Recently, I had the opportunity to discuss my ongoing World War II research and highlight archival materials from the East Carolina Manuscript Collection (ECMC) at several community libraries across eastern North Carolina. Partnering with my colleague and co-curator, we presented Remembering WWII Through the Power of Archives, a program designed to explore the lived realities of wartime through the lens of personal narratives and material culture preserved in the archives.

In the fall of 1898, Wilmington, North Carolina, was a city on the rise. Once the state’s largest and most prosperous port, it had become a rare example of post‑Reconstruction progress. Visitors to Wilmington found a city where Black citizens voted, held public office, and operated businesses. For a brief moment, Wilmington stood as evidence that a multiracial democracy could thrive in the South.

Carol Anderson’s 2018 work, One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy stands as one of the most forceful and clarifying examinations of the long American tradition of restricting the franchise in order to maintain power. In this sweeping yet incisive work, Anderson, who is a professor of African American Studies at Emory University and the acclaimed author of…

When visitors walk into an archives for the first time, they often imagine a pristine and complete record of the past, every important letter, photograph, and document neatly preserved, awaiting discovery. The reality is far more complicated. Archives are not neutral warehouses of memory. They are the product of choices, sometimes deliberate, sometimes accidental, about what is worth keeping and what is allowed to fade into obscurity.

If you have worked in an archive, you eventually get used to the inevitable questions that you will eventually be asked at some point in your career. “Have you read everything in here?” “Isn’t it all online by now?” “Do people really use this stuff?” At the beginning of my career when I finally came to accept that I could introduce myself as an archivist and not feel like a fraud, getting these questions frustrated me beyond belief.

Working in archives, I have handled my share of of historic materials that makes one pause and evaluate the item and story behind it. But Megan Rosenbloom’s Dark Archives: A Librarian’s Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin brought me face to face with the most unsettling kind of artifact: the anthropodermic book. Part historical exposé, part ethical inquiry, part personal reflection, Rosenbloom’s work opens the door to a practice many would prefer to stay closed.

For many books, the ability to achieve a balance between entertainment and education is a task too difficult to accomplish. This however, is not the case for MeatEater’s American History: The Long Hunters (1761–1775) by Steven Rinella and Clay Newcomb, Written by two figures known more for their work in hunting and outdoor media than traditional historical scholarship, this book brings the eighteenth-century American frontier to life in vivid, tangible detail.

Archival work carries a quiet intimacy often unnoticed by those outside the profession. A diary whose final entry was penned decades ago. A bundle of letters almost lost to history. A poem scribbled on what others might call scrap paper. These are not just objects, we handle them for what they are, and for what they mean. To the public, archives are often misrepresented as stagnant, quiet places where no one is allowed.

As a public historian who is interested in the ways that people encounter and engage with history beyond the walls of academia, as well as someone who likes to escape into occasional immersive video game, I approached Tore C. Olsson’s Red Dead’s History: A Video Game, an Obsession, and America’s Violent Past with a mixture of excitement and cautious optimism. I am not ashamed to admit that I spent well over 200 hours navigating the virtual western frontier and lawless towns of Rockstar’s…

There is a quiet rhythm to archival work. It is steady, methodical, and often invisible to the public eye. However, the tools that archivists such as myself use daily to complete our work are anyth…

The Department of the Interior is requiring the National Park Service to post signs nationwide by June 13 asking visitors for feedback on any information they feel misrepresents American history.

The Processed Past: Reflections on History and Archives explores the intersections of archival work, historical research, and public memory. Curated by archivist and historian Patrick Cash, this sp…

During the 1930s, North Carolina, like much of the United States, grappled with recurring outbreaks of measles, a highly contagious viral disease. The lack of widespread vaccination and limited medica...

Over the next year, in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, Joyner Library Special Collections will be highlighting items from the East Carolina Manuscripts Collection tha...

Twice a year, Americans adjust their clocks—springing forward an hour in March and falling back an hour in November. Daylight Saving Time (DST) has long been a topic of debate, with proponents arguing...

Over the next year, in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, Joyner Library Special Collections will be highlighting items from the East Carolina Manuscripts Collection tha...

Over the next year, in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, Joyner Library Special Collections will be highlighting items from the East Carolina Manuscripts Collection tha...

Over the next year, in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, Joyner Library Special Collections will be highlighting items from the East Carolina Manuscripts Collection tha...

Over the next year, in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, Joyner Library Special Collections will be highlighting items from the East Carolina Manuscripts Collection tha...