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.
Children’s and young adult J, YA: 12 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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Goodnight Carolina
Fox, Missy Julian · 2012 · Fiction
A picture book for young children set in Chapel Hill and on the University of North Carolina campus, written by Missy Julian Fox and published in Carrboro by McDonald & Associates in 2012. Thirty pages with color illustrations in a wide 23 by 27 cm format.
Call number E FOXChapel HillUNC & Campus Life View in OCPL catalog → -
Planting Hope
Wilde, Susie; Gignoux, Peg · 2016
Planting Hope, a 2016 work by Susie Wilde and Peg Gignoux, associated with Carrboro.
Call number E PLANTING View in OCPL catalog → -
Bean Woman
Wynters, Criss · 2024 · Juvenile literature
Criss Wynters's children's book retelling an Occaneechi folk story, published in 2024. Its Orange County connection is the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, based in the northern part of the county.
Call number J 398.208 WYNTERSEveryday Life & TraditionsIndigenous Peoples & Archaeology View in OCPL catalog → -
University of North Carolina
Anderson, Josh · 2024 · Juvenile literature
Children's introduction to Tar Heel basketball by Josh Anderson, published by the Child's World in 2024. In 32 pages with color illustrations it covers the origins of the men's program and the women's program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the mascot, rivalries, well-known players and memorable games. 25 cm.
Call number J 796.323 ANDERSONCarolina SportsUNC & Campus Life View in OCPL catalog → -
Saving the Eno River
Thomson, Julie J. · 2023 · Juvenile literature
A short history for young readers of how the Eno River was kept free of a dam. The Eno rises in Orange County and runs through Hillsborough into Durham County. When Durham proposed a dam in the 1960s, Margaret Nygard (1925-1995) and her neighbors formed the Association for the Preservation of the Eno River Valley; Julie J. Thomson tells how they won Eno River State Park instead. Eno River Association, Durham, 2023; 25 illustrated pages.
Call number J 975.656 THOMSONEno RiverEno & EnvironmentLiterature & Publishing View in OCPL catalog → -
Poet: The Remarkable Story of George Moses Horton
Tate, Don · 2015 · Juvenile literature
Don Tate's picture-book biography of George Moses Horton (1798?-about 1880), the enslaved North Carolina poet who learned to read on his own, then to write, and saw his poems published while still held in bondage. For years Horton sold love poems to students at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and his freedom came only with the Civil War. First edition, 2015, 36 unnumbered pages with color illustrations by the author, for young readers.
Call number JB HORTON TATChapel HillBlack Life & Civil RightsLiterature & Publishing View in OCPL catalog → -
Freedom's Howl
Heyes, Eileen · 2025 · Fiction
A picture book set in the Eno River valley of Orange County in 1776. Four red wolf pups are born in a woodland den and spend their first summer and fall learning to hunt and howl with their family, while nearby a young widow, Sally Few, keeps her household going as the Revolution unsettles the countryside. Eileen Heyes wrote the story, published in 2025 by the North Carolina Office of Archives and History with color illustrations and maps, 42 pages.
Call number JF HEYESEno RiverColonial Orange CountyEno & Environment View in OCPL catalog → -
The Issue
2018 · Periodicals
Collection of collaborative writing and art from 2018, linking contributors in Hillsborough, North Carolina with others in Austin, Chicago and Portland. Subjects include artistic collaboration, literary and artistic creation, and cultural pluralism.
Call number YA 818 ISSUEHillsboroughLiterature & Publishing View in OCPL catalog → -
Oathbound
Deonn, Tracy · 2025 · Fiction
Third novel in Tracy Deonn's Legendborn series, young adult fantasy that began with a Black first-year student at UNC-Chapel Hill discovering a secret society descended from King Arthur's knights. In this 2025 installment Bree, cut off from the Order and from her ancestral magic, makes a pact with the Shadow King to sharpen her powers and shield her friends while the divided Round Table fights demons. Deonn is a North Carolina author. 650 pages; for readers 14 and up.
Call number YA F DEONNBlack Life & Civil RightsLiterature & Publishing View in OCPL catalog → -
Someone Like You
Dessen, Sarah · 1998 · Fiction
Sarah Dessen's second young adult novel, published by Viking in 1998, 281 pages. Dessen writes from Chapel Hill, and the story follows a girl through a junior year marked by a close friendship, a fatal accident, a teenage pregnancy and a first real romance.
Call number YA F DESSENLiterature & PublishingSchools & Education View in OCPL catalog → -
That Summer
Dessen, Sarah · 1996 · Fiction
Sarah Dessen's first novel, published by Orchard Books in 1996, 198 pages, a young adult story about a fifteen-year-old girl in the summer her father remarries and her sister marries. Dessen is a Chapel Hill writer, and the book was later a Battle of the Books selection for 2013 to 2014.
Call number YA F DESSENLiterature & Publishing View in OCPL catalog → -
This Lullaby
Dessen, Sarah · 2002 · Fiction
Sarah Dessen's fifth young adult novel, published by Viking in 2002, 345 pages. Remy, eighteen and the daughter of a much-married mother, has no faith in lasting romance until a musician in a rock band gets in the way. Dessen writes from Chapel Hill.
Call number YA F DESSENArts, Music & PerformanceFamilies, Land & Genealogy 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.
