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.
Browse this shelf → -
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.
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 →
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Libba: The Magnificent Musical Life of Elizabeth Cotten
Veirs, Laura · 2018 · Juvenile literature
Laura Veirs's picture book biography of Elizabeth Cotten, the folk singer and guitarist who grew up near Carrboro and Chapel Hill and wrote Freight Train as a girl. Written for young readers, it was published by Chronicle Books in 2018. Topics include African American women singers and singers of the United States in juvenile literature.
Call number JBIO COTTEN VEICarrboroArts, Music & PerformanceBlack Life & Civil Rights View in OCPL catalog → -
Tony Jenzano, Astronaut Trainer: The Man Who Made the Stars Shine
Neece, Michael G. · 2020 · Juvenile literature
A picture book for children about Tony Jenzano, 1919 to 1997, the Morehead Planetarium director who trained the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo astronauts in celestial navigation at Chapel Hill. Michael G. Neece's account, published in Chapel Hill in 2020, covers astronaut training, the teaching of astronomy and the planetarium itself for young readers.
Call number JBIO JENZANO NEEChapel HillLiterature & PublishingUNC & Campus Life View in OCPL catalog → -
Stitch by Stitch
Schofield-Morrison, Connie · 2021
Connie Schofield-Morrison's 2021 account of Elizabeth Keckley, who was born into slavery, learned to sew, purchased her freedom and became dressmaker to Mary Todd Lincoln. The Orange County tie is her years of enslavement in Hillsborough as a young woman.
Call number JBIO KECKLEY SCHHillsboroughBlack Life & Civil RightsThe Burwell School and the Burwell household View in OCPL catalog → -
Chapel Hill magazine.
2006 · Periodicals
Chapel Hill Magazine began publication in the town in 2006, a general interest periodical covering community life and social life and customs in Chapel Hill along with Carrboro and Orange County. Issued in volumes with illustrations at 28 cm, it carries the county's recent decades in magazine form for local readers.
Call number PER CHAPELCarrboroEveryday Life & Traditions View in OCPL catalog → -
Bill Neal's Southern Cooking
Neal, Bill · 1985
Bill Neal's cookbook of Southern dishes, published by UNC Press in 1985. Neal was a Chapel Hill chef, and the book sets out his approach to the region's cooking. 233 pages, also issued as an electronic book.
Food, Drink & Local Culture View in OCPL catalog → -
Bloodmarked
Deonn, Tracy · 2022 · Fiction
Tracy Deonn's young adult fantasy novel set around the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Bree, an African American teenager with newly awakened powers she cannot yet control, learns that the leaders of the secret Order mean to hide the coming demon war, and she and her friends flee so that she can find her own training. Subjects include magic, secret societies, imaginary wars and psychic trauma. Published by Simon & Schuster in 2022, 561 pages.
Chapel HillBlack Life & Civil RightsUNC & Campus Life View in OCPL catalog → -
Bright and tender dark: a novel
Pearson, Joanna · 2024 · Fiction
Joanna Pearson's novel of a cold case at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Karlie Richards was a nineteen-year-old student when she was murdered; decades later her onetime roommate, divorced and in middle age, finds herself drawn back to the crime as online conspiracy theories about it multiply. A psychological thriller with a Chapel Hill setting, published by Bloomsbury in 2024, 275 pages.
Chapel HillLaw, Courts & JusticeSchools & Education View in OCPL catalog → -
Crabs and Oysters: A Savor the South Cookbook
Smith, Bill · 2015
Bill Smith's short cookbook on crabs and oysters, one of the Savor the South series of single-subject volumes from the University of North Carolina Press. Smith was the chef at Crook's Corner in Chapel Hill. An electronic edition appeared in 2015.
