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Theme

Libraries, Archives & Public Memory

The libraries, archives, museums, and historical societies that keep the county's record, and how they were built.

In briefThe county’s memory is kept by libraries, archives and historical societies that were themselves built and fought over: the Orange County Negro Public Library’s long struggle for equal service, the Confederate Memorial Library at Hillsborough, the regional library of 1948 and the Chapel Hill Public Library of 1958. The records here are the institutions’ own histories and the collections they hold.

1,146 works about Libraries, Archives & Public Memory are indexed here. 10 held at OCPL →

Search these works Research sources View indexed works ↓
An ivy-covered church tower.

Events and storylines

Named events and storylines the index follows in detail. Each has its own page.

The Orange County Negro Public Library and the struggle for equal library service, 1936–1960sFrom the school library that served Black Hillsborough in 1936 to the building Black residents paid for, dedicated in 1951, with separate service still running in 1962; when it ended is not yet documented Public libraries in Orange CountyFrom the Carrboro school’s community library of 1933 and Hillsborough’s Confederate Memorial Library of 1934 to the Hyconeechee Regional Library, the Negro Public Library, Chapel Hill’s town library, and the county’s Main Library and Drakeford Library Complex The Orange County Historical Museum, 1956–1963How the Hillsboro Garden Club made a county museum in the upstairs courtroom of the old courthouse, with help from the state archives and the county commissioners, from its first committee in 1956 to the opening in November 1957 Carrboro’s old school becomes its town hall, 1959–1961How Carrboro bought the old Carrboro School on West Main Street when the new school opened, voted bonds to remodel it, and made it a town hall with room for the library, the police and fire departments and a National Guard platoon Hillsborough’s preservation bodies: the Historical Society and the Historic Hillsborough Commission, 1962–1964The two bodies that took up historic preservation in Hillsborough: the Hillsborough Historical Society, from its first public meeting in 1962 and its purchase of the William Read House, and the Historic Hillsborough Commission the legislature created in 1963 The University’s Carnegie library and Hill Music Hall, 1906–1930How the University built its library with Andrew Carnegie’s gift: the endowment raised in 1906, the start of construction and the electrical contract, the Masons’ cornerstone at the 1907 commencement, and the opening that fall of the building later named Hill Hall
Show all 12 events and storylines
The new University library, 1926–1929How the University got its new library, later Wilson Library: the trustees’ $861,000 request in 1926, the $625,000 the 1927 legislature allowed, the steam shovel on the south edge of the campus in 1928, and the dedication of October 19, 1929 Consolidating the University, 1931–1936How Chapel Hill, State College and the Greensboro college became one University of North Carolina: the 1931 act, the 1932 survey and commission plan, the trustees’ rejection of a chancellor, Frank P. Graham’s election, and the 1934 deans of administration The Carrboro school as a community center: night school and clinics, 1929–1933The Carrboro school as a meeting place for the whole community from 1929: the group commencement and health clinics, the dental clinic, the night school for adults and its honors, the parent-teacher meetings and recitals, and a library for grown people The death of Elisha Mitchell and the University’s mourning, 1857–1858How Chapel Hill and the University marked the death of Professor Elisha Mitchell on the Black Mountains in June 1857: the town meeting, the commissioners’ and students’ resolutions, the faculty’s sermon and eulogy, the care of his widow, his books and cabinet, and his successor Caldwell Institute at Caldwell, 1877–1905How Caldwell Institute in Little River Township lasted from the 1870s into the age of public school taxes: its crowded commencements, the 1886 fire, J. H. McCracken’s new building and growing rolls, the 1899 charter and the Caldwell district’s vote for a rural graded school Person Hall and the Main Building (South Building), 1796–1814How the University finished its first chapel and its Main Building, later South Building: Thomas Person’s gift and Person Hall, Charles Gerrard’s Tennessee lands, the Masonic cornerstone of 1798, the roofless walls, the lotteries, William Polk’s appeal, Joseph Caldwell’s subscription tours and the students’ move in 1814

More storylines

Storylines in this theme, in date order. Each opens in the chronology.

