Eastern North Carolina Digital Library

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• Learn more about African Americans, American Indians, artifacts, Civil War, colonial, geography, history, North Carolina, political history, and primary sources.

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In 2003, East Carolina University’s Joyner Library began to digitize approximately 200 texts relating to the history of 29 counties in eastern North Carolina. Today the project boasts the digitization of local history texts, oral history texts, and fictional works which total “more than 60,000 original paper pages.” The website is an extremely rich source of primary and secondary documents related to Eastern North Carolina history, including maps, surveys, blueprints, documents, letters, novels, journals, diaries, and artifacts. All pages of historical texts may be enlarged and are available in an easy to read transcription.

Hundred of artifacts from the County Doctor Museum, the Historic Hope Plantation and the Tobacco Farm Life Museum are pictured and arranged alphabetically. The images can be manipulated by zooming in to see details, panning to specific areas of the image and even turning the image. Each artifact is described by its place of origin, measurements, material composition, and its use. Click on the audio/video feature to hear a narrator describe an artifact and how it was used. A transcript is also available. This feature will help students understand what life was like in their county many years ago.

Maps are listed alphabetically and include maps of battles fought during the Civil War, soil surveys, towns, Indian settlements, and even a map of the Lost Colony. The Maps section also uses the zoom and pan function for viewing detail.

The Classroom Resources section includes lesson plans for all grade levels. Texts can be searched by reading level as well. All of these resources are aligned to the North Carolina Standard Course of Study.