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.
History elsewhere 900 to 969, 980 to 999: 3 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.
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Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources From Artifacts to Cyberspace
Mills, Elizabeth Shown · 2024
Elizabeth Shown Mills's manual for citing historical sources and weighing the evidence they hold, first published in 2007 and here in its fourth edition of 2024. It supplies citation models for kinds of material that general guides such as the Chicago Manual of Style leave out, from courthouse and church papers to microfilm and digital, audio and video sources, and explains how each kind of source came into being so its reliability can be judged.
Call number NC 907.2 MILLS View in OCPL catalog → -
Our Heroes of World War II
Freeman, Hazel · 1993
Hazel Freeman and Emma Goodwin's register of Anson County, North Carolina, people who served in World War II, illustrated with portraits; published in Charlotte in 1993, 356 pages.
Call number NC 940.373 FRE View in OCPL catalog → -
Witnesses to the Horror: North Carolinians Remember the Holocaust
White, Cecile Homes · 1987
Cecile Holmes White gathers the accounts of North Carolinians who witnessed the Holocaust, among them survivors who later made their homes in the state, illustrated with portraits. Published in 1987 in cooperation with the North Carolina Council on the Holocaust; 139 pages with a bibliography.
Call number NC 940.53 WHI View in OCPL catalog →
Research help, online and in the room
