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All images on the North Carolina State Archives' website are provided
courtesy of the North Carolina State Archives.
This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17 US Code).
The user must obtain the proper release forms prior to reproducing this material.
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Previous Photo Gallery Images
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Iconographic Materials
Throughout 2006, the Department of Cultural Resources will be promoting "NC in Tune," a yearlong celebration of music in North Carolina. In the spirit of this celebration, this version of the Photo Gallery features images from all facets of North Carolina's rich musical heritage: from opera to bluegrass and from swing to gospel.
Visit the Non-Textual Materials page for more information
about iconographic materials, reference services and duplication policies. Specific collections and items can be located by searching the MARS online catalog. Some EAD versions of finding aids for photograph collections can be viewed in the Index to Online Finding Aids.
For more images from this collection, please explore previous photo gallery pages.
Click on an image to see a larger view.
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The members of the Tornado Orchestra, ca. 1920. Photographer: Unknown. Negative Number: N.88.9.76 |
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Dancing Pavillion at Wrightsville Beach, ca. 1920. Photographer: Unknown. Negative Number: N.97.5.16 |
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Dance Hall at the Lakewood Amusement Park. Photographer: Unknown. Negative Number: N.97.10.34 |
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Former Secretary of State Thad Eure as a child. Photographer: Unknown. Negative Number: N.88.9.76 |
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James B. Parsons, B-1 Band leader, with a student in Chapel Hill, 1943. Parsons was later the first African-American appointed to a Superior Court Judgeship by President John Kennedy. Photographer: Unknown. Negative Number: N.86.2.37 |
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Photograph of Stanley Hicks, instrument maker, musician and National Heritage Award winner, taken in 1983. Photographer: Unknown. Negative Number: N.85.10.12 |
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Photo of Tommy Jarrell, National Heritage Award winning fiddler from Surry County, taken in 1978. Photographer: Unknown. Negative Number: N.85.10.10 |
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"Cosmopolitans" Chorus during the late 1940s at the WPTF Radio recording studio. Photographer: Unknown. Negative Number: N.53.16.2304 |
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Right to left: "Snuffy" Dewitt Jenkins, Julian Leonard "Greasy" Medlin, Homer "Poppy" Sherrill. Photograph taken at the Medicine Show in Bailey, N.C., September 1980. Jenkins and Sherrill were key transitional figures in the evolution of Old-Time music to Bluegrass. Jenkins pioneered the use of three-finger banjo on radio and record, which proteges such as Earl Scruggs further developed. Photographer: Unknown. Negative Number: N.85.10.7 |
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The Hired Hands and Friends at the Medicine Show in Bailey N.C., September 1980. Photographer: Unknown. Negative Number: N.85.10.2 |
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Choir at the State Singing Convention in Benson, 1938. Photographer: Unknown. Negative Number: N.38.6.95 |
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Benson Community Sing sponsored by WRAL, June 1946. Photographer: Unknown. Negative Number: N.53.15.2533 |
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The Hillbilly Band at the WPTF Studio, 1943. Photographer: Unknown. Negative Number: N.53.16.2668 |
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Opera singer Lily Pon visits Raleigh, 1941. Photographer: Unknown. Negative Number: N.41.12.951 |
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Opera singer Lily Pon visits Raleigh, 1941. Photographer: Unknown. Negative Number: N.41.12.949 |
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The Blue Ridge Quartet in the WRAL Studio. Photographer: Unknown. Negative Number: N.53.15.2341 |
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Pilot Mills Cotton Band. Collection: Albert Barden Collection. Photographer: Unknown. Negative Number: N.53.16.2414 |
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WPTF quartette, ca. 1929. Photographer: Unknown. Negative Number: N.53.16.2441 |
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Kingham Scott at the organ, WPTF, 1930. Photographer: Unknown. Negative Number: N.53.16.2458 |
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Unidentified girl at the piano at either Peace College or Meredith College, ca. 1900. Photographer: Unknown. Negative Number: N.53.16.4348 |
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The Bluegrass Gentlemen at the State Capitol Square, Raleigh, October 3, 1972. Photographer: Unknown. Negative Number: N.72.10.49 |
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Fiddlin' Bill Henseley, 1937. Photographer: Unknown. Negative Number: N.85.2.19 |
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James Borders, Bones player, and others at the N.C. Folklife Festival, 1978. Photographer: Unknown. Negative Number: N.85.10.11 |
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Roy "Whitey" Grant and Arval Hogan, musicians and members of the Briarhoppers of Charlotte. Photographer: Unknown. Negative Number: N.85.10.21 |
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Black Mountain College Collections
Black Mountain College was an experimental school located in Black Mountain, North Carolina. Established in 1933 by John A. Rice and others, the purpose of the college was to educate the whole person, with an emphasis on the role of the arts and creative thinking. Black Mountain College itself was owned by the faculty, with students playing a significant role in the decision making process. Although grades were kept for transfer purposes, they were not used to evaluate a student's progress. Both faculty and students participated in the work program, which included the daily chores necessary for the upkeep of the school. Despite the fact that Black Mountain College could rarely offer faculty more than room and board, a number of important teachers and artists were drawn to the school as part of the regular faculty or to participate in the school's Summer Institutes. However, in 1956 the school closed due to low student enrollment and dwindling funds.