Food, Drink & Local Culture View in OCPL catalog → -
The Dynamic Decade
Godschalk, David R. ; Howes, Jonathan B. · 2012
David R. Godschalk and Jonathan B. Howes describe the ten-year building program that reshaped the UNC campus in Chapel Hill, when some six million square feet in new buildings went up and a million more of historic buildings were restored. Chapters treat the campus master plan, siting and design decisions, the historic north campus, the southeast and health-sciences precincts and the planned Carolina North research campus, with contributions by chancellors James Moeser and Holden Thorp. Published by UNC Press in 2012, 175 pages.
Chapel HillBuildings & PreservationGrowth, Land & Planning View in OCPL catalog → -
Hark the Sound of Tar Heel Voices
Barefoot, Daniel W. · 2008 · Histories
Daniel W. Barefoot arranges first-hand recollections of the University of North Carolina by decade, from the 'infant university' of the 1790s through the Civil War years when promise turned to despair, the rebuilding of the 1870s, the 'frosh' life of the 1880s, wartime fame in the 1940s, the controversies of the 1960s and the bicentennial of the 1990s. Thomas Wolfe's student years appear among the voices. Published by John F. Blair of Winston-Salem in 2008, 257 pages.
Libraries, Archives & Public MemoryLiterature & Publishing View in OCPL catalog → -
Hillsborough Recorder
Newspapers
The Hillsborough Recorder was the town's long running weekly newspaper, begun in 1820 by the printer Dennis Heartt, whose shop also produced many of the Hillsborough imprints of that period.
The Hillsborough Recorder begins publication, 1820 View in OCPL catalog → -
Just Listen
Dessen, Sarah · 2006 · Fiction
Sarah Dessen's young adult novel about Annabel, a sixteen-year-old whose friends have turned away from her after a party, and Owen, a classmate whose love of music helps her tell the truth about what happened. Topics include high schools, family problems, models and teenage girls. Published by Viking in 2006, 371 pages. Dessen lives in Chapel Hill.
Families, Land & GenealogyLiterature & Publishing 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.
County and state records: deeds, wills, censuses 929.3: 199 titles as they stand on the shelf at OCPL, in call-number order. Genealogy bookshelf, D-1: Historical records of many kinds, color-coded and labeled by county and by record type, with books on how to do genealogical research. Many neighbouring counties were formed from land that was once Orange County, so a family’s records may be housed in more than one county; items that need special care are more likely to be at the State Archives of North Carolina in Raleigh.
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Marriage and Death Notices in Raleigh Register and North Carolina State Gazette, 1826-1845
Broughton, Carrie L. · 1968
Carrie L. Broughton compiled these marriage and death notices from the Raleigh Register and North Carolina State Gazette, 1826 to 1845, as one part of a series for the North Carolina State Library that eventually covered Raleigh newspapers from 1799 to 1893. The State Library first issued this part as a bulletin in 1947; reprinted in 1968, 402 pages.
Call number NC 929.3 BRO View in OCPL catalog → -
North and South Carolina Marriage Records: From the Earliest Colonial Days to the Civil War
Clemens, William Montgomery · 1927
Marriages in the two Carolinas from early colonial times to the Civil War, compiled and edited by William Montgomery Clemens and published in New York by E. P. Dutton in 1927; x and 295 pages. Genealogical Publishing Company reprinted it in 1973 and 1981.
Call number NC 929.3 CLE View in OCPL catalog → -
Calendar of Sussex County, Delaware, Probate Records, 1680-1800
Delaware · 1993
Probate records of Sussex County, Delaware, from 1680 to 1800, calendared by Leon DeValinger Jr., the state archivist, for Delaware's Public Archives Commission. First issued in 1964 and reprinted by Heritage Books of Bowie, Maryland, in 1993; 310 and 87 pages, with an index.
Call number NC 929.3 DEL View in OCPL catalog → -
North Carolina Court of Claims Record of Patents Granted (Secretary of State's Papers): 1740-1775
Haun, Weynette Parks · 1996
The North Carolina Court of Claims record of land patents granted from 1740 to 1775, part of the Secretary of State's papers, in a first edition prepared by Weynette Parks Haun and published in Durham in 1996; xxi and 252 pages with an index.
