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.
Sports and recreation 790 to 799: 9 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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Cheated
Smith, Jay M. · 2015
Jay M. Smith and Mary Willingham's 2015 account of the academic fraud scandal at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in which athletes were steered into no-show 'paper classes'. Chapters follow the fraud, the cover-up and the university's response, then place the case in the wider NCAA system. Subjects include cheating in education and college sports, corrupt practices, Chapel Hill.
Call number 796.043 SMITHChapel HillCarolina SportsSchools & Education View in OCPL catalog → -
To Hate Like This Is to Be Happy Forever
Blythe, Will · 2006 · Histories
Will Blythe's account of the Duke and North Carolina basketball rivalry, described in its subtitle as thoroughly obsessive, intermittently uplifting and occasionally unbiased. Blythe writes as a Chapel Hill partisan, and the book treats sports rivalries, basketball fans and the social side of the game in North Carolina. Published by HarperCollins in New York in 2006, first edition, 357 pages.
Call number 796.323 BLYNorth Carolina (statewide)Carolina SportsLiterature & Publishing View in OCPL catalog → -
Blue Blood
Chansky, Art · 2005 · Histories
Fifty years of the Duke and North Carolina basketball rivalry, as told by Art Chansky and published by Thomas Dunne Books in 2005. Chapters run from the 'Legend of Tobacco Road' through 'Dominate, then integrate', 'Blue blood bitterness' and 'Fall of an empire' to a postscript on the twenty-first century, with attention to the brawls and controversies that fed the feud. 373 pages with sixteen pages of plates.
Call number 796.323 CHANorth Carolina (statewide)Carolina SportsLiterature & Publishing View in OCPL catalog → -
The Dean's List
Chansky, Art · 1996 · Biography
Art Chansky's celebration of Tar Heel basketball and Dean Smith, published in 1996 as Smith neared the end of his coaching career at the University of North Carolina. The Tar Heels and the university's basketball history are its subjects. Published by Warner Books in New York, 152 pages with illustrations, some in color, in a large format.
Call number 796.323 CHANorth Carolina (statewide)Carolina SportsUNC & Campus Life View in OCPL catalog → -
Blue Blood II
Chansky, Art · 2018 · Histories
A sequel to Art Chansky's 2005 Blue Blood, continuing the story of the Duke and North Carolina basketball rivalry through the years since that book appeared. Published by St. Martin's Press in 2018. First edition, 296 pages with color illustrations.
Call number 796.323 CHANSKYNorth Carolina (statewide)Carolina SportsLiterature & Publishing View in OCPL catalog → -
Game Changers
Chansky, Art · 2016 · Histories
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 CHANSKYChapel HillBlack Life & Civil RightsCarolina Sports View in OCPL catalog → -
The Legends Club
Feinstein, John · 2016 · Biography
John Feinstein's account of the three coaches who defined Triangle college basketball in the 1980s: Dean Smith (1931-2015) at North Carolina, Mike Krzyzewski at Duke and Jim Valvano (1946-1993) at N.C. State, all working within a few miles of one another. Feinstein follows the recruiting contests, the rivalry among the three programs and the personal competition among the three men, which was not always friendly, and the pressure that came with national attention. Published by Doubleday in 2016, 404 pages with plates.
Call number 796.323 FEINSTEINorth Carolina (statewide)Carolina SportsUNC & Campus Life View in OCPL catalog → -
Three Paths to Glory
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 JACNorth Carolina (statewide)Carolina SportsUNC & Campus Life View in OCPL catalog → -
Carolina Basketball: A Century of Excellence
Lucas, Adam · 2010 · Histories
Adam Lucas marks one hundred years of basketball at the University of North Carolina in this illustrated history, published by UNC Press in 2010 in association with the athletics department. Chapters follow the program from the game's arrival on campus and the 'White Phantoms' of the Southern Conference through the founding of the ACC, the 1957 season, Dean Smith's changes to the game and the title seasons of 1982, 1993, 2005 and 2009, closing with a century of statistics. 289 pages.
Call number 796.323 LUCASChapel HillCarolina SportsUNC & Campus Life 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.
Reference bookshelf, E-2: 21 titles as they stand on the shelf at OCPL, in call-number order. Traditional general reference books, still valuable as comprehensive, authoritative sources.
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Guide to Reference in Genealogy and Biography
2015
A guide to print and online reference sources for family historians and the librarians who help them, edited by Mary K. Mannix, Fred Burchsted and Jo Bell Whitlatch. The genealogy part goes region by region, then covers heraldry, names, and African American, Hispanic, Jewish, Native American and Quaker research; the biography part surveys sources for each region of the world. ALA Editions, 2015; xiii, 372 pages with an index.
Call number NC 016.929 GUIDE View in OCPL catalog → -
The American Census Handbook
Kemp, Thomas Jay · 2001
Thomas Jay Kemp's handbook to thousands of census indexes for the United States, in print and online, from federal schedules to state, county and town enumerations. The entries are arranged by census year, by place and by topic. Published by Scholarly Resources in 2001, 517 pages.
