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.
The twelve most recently published of the 357 Orange County works at OCPL, each with its description and call number. All 357, with filters by place, theme, and material, in the search →
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Cross & Sampson
Patterson, James · 2026 · Fiction
An Alex Cross thriller by James Patterson with Chapel Hill among its settings alongside Washington, D.C. Bombings, a kidnapping, a missing-persons investigation, terrorism and fathers and sons are its subjects; the Sampson of the title is Cross's longtime partner John Sampson. Published by Little, Brown in 2026.
Call number F PATTERSOChapel HillBlack Life & Civil RightsLaw, Courts & Justice View in OCPL catalog → -
Forged in the Spirit
Haines, Nancy Learned · 2026 · Histories
Nancy Learned Haines tells the story of the Quaker families who left Pennsylvania around 1750 for the Eno River valley near Hillsborough, where they farmed, traded and built a school, and asks how a community committed to peace fared through the unrest of the colonial years. Published by Pleasant Green Books in 2026, 122 pages with bibliography and index. Subjects include Quakers in North Carolina and the history of Hillsborough, Orange County and the Eno River valley.
Call number NC 289.6 HAINESEno RiverChurches & FaithEno & Environment View in OCPL catalog → -
Dark Tales of the Eno River
Cook, David · 2025 · Histories
David Cook collects the grim side of the Eno River's past in Orange and Durham counties: ghost stories, crimes, train wrecks and accidents, including the hanging of rebels near the river in 1771, a sawmill accident said to have started a run of hauntings, and a dance one Valentine's Day that ended badly. Published by The History Press in 2025, 141 pages with illustrations.
Call number 133.109 COOKDurham County (neighboring)Eno & EnvironmentEveryday Life & Traditions 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 → -
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 → -
Tar Heel Bred
Whisnant, Scott · 2025 · Humor
Scott Whisnant's memoir of a life measured out in North Carolina basketball seasons. A former sportswriter, Whisnant writes for readers raised in ACC country who learned the fight song early and treated the conference tournament in Greensboro as the high point of the year, recalling family, friends and the personal milestones that fell alongside Tar Heel games. Subjects include humor and anecdotes as well as the team's history. Published by Bearface Publishing in 2025, 318 pages with photographs.
Call number BIO WHISNANT WHIChapel HillCarolina SportsFamilies, Land & Genealogy View in OCPL catalog → -
Vignettes
Shetley, Frances Lloyd · 2025 · Biography
Frances Lloyd Shetley's self-published collection of short recollections, issued in 2025, drawn from the author's own life in Calvander and Carrboro. Calvander is the crossroads community northwest of Carrboro.
Call number BIO SHETLEY SHECalvander 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 → -
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 → -
Clover Garden
Simpson, Bland · 2024 · Biography
Bland Simpson's memoir of country life in the Clover Garden community of Orange County, in the North Carolina Piedmont, published by UNC Press in 2024. Short chapters take in cabin life, neighbors like the Binghams and Mr. Stacy, hounds, owls and turkeys, an auction, Merritt's and Lewis Allen's store, the sculptor of White Cross School, Maple View, Saxapahaw, the Devil's Tramping Ground, storms and snows, and a carol for Cane Creek. 182 pages with illustrations.
Call number BIO SIMPSON SIMNorth Carolina (statewide)Eno & EnvironmentEveryday Life & Traditions View in OCPL catalog → -
Observations of an accidental farmer--and a mindful reader
Kavros, Harry · 2024 · Biography
Harry Kavros's 2024 collection of essays and anecdotes about taking up farm life near Hillsborough, from the landscape to keeping chickens and other animals, alongside reflections on the South and on the writers who shaped his reading: Thoreau, Emerson, Aldo Leopold, Annie Dillard and Frederick Law Olmsted. Sections run from an introduction through 'The landscape', 'Chickens and other beasts' and 'The South' to an epilogue and appendix. First Paul Dry Books edition, Philadelphia.
Call number 814.54 KAVROSHillsboroughEno & EnvironmentFarms & Rural Life View in OCPL catalog → -
A Really Strange and Wonderful Time
Maxwell, Tom · 2024
Tom Maxwell's 2024 account of Chapel Hill's alternative rock scene in the 1990s, set against North Carolina's longer musical history. Maxwell writes as a musician who played in that scene, and the book follows the bands, clubs and labels that drew national attention to the town. Subjects include alternative rock music, Chapel Hill, 1991-2000, history and criticism. Published by Hachette, 310 pages with plates.
Call number 780.903 MAXWELLChapel HillArts, Music & PerformanceThe Cat’s Cradle and the “Chapel Hill sound” of the 1990s 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.
Literature and language 800 to 899, 400 to 499: 37 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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What Did They Mean by That?: A Dictionary of Historical & Genealogical Terms Old & New
Drake, Paul · 2013
Obsolete words and forgotten meanings that turn up in old documents fill Paul Drake's dictionary, together with newer terms used by historians and genealogists. It is illustrated and includes maps. First published in 1994, it appeared in a new edition in 2000, of which this is a 2013 printing.
Call number NC 423.1 DRAKE View in OCPL catalog → -
Reading Early American Handwriting
Sperry, Kip · 1998
Kip Sperry teaches the reading of handwriting in wills, deeds, church registers and other early American records. He covers letter forms, numbers and Roman numerals, abbreviations and contractions, common terms, and dates across the change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, then offers nearly a hundred sample documents of rising difficulty, each with his transcription on the facing page. Genealogical Publishing Company, 1998; 289 pages with a long bibliography.
