North Carolina Resources: a General Guide: Primary Sources

ECU's Digital Collections include a wide variety of material on state and local history. Much of the material scanned from the library's Special Collections is related to ECU and North Carolina; photo negatives from the Daily Reflector's image collection may be especially helpful to those studying Greenville or Pitt County history. Library-curated digital exhibits include those on John Lawson (d. 1711), the origins of East Carolina University, desegregation at ECU, steamboats on the Roanoke River, the rise of the tobacco industry in Pitt County, and the Wright Brothers.

Joyner NC Microforms
The North Carolina Collection make available U.S. census records for all 100 counties in North Carolina, 1790-1930. Included are population schedules for all years, agriculture schedules (1850-1880), manufacturing schedules (1850-1880), and slave schedules (1850-1860).

Joyner NC Microforms
The North Carolina Collection has a series of county records on microfilm for counties in eastern North Carolina. Included are court minutes, deeds, estates records, wills, and other record series dating from the creation of each county to 1900.

The North Carolina Collection has more than 10,000 reels of microfilm containing newspapers published in North Carolina cities and towns, 1751-present. Search the Guide to North Carolina Newspapers by city or by date to determine holdings. The online catalog also provides access to the North Carolina Collection's holdings of newspapers on microfilm.