Underwritten in part by a grant front the National Endowment for the Humanities, the
original publication of The Way We Lived in Norik Carolina was the culmination of a six-
year project. Larry Misenheimer, then assistant administrator of the Historic Sites Section,
and William S. Price Jr., director of Archives and History, served as principal consultants.
They persuaded Sydney Nathans, a history professor at Duke University but not at that
point in his career a specialist in the Tar Heel State, to serve as general editor. That “out¬
sider” perspective proved invaluable, making the series especially useful to the reader with
no preconceptions about the state’s past.
The first edition met a ready audience. Historian Guion Griffis Johnson, who in the
1930s had pioneered the study of social history with her Ante-Bellum North Carolina, hailed
the series and credited the authors for their ability to encapsulate the central themes of
state history and identify the critical forces at work. The American Historical Association
in 1984 honored the series with the James Harvey Robinson Prize.
The new edition preserves the organizational arrangement of the original, with five dis¬
crete parts prepared by historians Elizabeth A. Fenn and Peter H. Wood, Harr)' L. Watson,
Thomas H. Clayton, Sydney Nathans, and Thomas C. Parramore. Editor Mobley extended
the original story down to the present, incorporated into the main text sidebars prepared by
Jean B. Anderson for the original volumes, and selected hundreds of new photographs.
Mark A. Moore, responsible for creating the maps for the new edition, has also
designed a w'ebsite accessible at www.waywelivednc.com, or by links on the Archives and
History site, www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us. The site is intended to complement the book and to
extend its audience. On the website are the full set of specially designed maps, approxi¬
mately 20 percent of the text, and over one hundred photographs from the book. Students
of state history, or anyone anticipating a visit to one of the state’s twenty-seven historic
sites, wall find the website a useful portal through w'hich to learn more about North
Carolina’s past and to plan their field trips.
Jeffrey J. Crow notes that the new' edition appears in the agency’s centennial year.
Founded in 1903 as the North Carolina Historical Commission, Archives and History, in
the words of longtime director Christopher Crittenden, w'as an advocate of “history for all
the people.” The Way We Lived in North Carolina, in Crow’s estimation, “embodies w’hat
Archives and History has done for a century so well.”
The book, available in hardcover ($34.95) and paperback ($24.95), can be ordered
directly from UNC Press, P.O. Box 2288, Chapel Hill, NC 27515-2288, or can be
purchased at bookstores throughout the state. The companion website is now online.
Hurricane Isabel Batters Sites, Museums, and Historical Markers
On September 18, Hurricane Isabel struck North Carolina, making landfall over the
Outer Banks and northern coast. Some of the most severe destruction occurred in Dare
and Chowan Counties, each with a state historic site. Northeastern sites escaped serious
damage but had numerous downed trees, loss of power, and minor damage to buildings.
Somerset Place lost approximately thirty-five trees, w'hile more than two hundred fell at
Roanoke Island Festival Park (RIFP).
Historic Edenton was perhaps the worst hit. The town was heavily damaged, with
numerous trees down. The chimney collapsed on the Ziegler House, home to the visitor
center, so division craftsmen covered part of the roof with a tarpaulin to prevent further
injury. The Iredell House had ceiling, plaster, and fence damage. The 1782 Barker House
sustained serious damage and remains closed indefinitely: the house was flooded waist-
deep and a three-by-five-foot hole was torn in the siding on the southeast comer of the
building. At the 1767 Chowan County Courthouse, a falling tree damaged a new ramp
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