Exploring the History, Literature, and Culture of the Tar Heel State
Have you ever wondered how much first prize money you would have won at the State Fair in 1915 for your favorite Percheron gelding or mare? How about the best tray of “Nancy Hall” sweet potatoes in 1929? Well, fear not, now you can find out with a few keystrokes and mouse clicks at:
North Carolina State Fair Premium Lists
The website is hosted by the State Library of North Carolina and contains a few premium lists provided by the North Carolina Collection to help complete the set.
Here’s an interesting look at the education level of our state legislators:
Forty-five percent of legislators have advanced degrees, 12 percent never went to college
Our Otto Wood post has generated lots of comments, so our readers may also find this news story from the Salisbury Post of interest:
The only true “analyses” of North Carolina wines I’ve ever done is the drinking kind. Titration tubes, Erlenmeyer flasks, and specific gravity sort of scare me–or at least the grades I got in my college chemistry labs scared me. So, I think I’ll just stick to the tasting of NC’s vino. However, I found the following analyses of NC wines by F. P. Venable (former president of UNC) and W. B. Phillips (a former professor at UNC) while looking for something else. It dates from 1888, so I don’t think that any of the state’s current crop of vintners is represented, but there is a discussion of the scuppernong “and the closely related vines–the Mish or Meish and Bulay.” Pop the cork and enjoy…
Want to see what historic properties are located near you? Check out this very cool map produced by the State of North Carolina’s State Historic Preservation Office:
You can zoom to street level detail to see if there is anything near you. I did it for my parents’ house in Davie County–and found out that a seemingly dilapidated house on their road has actually been identified as a historic structure.
For more information on the map, see the following article from Directions Magazine:
State Historic Preservation Office launches Web site with virtual view of historic landmarks
We wanted to point out an interesting digital project from the Durham County Public Library:
The Women Who Ran the Schools: The Jeanes Teachers and Durham County’s Rural Black Schools.
(Former NCC employee Jill Wagy had a hand in it.)
A few years ago, the North Carolina Collection acquired a set of Soviet-made maps, featuring North Carolina towns and dating from the late 1970s. See if you can guess which town is pictured below (and the feature just to the top left of that town). The top image shows the name of the town, and the bottom image shows the town itself.
I’m glad that I’m not the only one that has ever been confused by this “phenomenon.”
In one of his songs, Eminem raps:
Now this looks like a job for me
So everybody, just follow me
Cause we need a little, controversy
I’ll take these words to heart and point out a recent news article that covers a controversy that we don’t seem to have blogged about since 2007. Well! We need a little controversy every now and then…so, just where was Andrew Jackson born?
NC, SC politely fight over presidential birthplace
Opinions? Arguments?
I noticed the following article in a clipping (from an issue of USA Today) posted at my local coffee shop:
NASA launches search for ‘moon trees’
Of course, this led me to wonder where North Carolina’s “moon trees” are located. According to NASA’s Moon Tree web page, we have two known trees (both sycamores), one in the Botanical Gardens at Asheville and one at the Cradle of Forestry in Pisgah Forest. I wonder if there are any others?