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.
Research help, online and in the room
