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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 →

Cooking and the home 640 to 649: 8 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 →

Fiction F: 7 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.

  • North Carolina Sketches: Phases of Life Where the Galax Grows Carter, Mary Nelson · 1900

    Fictional sketches of North Carolina life by Mary Nelson Carter, published in Chicago by McClurg in 1900, 313 pages. The subtitle's galax is an evergreen plant of the southern mountains.

    Call number NC F CARTER View in OCPL catalog →
  • Christmas in Hillsborough Craig-Scott, Ellen J. · 1973

    Ellen J. Craig-Scott's short Christmas story about a woman teacher and a courtship in Hillsborough. Published by Carlton Press of New York in 1973 as a Geneva book, twenty five pages. Part of the Wall Local History Collection.

    Call number NC F CRAIG View in OCPL catalog →
  • Hillsborough's Haunted House and Aunt Mary's Adoption Craig-Scott, Ellen J. · 1974

    A short work of fiction by Ellen J. Craig-Scott set in Hillsborough, joining two tales, a haunted house and an adoption, as its title says. Published by Carlton Press in New York in 1974, 35 pages.

    Call number NC F CRAIG View in OCPL catalog →
  • The Silver Buckle: A Story of the Revolutionary Days Crumpton, M. Nataline · 1899

    A tale of the Revolutionary War by M. Nataline Crumpton, illustrated by Cornelia E. Bedford and published in Philadelphia by H. Altemus in 1899; 89 pages, on four microfiche cards.

    Call number NC F CRUMPTON View in OCPL catalog →
  • Land of Nod: And Other Stories Green, Paul · 1976

    Thirteen short stories by Paul Green, among them 'Fine Wagon', 'Love at the Hanging' and 'Supper for the Dead', published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1976; 153 pages. Green, born in Harnett County in 1894, won the 1927 Pulitzer Prize for drama and studied, then taught for more than twenty years, at the university in Chapel Hill, where he is buried.

    Call number F GREEN View in OCPL catalog →
  • John Eax and Mamelon; Or, The South Without the Shadow Tourgée, Albion Winegar · 1882

    Two stories by Albion W. Tourgée, the Union veteran who settled in Greensboro after the Civil War, served as a superior court judge from 1868 to 1874 and left the state in 1881. His preface offers them as pictures of Southern life apart from the shadow of slavery, with love and friendship bridging North and South. Published in New York by Fords, Howard and Hulbert in 1882; 300 pages.

    Call number NC F TOURGEE View in OCPL catalog →
  • Alamance; Or, The Great and Final Experiment Wiley, Calvin Henderson · 1870

    Calvin Henderson Wiley, the Guilford County lawyer who in 1853 became North Carolina's first superintendent of common schools, wrote this historical romance of the state in the Revolutionary era; it first appeared in 1847, and his second such novel, 'Roanoke', followed in 1849. Both draw on North Carolina traditions and legends. This Harper & Brothers printing is dated 1870; 151 pages.

    Call number NC F WILEY 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