Call number NC 427.973 SPE View in OCPL catalog → -
Washakie: The Little Indian Boy
Harley, Karen Lynch · 2024
Karen Lynch Harley wrote and illustrated this picture book about a young Haliwa-Saponi boy who learns from his grandmother's stories while he plays on her front porch, with Tutelo-Saponi words woven into the telling. The Haliwa-Saponi, descended from Tuscarora, Nansemond, Tutelo and Saponi people, number some 4,060 citizens, most of them in Warren and Halifax counties of northeastern North Carolina. Published in Raleigh in 2024.
Call number NC 497.52 HARLEY View in OCPL catalog → -
Minor Vocabularies of Tutelo and Saponi
Sapir, Edward · 2022 Foundational
Tutelo, a Siouan language once spoken in Virginia and North Carolina, is recorded here in two vocabularies of about fifty words each, printed in 1913 and both gathered in Ontario: Leo Frachtenberg's from Lucy Buck, an elderly Tutelo woman, in 1907, and Edward Sapir's from Andrew Sprague, a Cayuga who had heard Tutelo as a child, in 1911. Seven Saponi place-names noted by William Byrd in 1728 are added. First issued in 2002; reprinted 2022.
Call number NC 497.52 SAPIR View in OCPL catalog → -
Local History : How to Find and Write It
Whitener, Daniel Jay · 1955
Daniel Jay Whitener's short guide to researching and writing local history, published in Asheville in 1955 by the Western North Carolina Historical Association, 17 pages.
Call number NC 808.02 WHI View in OCPL catalog → -
Orange County Voices: A Class of '87 Student Writing Project
1986 Foundational
Orange County Voices, a work of Orange County history dated 1986.
Call number NC 808.89 ORA View in OCPL catalog → -
Writing Civil Rights: The Pursuit of Justice in African American Literature : A Collection of Student Reflections, Summer 2011
2011
Reflections by incarcerated students at Orange Correctional Center in Hillsborough, written for a Stepping Stones seminar on the pursuit of justice in African American literature that Patrick Elliot Alexander and Allison Curseen taught from June 20 to August 22, 2011. Writings by Pauli Murray and Martin Luther King Jr. figure in the 54-page collection.
Call number NC 810 WRITING View in OCPL catalog → -
A Living Culture in Durham: A Collection of Writings by Durham Area Authors
1987
An anthology of poetry and prose by writers of Durham and its surroundings, edited by Judy Hogan with Mary Ellen Priestley and Margaret Stephens and illustrated with Ted Bodenheimer's photographs. Hogan founded Carolina Wren Press, the Durham publisher that issued the 478-page collection in 1987, and helped found the North Carolina Writers' Network.
Call number NC 810.8 LIV View in OCPL catalog → -
Chapel Hill Carousel: Edited by Jessie Rehder
Rehder, Jessie · 1967 Foundational
Jessie Rehder, who taught creative writing at the University of North Carolina, assembled this 1967 anthology of fiction and prose by writers connected with Chapel Hill for UNC Press. Among the pieces are Wallace Kaufman's 'Regard me well', a piece by Frances Gray Patton anatomizing the Southern belle, and early groundwork by Reynolds Price for his first novel; Thomas Wolfe also figures in it. 215 pages.
Call number NC 810.8 REH View in OCPL catalog → -
Literary Trails of the North Carolina Piedmont: A Guidebook
Eubanks, Georgann · 2010 Foundational
Georgann Eubanks's guidebook to Piedmont places tied to North Carolina writers, part of the North Carolina Arts Council's literary trails project, with photographs by Donna Campbell. Eighteen driving and walking tours run from Winston-Salem and Charlotte east to Warrenton; Tour 14 covers Hillsborough, Efland and Mebane, and Tour 16 Chapel Hill and Carrboro. UNC Press, 2010; 455 pages with color maps and an index.
Call number 810.975 EUBANKS View in OCPL catalog → -
Young Readers' Picturebook of Tar Heel Authors
Walser, Richard Gaither · 1966
A picture book of North Carolina writers for young readers by Richard Walser, with brief biographical and bibliographical notes, published by the State Department of Archives and History for use in the schools. First issued in 1957 as Picturebook of Tar Heel Authors; this third edition, revised and enlarged, appeared in 1966, 70 pages. Walser taught English at North Carolina State from 1946.
Call number NC 810.997 WAL View in OCPL catalog → -
The Poems of Governor Thomas Burke of North Carolina: On Divers Matters, Including A Few Written in Praise of the American War for Independence Against Great Britain : & Also A Number Concerning A Young Man's Affairs of the Heart
Burke, Thomas · 1961
Thomas Burke, the Irish-born physician and lawyer who settled in Hillsborough in 1774 and was governor when David Fanning's Loyalists captured him in 1781, wrote these twenty-three poems, from verses on the war for independence to love poems. Seventeen were printed here for the first time. Richard Walser supplied an introduction and notes, and the 69-page book, published in Raleigh in 1961, imitates eighteenth-century printing.
Call number NC 811.2 BUR View in OCPL catalog →
Research help, online and in the room
