DigitalNC Resources

The North Carolina Digital Heritage Center is a statewide digitization and digital publishing program housed in the North Carolina Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Digital Heritage Center works with cultural heritage institutions across North Carolina to digitize and publish historic materials online.  The Transylvania County Library has been a contributor since 2010.

Logging and railroad photographs including this one 

of a steam crane loader were recently added to digitalnc.org.

Visit digitalnc.org to view photographs, yearbooks, newspapers, city directories and memorabilia covering Transylvania County’s history.  

The Images collection includes over 200 photographs of downtown Brevard, 500+ photographs of Transylvania County Schools and about 275 logging and railroad photographs.  The images can be browsed by subject or location.  Transylvania County locations include Brevard, Cherryfield, Davidson River, French Broad River, Lake Toxaway, Penrose, Pisgah National Forest, Quebec, Rosman and Sapphire.

Brevard High School annuals (1944-1962), Rosman High School annuals (1948-1962) and Brevard College yearbooks (1935-2003) are available except a small number of missing years for Rosman and Brevard College.  The Brevard College yearbooks were contributed by Brevard College.

Santa visits Ecusta.  The Echo, December 1949.

The Newspaper collection includes Sylvan Valley News (1900-1916) and Brevard News (1917-1922).  In the early 1900s there are only a small number of issues available.  Brevard College has contributed Weaver College, Rutherford College and Brevard College student newspapers.  The newest addition to the newspaper section is a complete collection of the Ecusta Echo (1940-1954).

 City Directories are a useful source of information for both genealogists and those researching businesses.  Only one city directory for Brevard (1962) was ever published.  There are several city directories from other western North Carolina cities, including Asheville and Hendersonville.

The Memorabilia collection includes scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, ledgers, manuscripts and other written accounts from North Carolinians past and present.  The Transylvania County Library and the Little River Community Center contributed 16 large format scrapbooks ranging from 1954 to 1984.  These scrapbooks contain news, events and photographs from the Little River Community.

Photographs and information for this column are provided by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room, Transylvania County Library.  Visit the NC Room during regular library hours (Monday-Friday) to learn more about our history and see additional photographs.  For more information, comments or suggestions contact Marcy at marcy.thompson@transylvaniacounty.org or 828-884-3151 X242.