Raleigh
Dec 15, 2015
In the 1970s rising fuel prices generated the energy crisis, state government was reorganized and Richard Nixon resigned as president during the Watergate Crisis. At that time Gov. James Holshouser offered North Carolinians reassuring words about his replacement, Gerald Ford:
"President Ford will give us the kind of leadership that this country needs and deserves; and, of course, it is also good from a personal standpoint to know that because of the many visits Gerald Ford has made to North Carolina, he is familiar with us, with our problems, and with the challenges we face. I think we know that we have a friend in the White House."
Letters, addresses, speeches and other writings of Holshouser and several other North Carolina governors can be quickly accessed free online through North Carolina Digital Collections at http://digital.ncdcr.gov/cdm/home, a joint project of the State Library and State Archives. The documents inform us of our past and the attitudes and evolution of social issues. Gov. Terry Sanford spoke these words in a speech on civil rights:
"In this year of 1963, the most pressing domestic conflict in America has been the conflict over civil rights. I would not minimize the aspirations of anyone by saying that the great violation of civil rights is not the denial of the ballot. Nor is it the denial of the right to eat in a restaurant nor to see a movie nor to spend the night at a hotel. The greatest infringement on civil rights is the denial of the best educational opportunities a rich nation can provide for the boys and girls of America."
Most recently, the State Library posted correspondence from Governors Hunt, Martin, Moore, Sanford, Scott and Holshouser available through its State Publications portal. The State Archives has additional governor's papers available through its Governors Papers portal, extending to the early governors, Richard Caswell, Abner Nash and Alexander Martin.
"The North Carolina Digital Collections have broadened accessibility to original materials and published sources," says State Archivist Sarah Koonts. "A user may view the Carolina Charter of 1663, read the letters of a World War I soldier, examine census data, or view thousands of photographs chronicling the cultural history of our state. Our collections serve both scholars and the general public alike."
Primary and secondary materials are among the nearly 100,000 items in the North Carolina Digital Collections. Photographs, audio recordings, state and local government documents, artwork, maps, newspapers, and the entire run of Our State magazine are there for free viewing. Various types of formats have been combined to create "artificial collections" on topical subjects like African-American Education, the Food and Cooking Collection, or the Women, Marriage and the Law Collection.
For additional information on the N.C. Digital Collections, please call (919) 807-7326. The State Archives and State Library are within the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.