Thanks in part to five grants from the State Library more than 175,000 images from Greensboro history are now available online through an innovative project called Textiles, Teachers and Troops. Cultural Resources Secretary Susan Kluttz, Deputy Secretary Kevin Cherry and State Librarian Cal Shepard were on hand for the unveiling of the project earlier this month, and both the Secretary and Dr. Cherry spoke about the importance of making materials from libraries and archives available online for the public to explore.
A collaboration between seven institutions—Bennett College, Greensboro College, the Greensboro Historical Museum, the Greensboro Public Library, Guilford College, N.C. A&T University and UNC Greensboro—the project is aimed at making local history accessible to researchers, genealogists, students and others.
All seven institutions contributed photos, books, personal papers, scrapbooks and oral histories to the online repository, which tells the story of Greensboro’s growth from Reconstruction to World War II. Though the materials span a wide range of subjects, the collection has a special emphasis on the textile industry, education and military life and shows how these three areas helped the city develop into a regional powerhouse during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The grants that made the project possible were from federal Library Services and Technology Act funds that are administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and awarded by the State Library to eligible North Carolina libraries.