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.
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.
Reference and bibliography REF, 000 to 099: 21 titles as they stand on the shelf at OCPL, in call-number order. Reference bookshelf, E-2: 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 →
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