North Carolina Miscellany

“In the late 1950s, the Proctor Electric Co. built an ultra-modern, $1,500,000 manufacturing plant which became the largest in the country devoted exclusively to electric automatic toasters.  ...

https://blogs.lib.unc.edu/ncm/2023/08/28/new-in-the-collection-mt-airy-toaster-key-ring/

  “A final championship came to Crockett Park in 1984 —  a joyous moment in the face of a tragedy to come. After a March 1985 high school playoff game, three juveniles came back to the bal...

https://blogs.lib.unc.edu/ncm/2023/08/21/new-in-the-collection-last-crockett-park-program/

Scottish-born William Muirhead founded the Muirhead Construction Co. in Durham in 1924. The company’s projects included Chapel Hill’s first large apartment complex, wartime Camp Butner, the r...

https://blogs.lib.unc.edu/ncm/2023/08/14/new-in-the-collection-20/

“There were plenty of emotional moments that Koch didn’t expect, especially when she looked down at Earth and saw a thin line of land jutting into the Atlantic that she could follow up the m...

https://blogs.lib.unc.edu/ncm/2023/08/07/new-in-the-collection-19/

“While it will not be a year old until Nov. 15, , it is now marketed in 27 states…. Our sales have shown over 100 percent increase each month.” — B. R. Stone, president, Nu-Shine Manufact...

https://blogs.lib.unc.edu/ncm/2023/07/31/new-in-the-collecltion/

  “As with cotton, the price of milk was volatile. ‘Milk wars’ were common, as distributors continuously undercut one another…. “According to the Gaston Gazette, a milk war was occurri...

https://blogs.lib.unc.edu/ncm/2023/07/24/new-in-the-collection-gastonia-milk-bottle/

  “In order to develop atomic weapons during World War II, the federal government needed a source of energy to power the top-secret Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Out of that need the Fontana ...

https://blogs.lib.unc.edu/ncm/2023/07/17/new-in-the-collection-fontana-dam-tape-measure-2/

  “Clothing designers sent the grunge look down runways for spring, but thanks to the Dickens Fair, Raleigh will be full of fashionables sporting their own brand of street-urchin wear next wee...

https://blogs.lib.unc.edu/ncm/2023/07/10/new-in-the-collection-dickens-festival/

Wilmington Fertilizer Co. must have been among the most prominent of the city’s many such manufacturers, but I’ve had little luck nailing down details of its existence. This sign claims 1889 ...

https://blogs.lib.unc.edu/ncm/2023/07/03/38728/

Ah, Joe Camel. Once you were everywhere — from convenience-store doors to playing cards to koozies. By 1997, however, public criticism and relentless litigation led RJR to end your reign. Why d...

https://blogs.lib.unc.edu/ncm/2023/06/26/new-in-the-collection-store-door-stickers/