Enlarging the antebellum campus, 1840–18611840–1861 · In 1840 President David L. Swain began the stucco finish on the brick college buildings, and by August 1841, with the session crowded beyond its rooms, the university had contracted for two new dormitory buildings. Swain then brought in the architect Alexander Jackson Davis, who first came to Chapel Hill in 1844. Davis's three-story additions to Old East and Old West, on which the masonry subcontractor Dabney Cosby put enslaved workmen, among them Osborne and his brother Albert, were finished in 1848 with halls for the Dialectic and Philanthropic societies, furnished by the free Black cabinetmaker Thomas Day. Smith Hall followed, named in 1852, and New East and New West, begun in 1858, were ready on July 31, 1861. The UNC pharmacy school under Howell and Beard, 1897–19311897–1931 · An earlier College of Pharmacy, begun in 1880, had been short-lived, and in March 1897 the university trustees set up a chair of pharmacy and elected Edward Vernon Howell, beginning the department that became the School of Pharmacy. In 1901 the department, with Howell as dean, was formally incorporated into the university and its laboratory and lecture space was doubled. Howell died on February 14, 1931 after seventeen days of pneumonia, and the Weekly's editor, his neighbor, wrote of the Halloween parties he gave the village children. J. Grover Beard, a 1909 graduate long on the pharmacy faculty, was named acting dean, and the trustees' executive committee ratified his appointment on March 19, 1931. The Anderson Chapter, UDC, and the Confederate graves at Hillsborough, 1899–19121899–1912 · Fourteen Hillsborough women organized a chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy in October 1899 and spent its first years marking and honoring the county's Confederate dead. Named for Gen. George Burgwyn Anderson, a Hillsborough native who died of a wound received at Sharpsburg, the chapter under Mrs. Robina Webb held Memorial Day in 1901 with flags and flowers on soldiers' graves. It helped feed veterans at an Efland picnic in 1902 and raised money in 1906 to mark graves. By June 1908 it had marked the graves it could identify and published the names. In July 1912 it appealed to the men of Orange for a monument to the county's Confederate soldiers. Hamilton and the Southern Historical Collection, 1927–19481927–1948 · From 1927 J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton built what became the Southern Historical Collection, a leading repository of manuscripts on the American South. He announced plans that year for what he first called the National Southern Collection, and in 1929 he gave up the headship of the history department to be free of administrative work; the Weekly reported that he had spent weeks travelling the South gathering old books, letters and diaries. After Sarah Graham Kenan gave $25,000 in 1930, the collection became the Southern Historical Collection, with Hamilton as its first director. From 1932 Elizabeth Henderson Cotten worked as his assistant and became its first curator. Hamilton retired by July 1948, after 42 years with the University. The Mary Bayley Pratt Children's Library, 1929–19401929–1940 · Chapel Hill's children's library began in the spring of 1929 with citizens' gifts and kept going on memberships and gifts as its appropriation fell. That October it moved into a basement room of the Chapel Hill school as the Mary Bayley Pratt Memorial Library. William Bayley, brother of the late Mrs. Joseph Hyde Pratt, and his family gave $1,500 toward a permanent endowment, and in the year to June 1931 the library lent 17,181 books. With its appropriation down to $94.61 in 1933-34, it cut its yearly membership fee from $5 to $1. In the spring of 1940 a campaign brought in more than $185 from 822 contributors, some children giving their weekly allowances. The University and Duke library partnership, 1932–19361932–1936 · In May 1932 President Frank P. Graham announced a gift of $30,000 from the General Education Board to the University library, to buy printed catalogues of the great libraries, national and subject bibliographies and equipment, the basic tools the library wanted for a strong graduate school. By May 4, 1934 the Board had granted $12,500 to the libraries of the University of North Carolina and Duke University to duplicate their catalogs, so that each library would hold a catalog of the other's books. By February 14, 1936 the General Education Board of New York had given the two universities $50,000, divided equally, to build research collections in the biological, physical and social sciences and English literature. The money was spent under a cooperative plan that avoided duplicate purchases. By then the two libraries shared borrowing privileges, a daily delivery service and copies of each other's card catalogs.
Show all 8 storylines
Chapel Hill's most valuable citizen award, 1935–19421935–1942 · From 1935 the Carolina Theatre gave an annual trophy to Chapel Hill's most valuable citizen, chosen by a committee. The first winner, Mrs. R. B. Lawson, was cited for years of aid to the poor through the King's Daughters and volunteer relief work. Automobile dealer Bruce Strowd won in 1937 for his work for the town's schoolchildren, and on unemployment and the county welfare board. Harry F. Comer of the University YMCA won for 1938, and R. M. Grumman of the University extension division and Mrs. Grumman, until recently a librarian and teacher at the Carrboro school, in 1939. In January 1942 the trophy, then given by the Carolina and Pick theatres, went to Mrs. Robert H. Wettach. A home for the Chapel Hill Public Library, 1958–19681958–1968 · Chapel Hill's first public library opened on December 15, 1958 in the east wing of the Hill House, with about 4,500 books. In November 1964 the State Library Commission again turned down the town's request for a share of new federal library money, because its library did not belong to a county or regional system. Around 1965 the library committee kept Don Stewart and his modern plan, though its head had asked him about a traditional design. His 1966 building on East Franklin Street used sloping native stone walls and stained wood to fit among the older faculty houses. When the library moved to Pritchard Park in 1994, the building became home to the town museum.

