Chronology

Libraries, Archives & Public Memory, Early twentieth century: 19 dated entries from the full dataset. Back to the highlights →

1. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944
2. Late September or early October 1907 UNC's Carnegie Library opensBuilding opening · Chapel Hill

   UNC's new library, built with a gift from Andrew Carnegie first offered in 1905 as $50,000 and later raised to $55,000, was finished in the summer of 1907 and opened to students that fall once its furniture arrived. It served as the main library until Wilson Library opened in 1929 and was renamed for John Sprunt Hill in 1931.

3. 1910 Hillsboro Public Library is counted among North Carolina's early free public librariesFounding or opening · Hillsborough

   A 1954 history of North Carolina public libraries names the Hillsboro Public Library among the free public libraries established in North Carolina by 1910, fifteen in all. A later survey dates Hillsboro's library to 1910 in its list of the twenty-eight public, society and Y.M.C.A. libraries in the state's first library report.

4. 1913–1914 Swain Hall is built as the university dining hallBuilding named · Chapel Hill, Swain Hall

   The university built Swain Hall in 1913 and 1914 as a dining hall on the site of the first president's house and named it for David L. Swain. It served as the dining hall until 1940 and later became the first home of the communications department.

5. June 2, 1913 UNC's Confederate Monument is dedicatedFounding or opening · Chapel Hill

   On June 2, 1913, the North Carolina Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and UNC alumni dedicated a Confederate soldier statue by John Wilson in McCorkle Place, later called Silent Sam. Julian Carr's dedication address credited Confederate veterans with saving the "Anglo Saxon race" and boasted of horsewhipping a Black woman.

6. 1917–1948 Cornelia Spencer Love works as a librarian at the University of North CarolinaLibrary career · Chapel Hill

   Love came to Chapel Hill and worked in the university library from 1917 to 1948. She later wrote When Chapel Hill Was a Village, published in 1976.

7. 1921 Connor returns to Chapel Hill as Kenan professor of history and governmentFaculty appointment · Chapel Hill

   Connor left his state archival work for the university in 1921 and taught at Chapel Hill until 1934, when he was named the first Archivist of the United States.

8. 1921–1922 Louis Round Wilson's survey finds thin library collections in Orange County's white schoolsPublication · Orange County

   A questionnaire of Orange County's 48 white schools for 1921–22, including the Chapel Hill and Hillsboro graded schools, found seven with no library and 3,692 volumes for 1,586 pupils, slightly more than two books per pupil. Ten of the 25 teachers who answered said the books were used "not very much"; Wilson published the results in January 1923.

9. June 12, 1922 The University of North Carolina Press is foundedInstitutional milestone · Chapel Hill

   On June 12, 1922, university librarian Louis Round Wilson, nine other faculty members and three trustees founded the University of North Carolina Press, the first university press in the South. Its first book, William C. Coker's study of water molds, appeared in 1923, and William T. Couch became director in 1932.

10. June 7, 1929 The Tar Heel becomes the Daily Tar HeelPublication · Chapel Hill

    The commencement issue of June 7, 1929, was the first published as The Daily Tar Heel, after a plan to turn the tri-weekly Tar Heel into a daily went to the Student Activities Committee. Regular daily publication began with the new volume on September 20, 1929.

11. October 19, 1929 The new University Library, later Wilson Library, is dedicatedBuilding opening · Chapel Hill

    UNC dedicated its new University Library, designed by Arthur Cleveland Nash, on October 19, 1929, weeks after students began using the building that fall. It served as the main campus library for decades, was named for librarian Louis Round Wilson in 1956, and after a 1984 to 1987 renovation became the home of UNC's special collections.

12. 1930 The Southern Historical Collection is establishedInstitutional milestone · Chapel Hill

    In 1930 Sarah Graham Kenan of Wilmington gave UNC $25,000 to buy books, letters and diaries for the Southern Historical Collection being gathered by history professor J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton, who became its first director. Kept in the new library, it grew into a leading repository of manuscripts on the American South.

13. 1933 A community library begins at the Carrboro schoolLibrary milestone · Carrboro

    In 1933 Nellie Roberson gave the Carrboro school 145 books as the nucleus of a library for grown people as well as children. Built up by teachers, pupils and parents, it was formally dedicated in May 1937 and lent adult books to Carrboro residents.

14. 1934 Hillsborough builds the Confederate Memorial LibraryFounding or opening · Hillsborough

    Federal relief crews began a new library on Churton Street in Hillsborough in December 1933, with local money, including $7,000 from the Hillsborough United Daughters of the Confederacy, paying for materials. The cornerstone of the Confederate Memorial Public Library was laid on July 13, 1934, and the building became the Orange County Historical Museum in 1983.

15. July 1936 The school library at Hillsborough High School for Negroes also served as the public library for Black residentsInstitutional milestone · Hillsborough

    The twelve-room school building was put up in July 1936 on land bought from Louis Wilson and George Mayo, and its library served the local Black community as a public library. Albert L. Stanback became principal in 1942 and had the school renamed Central High School in 1943.

16. July 4, 1937 The Lost Colony premieresPerformance · Chapel Hill

    Paul Green's pageant-drama The Lost Colony opened on Roanoke Island on Sunday evening, July 4, 1937, and the Chapel Hill Weekly reported that it scored a hit. The production had Chapel Hill roots: Frederick Koch's Carolina Playmakers were involved, and at least one actor came to Chapel Hill in June to rehearse.

17. May–July 1939 A lent library truck carries books to schools and crossroads stores across Orange CountyOrange County

    For May, June and July 1939 a bookmobile with a revolving shelved turret was lent to the county, run by Lucile McDade and her assistant Louise Carroll, who stopped at schools and crossroads stores. The county board of education and the Confederate Memorial Library in Hillsboro paid its operating costs, and the WPA and the Hillsboro library lent the books.

18. 1941–1949 Connor returns to the UNC faculty as Craige professorFaculty appointment · Chapel Hill

    After resigning as Archivist of the United States in 1941, Connor came back to Chapel Hill to hold the newly established Craige Professorship of Jurisprudence and History until he retired in 1949.

19. 1941–1942 Orange, Chatham and Person counties share a trained librarian under the new state aidInstitutional milestone · Hillsborough

    In the first year of state aid for public libraries, Chatham, Orange and Person counties shared one trained librarian, Ernestine Grafton, while each county kept its own book collection and bookmobile service. The state's 1941–42 library statistics list her as librarian at Hillsboro, Siler City and Roxboro.

20. February–May 1942 The Orange County Public Library bookmobile makes stops in Chapel HillChapel Hill

    In late February 1942 the Chapel Hill Weekly announced that the county bookmobile, with librarian Ernestine Grafton in charge, would park in front of the Texaco station from noon to 2 p.m. for browsers and borrowers. That spring the bookmobile offered a $5 prize to the school collecting the most waste paper, with the proceeds buying children's books, and a state aid increase let the library order books on readers' requests.

The other dated entries wait behind a subject, a place, an era, a month, or the All dated entries switch, and each storyline’s page carries its own component entries. Dates come from the sources named on the cards and from the index’s event pages; where sources disagree, the card follows the county records. Entries marked approximate or needing research say so on the card; the rest were checked against the source named on it. Each card’s “Correct this” link opens the contact form with the entry already named. Suggest an event →

Compiled and maintained by the Friends of the Orange County Public Library from county records, the sources named on each card, and the index’s event pages. Last updated September 14, 2026.