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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 →

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.

  • 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

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