Indexed works

Works about Libraries, Archives & Public Memory from library and archive catalogs. The most widely held appear first; novels are not shown here. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.

Filter these works by material, period, or place. Counts refer to works, not individual copies. A work may appear under more than one period or place.

Material

Periodicals 217Histories 173Photographs & portraits 156Bibliographies 106Biography 54other types 222

Period

18th century 2019th century 74Civil War (1861–1865) 12Reconstruction (1865–1877) 620th century 83World War I era 6World War II era 1221st century 4

Place

North Carolina (statewide) 476Chapel Hill 435Orange County 330Hillsborough 64Durham County (neighboring) 10Carrboro 8

Widely held

Hark the Sound of Tar Heel Voices

Barefoot, Daniel W. · 2008

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.

Included because: Catalog heading in the Chapel Hill PL record: Chapel Hill Public Library Foundation Ensuring Excellence Collection.

✓ Held at OCPL NC Cardinal UNC NC State NCCU Durham Chapel Hill PL Library of Congress CH Historical Society

Hillsboro, Colonial and Revolutionary

Nash, Frank · 1953

Francis Nash's history of Hillsborough in colonial and Revolutionary times, first published in 1903 and reprinted in 1953 by Edwards & Broughton with an index and a sketch of the author. Topics include the Regulator Insurrection of 1766 to 1771, the Revolution and local genealogy.

Included because: The record names this subject alongside a heading for the county or its towns.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 975.656 NAS NC Cardinal UNC Durham Library of Congress Wake Forest Davidson DPLA

Ribbons of Color Along the Eno River

2021

Collected first-hand and second-hand stories from the Eno River valley as told from the standpoint of African Americans and Native people who have lived along the river in Orange and Durham counties, from prehistory to the present day. Issued by the Eno River Association in Durham as volume 10, number 2 of the Eno Journal, 2021, 106 pages with illustrations.

Included because: Catalog heading in the Chapel Hill PL record: Oral histories.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 975.656 RIBBONS NC Cardinal UNC Duke Durham Chapel Hill PL CH Historical Society

African Americans of Durham and Orange counties : an oral history

Bolduc, Jean · 2016 · The History Press

Jean Bolduc's collection of oral history interviews with Black residents of Durham and Orange counties, published by The History Press in 2016, 125 pages with photographs and portraits. The narrators are the poet Jaki Shelton Green, civil rights lawyer Floyd McKissick, Walter Jackson, Nate Davis, Brenda Stephens, Diane Wright, Jackie Wagstaff and Michelle Johnson, and a closing chapter deals with the Ku Klux Klan. The interviews document Black life and race relations in the two counties across the twentieth century.

Included because: Catalog heading in the Durham record: Oral histories.

NC Cardinal Duke Durham Wake Forest CH Historical Society UNC

The Ackland Art Museum: a handbook published in honor of the Museum's twenty-fifth anniversary (1958-1983)

Ackland Art Museum · 1983

A handbook to the Ackland Art Museum at the University of North Carolina, published by the museum in 1983 for its twenty-fifth anniversary. It combines a catalog of the collection with a history of the museum, which opened in 1958. Includes a bibliography on pages xviii to xx. 170 pages with illustrations, 22 cm.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Ackland Art Museum.

NC Cardinal Duke NCCU CH Historical Society Library of Congress UNC

The Library of the First State University

Wilson, Louis Round · 1960 · University of North Carolina Library

Louis Round Wilson's 40-page review of the University of North Carolina library, subtitled on the cover a review of its past and a look at its future. Wilson had directed the library for three decades before leaving for Chicago, and the university's main library carries his name. Published by the University of North Carolina Library in Chapel Hill in 1960, with illustrations.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Academic libraries -- North Carolina.

