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Orange County Indexed

Local history at OCPL

The Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection and the Orange County books at the Main Library in Hillsborough: a plan of the room, and both collections searchable shelf by shelf.

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.

The collection at OCPL →
Plan of the Local History Room at the Main Library, after the library’s diagram Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection entrance E D I: Framed print: the Nash and Kollock School I H: Framed print: Hillsborough, County Down H G: Framed print: the 1892 county map G F: Framed print: the courthouse F J: Framed print: Hillsborough Military Academy J K: Framed print: the 1768 town plan K E-2: Reference bookshelf, E-2 E-2 E-1: North Carolina history bookshelf, E-1 E-1 D-2: Genealogy bookshelf, D-2 D-2 D-1: Genealogy bookshelf, D-1 D-1 D-3: Genealogy bookshelf, D-3 D-3 L: Black file cabinet L M: Assorted maps M N: Elizabeth Keckly display N O: Elizabeth Keckly display, continued O C: Research computer with microfilm reader and scanner C B: Gray file cabinet B A: Locked cabinet A
After the library’s own diagram of the space. Bookshelves in dark blue, cabinets in gray, framed prints in orange, the maps and the Keckly display in a lighter blue.
  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. Research computer with microfilm reader and scanner

    Read and scan the microfilm here, and search Ancestry and other research sites.

  4. 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 →
  5. 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 →
  6. Genealogy bookshelf, D-3

    More about Rebecca Wall.

    Browse this shelf →
  7. 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 →
  8. Reference bookshelf, E-2

    Traditional general reference books, still valuable as comprehensive, authoritative sources.

    Browse this shelf →
  9. 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.

  10. Framed print: the 1892 county map

    George W. Tate’s 1892 map of Orange County.

  11. Framed print: Hillsborough, County Down

    Views of the Irish town the county seat is named for.

  12. 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.

  13. 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.

  14. Framed print: the 1768 town plan

    C. J. Sauthier’s 1768 map of the town of Hillsborough.

  15. 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.

  16. Assorted maps

    Maps of the county and the town.

  17. 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.

  18. 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.

Filter all 357 in the search →

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 →

  • 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.

Search it alongside the indexed works →

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.

  • 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 →
Two mice reading back to back against a leaf, with the hand-lettered words Friends of the Orange County Public Library
Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026