New NC ECHO Search Brings North Carolina Digital Collections Together

The new NC ECHO statewide search makes it easier than ever for users to find local and state history resources online. Through a single, simple search interface, users can find historic photos, maps, postcards, genealogies, yearbooks, oral histories, and much more. The statewide search was developed by NC LIVE, the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center, and the State Library of North Carolina.

NC ECHO searches content freely available online in multiple digital collections. Selected collections from Johnson C. Smith University, UNC-Greensboro, the New Hanover County Public Library, Western Carolina University, East Carolina University, UNC-Chapel Hill, the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center, and the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources are currently available through NC ECHO.

A previous program by the same name was run out of the State Library of North Carolina from 1999-2012, with the intent to identify and digitize local cultural heritage collections. The newly revived NC ECHO program continues with the same spirit, to build connections and improve access to these collections of historic materials. Over the coming year, the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center will continue to work with cultural institutions across North Carolina to add new materials to this statewide search.

The online NC ECHO institutional directory is still available online through the North Carolina State Government Website Archive. Plans are underway to have the directory online again soon through the Department of Cultural Resources’ North Carolina Connecting to Collections website.

Read the press release at NC LIVE for more information.

The unintended consequence of a killer’s execuition

On this day in 1998: By accident, the execution of Ricky Lee Sanderson, 38-year-old murderer,  brings to an end the era of the gas chamber at Central Prison in Raleigh.

Although many states have already replaced gas with the more clinical method of lethal injection, North Carolina will make the change out of concern for workplace safety: Two prison guards had strapped on air tanks and entered the chamber to remove Sanderson’s body when one tripped, knocking loose for a moment the other’s tank.

Footnote: Here, rendered in a still life and on a dinner plate are artists’ depictions of Sanderson’s chosen last meal: a honey bun.