Call number NC 929.3 HAU View in OCPL catalog → -
An Index of African Americans Identified in Selected Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands
Lawson, Jacqueline E. A. · 2008
Jacqueline A. Lawson's three indexes to freedpeople named in Freedmen's Bureau correspondence of 1865 to 1872: those named in individual letters, with date, place, a note on the contents and where to find the original; those on longer lists such as petitions, reports and affidavits; and nearly 1,200 people sent from Washington, D.C., to jobs under Bureau contracts, with age, wage and destination. First published in 1995; reprinted in 2008.
Call number NC 929.3 LAWSON View in OCPL catalog → -
Tyrrell Branches
2020
Armstrong family history from Tyrrell County, excerpted from a forthcoming book titled 'Coastal Shore Armstrongs' and issued in 2020 by the Tyrrell County Genealogical and Historical Society as volume 15 of its series.
Call number NC 929.3 TYRRELL View in OCPL catalog → -
An Alphabetical Index to Ulster Emigration to Philadelphia, 1803-1850
Adams, Raymond D. · 1992
Raymond D. Adams's alphabetical index of emigrants who left Ulster for Philadelphia between 1803 and 1850, gathered from a variety of Irish records. First published in 1992 and reissued by Clearfield of Baltimore; vii, 102 pages.
Call number NC 929.308 ADAMS View in OCPL catalog → -
In Full Force and Virtue: North Carolina Emancipation Records, 1713-1860
Byrd, William L. · 2007 Foundational
Emancipation records from North Carolina, 1713 to 1860: William L. Byrd III gathers the documents by which enslaved people were freed, a source for the genealogy of the state's free people of color. Facsimiles of original documents are included, with a bibliography and an index. Heritage Books first issued the collection in 1999; this printing dates from 2007, 358 pages.
Call number NC 929.308 BYRD View in OCPL catalog → -
The Original Scots Colonists of Early America, 1612-1783
Dobson, David · 1989
David Dobson's register of Scots who went to the American colonies and the Caribbean between 1612 and 1783, compiled entirely from sources in Britain: testaments and estate papers, burgh, sasine and court books, port and customs books, church and university registers, newspapers, gravestones and the Register of Emigrants of 1774 to 1775. Genealogical Publishing Company, 1989; 370 pages with a bibliography. Dobson later added a supplement for 1607 to 1707.
Call number NC 929.308 DOB View in OCPL catalog → -
Free African Americans of North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina From the Colonial Period to About 1820
Heinegg, Paul · 2001
Paul Heinegg's family-by-family histories of free African Americans in North Carolina, Virginia and South Carolina, traced from colonial times to about 1820 through county court minutes, tax lists, wills, deeds, marriage bonds, registers of free people of color and Revolutionary War pension files. This fourth edition of 2001 adds South Carolina to the 1997 third edition, which covered North Carolina and Virginia; two volumes, 1,042 pages, with a bibliography and index.
Call number NC 929.308 HEI View in OCPL catalog → -
North Carolina Freedman's Savings & Trust Company Records
1992 Wider context
North Carolina records of the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company, the bank Congress chartered in March 1865 for formerly enslaved people, which failed in 1874. Its depositor files make up one of the largest bodies of family information on African Americans of the Reconstruction years. Bill Reaves made the abstracts and Beverly Tetterton edited them for the North Carolina Genealogical Society, which published the book in Raleigh in 1992; 588 pages with a map.
Call number NC 929.308 NOR View in OCPL catalog → -
Marriages in Contentnea Quarterly Meeting of Friends, North Carolina Yearly Meeting, 1737-1891
Perkins, Theodore Edison · 1988
Quaker marriages from 1737 to 1891 in the meetings of Contentnea Quarter, the part of North Carolina Yearly Meeting whose monthly meetings lay in Wayne, Sampson and nearby eastern counties, researched and compiled by Theodore Edison Perkins. The Guilford County Genealogical Society published the compilation in Greensboro in 1988; 559 pages with illustrations and an index.
Call number NC 929.308 PER View in OCPL catalog →
Research help, online and in the room
