H.G. Jones, former curator of the North Carolina Collection, once boasted that the collection holds everything written about North Carolina or by North Carolinians.
"At first, I didn't believe him, but I soon discovered he was right," recalls Sam Ragan, editor of The Pilot in Southern Pines, state poet laureate and a collection patron for more than 20 years. "And no matter how obscure the publication or reference is, collection staff can always find it in a matter of minutes."
Housed in Wilson Library, the collection offers a quarter of a million books, pamphlets, maps, newspapers and audiovisual materials highlighting four centuries of the Tar Heel state. In addition, photographic archives house 400,000 negatives, prints and postcards, and a collection gallery displays more than 1,100 artifacts.
Today the collection bears little resemblance to its modest roots. In 1844, UNC President and Gov. David L. Swain commissioned a campus society to "acquire every known book, pamphlet and newspaper printed in the state since the introduction of the printing press." The initial collection included 32 publications and 11 manuscripts.
As long as a work is published by a North Carolinian, regardless of subject or language, or relates to the state and its people, regardless of author or language, it qualifies for inclusion in the collection, considered the largest and most comprehensive grouping of published materials on a single state in the nation.
"Often called the `conscience of the state,' the North Carolina Collection is a unique, irreplaceable record of life in North Carolina," says Robert G. Anthony Jr., collection curator since 1994.
"Over the decades, it has preserved thousands of literary, visual and artifactual materials related to the state and its people," he says. "The collection represents a major commitment by the University at Chapel Hill to serve all North Carolinians. No matter what they are researching, we usually can help illuminate their story."
Something to be proud of
From whimsy to historical research, collection patrons can read the General Assembly's session minutes dating back to the late 18th century; scan newspaper accounts of Revolutionary War life, beginning with the 1777 N.C. Gazette of New Bern; dig into church and county histories; read comments from Thomas Wolfe's grade-school teacher; or learn why North Carolinians are called Tar Heels.
"North Carolina's literary heritage is something to be proud of," Ragan says. "When you bring together such a magnificent collection in one place, it is a source of pride for everyone in the state."
Joyce Gibson of Laurel Hill could not agree more.
Fifteen years ago, she first visited the collection to study a local historical figure and found such a wealth of information, she penned a history of Scotland County. Now she is working on a second volume.
"I love the North Carolina Collection," Gibson says. "They have just about everything ever printed on North Carolina. And whatever subject I was interested in--temperance, for instance--I could look up a variety of individuals and related topics as well as newsletters on the subject. Not only are there a wealth of materials, the staff is indispensable in tracking down information."
Allen Trelease, professor emeritus of history at UNC-Greensboro, has relied on the collection for 30 years.
"The North Carolina Collection is absolutely essential to anyone who is doing serious work on North Carolina history," he says. "Our library (at UNC-G) has excellent resources, but I always need some fairly obscure or rare publications that exist only in the collection."
For three decades, Trelease has published various histories of the Tar Heel state, including those focusing on UNC-G, North Carolina's railroads and the Ku Klux Klan, as well as three recently published biographical sketches of North Carolinians for American National Biography.
The collection offers the not-so-serious researcher an array of materials as well.
Billy Arthur, contributing editor for The State magazine, began perusing the collection's accounts of life in the 18th and 19th centuries as a UNC student in the 1930s.
"One of my professors, Dr. R.D.W. Connor, suggested if I wanted to work for the state newspapers, I should know everything about the state," he says. "So I began to read all kinds of materials in the North Carolina Collection."
For the past 40 years, Arthur has visited the library regularly to collect vignettes of humor statewide.
"The cultured people want to call them anecdotes, but I call them jokes," Arthur says. "Whatever you call them, the stories I've found show that human nature hasn't changed much at all during the centuries."
Growing without state funds
The collection expands constantly. For instance, 13,000 items were added last fiscal year. These include books, pamphlets, maps, microfilm and microfiche, individual serial issues, state government depository publications and audiovisual materials. Photographic archives also grew by nearly 3,500 photographic images.
During the same period, staff supplied researchers with more than 28,000 items and answered 15,400 reference or directional questions, including nearly 13,000 of them face to face on site.
The collection operates without any state-appropriated funds for acquisitions. Proceeds from the Carolina Inn, donated to the University 60 years ago by 1889 graduate John Sprunt Hill, have provided the major financial support since the inn was built.
"Simply put, were there no Carolina Inn there would not be a North Carolina Collection as we know it today," Anthony says.
Acquisitions also are funded by other individuals and private groups, like the North Caroliniana Society, a nonprofit corporation founded to promote and preserve state history and culture.
The collection's countless publications, photographs, audio visuals and artifacts are a refuge for many people.
"I absolutely love the North Carolina Collection," Gibson says. "The other day, my husband and I were traveling to Chapel Hill, and I felt lost because I finished my research and had no need to visit the collection."
She undoubtedly will be back.
Tales of Tar Heel patriots are told in this issue of The Liberty Boys of '76, part of the Cotten Collection in the N.C. Collection.
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