To find out more about Black Mountain College, please visit our
Black Mountain College online exhibit or search the MARS online catalog. For more images from these collections, explore previous photo gallery pages.
Click on an image to see a larger view.
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Pages 5-6 from "building project" brochure. Collection: Black Mountain College Records; General Files; Publications, College: Publicity Flyers and Brochures, 1940-1941. |
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Promotional flyer for the Pottery Seminar, in conjunction with the Institute in the Crafts. Collection: Black Mountain College Records; General Files; Pottery Seminar, 1952. |
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Page one of a two page bulletin, Black Mountain College Bulletin, College Year 10, Bulletin 24, April 6, 1943. Collection: Black Mountain College Records; General Files; Publications, College: Black Mountain College Community Bulletin, College Year 10, 1942-1943. |
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Page two of a two page bulletin, Black Mountain College Bulletin, College Year 10, Bulletin 24, April 6, 1943. Collection: Black Mountain College Records; General Files; Publications, College: Black Mountain College Community Bulletin, College Year 10, 1942-1943. |
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Unnumbered pages 2-3 (panoramic view of the Studies building, Lake Eden and mountains) from a photographic viewbook. Collection: Black Mountain College Records; General Files; Publications, College: Publicity Flyers and Brochures, 1949-1950. |
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BMC Christmas card designed by Josef Albers. Collection: Black Mountain College Records; General Files; Publications, College: Postcards. |
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Reginald Aubrey Fessenden
Reginald Aubrey Fessenden was born in Quebec, Canada, on October 6, 1866. He achieved fame as an early pioneer in radio technologies and as a prolific American inventor and physicist. He is recognized as the originator of the continuous wave principle in wireless transmission, and as the inventor of the heterodyne system of reception. Among his better known inventions in fields other than radio are the fathometer (or sonic depth finder for ships), the smoke cloud for tanks, the turbo-electric drive for battleships, the wireless compass, and various submarine signaling devices. In his career, he was awarded many honors including the Institute of Radio Engineers medal of honor, the John Scott Medal by the Advisory Committee of the City of Philadelphia for his invention of continuous wave telegraphy and telephony; and the Scientific American Medal for his inventions promoting safety at sea.
Fessenden married Helen May Trott in 1890, and they had one son, Reginald Kennelly Fessenden. After brief stints working as a principal of a school in Bermuda, as a researcher for Edison Machine Works, as chief electrician for a Massachusetts Westinghouse plant, and as a professor of electrical engineering at Purdue University and at Western University of Pennsylvania, Fessenden came to North Carolina in 1900 under the auspices of the United States Weather Bureau to conduct experiments in wireless telegraphy on Roanoke Island in 1899. His two years' work here attracted considerable publicity and corresponded in time with the experiments of the Wright Brothers in that locality. Fessenden left the Weather Bureau and Roanoke Island in August of 1902 around the same time he formed the National Electric Signaling Company with Darwin S. Wolcott, patent attorney, and T. H. Given and Hay Walker, Jr., financial backers-the purpose of the company being to promote Fessenden's inventions. He left the company in 1911; and after years of litigation, lost his legal fight to gain the right to use his patents privately. It was reported that the company later sold these patents to Radio Corporation of America for three million dollars. Fessenden served as consulting engineer for the Submarine Signaling Company and for several prominent electrical companies from 1910 until his death on July 22, 1932.
