North Carolina Newspapers

The news in this pubii- cation is released for the press on receipt. THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA NEWS LETTER Published Weekiy by ttie University of North Caro lina Press for the Univer sity Extension Division. JUNE 27, 1923 CHAPEL HILL, N. C. VOL. Df, NO. 32 E lilorial Boards E, C. Bransan, S. H. Hobbs, Jr,. L. R. Wilson, E. W. Knifcht, D, D. Carroll, J. B. B illitt, U. W. Oiutn. Entered as aecond-dass matter November 14.1914, at the BoatofRceat Chapel Hill, N. C., ander the act of Animat 24. 1912 RECORDING NORTH CAROLINA ASSEMBLING RECORDS “Go west” was the advice given a generation ago not only to young men who were seeking their fortunes but also to historians who were interested in studying the materials which related to the history of North Carolina during the American Revolution and the pe riod of development of Tennessee, Ken tucky, and the old Southwest. The reason for this advice was ob vious. Lyman C. Draper, secretary of the Wisconsin State Historical Society from 1854 to 1887, and author of “King’s Mountain and its Heroes,” in 1881, combed North Carolina and the states east of the Mississippi for thirty- five years for historical papers and as sembled at Madison, Wisconsin, 469 folio volumes of manuscripts, letters, and narratives dealing with the history of the period. Consequently any writ ings which covered the period had of necessity to be based upon these collec tions. But that was a generation ago. To day, while the Draper manuscripts have to be consulted upon such subjects as the Battle of King’s Mountain, the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independ ence, and the career of Daniel Boone, the student of North Carolina's develop ment, not only from the historical point of view but from every angle, no longer turns to the west but to the rapidly growing collections of material within North Carolina itself. The reason for this change is explain able in the same way that one no long er has to go outside of the state to find good roads or splendidly equipped schools. North Carolina is building up several splendid collections of data con cerning all phases of her life, and she ia doing it so successfully that not only her own students but students from the nation at large who are interested in North Carolina and Southeastern sul> jects are turning to the state for the in formation they desire. Building the Collection* A visit to the campus of the Univer sity of North Carolina during the last month would have furnished convin cing evidence both as to the accumula tion of material in North Carolina in one of the state’s collections and the steady use of it by hundreds of students and citizens. In the general library, where the North Carolina Collection is housed, eight boxes of pamphlets, news papers, account books, and other data, covering the counties of Wilkes, Cald well, and Forsyth from 1800 to 1880, given by Mrs. Lindsay Patterson as a memorial to her husband, were being opened; a second collection of papers from Mrs. L. V. Archbell, formerly editor of Carolina and the Southern Cross, from Kinston and relating to Lenoir county, was being arranged for; the papers of Hon. Kenneth Rayner were received; thirteen volumes of rail road pamphlets comprising the file of North Carolina railroad reports of Col. A. B. Andrews, were added to the lit erature dealing with railroads and transportation in the state; a shipment of historical and biographical pamphlets printed by the Stone Printery, of Greensboro, was in process of being cataloged; the twenty-five volume set of transcripts of the Manuscripts in European Archives Relating to Ameri ca, 1773-1883, was just received from the H. R. Huntting Bindery,; aniJ letters from Mr. J. B. Dawson, of New Bern, were in hand concerning the eajly ship ment of a file of the weekly New Bern Jourrial beginning in 1876; and through Dr. Archibald Henderson the Rowan Historical Society had presented an al most continuous file of Salisbury news papers from 1823 to 1890. Aeross the campus in the depart mental library of Rural Social Econom ics 300 North Carolina newspapers, the publications of three score state and federal bureaus, and pamphlets and journals from economic and social agen cies throughout the country at large, were being received and clipped and mounted and classified and indexed for the use of North Carolinians. Material Being Used A further fact which such a visit would have established is that the mate rial is being used. Fifty students of Prof. R. D. W. Coqnor in the classes in North Carolina history have steadily worked over the historical material throughout the year. The Carolina Playmakers are always studying it for incidents to be used in plays. Students in the School of Education have been digging out the facts concerning the educational advance of the state, while on the out side members of North Carolina Wom en's Clubs have utilized it while pur suing courses in Citizenship, Southern Literature, and North Carolina His tory, and North Carolina high-school boys and girls have turned to it for data for debates and graduating essays. In the departmental library