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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 →

No call number on record: 29 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 →

Genealogy bookshelf, D-2: 212 titles as they stand on the shelf at OCPL, in call-number order. 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.

  • Anti-slavery Leaders of North Carolina Bassett, John Spencer · 1971

    John Spencer Bassett's study of North Carolinians who opposed slavery, first issued in 1898 in the Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science. An opening chapter on the western counties and the Quakers of Guilford and Randolph is followed by sketches of Hinton Rowan Helper, Daniel Reaves Goodloe, Eli Washington Caruthers, Lunsford Lane, and Benjamin Sherwood Hedrick, the Chapel Hill chemistry professor dismissed in 1856 for supporting Frémont. Reprinted in 1971, 74 pages.

    Call number NC 920 BAS View in OCPL catalog →
  • Ante-bellum Builders of North Carolina Connor, R. D. W. · 1971

    Four men who shaped North Carolina before the Civil War are the subjects of these lectures by R. D. W. Connor: Archibald Murphey and his plans for schools and internal improvements, David Swain and the constitutional reform of 1835, Calvin Wiley and the common schools, and John Morehead and the railroads. Delivered and published in 1914 at the State Normal and Industrial College; reprinted in 1971 from the 1930 edition, 123 pages.

    Call number NC 920 CON View in OCPL catalog →
  • Revolutionary Leaders of North Carolina Connor, R. D. W. · 1971

    Lectures on North Carolina's Revolutionary generation that R. D. W. Connor gave at the State Normal and Industrial College in the spring of 1913. A survey of the colony and state from 1765 to 1790 is followed by studies of four leaders: John Harvey, Cornelius Harnett, Richard Caswell and Samuel Johnston. Published in 1916 as the college's Historical Publications no. 2; reprinted in 1971, 125 pages.

    Call number NC 920 CON View in OCPL catalog →
  • Presidents North Carolina Gave the Nation: [Addresses and Papers in Connection With the Unveiling of A Monument to the Three Presidents North Carolina Gave the Nation Daniels, Josephus · 1949

    Speeches and papers from the dedication on October 19, 1948, of the monument on the State Capitol grounds in Raleigh to Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk and Andrew Johnson, the three presidents North Carolina claims as native sons. President Harry S. Truman gave the main address, and Charles Keck sculpted the figures. Contributors include Josephus Daniels and Willis Smith. Printed in Raleigh in 1949 for the state memorial commission, 61 pages with portraits.

    Call number NC 920 DAN View in OCPL catalog →
  • Some Pioneer Women Teachers of North Carolina Delta Kappa Gamma Society · 1955

    Sketches of women who taught in North Carolina, compiled by the Committee on Pioneer Women in Education of the state organization of Delta Kappa Gamma, the honor society for women educators, with Cordelia Camp among the compilers. Drafts submitted for it covered teachers such as Viola Boddie and Dr. Anna M. Gove, a physician on the early faculty of the State Normal and Industrial School. Published by the society in 1955, 213 pages with frontispieces.

    Call number NC 920 DEL View in OCPL catalog →
  • Sketches of Prominent Living North Carolinians Dowd, Jerome · 1888

    Jerome Dowd's sketches of North Carolinians prominent in 1888, beginning with a political section that opens on Senator Matt W. Ransom. His preface says he set out to give the main facts of each life plainly, and admits that a few sketches, among them those of A. M. Waddell and T. J. Jarvis, came from other writers he left unnamed. Printed in Raleigh by Edwards and Broughton, 320 pages with illustrations and an index.

    Call number NC 920 DOW View in OCPL catalog →
  • Tar Heel Writers I Know Hoyle, Bernadette · 1956

    Journalist and photographer Bernadette Hoyle profiles thirty-five North Carolina authors of the day, among them Paul Green, Jonathan Daniels, Wilma Dykeman, Bernice Kelly Harris, Frances Gray Patton, Manly Wade Wellman and Tom Wicker. The profiles draw on autobiographical sketches the writers sent her, some touching on how they work. Illustrated with her own informal photographs; published in Winston-Salem by John F. Blair in 1956, 215 pages.

    Call number NC 920 HOY View in OCPL catalog →
  • The First Ladies of North Carolina Moore, Jeanelle Coulter · 1981

    Short biographies of North Carolina's first ladies by Jeanelle Coulter Moore, herself first lady from 1965 to 1969, and Grace Rutledge Hamrick. It treats the governors' wives from 1776 to 1889 and then each first lady who lived in the present Executive Mansion through 1981. Published in 1981 by the Executive Mansion Fine Arts Committee, which Moore created, with the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation and the Bicentennial Foundation; 86 pages with portraits.

    Call number NC 920 MOO View in OCPL catalog →
  • My Folks Don't Want Me to Talk About Slavery: Twenty-one Oral Histories of Former North Carolina Slaves 1984

    Twenty-one narratives by formerly enslaved North Carolinians, chosen by Belinda Hurmence for their quality and published by John F. Blair of Winston-Salem in 1984; 103 pages with a bibliography. Hurmence later combined them with South Carolina accounts in 'Before Freedom: 48 Oral Histories of Former North and South Carolina Slaves' (1990).

    Call number NC 920 MY View in OCPL catalog →
  • 100 Years, 100 Men, 1871-1971 Trawick, Gary Evans · 1971

    Edwards & Broughton, the Raleigh printing house founded in 1871 by C. B. Edwards and Needham B. Broughton, marked its centennial with this book, pairing a history of the firm with sketches of one hundred North Carolina men of the century since. Christopher Crittenden, William S. Powell and Robert H. Woody edited it; Gary Trawick and Paul Wyche wrote the biographies. Published in 1971, 448 pages with portraits and an endpaper map.

    Call number NC 920 ONE View in OCPL catalog →
  • Lives of Distinguished North Carolinians: With Illustrations and Speeches Peele, W. J. · 1898

    Fifteen biographical sketches of North Carolina leaders from the Revolution to the Civil War, by various writers, collected by W. J. Peele with portraits and speeches. Subjects include William R. Davie, Nathaniel Macon, William Gaston, Thomas Ruffin, Hillsborough's William A. Graham, and David L. Swain, whose sketch is by Zebulon B. Vance, along with the Confederate generals Pettigrew, Pender, Ramseur, Grimes and D. H. Hill. Raleigh, 1898; 605 pages.

    Call number NC 920 PEE View in OCPL catalog →
  • Tar Heel Women Rogers, Lou · 1949

    Biographical sketches of North Carolina women by Lou Rogers, published in Raleigh by the Warren Publishing Company in 1949; xiv and 284 pages with portraits.

    Call number NC 920 ROG 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