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.
Civil War and Reconstruction 973.7 to 973.8: 3 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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Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly: The Remarkable Story of the Friendship Between a First Lady and a Former Slave
Fleischner, Jennifer · 2003 · Biography
Jennifer Fleischner's double biography of Mary Todd Lincoln and Elizabeth Keckley, the dressmaker who had been enslaved, including years in Hillsborough, before buying her freedom and becoming the First Lady's confidante. Published by Broadway Books in New York in 2003, 372 pages with illustrations and a map. Topics include enslaved women in Hillsborough and the United States, dressmakers and women's friendships in the nineteenth century.
Call number 973.7 FLEISCHNHillsboroughBlack Life & Civil RightsThe Burwell School and the Burwell household View in OCPL catalog → -
The Elizabeth Keckley Reader
McKoy, Sheila Smith · 2016 · Biography
A reader on Elizabeth Keckley edited by Sheila Smith McKoy, gathering criticism and interpretation of Behind the Scenes, Keckley's 1868 memoir of enslavement and of her years as Mary Todd Lincoln's dressmaker. Keckley's enslavement included years in Hillsborough, which is the book's Orange County link. Published in 2016, 274 pages.
Call number 973.709 ELIZABETHillsboroughBlack Life & Civil RightsThe Burwell School and the Burwell household View in OCPL catalog → -
Sparrows' Nest of Letters
2011
Letters of the Sparrow family, including Thomas Sparrow and George Attmore Sparrow, gathered and published in 2011. The correspondence includes material associated with the Hillsboro' Military Academy, which opened in Hillsborough in 1859, and combines family and military history.
Call number 973.782 SPARROWHillsboroughOrange County during the Civil War, 1861–1865Families, Land & Genealogy 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.
Sports and recreation 790 to 799: 12 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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Round Hillsborough: A Different Look Around, With 70 Thought Provoking Quotes
Fettig, Art · 2008
Art Fettig's 2008 book of picture puzzles based on the town of Hillsborough.
Call number NC 793.73 FET View in OCPL catalog → -
Golden Glory: The First 50 Years of the ACC
Jacobs, Barry · 2002 Wider context
An illustrated history of the Atlantic Coast Conference from its founding in 1953 to its fiftieth year, by Barry Jacobs. Across six sections it sets the league's story beside features on the Yow sisters, Duke women's tennis, Maryland women's lacrosse, North Carolina women's soccer, Georgia Tech track, Virginia men's soccer, Wake Forest golf and Chesley's ACC basketball broadcasts. Published in Greensboro by Mann Media in 2002.
Call number NC 796.043 JACOBS View in OCPL catalog → -
A History of Sports in North Carolina
Sumner, James · 1990 Wider context
Jim L. Sumner's overview of sports in North Carolina, with sketches of athletes, published by the state's Division of Archives and History in 1990; 119 pages, illustrated, with a bibliography and index.
Call number NC 796.095 SUM View in OCPL catalog → -
Game Changers: Dean Smith, Charlie Scott, and the Era That Transformed A Southern College Town
Chansky, Art · 2016 Start here
Art Chansky's 2016 account of Dean Smith, Charlie Scott and the years that changed Chapel Hill as a Southern college town. Scott was the first Black scholarship player in the Carolina basketball program. Topics include civil rights, racism in sports and the university's twentieth-century history.
Call number 796.323 CHANSKY View in OCPL catalog → -
Three Paths to Glory: A Season on the Hardwood With Duke, N.C. State, and North Carolina
Jacobs, Barry · 1993
Barry Jacobs follows one college basketball season inside three Atlantic Coast Conference programs, Duke, N.C. State and North Carolina, the Triangle rivals whose campuses sit a short drive apart. Published by Macmillan in 1993, 397 pages with illustrations.
Call number 796.323 JAC View in OCPL catalog → -
Across the Line: Tales of the First Black Basketball Players in the ACC and SEC
Jacobs, Barry · 2023 Foundational
Barry Jacobs profiles the Black players who first crossed the color line in men's basketball at eighteen schools of the Atlantic Coast and Southeastern conferences, among them Billy Jones at Maryland, Perry Wallace at Vanderbilt, C. B. Claiborne at Duke, Charles Scott at North Carolina, Al Heartley at N.C. State and Norwood Todmann at Wake Forest. This revised and updated edition appeared in 2023.
Call number NC 796.357 JACOBS View in OCPL catalog → -
Separating the Men From the Boys: The First Half-century of the Carolina League
Sumner, James · 1994
The Carolina League, the minor baseball league founded in 1945, traced through its first fifty seasons by Jim L. Sumner, curator of sport at the North Carolina Museum of History. John F. Blair of Winston-Salem published the history in 1994: 260 pages with illustrations, a bibliography and an index.
Call number NC 796.357 SUM View in OCPL catalog → -
Racing to Work: NASCAR Book
2002
A class project on NASCAR and stock car racing, written by Mrs. Eidenier's ninth-grade students at Orange High School in Hillsborough and printed by the school's print shop in 2002; unpaged, with illustrations.
Call number NC 796.72 RAC View in OCPL catalog → -
Occoneechee-Orange Speedway: Hillsboro, N.C
Sanseverino, Edward P. · 1995 Foundational
Edward P. Sanseverino's 1995 account of the Occoneechee-Orange Speedway, the stock car track outside Hillsborough that ran in the middle decades of the twentieth century. Topics include automobile racing and racetracks in North Carolina and Hillsborough in the twentieth century.
Call number NC 796.72 SAN View in OCPL catalog → -
Auto Racing in Charlotte and the Carolina Piedmont
Singer, Marc P. · 2003
Auto racing around Charlotte and the Carolina Piedmont in pictures, gathered by Marc P. Singer and Ryan L. Sumner. It begins with Osmond Barringer of Charlotte, who in 1900 became the first Southerner to own an automobile, and moves through board tracks, dirt tracks and the superspeedway era to women drivers, drag racing and kids' races. Arcadia, Images of America, 2003; 128 pages.
Call number NC 796.72 SINGER View in OCPL catalog → -
Black Bass and Other Fishing in North Carolina
Dockery, A. V. · 1909
A. V. Dockery, a lifelong angler who had served fourteen years as an American consul in Germany, Portugal and England, wrote this guide to fishing in North Carolina. He splits the state's waters into mountain, middle and tidewater sections, then takes up black bass, trout, pike, perch, catfish and sea fishes, along with fish ponds, tackle, bait, turtles and frogs. Published in Raleigh in 1909; 176 pages with illustrations.
Call number NC 799 DOC View in OCPL catalog → -
Carolina Sports by Land and Water: Including Incidents of Devil-fishing, Wild-cat, Deer and Bear Hunting, Etc
Elliott, William · 1859
Hunting and fishing sketches from the South Carolina Lowcountry by William Elliott of Beaufort, taking in devil-fishing and the pursuit of wildcat, deer and bear; several had appeared earlier under the pen names Piscator and Venator. First published in 1846, it is here in the New York edition of 1859 from Derby and Jackson, 292 pages with plates. A London edition followed in 1867.
Call number NC 799.1 ELL View in OCPL catalog →
Research help, online and in the room
