February 24, 1934 THE STATE Page Eleven
FAGTS ABOUT OUR STATU GOVERNMENT
No. 16— North Carolina Historical Commission
(This is the sixteenth of a scries of
articles on lli e duties, functions and
history of the several departments of
North Carolina s state government.)
By W. J. SADLER
★
Gathering and preserving for this
generation and for posterity t lie volu¬
minous collection of historical data
relating to the history of North Caro¬
lina is under the capable direction of
I)r. A. R. Newsome, secretary of the
North Carolina Historical Commis¬
sion. and he is enthusiastic about his
work.
Five thousand manuscript volumes
ami 1,250,000 letters and papers of
state and county governments, organi¬
zations of all kinds, families and in¬
dividuals; 40,000 pages of transcripts
and photostats of records in England
and Spain; 1,000 maps; many thou¬
sands of issues of nearly 250 North
Carolina newspapers dating from 1751.
make of the Historical Commission
the actual as well as the official cen¬
ter of original research in North Caro¬
lina history.
“The collections of the Commis¬
sion,’’ recently said Dr. Newsome in
an interview, “have made North Caro¬
lina history attractive to researchers
who ure producing an unprecedented
number of reputable books on the his¬
tory of North Carolina and the South.
Thus the state is well on the correct
road to its proper and worthy place
in the story of the nation’s life.
“Nearly 2,000 students from 35
states visit North Carolina’s official
historical agency each year to gather
new information from the vast store
of yellowed manuscripts for use in
writing scholarly books and articles,
working out family lines, erecting
markers and gravestones to departed
leaders in various walks of life, deter¬
mining boundary lines, and for other
purposes.
“Not content to draw students to
its historical records, the Commission
has taken the state’s history to the
students of the nation through its more
than a score of printed volumes of the
letters and records of Murphey, Ruffin.
Worth, Shotwell, public schools, Mora¬
vians, etc., and its magazine, the North
DR. A. R. NEWSOME
- ★ -
Carolina Historical Review, which go
into the hands of alert North Caro¬
lina teachers and into the leading li¬
braries of the United States and some
of the countries of Europe.
“Thousands of historical inquiries
each year come from far and wide.
Tens of thousands of school children,
citizens anil tourists visit the famous
Hall of History in charge of Col. Fred
A. Olds, filled with relics, pictures,
documents, portraits and busts.
“Each year intelligent, patriotic
citizens deposit thousands of their pre¬
cious family letters and pnpere as
loans or gifts. They are cleaned, scien¬
tifically repaired by Mrs. Elizabeth
Winfree, and properly labeled and filed
in a unit for preservation and use in
the fireproof archives room. The his¬
torical world soon learns of them
through the Commission’s printed bi¬
ennial reports.
“Historians and graduate students,
eager for professional distinction and
advanced degrees, are ns irresistibly
attracted to a collection of historical
records as moths to a flame. Massa¬
chusetts and some other states discov¬
ered long ago the only sure method
of getting state history written, known,
and appreciated : collect the original
manuscript sources and make them
available in depositories and through
publications. Historians will then beat
a path to the depository, gather in¬
numerable new facts, and illuminate
the history of the state by writing and
publishing articles, monographs, gen¬
eral histories, and textbooks. North
Carolina, whose history was long
slighted by the nation’s historians, has
been pursuing the correct historical
method since
1П03
through its official
agency, the North Carolina Historical
Commission.
“Never before has the history of
North Carolina received such exclusive
and intensive investigation or so wor¬
thy a place in the story of the na¬
tion’s life. The current annual average
of 1.700 visits to the Commission by re¬
searchers from 35 States has already
resulted in a dozen historical volumes
published within the past five years,
a dozen or more monographs and text¬
books now in manuscript on the way
to publication, nnd numerous histor¬
ical and genealogical studies now in
process.
"Thousands of historical inquiries
receive attention each year, and tens
of thousands of school children, citi¬
zens and tourists visit the notable col¬
lection of relics, pictures, busts and
portraits in the Hall of History.
School teachers and pupils make ex¬
tensive use of the Commission's pub¬
lications. Its records are used to sup¬
port pension claims, legal arguments
in civil oases, applications for head¬
stones to veterans’ graves, and appli¬
cations for membership in patriotic
societies. Its active cooperation has re¬
sulted in the marking of scores of his¬
toric spots.
"If the original accounts of the Ra¬
leigh colonies of 15S5-S7 had not been
preserved, no one would know that the
birth of English civilization, the birth
of the first child born of English par¬
ents and the first known Protestant
religious service in the New World oc¬
curred on the soil of present-day North
Carolina.
"Recognizing North Carolina his¬
tory as one of the State’s chief assets
for education, culture, good citizen¬
ship and patriotism, the Historical
Commission is pursuing the sound,
well-tested and universally recognized
course leading to the goal of a state
history that is written, known, and
appreciated.”
( The next article in this scries about
the operations of North Carolina's de-
]>art merits of state government wilt ap¬
pear in an early issue of
Тик
Statk.)
