Governor Roy Cooper has proclaimed October 2019 as Archives Month in North Carolina, recognizing those who preserve and provide access to public records and archival materials in North Carolina’s archive repositories throughout the state.
The State Archives of North Carolina in Raleigh houses over a hundred million items relating to the development and culture of the state—the earliest piece in the collection is a map dating to 1584.
“The records we preserve are valuable for legal, administrative, and historical reasons,” states Sarah Koonts, North Carolina’s state archivist. “Archives throughout the state—those at colleges and universities, historical and genealogical societies, and in public libraries—all preserve the historical record to inform the future.”
The State Archives continually presents programs and projects to bring records to the public; hosts more than 100,000 records online; provides online tutorials and workshops; and hosts exhibits, displays, and special events. With satellite offices in Manteo and Asheville, the State Archives assists with research onsite, over the telephone, or by email.
The State Archives’ newest public program is a podcast that will begin broadcasting later in October and run through the end of the year. “Connecting the Docs” uncovers North Carolina stories by examining documents housed in the Archives. The theme of the first season is “murder, mystery, and mayhem” where archival documents connect to a crime, a misstep, or something mystifying in North Carolina’s past. The series will focus on four stories — the murders of Charlie Silver and Nell Cropsey, records of animals that have caused mayhem, and the story of the Carroll A. Deering, a ship whose crew mysteriously disappeared without a trace.
Visit the State Archives of North Carolina in person or online, https://archives.ncdcr.gov/. View thousands of historical photographs on the Flickr account, follow the blogs, or learn about preserving your own family papers by viewing tutorials on the State Archives’ YouTube channel.