of Rural Social Economics, a like condition has obtained. Every student of Professor E. C. Braaaon has worked upon some specific North Carolina problem; the North Carolina Club Year Book on Farm Tenancy has grown out of the material assembled there; the story of the economic and social development of a dozen counties has been published, a dozen others are now ready for the press, and some work has been done on every county in the'state; and letters in answers to inquiries from every part of the country have been a regular part of every outgoing mail. The State’s Opportunity i In the further upbuilding of these col lections, descriptions of which are given below by Miss Mary L. Thornton, li brarian of the North Carolina Collec tion, and Professor S.H. Hobbs, Jr., of the department of Rural Social Eco nomics, citizens of North Carolina can have and should have a leading part. Although Dr. Draper carried much of the material out of the state, although thousands of letters and deeds and ledg ers and diaries and files of newspapers and pamphlets and church minutes and reports of boards and departments have been burned or allowed to disintegrate, there are thousands more that are ^till in existence which should find their way to these or other collections. They ought by all means to be saved to North Carolina and to this end every North Carolinian who posseses such ma terial or knows where it is to be found is urged to assist in making it avail able.—Louis R. Wilson, Librarian of the University of North Carolina. KNOW NORTH CAROLINA The University Serves North Carolina ia slowly assimi lating the idea that the University is something more than merely a place where men rich enough to send their sons to college may have them educated at the expense, in part, of the taxpayers. It is being realized that the University belongs to all the people of the state, that the learned men who compose it are em ployed by the state to put their special talents at the service of the state who has need of them, and not merely at the service of a few hun dred boys. The University ia e- merging from the status of a dozen or more men’s colleges in North Carolina and becoming to the state what his reference works are to the the student—a depository of special information available at any time to any citizen. And in so doing it is more than ever justifying the efforts of those citizens who have labored to increase its facilities and its power for service. —Greensboro News. THE STATE COLLECTION The North Carolina Collection of the University Library had its beginning in the collection of the Historical Soci' ety established at the University in 1844. One of the main objects of the Society as set down in its constitution was ‘ ‘to collect, arrange, and preserve at the University, as nearly as may be possible, one or more copies of every book, pamphlet, and newspaper pub lished in this state since the first intro duction of the press among us in 1749; alt books published without the state in our own or foreign countries on the history of North Carolina, and especi ally all the records, documents, and papers to be found in this state that may tend to elucidate the history of the American Revolution.” Although the Historical Society »has not continued its activities along this line, the University has carried on the work begun at that time, and has al ways been interested in collecting ma terial on the history and literature of the state. In recent years, the growth of the collection has been assured by an endowment fund, the gift of Mr. John Sprunt Hill, of the Class of 1889. The University’s aim is to secure for the collection every known book, pam phlet, and magazine article treating of the state or North Carolinians, and all periodicals published in North Carolina. Pamphlets form one of the most im portant parts of a state collection. They are printed as a rule in limited editions and soon lost, but inasmuch as they deal with small things, the counties, the cities, the people, they are most valu able sources of history. Similarly, news papers, public documents, letters, jour nals of societies and religious bodies, laws, school reports and catalogues, directories, gazetteers, atlases, maps, charters, reports of city and county de partments, railroad reports, manufac turer’s catalogues, retail catalogues, and all the endless commonplace print ed matter which may seem useless to the present generation, but which con stitute the real sources of history, and, if preserved, will prove priceless to the next, are constantly sought. special Features Especially interesting sections of the collection are those devoted to early maps, all early southern maps being in cluded as well as North Carolina maps, the documents and literature relating to the controversies over the Virginia and Tennessee boundaries, publications of southern historical societies contain ing scattered material on North Caro lina, the story of the Civil War as told by northern regiments stationed in North Carolina, the story of the south ern campaign in the Revolution as told by British as well as by American soldiers, and the county histories, many in pamphlet form. In