NC Cardinal Duke Durham Library of Congress DPLA UNC
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Illuminating the past: a history of the first 75 years of the University of North Carolina's School of Information and Library Science

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill · 2007 · PhotoBook Press

History of the first 75 years of the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, produced by the school in 2007. Includes a chronology of the school, biographical sketches of its deans and a register of alumni. Printed by PhotoBook Press of Minneapolis, 119 pages with illustrations, some in color.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Library schools.

NC Cardinal UNC Library of Congress CH Historical Society

Reflections: the University Library, 1992-2004 : The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Panitch, Judith M. · 2004

Judith M. Panitch's illustrated account of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library between 1992 and 2004, published by the library in 2004. It is a history of the academic library, and the notes point out its references to the Aldo P. Magi collection of Thomas Wolfe material. 50 pages with color illustrations in an oblong format.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library.

NC Cardinal UNC Durham Library of Congress

Recently indexed: AACR 2 headings : a five-year projection of their impact on catalogs (1982) · [Ackland Art Museum website archives] · Ackland highlights (1978) · Ackland notes : studies of objects in the collection of the Ackland Art Center (1974) · The acquisition of the Stephen B. Weeks Collection of Caroliniana (1965) · The Alexander-Quire in UNC-CH Ms 515 (1993)

Search all 1,146 indexed works →

Start at OCPL

Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection whose titles, catalog subjects, or descriptions match this theme. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled. Books marked Wider context cover the broader subject rather than this theme itself.

  • Wider context · NC 026 PHILLIPS 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.

  • Wider context · NC 025.21 MARQUIS 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.

  • Wider context · NC 027.475 HAR 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.

Show 6 more
  • Wider context · NC 027.575 MIT The State Library and Library Development in North Carolina Mitchell, Thornton W. · 1983

    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.

  • Foundational · NC 975.656 ORANGE Working for A Living: A Special Exhibit by the Orange County Historical Museum, March-December 2024 Orange County Historical Museum (N.C.) · 2024

    Exhibit publication from the Orange County Historical Museum for its special exhibit on working life, shown in Hillsborough from March to December 2024 and concerned with the county's trades and industrial arts. Produced by the museum in 2024, it documents Orange County and Hillsborough history through the work people did.

  • Wider context · NC 027.575 WEE Libraries and Literature in North Carolina in the Eighteenth Century Weeks, Stephen Beauregard · 1896

    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.

  • Foundational · NC BIO MANGUM SHA The Papers of Willie Person Mangum Mangum, Willie Person · 1950

    The papers of Willie Person Mangum, 1792 to 1861, a lawyer, judge and United States senator from the part of Orange County that later became Durham County. Five volumes of correspondence published by the State Department of Archives and History beginning in 1950, arranged by date from 1807 to 1894, with illustrations, portraits and folding maps. A source for antebellum North Carolina and national politics, the Whig Party and the Mangum family.

  • Wider context · NC 016.975 NORTH Guide to County Records in the North Carolina State Archives North Carolina · 2009

    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.

  • Wider context · NC 027.475 JON 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.

In the chronology

A selection of 12 events from the 518 chronology entries for this theme, including highlights and examples from different years. See all 518 dated events in the chronology →

