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.
Browse this shelf → -
Genealogy bookshelf, D-3
More about Rebecca Wall.
Browse this shelf → -
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.
Fiction F: 16 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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Regulated for Murder
Adair, Suzanne · 2011 · Fiction
Suzanne Adair's 2011 mystery, one of her Michael Stoddard novels, set in Hillsborough during the Southern campaign of the American Revolution and written as a historical thriller. Adair is a North Carolina author.
Call number F ADAIRHillsboroughColonial Orange CountyLiterature & Publishing View in OCPL catalog → -
Fair-skinned Brunette With the Porcelain Shine
Bare, John · 2021 · Fiction
John Bare's mystery set in Chapel Hill. Lassie James is drinking at the Pig Farm Tavern one October night when Holly Pike, the woman who left him years earlier when they were about to marry and never explained, walks in; before he can settle his feelings she draws him into trouble involving fraud, corruption and a murder that he ends up investigating as an amateur. Published by Wisdom House Books of Chapel Hill in a first edition of 2021, 287 pages.
Call number F BAREChapel HillLaw, Courts & JusticeLiterature & Publishing View in OCPL catalog → -
Lookaway, Lookaway
Barnhardt, Wilton · 2013 · Fiction
Wilton Barnhardt's novel of a wealthy Charlotte family coming apart, following the parents and their adult children through the social life of the twenty-first-century South. Published by St. Martin's Press in 2013, 361 pages, in a large print edition. Topics include dysfunctional families, adult children and the upper class; the index also tags Chapel Hill.
Call number LP F BARNHARDNorth Carolina (statewide)Everyday Life & TraditionsLiterature & Publishing View in OCPL catalog → -
Lizzy, the Elizabeth Keckley Story
2023
A 2023 telling of the life of Elizabeth Keckley, the dressmaker who bought her freedom and later sewed for Mary Todd Lincoln in the White House. Keckley is a local subject because she was enslaved for several years in Hillsborough as a young woman.
Call number F C GEORGIHillsboroughBlack Life & Civil RightsThe Burwell School and the Burwell household View in OCPL catalog → -
Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker
Chiaverini, Jennifer · 2013 · Fiction
Jennifer Chiaverini's historical novel about Elizabeth Keckley, the formerly enslaved dressmaker who sewed for Mary Todd Lincoln and became her friend in the White House years. Published by Dutton in 2013, 356 pages, in a large print edition. Topics include first ladies, women dressmakers and female friendship. Keckley's years in Hillsborough give the book its Orange County connection.
Call number LP F CHIAVERIHillsboroughBlack Life & Civil RightsThe Burwell School and the Burwell household View in OCPL catalog → -
First Lady
Malone, Michael · 2001 · Fiction
Michael Malone's mystery novel of serial murders and police work in North Carolina. Malone lived in Hillsborough. The copy described is an advance reading copy marked not for sale, with a letter from Malone on mysteries at the front. Published by Sourcebooks Landmark in 2001, 432 pages.
Call number F MALNorth Carolina (statewide)Law, Courts & JusticeLiterature & Publishing View in OCPL catalog → -
Uncivil Seasons
Malone, Michael · 1983 · Fiction
Michael Malone's 1983 detective novel, the first of his Justin and Cuddy mysteries, published by Delacorte, 311 pages. Two police detectives investigate a murder in a small North Carolina city. Malone, a North Carolina author, made his home in Hillsborough.
Call number F MALONENorth Carolina (statewide)Law, Courts & JusticeLiterature & Publishing View in OCPL catalog → -
The Bridge
Marlette, Doug Nigel · 2001 · Fiction
Doug Marlette's autobiographical coming-of-age novel set in North Carolina, whose story involves a cartoonist, a grandmother and women in the labor movement. Marlette, himself a cartoonist, lived in Hillsborough. Published by HarperCollins in 2001, first edition, 388 pages.
Call number F MARLETTENorth Carolina (statewide)Literature & PublishingWork, Labor & Industry View in OCPL catalog → -
Another son of man
McLaurin, Tim · 2004 · Fiction
Tim McLaurin's 2004 novel set in Chapel Hill and eastern North Carolina, with death and hurricanes among its themes. 210 pages.
Call number F MCLAURINChapel HillLiterature & Publishing View in OCPL catalog → -
Cross & Sampson
Patterson, James · 2026 · Fiction
An Alex Cross thriller by James Patterson with Chapel Hill among its settings alongside Washington, D.C. Bombings, a kidnapping, a missing-persons investigation, terrorism and fathers and sons are its subjects; the Sampson of the title is Cross's longtime partner John Sampson. Published by Little, Brown in 2026.
Call number F PATTERSOChapel HillBlack Life & Civil RightsLaw, Courts & Justice View in OCPL catalog → -
Life Without Water
Peacock, Nancy · 1996 · Fiction
Nancy Peacock's novel, a coming-of-age story of a mother and daughter in a communal household during the Vietnam War years, with Chapel Hill among its settings. Published by Longstreet Press in 1996, 182 pages in a small format. Topics include historical fiction, mothers and daughters, communal living and North Carolina authors.
Call number F PEAChapel HillLiterature & Publishing View in OCPL catalog → -
On Agate Hill
Smith, Lee · 2006 · Fiction
Lee Smith's historical novel, told in diary form by an orphan girl on a plantation in Reconstruction North Carolina and following her into marriage and widowhood. Published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill in 2006 as a Shannon Ravenel book, 367 pages. Topics include diary fiction, orphans, plantations, teenage girls and Reconstruction. Smith lives in Hillsborough.
Call number F SMITHNorth Carolina (statewide)Farms & Rural LifeLiterature & 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
