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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Research computer with microfilm reader and scanner
Read and scan the microfilm here, and search Ancestry and other research sites.
-
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.
Browse this shelf → -
Genealogy bookshelf, D-3
More about Rebecca Wall.
Browse this shelf → -
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 → -
Reference bookshelf, E-2
Traditional general reference books, still valuable as comprehensive, authoritative sources.
Browse this shelf → -
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.
-
Framed print: the 1892 county map
George W. Tate’s 1892 map of Orange County.
-
Framed print: Hillsborough, County Down
Views of the Irish town the county seat is named for.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Framed print: the 1768 town plan
C. J. Sauthier’s 1768 map of the town of Hillsborough.
-
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.
-
Assorted maps
Maps of the county and the town.
-
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.
-
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 →
-
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.
Society, economy, politics and law 300 to 389: 126 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.
-
By Her Own Bootstraps: A Saga of Women in North Carolina
Coates, Albert · 1975
Albert Coates, who founded the University of North Carolina's Institute of Government, traces how North Carolina women gained legal and civic standing, with attention to figures such as Chapel Hill's Cornelia Phillips Spencer, Sallie Southall Cotten, Ellen Winston and Susie Sharp. Privately printed at Chapel Hill in 1975; 231 illustrated pages.
Call number NC 301.4756 COA View in OCPL catalog → -
North Carolina's Demographic Transformation: The Impact of Race and Immigration
Andrews, Louis · 2004 Foundational
Louis Andrews and George McDaniel examine how immigration and race were changing North Carolina's population in this 66-page paper with maps, charts and references, the fourth of the occasional papers of Representative Government Press of Raleigh, 2004.
Call number NC 304.837 ANDREWS View in OCPL catalog → -
Wouldn't Take Nothin' for My Journey Now
Lauterer, Jock · 1980
A pictorial book on older North Carolinians by Jock Lauterer, published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1980; 167 illustrated pages.
Call number NC 305.26 LAU View in OCPL catalog → -
Don't Send Me Flowers When I'm Dead: Voices of Rural Elderly
Salber, Eva J. · 1983
Interviews with elderly country people in North Carolina, many of them farmers and some of them single, gathered by Eva J. Salber. Duke University Press published the collection in 1983: 145 pages of text with 30 pages of plates.
Call number NC 305.26 SAL View in OCPL catalog → -
Seniors 90-100+ and Their Families: What Keeps Them Going. Volume 1
Wilson, Doris M. · 2012
Interviews with men and women in their nineties and past one hundred, and with their families, about the attitudes, experience and wisdom that have carried them into late old age, gathered by Doris M. Wilson. Published in Chapel Hill in 2012 as the first volume; 317 pages, illustrated, with an index.
Call number NC 305.262 WILSON View in OCPL catalog → -
First Women of Orange County: Women's History Month Project, 1993-1994
1994 Start here
A Women's History Month project of 1993 and 1994 from the Orange County Women's History Month Committee, profiling women who were firsts in the county. Published in Chapel Hill in 1994, 13 pages plus unnumbered leaves with illustrations, facsimiles and portraits.
Call number NC 305.409 FIR View in OCPL catalog → -
Southern Women in Revolution, 1776-1800: Personal and Political Narratives
Kierner, Cynthia A. · 1998
Cynthia A. Kierner prints and interprets 98 petitions that women sent to the legislatures of North and South Carolina between 1776 and 1800. Soldiers' widows sought back pay, wives of banished loyalists asked that their husbands be let home, deserted wives wanted separate estates, and freed Black women sought recognition of their freedom. An essay opens each of five chapters, and closing lists sort each state's petitions by subject. University of South Carolina Press, 1998.
Call number NC 305.409 KIE View in OCPL catalog → -
Where My Feet Have Taken Me: A Collection of Short Stories by Women and Girls Living in Orange County, NC
2005 Foundational
A collection of short stories written by women and girls living in Orange County, N.C., published in 2005 for Women's History Month.
Call number NC 305.409 WHE View in OCPL catalog → -
North Carolina Planters and Their Children, 1800-1860
Censer, Jane Turner · 1984 Foundational
Family life among North Carolina's planters from 1800 to 1860, parents and children alike, in a social history by Jane Turner Censer. Louisiana State University Press published it in 1984: 191 pages with two maps, a bibliography of 25 pages and an index.
Call number NC 305.523 CEN View in OCPL catalog → -
Race and Politics in North Carolina, 1872-1901: The Black Second
Anderson, Eric · 1981 Foundational
Eric Anderson's political history of North Carolina's Second Congressional District, the Black Second, from 1872 to 1901. The district, where most counties had Black majorities, sent four Black Republicans to Congress: John A. Hyman, James E. O'Hara, Henry P. Cheatham and George H. White, who left in 1901 after the state's disfranchisement amendment of 1900. Louisiana State University Press published the study in 1981, with a bibliography and an index.
Call number NC 305.896 AND View in OCPL catalog → -
Upbuilding Black Durham: Gender, Class, and Black Community Development in the Jim Crow South
Brown, Leslie · 2008 Wider context
Leslie Brown's history of Black Durham, the community Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois both admired in the 1910s, from emancipation to the civil rights era. Drawing on interviews and family stories, Brown puts African American women at the center and argues that conflicts of gender and class among Black Durhamites fed their activism. UNC Press, 2008, in the John Hope Franklin series; 451 pages with maps.
Call number NC 305.896 BRO View in OCPL catalog → -
Like A Family: The Making of A Southern Cotton Mill World
1987 Wider context
Jacquelyn Dowd Hall of UNC Chapel Hill, a historian of Southern labor and a champion of oral history sources, wrote this history of the Southern cotton mill world, its factories, workers and mill communities, with five co-authors: Christopher Daly, Lu Ann Jones, Robert R. Korstad, James Leloudis and Mary Murphy. UNC Press published it in 1987; Norton reissued it in 1989 and UNC Press in 2000, with a foreword by Michael Frisch.
Call number NC 305.967 LIK View in OCPL catalog →
Research help, online and in the room