Other North Carolina counties and towns 975.61 to 975.69: 120 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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Legends of the Dunes of Dare
Albertson, Catherine · 1936
Catherine Albertson's booklet of legends from the sand dunes of Dare County on the Outer Banks. One gives the traditional version of how Theodosia Burr Alston, daughter of Aaron Burr and wife of South Carolina governor Joseph Alston, met her end after the schooner Patriot vanished at the start of 1813. This second edition was printed in Raleigh in 1936; 25 pages with four pages of plates.
Call number NC 975.61 ALB View in OCPL catalog → -
NC 12 Gateway To The Outer Banks
Carr, Dawson · 2016
North Carolina Highway 12, the road and ferry route that ties together the islands and peninsulas of the Outer Banks, and the tourism that grew along it over the past half century are the subject of Dawson Carr's history. He begins with the shifting sands and hard travel of earlier days and ends with a drive down the highway. University of North Carolina Press, 2016; 169 pages with illustrations.
Call number 975.61 CARR View in OCPL catalog → -
A Very Mutinous People: The Struggle for North Carolina, 1660-1713
McIlvenna, Noeleen · 2009
Noeleen McIlvenna's history of North Carolina's first decades, 1660 to 1713, centered on the small farmers of the Albemarle, their ideas of equality and their conflicts with landowners and the Anglican church. Part one follows the first generation from its escape into the swamp through Culpeper's Rebellion and the rise and fall of Seth Sothell; part two covers church establishment, Native American resistance and Cary's Rebellion. UNC Press, 2009; maps.
Call number NC 975.61 MCILVENN View in OCPL catalog → -
Three Decades of Devotion: The Story of the Tryon Palace Commission and the Tryon Palace Restoration
Robinson, Blackwell P. · 1978
Blackwell P. Robinson tells the story of the Tryon Palace Commission, from its creation by the General Assembly in 1945 to 1975, and of its restoration of the colonial governors' palace at New Bern, which had burned in 1798; the rebuilt palace opened to the public in 1959. Published by the commission in New Bern in 1978, 371 pages with illustrations and references.
Call number NC 975.61 ROB View in OCPL catalog → -
Edenton: A Portrait in Words and Pictures
Matheson, Elizabeth · 1984
Elizabeth Matheson's photographs of Edenton, the Chowan County seat on Albemarle Sound that served as the colonial capital from 1722 to 1743, paired with text about the town and published by the Edenton Historical Commission about 1984. The 61 oblong pages are mostly pictures, with a list of references.
Call number NC 975.614 EDE View in OCPL catalog → -
Hertford County, North Carolina
Jones, Alice Eley · 2002
Hertford County's African American history in photographs and portraits, assembled by the North Carolina historian Alice Eley Jones for Arcadia's Black America series in 2002. The 128 pages open in 1726, when the Meherrin people moved south from Virginia to a former reservation at the mouth of the Meherrin River.
Call number NC 975.615 JONES View in OCPL catalog → -
The Ancient Maritime Village of Murfreesborough, 1787-1825
Parramore, Thomas C. · 1969
Murfreesboro, chartered in 1787 on high ground above the Meherrin River in Hertford County, was the head of navigation on that river and a port of entry trading with New England and the West Indies. Thomas C. Parramore's history covers the town from its founding to 1825. Printed in Murfreesboro by the Johnson Publishing Company in 1969, 96 pages with maps, illustrations and portraits.
Call number NC 975.615 PAR View in OCPL catalog → -
Chowan Beach: Remembering An African American Resort
Stephenson, E. Frank · 2006
Frank Stephenson recalls the resort for African Americans that Eli Reid built on the Chowan River in Hertford County after buying 400 acres in 1928. Its beach, cottages, dance hall and carousel drew Black visitors from across the state and the East Coast, and touring stars including B.B. King and James Brown played there. Mostly photographs, it covers the Reid years, herring fishing and the Sam Pillmon years, 1967 to 2004.
Call number NC 975.615 STE View in OCPL catalog → -
Roanoke Island in History and Legend
Albertson, Catherine · 1934
Roanoke Island, where Sir Walter Raleigh's colonists landed in the 1580s, is the subject of Catherine Albertson's short account of its history and legends, 28 pages with seven pages of plates, printed by the Independent Press of Elizabeth City in 1934.
Call number NC 975.617 ALB View in OCPL catalog → -
The Lost Colony in Literature
Arner, Robert D. · 1985
Robert D. Arner's study of the Roanoke colony of 1587 and Virginia Dare as subjects of American literature, one of the booklets published by North Carolina's America's Four Hundredth Anniversary Committee; 1985, 55 pages with illustrations.
Call number NC 975.617 ARN View in OCPL catalog → -
Aycock Brown's Outer Banks
1976
An illustrated book on Aycock Brown and the people of Dare County and the Outer Banks, edited by the Outer Banks historian David Stick and designed by Robert Cameron. Donning of Norfolk published the 206 pages in 1976.
Call number NC 975.617 AYC View in OCPL catalog → -
The Outer Banks: An Historical Adventure From Kitty Hawk to Ocracoke
Conway, Martin · 1984
A short illustrated history of the Outer Banks from Kitty Hawk south to Ocracoke by Martin Conway, written to double as a guide for visitors. Susan Knott edited and designed it. Carabelle Books of Shepherdstown, West Virginia, issued it as a special edition in 1984: 87 pages with a map, a bibliography and an index. It was reissued in 1985.
Call number NC 975.617 CON View in OCPL catalog →
Research help, online and in the room
