7 to 973.8: 31 titles as they stand on the shelf at OCPL, in call-number order. North Carolina history bookshelf, E-1: North Carolina histories of every kind, from the university and the State Fair to the state’s natural history and Durham’s Hayti.
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North Carolina as A Civil War Battleground, 1861-1865
Barrett, John Gilchrist · 1960 Foundational
A short account of the Civil War campaigns fought in North Carolina from 1861 to 1865, written by John G. Barrett of the Virginia Military Institute and published by the State Department of Archives and History in 1960; 99 pages with illustrations and a map. It was reissued in 1980 and again in 2003.
Call number NC 973.7 BAR View in OCPL catalog → -
Confederate Military History: A Library of Confederate States History, in Thirteen Volumes
Evans, Clement Anselm · 1970
A history of the Confederacy written by prominent Southerners under the editorship of the Georgia general Clement A. Evans, first published at Atlanta in 1899 in twelve volumes. Essays on secession and Confederate government open the set; state histories follow, with D. H. Hill Jr. on North Carolina, and most volumes close with biographical sketches. This Blue & Grey Press reprint from the 1970s runs to thirteen volumes with maps and portraits.
Call number NC 973.7 EVA View in OCPL catalog → -
The Confederate Letters of Benjamin H. Freeman
Freeman, Benjamin H. · 1974
Stuart T. Wright compiled and edited these Civil War letters of Benjamin H. Freeman, a Confederate soldier born in 1842 who served in the 44th North Carolina Regiment; Richmond and Appomattox Court House are among the places they mention. The 109-page first edition was published in 1974 by Exposition Press of Hicksville, New York, as an Exposition University Book.
Call number NC 973.7 FRE View in OCPL catalog → -
Bethel to Sharpsburg
Hill, Daniel Harvey · 1926
Daniel Harvey Hill Jr., son of the Confederate general and a former head of North Carolina State, wrote this account of the war in the East from Big Bethel in 1861 through the Peninsula, the Seven Days and Second Manassas to Sharpsburg in 1862. He died in 1924, and J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton edited it, adding the first chapter and an introduction. Published in two volumes in 1926 for the North Carolina Historical Commission.
Call number NC 973.7 HIL View in OCPL catalog → -
North Carolina Civil War Documentary
1980
Primary sources on North Carolina's Civil War years, selected and edited by W. Buck Yearns and John G. Barrett and published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1980. The 365 pages carry plates, a bibliography and an index.
Call number NC 973.7 NOR View in OCPL catalog → -
The Photographic History of the Civil War
1912
Francis Trevelyan Miller edited these ten volumes of Civil War photographs with text by many contributors, published by the Review of Reviews Company in 1912 as a semi-centennial memorial. The first three follow the fighting from the opening battles to the decisive ones; the rest take up cavalry, forts and artillery, the navies, prisons and hospitals, soldier life and secret service, poetry and oratory, and armies and leaders, with the index in volume 10.
Call number NC 973.7 PHO View in OCPL catalog → -
Front Rank
Tucker, Glenn · 1962
Glenn Tucker's illustrated account of North Carolina's part in the Civil War, written for the state's Confederate Centennial Commission and published in Raleigh in 1962 with drawings by Bill Ballard.
Call number NC 973.7 TUC View in OCPL catalog → -
Placid: A Collection of Authentic Tales Centering Around Placid Plantation, Person and Cranville Counties, North Carolina, During the Period 1861 Through 1865
Windler, Penny Nichols · 1961
Civil War stories from Placid Plantation and the Chandler family in Person and Granville counties, 1861 to 1865, gathered by Penny Nichols Windler. Sponsored by the United Daughters of the Confederacy's Hampton Chapter, the 73-page book was published in 1961 by High-Iron Publishers of Warwick, Virginia.
Call number NC 973.7 WIN View in OCPL catalog → -
Behind the Scenes; Thirty Years A Slave and Four Years in the White House
Keckley, Elizabeth · 1968
Elizabeth Keckley's 1868 memoir of thirty years in slavery and four years as dressmaker and confidante to Mary Todd Lincoln. Born in Virginia, she spent part of her youth in Hillsborough, North Carolina, where her owner's son kept the Burwell School for girls, and later bought freedom for herself and her son in St. Louis. Its frank picture of the Lincolns drew public disapproval. Reprinted by Arno Press in 1968, 371 pages.
Call number NC 973.709 KEC View in OCPL catalog → -
Blood and War at My Doorstep: North Carolina Civilians in the War Between the States
McKean, Brenda Chambers · 2011
Brenda Chambers McKean's two-volume account of North Carolina civilians during the Civil War, drawing on period sources. Published through Xlibris in 2011, the set runs to about 1,280 pages with illustrations, bibliographical references and an index.
Call number NC 973.71 MCKEAN View in OCPL catalog → -
Civil War Courts-martial of North Carolina Troops
Perry, Aldo S. · 2012
Some 450 North Carolina Confederates, most of them deserters, are traced through their service records and military trials by Aldo S. Perry, a retired IBM project engineer in Raleigh; Confederate courts sentenced more North Carolina soldiers to death than those of any other state. Organized by army, corps, division and brigade, the book follows trials, executions and escapes, and argues that wider use of execution would have strengthened the Confederacy. McFarland, 2012.
Call number NC 973.71 PERRY View in OCPL catalog → -
Biographical Dictionary of the Confederacy
Wakelyn, Jon L. · 1977
Short biographies of prominent Confederates, compiled by Jon L. Wakelyn with Frank E. Vandiver as advisory editor and published by Greenwood Press in 1977. A long essay on the politics and economy of the South from 1850 to 1877 frames the entries, and the 601 pages end with a bibliography and an index.
Call number NC 973.713 WAK View in OCPL catalog →
Research help, online and in the room