Because of Reginald A. Fessenden's pioneer radio work on Roanoke Island in 1901 and 1902, Fessenden's son, at the suggestion of the Fessenden National Memorial Association, deposited the inventor's papers in the North Carolina State Archives in August of 1944 where they now reside and are available to researchers PC.1140. Most of the photographs displayed in this Gallery are from albums in the Fessenden Papers, PC.1140.13. A detailed description of this collection may be found in the Manuscript and Archives Reference System (MARS) available at http://mars.archives.ncdcr.gov.
More information on Reginald Fessenden and his pioneering work with wireless transmission and radio technologies can be found through the following links:
- The Hammond Museum of Radio
- United States Early Radio History
Click on an image in order to see a larger view.
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Portrait of Reginald Fessenden. Negative Number: N66.10.52 |
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Fessenden generator. Collection Information: #205137, PC.1140.13, Reginald Aubrey Fessenden Collection. |
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Reginald Fessenden's lab. Negative Number: N66.10.56. |
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Fessenden Experimental Site. Negative Number: N79.5.14. |
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Fessenden Equipment. Collection Information: PC.1140.13, Fessenden Papers. |
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Fessenden and Brant Rock Staff. Negative Number: N83.1.14. |
More Fessenden images...
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Outer Banks History Center
The Outer Banks History Center (OBHC) is a regional research facility located in Manteo, North Carolina, and administered by the North Carolina State Archives. Collections at the OBHC include manuscript materials, photographs, books, periodicals, maps dating from as early as 1584, newspapers and public records on microfilm, oral histories, audio and video recordings, ephemera, and original works of art. In addition to providing reference services and public access to these collections, the History Center staff contribute to the preservation of the history of the region by hosting various workshops and programs. Rotating exhibits are presented in the History Center Gallery throughout the year on topics as varied as the history of the region itself.
Click on an image in order to see a larger view.
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Repairs being made to the Wright Memorial Bridge, ca. 1940. The photograph was taken after a
harsh winter had frozen the sound, causing damage to the bridge.
Collection Information: Ben Dixon MacNeill Collection, 1889-1960; Outer Banks History Center.
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"Hound Fish" painting by Frank Stick. Collection Information: Frank Stick Collection; Outer Banks History Center. |
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"Amberjack" painting by Frank Stick. Collection Information: Frank Stick Collection;
Outer Banks History Center. |
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Fish House workers. Photographer: Bruce Roberts. Collection Information: Bruce Roberts Collection,
1930-; Outer Banks History Center. |
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Dancers at the Nags Head Casino. Collection Information: Aycock Brown Photographs, 1904-1984;
Outer Banks History Center. |
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Cape Hatteras Crew, 1921. Collection Information: United States Coastguard, United States
Lifesaving Service Portrait; Outer Banks History Center. Photograph Number: GRF-106-7. |
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Ship christening ceremony, ca. 1960s. Collection Information: Warren O'Neil Exhibit Collection; Outer Banks History Center. |
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Treasures
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Page one of the Charter of 1663. Composed of four pages, the Charter marks
the beginning of organized, representative government in the province of Carolina.
Even though the Proprietors had substantial power, the colonists were given
rights through the charter that were to have lasting influence on the region's
population and its history. For example, the charter provided for an assembly
that the Proprietors would call, composed of delegates of the "Freemen of said
Province;" there was a provision calling for religious tolerance; there was
assurance that colonists would be guaranteed the rights of that Englishmen
might expect to enjoy, including owning and disposing of property; and there
was authorization for the establishment of various courts in the Province.
To find out more about other rare treasures in the possession of the North
Carolina State Archives, please visit our
Treasures online exhibit.
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Last Modified: 01/04/2010
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