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.
Other states and regions 974 to 979: 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.
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The Last Chivaree: The Hicks Family of Beech Mountain
Isbell, Robert · 1996
Robert Isbell's portrait of the Hicks family of Beech Mountain and its music and storytelling, drawn mostly from the recollections of the Jack tale teller Ray Hicks. It runs from ancestors who arrived in the late 1700s to Ray's parents, Nathan and Rena, and their ten children, in the years before paved roads and power lines reached the mountain. UNC Press, 1996; 174 pages, with a foreword by Wilma Dykeman.
Call number NC 974 ISB View in OCPL catalog → -
Black Americans in North Carolina and the South
1984
Jeffrey J. Crow and Flora J. Hatley edited these essays on the history of Black Americans in North Carolina and the wider South, with bibliographies and an index. The University of North Carolina Press published the collection in 1984; 200 pages.
Call number NC 975.004 BLA View in OCPL catalog → -
Cherokee Heritage Trails Guidebook
Duncan, Barbara R. · 2003
A travel guide to Cherokee places in the mountains where North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia meet, by Barbara R. Duncan and Brett H. Riggs, arranged around seven hub communities in the old Cherokee homeland. Chapters cover sites, scenic drives, side trips and events, with Cherokee stories, history and poems throughout; stops include the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, Kituhwa Mound, the Junaluska Memorial and the Unicoi Turnpike Trail. UNC Press, 2003; 368 pages with color maps.
Call number NC 975.004 DUN View in OCPL catalog → -
Marriages of Goochland County, Virginia, 1733-1815
Williams, Kathleen Booth · 1986
Kathleen Booth Williams gathered Goochland County, Virginia, marriages of 1733 to 1815 in this work, first issued in 1960 and later reprinted by Genealogical Publishing Company of Baltimore; this printing is dated 1986. It has 148 pages with charts and indexes. Goochland was formed from Henrico in 1728 and at first reached west to the Blue Ridge.
Call number NC 975.375 WIL View in OCPL catalog → -
The Story of Virginia's First Century: With Bibliography
Stanard, Mary Newton · 2005
Mary Newton Stanard's history of Virginia from the Jamestown settlement of 1607 to the close of the seventeenth century, first published by J. B. Lippincott in 1928. This 400th anniversary edition, printed in 2005 by Thompson-Shore of Dexter, Michigan, runs to 406 pages with illustrations, portraits, a facsimile, a bibliography and an index. Stanard, a Richmond historian, also wrote 'Colonial Virginia: Its People and Customs' (1917).
Call number NC 975.5 STA View in OCPL catalog → -
The Great Dismal: A Carolinian's Swamp Memoir
Simpson, Bland · 1990
Bland Simpson, who grew up in Elizabeth City near the Albemarle Sound, mixes his own memories with travel through the swamp, the recollections of people who live around it, and natural history in this book on the Great Dismal Swamp of North Carolina and Virginia. Published by UNC Press in 1990 and reissued in 1993 and 1998; 185 pages with illustrations, a bibliography and an index.
Call number 975.552 SIM View in OCPL catalog → -
Weird Carolinas : your Travel Guide to the Carolinas' Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets
Manley, Roger · 2007
Roger Manley's illustrated guide to the strange side of North and South Carolina: local legends and ancient mysteries, UFOs and bizarre beasts, ghosts and cemeteries, local heroes and villains, roadside oddities, the handmade worlds of self-taught artists, and abandoned places. Published in New York by Sterling in 2007; 253 pages, mostly in color, with an index.
Call number NC 975.75 MAN View in OCPL catalog →
Research help, online and in the room