  1. The court calls all the justices to consider transcribing the register's records The court ordered the sheriff to notify all the justices of Orange County to attend on the second day of the next term to consider an act of Assembly passed in 1788 for transcribing the records of the register's office.Search the index · Mark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: February Term 1792
  2. Manly McCauley is lynched near Carrboro Manly McCauley, an 18-year-old Black farmhand, left Milton Brewer's farm west of Chapel Hill with Brewer's wife on October 26, 1898. A posse caught them beyond Jonesboro, and on the way back masked men took McCauley from the officer holding him and hanged him. His body was found on November 6, about three miles west of Chapel Hill. People: Manly McCauleyJames Madison University, Memorializing Racial Terror: The Lynching of Manly McCauley · Also: The News (Chapel Hill), November 4, 1898, p. 1
  3. The University of North Carolina Press is founded 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. People: William T. Couch, Louis Round WilsonUNC Research: Local Ink, Inc. (July 20, 2020)
  4. Hillsborough builds the Confederate Memorial Library 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.The Chapel Hill Weekly, July 20, 1934, p. 3 (Laying of Cornerstone)
  5. Hyconeechee Regional Library is established The three county library systems incorporated as one region to enlarge book collections, run a shared bookmobile and provide trained supervision. The regional board held its second meeting on September 13, 1948 at the Confederate Memorial Library in Hillsboro, with Sydney Green of Orange County as president and Mrs. Douglas Davis as regional librarian.The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), September 23, 1948, p. 1
  6. Orange County Negro Public Library dedicates its own building About 150 people attended an open house on May 27, 1951 dedicating the Orange County Negro Public Library's own building in Hillsborough, a structure bought from Camp Butner and put up with volunteer labor. Begun in 1942 by Marinda McPherson, the library had opened to the public in 1949 and now held more than 3,000 books.The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), May 31, 1951, p. 1 (Open House Officially Opens Community Library For Negro Citizens Here Sunday)
  7. Chapel Hill Public Library opens Chapel Hill's first public library held its formal opening on December 15, 1958 in the east wing of the Hill House on West Franklin Street, with about 4,500 books, 2,000 of them lent by state and regional libraries. It moved to its own building at 523 East Franklin Street in 1967 and to Pritchard Park in 1994.The Chapel Hill Weekly, December 11, 1958, p. 1 (Library Opening Monday) · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, December 18, 1958, p. 7
  8. Friends of the Orange County Public Library is founded Residents organized the Friends of the Orange County Public Library on November 5, 1981, to raise money and advocate for a county library preparing to move into larger quarters in Hillsborough. The group incorporated on May 3, 1982, and the IRS recognized it as a 501(c)(3) charity in June 1983.ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer: Friends of the Orange County Public Library Inc
  9. Eve Carson, UNC’s Student Body President, is killed Eve Marie Carson, 22, UNC's student body president and a Morehead-Cain Scholar from Athens, Georgia, was abducted from her Chapel Hill home early on March 5, 2008, robbed and shot on Hillcrest Road near campus. Two men were convicted of her murder: one pleaded guilty in 2010, and a Hillsborough jury convicted the other on December 20, 2011. People: Eve CarsonIn the index: Chapel Hill Memorial Cemetery (Chapel Hill, N.C.) · Daily Tar Heel: Eve Carson's case is closed, but her legacy lives on through the Carolina Way (January 7, 2012)
  10. Orange County Main Library opens on Margaret Lane The county's new 23,500-square-foot Main Library at 137 West Margaret Lane in Hillsborough held its grand opening on January 8, 2010, after planning that began with a task force in 2000 and a groundbreaking in April 2008. It added a teen center, a 90-person meeting room and a local history area.WRAL: Grand opening planned for new Orange County library (January 1, 2010)
  11. Drakeford Library Complex opens Orange County's Southern Branch Library opened in February 2025 in the $42 million Drakeford Library Complex at 203 South Greensboro Street in Carrboro, replacing the Carrboro Cybrary, which had closed on January 31, 2025. The building, named for Robert Drakeford, Carrboro's first Black mayor, also houses town recreation offices and WCOM Radio.The Local Reporter: Southern Branch Library has a "soft opening" (February 12, 2025)
  12. Food pantries open at the Main Library and the Southern Branch During the 2025–26 fiscal year the library built a permanent food pantry in the Main Library lobby in Hillsborough and worked with a local Girl Scout troop to establish one at the Southern Branch in Carrboro. The Main Library also collected 424 pounds of food for the Orange Congregations in Mission pantry.Orange County FY 2026-27 Manager Recommended Budget (Library Services, FY 2025-26 highlights, pp. 207-208 of PDF)

See all 518 dated events in the chronology →

Places in this theme

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows the 65 with a known location.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

Show 66 more

All places and the county map →

Research sources

Sources and research tools for this subject. Research guide: How to research with Orange County Indexed.

Background 10

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Historic sites, markers, and maps

Records of the time 6

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Collections and databases 13

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Local help 9

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Related themes

UNC & Campus Life →Literature & Publishing →Schools & Education →Arts, Music & Performance →Buildings & Preservation →Work, Labor & Industry →

Picture: Library of Congress photograph, late 1930s; public domain. Image credits →

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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