the early days of the state, ser mons proved one of the most popular forms of literature. As a result, the religious section contains many titles. Church histories are also pres ent in large numbers, and form a most useful source of history. The histories of the different sections of the state have bebn written largely in the annals of the churches. Moravian history is the story of Forsyth county and Salem; the Episcopalians, the Quakers, and the Presbyterians have each settled their own sections. Histories of individual churches are especially helpful in work ing out genealogies and small town histories, and consequently contain material much in demand. Public documents have been called “the state’s autobiography.” All the life of the people is recorded in them, the growth of the railroads, the schools, the wealth and the poverty, crime and the law. Almost equal in importance are the reports of county and city offi cials and departments. In addition to the state and county documents, the collection has received the documents issued by the United States, and num erous reports and bulletins containing North Carolina material which are is sued each year. The work of internal improvements, for many years carried on by the State Board of Internal Im provements, may now be followed in the Reports of the Chief of Engineers of the United States Army on Improve ment of Rivers and Harbors. Valuable surveys of North Carolina ports and rivers appear in these reports. Older government documents containing North Carolina material are: the reconstruc tion, secession, and freedmen’s bureau documents, the contested election cases, documents relating to the southern In dians, and speeches of North Carolin ians in the United States Senate and House of Representatives. All the societies, patriotic, secret, and benevolent, ave represented by their reports and pi^oceedings of their conventions. Repqffts, catalogues, and periodicals of educational institutions form a large class. There is, an inter esting section devoted to early North Carolina textbooks, especially those published during the Civil War. Natural resources and natural history are presented in the publications of the Geological Surveys of North Carolina and the United States, in the proceed ings of scientific societies, and in many phmphlet studies on the fiora and fauna of North Carolina. The history of medicine in North Ca rolina may be followed in a complete file of the Transactions of the North Carolina Medical Society from 1849 to date. North Carolina health reports and bulletins issued by the State Board of Health give the growth of health work in the state from 1879 to the pres ent time. Asriculture in the past and present is contrasted in the files of ear ly agricultural periodicals, and the cur rent reports of the Department of Ag riculture. The commercial and manu facturing industries are represented by catalogues, reports of associations, and statistics of cotton, woolen, and other manufactures. In the literature section are found poetry and drama, the latter class in cluding the local pageants which are be coming so popular in the state. Fiction with a North Carolina setting forms an interesting class. The collection al so includes many items on the adjoining states. The early history of Tennessee is North Carolina history, and the Ca- rolinas were so closely linked in gov ernment and interests in colonial times that their history for that period is al most identical. Sources of Material The task of collecting everything on North Carolina is naturally a difficult one and becomes increasingly difficult with the development of the state. The annual output of the press must be kept up with and numberless letters must be written to gather it into the fold. Countless pages of second-hand book catalogues have to be searched for out of print items. Requests must be sent to secretaries, editors, presi dents of schools and organizations, in an effort to complete files of their pub lications. However, in spite of the diffi culties, the response to these requests has been most gratifying. Attics have been searched, old chests of pamphlets and letters have been gone through, sample files of printing establishments have been ransacked, publications have been sought wherever they have seemed available, [with the result that gaps have been filled in and the collection kept steadily growing. Growth of Collection The collection now numbers about seven thousand bound volumes and fif teen thousand pamphlets. Twenty years ago the whole of it was contained in two bookcases and occupied about thirty feet of shelf space; today, it ex tends over one thousand five hundred and sixty-four feet of shelf space. This growth has taken place largely during the last ten years and is due in part to the addition of a number of private collections by purchase and by gift. Several years ago, the University pur chased the Stephen B. Weeks Collec tion of North Caroliniana, representing thirty-four years of constant work by Dr. Weeks, and well known as one of the most distinctive state collections in the United States. Among the no table additions by gift have been the Battle