Yearbooks: An Untapped Resource

    Among the many rare and unique resources in the Verona Langford North Carolina Collection is a steadily growing assortment of institutional directories, high school and college yearbooks.

    Availability of years for titles on hand is far from being comprehensive, but in a number of instances the fact that a certain title has survived at all is probably the most interesting point to be made.

    The North Carolina Collection has two (1905, 1907) of only a few issues known to exist of The Pansy, the yearbook of the long defunct Littleton Female College. Located in Littleton, N.C., the school was in existence from 1882-1919, and for a time was a leading force for educating young women in the eastern part of the state.

    East Carolina University’s Tecoan began life in 1923 as the institution’s first yearbook.  Renamed the Buccaneer in the 1950s, the publication carried on until 1990 when it was discontinued.  In connection with celebrations leading up to the university’s centennial year, the Buccaneer was reborn in 2006 and is expected to continue the tradition of chronicling ECU’s yearly progress.

    The Hellenian began the custom of student yearbooks at UNC-Chapel Hill.  Running from 1890 to 1901, the serial was renamed the Yackety Yack in 1902. Noteworthy among NCC’s holdings is the 1895 Hellenian, celebrating UNC’s one-hundredth year and the 1920 Yackety Yack, a coveted item among Thomas Wolfe aficionados, with information concerning the famed author, then a senior classman at the school.

    High school yearbooks also abound in the North Carolina Collection.  Many have come into the library as gifts over the years, others purposely sought.

    Green Lights was the title of the Greenville High School annual as far back as the early 1940s. After Greenville High was renamed J.H. Rose, the yearbook became The Tau and continued as such until the early 1970s when it again was renamed The Visa.

    A sampling of other titles and dates includes The Tar-bo-rah (Tarboro High School, late 1930s), The Ro-Rap (Roanoke Rapids High School, 1940s), the 1924 Kayaitchess (Kinston High School) and The Packromak (1944) from Washington High School.

    Some recent acquisitions for the North Carolina Collection are yearbooks for Farmville Central High School; namely, Archway (1960s) and Pawprints(1970s and 80s) and various issues of Columbian and The Clapper from the former Belvoir-Falkland High School given in memory of  former Pitt County educator Lewis Sellers Lawrence.

    Persons wishing to contribute missing issues and/or titles not currently held by the North Carolina Collection are encouraged to do so. Area residents and visitors as well as members of the university community are welcome to use the North Carolina Collection located on the third floor of Joyner Library.  Call 252-328-6601 or view the website at http://www.ecu.edu/cs-lib/ncc/index.cfm.
 

Fred Harrison is a staff member with the North Carolina Collection.