Call number NC 016.929 KEM View in OCPL catalog → -
State Census Records
Lainhart, Ann S. · 1992
Ann S. Lainhart's guide to the censuses taken by individual states, telling what survives, where each set of returns is kept and what the enumerators wrote down. Coverage reaches as far as an 1879 count of the civilians of Sitka, Alaska, ordered by the post commander, Major John C. Tidball. Genealogical Publishing Company issued it in 1992; 116 pages with references.
Call number NC 016.929 LAINHART View in OCPL catalog → -
Guide to Private Manuscript Collections in the North Carolina State Archives
Cain, Barbara T. · 1981 Wider context
Private papers in the North Carolina State Archives at Raleigh are described in this guide, compiled by Barbara T. Cain, working with Ellen Z. McGrew and Charles E. Morris. The third revised edition of 1981 covers 1,640 collections of private papers, 186 microfilmed collections of papers, diaries and account books, and 480 account books received through 1978, plus some additions made to mid-1979. 706 pages with an index.
Call number NC 016.975 CAI View in OCPL catalog → -
Guide to County Records in the North Carolina State Archives
North Carolina · 2009 Wider context
The North Carolina State Archives' guide to the original and microfilmed county records in its care. This twelfth revised edition, issued in 2009 by the Office of Archives and History, is the first under the present title; earlier editions, going back at least to 1977, appeared as Section B: County Records of the Guide to Research Materials in the North Carolina State Archives. It runs to vi, 394 pages with a map and an index.
Call number NC 016.975 NORTH View in OCPL catalog → -
Local History Reference Collections for Public Libraries
Marquis, Kathy · 2015
Kathy Marquis and Leslie Waggener's handbook for public libraries starting a local history reference collection, built mostly from what a library already owns plus commonly published sources. Chapters take up how such a collection differs from an archive, collection policy, audiences, partner organizations, preservation, reference service, outreach and online collections; appendices include a survey form, the RUSA guidelines and a policy template. ALA Editions, 2015, in the Guides for the Busy Librarian series; 146 pages.
Call number NC 025.21 MARQUIS View in OCPL catalog → -
Helping Patrons Find Their Roots: A Genealogy Handbook for Librarians
Schultz, Janice Lindgren · 2018
A handbook for library staff who help patrons with family history, by Janice Lindgren Schultz. It moves from genealogy basics and the main kinds of records through published sources and advanced research, then turns to building a genealogy collection and training staff, so it can serve both to train newcomers and to manage a genealogy room. ALA Editions, 2018; 240 pages with bibliographies and an index.
Call number NC 025.5 SCHULTZ View in OCPL catalog → -
Creating A Local History Archive at your Public Library
Phillips, Faye · 2017
Faye Phillips's manual for public libraries starting a local history archive. Chapters cover defining and building the archive, writing its collection development policy, acquiring materials and making them accessible, and caring for them, with an eye to how the internet has changed access to such collections. Published in 2017 by ALA Editions in its series of guides for the busy librarian; 161 pages, illustrated.
Call number NC 026 PHILLIPS View in OCPL catalog → -
The History of Public Library Service in Durham, North Carolina 1897-1997
Harland-Jacobs, Jessica · 1998
A centennial account of Durham's public libraries from 1897 to 1997 by Jessica Harland-Jacobs, covering the county library and the separate Durham Colored Library. The Durham County Library published the 56-page history, with illustrations and source notes, in 1998.
Call number NC 027.475 HAR View in OCPL catalog → -
Stanford L. Warren Branch Library: 77 Years of Public Service
Jones, Beverly Washington · 1990
Durham's Stanford L. Warren Branch Library, which began as the Durham Colored Library and served the city's African American readers, in a history by Beverly Washington Jones covering seventy-seven years of service to 1990. Published that year by the Durham County Library; 134 pages with illustrations, portraits, notes and an index.
Call number NC 027.475 JON View in OCPL catalog → -
The State Library and Library Development in North Carolina
Mitchell, Thornton W. · 1983 Wider context
The North Carolina State Library and the state's work to build libraries, including that of the North Carolina Library Commission, are traced by Thornton W. Mitchell. The State Library began in 1812 as a collection for the legislature; the commission, set up in 1909 to foster public libraries, merged with it in 1955. Published by the Division of State Library in 1983, with a foreword and epilogue by David N. McKay; 164 pages.
Call number NC 027.575 MIT View in OCPL catalog → -
Libraries and Literature in North Carolina in the Eighteenth Century
Weeks, Stephen Beauregard · 1896 Wider context
First printed in the American Historical Association's annual report for 1895, Stephen B. Weeks's study of libraries and writing in eighteenth-century North Carolina fills pages 171 to 267 of that report and was issued separately by the Government Printing Office in 1896. It ends with a bibliography.
Call number NC 027.575 WEE View in OCPL catalog →
Research help, online and in the room