and Andrews Collections present ed by the families of the late Dr. Kemp Plummer Battle and Col. A. B. Andrews. Dr. James Sprunt recently gave a file of Wilmington newspapers covering the period from 1846 to 1890, valuable for the history of that section during the Civil War. Other newspaper collections' added in recent years are the Kidder Collection of Civil War newspapers and the Bridgers Collection of early North Carolina newspapers. Friends of the University and citi zens of the state in general can give valuable assistance in the work of col lecting material by furnishing informa tion as to new publications which should be included in the collection, or old col lections which may be procured by pur chase or gift, and their cooperation will be most heartily welcomed.—Mary L. Thornton, In Charge of Carolina Col-, lection. Chapel Hill, N. C. / RURAL SOCIAL ECONOMICS The department of Rural Social Eco nomics is one of the recent additions to the University, having been established in 19I4 by Prof. E. C. Branson who elected to return to his native state af ter spending several years in education al work in Georgia. For some time there was no other similar department any where in the South, although recently several schools have begun work of a like nature. The main idea Professor Branson had in mind was to establish a department to assemble, organize, and diffuse information about the state of North Carolina, to build up a library of economic and social information about t ie state second to none in the entire Union, and to make available to the pub lic as much of this information as possi ble. One paper fairly accurately de scribed the output of the department, stating that it is a state ammunition factory serving up munitions to the firing line. Assembling Information The design to build up the premier state library of economic and social in formation has been- achieved. In no state in the Union has there been as sembled so complete a library of this nature. A full-time librarian and a sec retary are employed. They are busy reading, clipping, assembling, and filing desirable information from the vast number of publications subscribed to by the department. From these is culled whatever seems valuable to us. The department receives all state official re ports, and reports from the United States Census Bureau, the Treasury, the United States Departments of Agri culture, Commerce, Health, Education, Interior and the like. Magazines and periodicals are subscribed to. Social and economic surveys are collected, and various other reports are assembled and properly catalogued and filed. A com prehensive library on general and rural economics, sociology, religion, educa tion, and allied subjects has thus been assembled. For special information field surveys are conducted, such * as the Chatham county survey and the recent church survey. How the Library Serves The library is primarily a storehouse of information about the state, and any assembled information is available to any one who desires it. It is a work shop for students who want to become acquainted with the economic and social foundations of the commonwealth, or any subdivision of it. From this mass of materials students have prepared about one thousand studies dealing with the state, many of which have appeared in the News Letter, and all of which are filed away for reference. Hundreds of studies comparing this state with others have been made. County clubs use the library to prepare economic and ' social bulletins on their home county. A dozen such bulletins have been published and sent free to the home folks in editions of 8,000 in each case. Practi cally every county in the state has been studied by one or more students from their respective counties. We hope to issue a bulletin for every county in the state. The North Carolina Club, a stu dent-faculty organization, relies on this library in preparing its fdrtnightly re ports. Its annual report is the N. C. Club Year-Book, of which six issues have been prepared and distributed free to the people who write for it. Daily requests for information about the state keep the office force busy. These requests come from every state in the Union and sometimes from for eign countries, but mainly from home- folks. During the course of the year several thousand such requests are an swered. The News Letter studies are based on information assembled in the depart ment library. Each issue is devoted to some state problem or timely subject. It goes free every week to 18,000 house holds in this state, while copies are sent iiito practically every state in the Union. In brief we have assembled here the best library of economic and social knowledge, centering about the home state, to be found in any state. The library is a workshop for students of North Carolina life and methods of live lihood, agriculture, industry, popula tion and the like. The News Letter, the N. C. Club Year-Book, the County Club bulletins, special pamphlets, and thousands of letters in response to re quests for information are among the agencies making available to the peo ple this library of information about North Carolina.—S, H. H., Jr.