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Orange County Indexed

Local history at OCPL

The Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection and the Orange County books at the Main Library in Hillsborough: a plan of the room, and both collections searchable shelf by shelf.

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.

357Orange County works at OCPL 1,287titles in the Wall Collection 5shelves in the local history room 1library card opens NC LIVE

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.

The collection at OCPL →
Plan of the Local History Room at the Main Library, after the library’s diagram Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection entrance E D I: Framed print: the Nash and Kollock School I H: Framed print: Hillsborough, County Down H G: Framed print: the 1892 county map G F: Framed print: the courthouse F J: Framed print: Hillsborough Military Academy J K: Framed print: the 1768 town plan K E-2: Reference bookshelf, E-2 E-2 E-1: North Carolina history bookshelf, E-1 E-1 D-2: Genealogy bookshelf, D-2 D-2 D-1: Genealogy bookshelf, D-1 D-1 D-3: Genealogy bookshelf, D-3 D-3 L: Black file cabinet L M: Assorted maps M N: Elizabeth Keckly display N O: Elizabeth Keckly display, continued O C: Research computer with microfilm reader and scanner C B: Gray file cabinet B A: Locked cabinet A
After the library’s own diagram of the space. Bookshelves in dark blue, cabinets in gray, framed prints in orange, the maps and the Keckly display in a lighter blue.
  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. Research computer with microfilm reader and scanner

    Read and scan the microfilm here, and search Ancestry and other research sites.

  4. 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 →
  5. 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.

    Browse this shelf →
  6. Genealogy bookshelf, D-3

    More about Rebecca Wall.

    Browse this shelf →
  7. 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.

    Browse this shelf →
  8. Reference bookshelf, E-2

    Traditional general reference books, still valuable as comprehensive, authoritative sources.

    Browse this shelf →
  9. 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.

  10. Framed print: the 1892 county map

    George W. Tate’s 1892 map of Orange County.

  11. Framed print: Hillsborough, County Down

    Views of the Irish town the county seat is named for.

  12. 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.

  13. 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.

  14. Framed print: the 1768 town plan

    C. J. Sauthier’s 1768 map of the town of Hillsborough.

  15. 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.

  16. Assorted maps

    Maps of the county and the town.

  17. 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.

  18. 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.

Filter all 357 in the search →

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 →

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.

Search it alongside the indexed works →

Customs and folklore 390 to 399: 9 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.

  • The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore: The Folklore of North Carolina, Collected by Dr. Frank C. Brown During the Years 1912 to 1943, in Collaboration With the North Carolina Folklore Society Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore · 1952 Foundational

    Frank C. Brown of Duke University and the North Carolina Folklore Society, which he founded in 1913, gathered this folklore from 1912 to 1943 through his classes and trips into the mountains. Duke University Press published it from 1952 to 1964 in seven volumes under general editor Newman Ivey White, with wood engravings by Clare Leighton: games, customs, riddles, proverbs, speech and tales; ballads and folk songs with their music; and popular beliefs and superstitions.

    Call number NC 398 DUK View in OCPL catalog →
  • Arts in Earnest: North Carolina Folklife 1990 Foundational

    Daniel W. Patterson and Charles G. Zug III edited these fifteen essays on North Carolina folklife from the mountains to the coast, taking in decoy carving, tobacco auction chants, Piedmont blues, Jack tales, pranks in the mills and a Chatham County quiltmaker. Interviews give much of the text its voice, from Durham bluesman Willie Trice to Goldsboro auctioneer H. L. 'Speed' Riggs. Published by Duke University Press in 1990; 319 pages with notes and an index.

    Call number NC 398.097 ART View in OCPL catalog →
  • Tales of the North Carolina Coast Edmunds, Pocahontas Wight · 1986

    Legends and local history from along the North Carolina coast, retold by Pocahontas Wight Edmunds (1904 to 1999), a Richmond-born writer who settled in Halifax, Virginia, and wrote that county's history in two volumes. Edwards & Broughton of Raleigh published it in 1986: 179 pages plus four pages of plates, with a bibliography and index.

    Call number NC 398.2 EDM View in OCPL catalog →
  • North Carolina Indian Legends and Myths Johnson, F. Roy · 1981

    Native American legends told in North Carolina, gathered by F. Roy Johnson: among them the white doe, Batts' grave, the Indian gallows tree, and how Lake Mattamuskeet and Lake Waccamaw came to be. Eugenia (Jenny) Johnson drew the illustrations, and a list of sources closes the 112 pages. Johnson Publishing Company, Murfreesboro, 1981.

    Call number NC 398.2 JOH View in OCPL catalog →
  • John Rattling-Gourd of Big Cove: A Collection of Cherokee Indian Legends Bell, Corydon · 1955

    Cherokee legends retold and illustrated by Corydon Bell, framed as stories told beside the fire by the old man John Rattling-Gourd at Big Cove, a Cherokee community on the Qualla Boundary in the North Carolina mountains. Bell notes that he chose the tales selectively. Macmillan, 1955; 103 pages.

    Call number NC 398.209 BEL View in OCPL catalog →
  • Belled Buzzards, Hucksters and Grieving Specters: Appalachian Tales, Strange, True & Legendary Carden, Gary · 1994

    Gary Carden and Nina Anderson retell tales drawn from the folklore and popular culture of the southern Appalachian mountains. Down Home Press of Asheboro published the illustrated collection in 1994, 208 pages.

    Call number NC 398.209 CAR View in OCPL catalog →
  • North Carolina Legends Walser, Richard Gaither · 1980

    Richard Walser's collection of North Carolina legends, with drawings by Bill Ballard, first published in 1980 by the state Division of Archives and History, which reprinted it in 1984 and 1986. It runs to 76 pages, with references to sources.

    Call number NC 398.209 WALSER View in OCPL catalog →
  • Nonnulla: Memories, Stories, Traditions, More or Less Authentic Cheshire, Joseph Blount · 1930

    Recollections, stories and traditions set down late in life by Joseph Blount Cheshire (1850 to 1932), born in Tarboro, rector of the Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill from 1878 to 1881 and Episcopal Bishop of North Carolina from 1893 until his death. The foreword calls it a cross section of North Carolina life. Published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1930, 255 pages.

    Call number NC 398.23 CHE View in OCPL catalog →
  • Judaculla's Handprint: And Other Mysterious Tales From North Carolina Street, Julia Montgomery · 1975

    Julia Montgomery Street, a Concord-born writer of children's stories drawn from North Carolina history, collects legends and unexplained happenings from the state. The title refers to the Cherokee story of Judaculla, master of game, whose leap from his mountain left his handprint on a soapstone boulder near Cullowhee in Jackson County. Illustrated by Harold Rydberg and published in Chapel Hill by Briarpatch Press in 1975, 62 pages.

    Call number NC 398.232 STR View in OCPL catalog →

Research help, online and in the room

More ways to continue your research

Through the library Use OCPL Resources Newspapers, maps, genealogy tools, and reference works that OCPL offers, many through NC LIVE, North Carolina’s statewide library service. Some are free to anyone; others need an OCPL card. Find library resources for local history → Help from a person Get research help Local History Help Hours at the Main Library, or the Local History Liaison for a difficult trail. Find Local History Help Hours → In the room, outside the catalog Microfilm, records and maps Local newspapers and census returns on microfilm, county court records, tax lists and soldier records back to the 1700s, family histories donated by patrons, and the research computer. The collection at OCPL →
Two mice reading back to back against a leaf, with the hand-lettered words Friends of the Orange County Public Library
Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026