In October 1954, Hurricane Hazel struck near Calabash, North Carolina, and lashed its way up the coast, creating 100 mph wind gusts and a storm surge that destroyed thousands of homes and other beach structures. The damage was so significant that the area around the Cape Fear coast was given the nickname “Hurricane Alley.” To this day, Hazel remains the strongest hurricane in North Carolina history and is the only Category 4 hurricane to have made landfall in the state. 

Though hurricane season runs from June through November, it peaks late August into September, so it's no surprise that September has historically been the busiest hurricane month for coastal North Carolinians. While recent storms like Florence in 2018 are still in recent memory, the pain of September hurricanes goes back decades. 

Let’s travel back in time via the WWAY Television News Archive to look at some you may have forgotten (or weren’t alive for yet!)... 

HURRICANE FRAN - 1996 

Not yet fully recovered from Hurricane Bertha in July, the Cape Fear coast took another hit on September 5, 1996, when Hurricane Fran landed as a Category 3. At the time, Fran was the costliest hurricane for North Carolina since Hurricane Hazel in 1954, due largely to a 10+ foot storm surge that destroyed homes and businesses from Kure Beach to Emerald Isle. Famously, Fran swept away the temporary North Topsail Beach police station. 

This clip shows trees being replaced in Downtown Wilmington three months after the storm destroyed many:

Source: "Wilmington Downtown Tree Planting to Repair Damage after Hurricane Fran," WWAY Television News Archive, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History

HURRICANE HUGO – 1989

On September 22, 1989, Hurricane Hugo—a Category 4 with winds as high as 140 mph—made landfall just north of Charleston, South Carolina, before moving up through North Carolina. The storm's intensity produced hurricane-force gusts that reached as far as western North Carolina and a historic storm tide nearing 20 feet. At the time, it was one of the strongest and costliest hurricanes to hit the East Coast. 

This clip shows the storm’s damage to Yaupon Beach in Oak Island just three days after: 

Source: "Yaupon Beach Damage from Hurricane Hugo," WWAY Television News Archive, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History

HURRICANE DIANA - 1984 

Hurricane Diana was the first hurricane to strike Southeast North Carolina since Hurricane Donna in 1960 and the first major hurricane since Hurricane Hazel in 1954. As the strongest hurricane of the 1984 season, Diana hit along the coast on September 13 as a Category 2, making landfall at Bald Head Island. Both New Hanover County and Brunswick County were met with flooding and overflowing lakes, the result of over a foot of rainfall. 

This clip shows residents of Bald Head Island who took shelter in the Old Baldy Lighthouse rather than evacuate the island: 

Source: "Bald Head Island Residents Evacuate during Hurricane Diana while Some Take Shelter in Lighthouse," WWAY Television News Archive, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History

As a final fun fact, all three hurricanes were severe enough that their names were retired from the official hurricane name list, which is maintained by the Hurricane Committee of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). 

You can search the WWAY Television News Archive digital collection for more hurricane-related videos, or check out the Calhoun Collection of Hurricane Preparedness Research and the North Carolina Coastal Federation Papers for guides and research on hurricane mitigation, evacuation plans, and recovery steps. 

In mid-century America, beauty pageants were a hit. The golden age of pageants began in the 1950s, when the Miss America competition in Atlantic City, New Jersey was first broadcast live on television to millions of excited viewers. State and local pageants, though smaller in scale, also experienced a streak of popularity. In North Carolina, a Wilmington resident named Hannah Block played a critical role in the pageant world. Block judged and directed numerous pageants across North Carolina and routinely coached and chaperoned pageant contestants to better their chances of success. Block even had a hand in securing the first and only Miss America win for a North Carolina contestant. 

During the 1950s, Hannah Block coached and chaperoned several Miss North Carolina winners, including Faye Arnold of Raleigh and Joan Melton of Albemarle, to compete in the Miss America competition. Although both Arnold and Melton were state winners, neither could snag the Miss America title. Nothing stopped Hannah Block’s enthusiasm, however. Quoted in a 1958 newspaper interview after losing that year’s Miss America, Block said of the pageant: “It is one of the most thrilling things I know of.”

It wasn't until the 1960s that a North Carolina contestant found success on the national level. After Maria Beale Fletcher of Asheville won the Miss North Carolina pageant in 1961, Hannah Block coached Fletcher for the upcoming competition in Atlantic City. Fletcher ultimately won the title of Miss America 1962. As winner, Fletcher received all the benefits of Miss America: an academic scholarship, a full schedule of social appearances, and hearty congratulations from family, friends, and fans. Block’s contributions were also well-applauded. When Special Collections staff organized Hannah Block’s Miss America records, dozens of congratulatory telegrams, cards, and letters were found and preserved. They serve as warm reminders of Block’s efforts, even 65 years later.

Hannah Block was an active figure in the Miss North Carolina and Miss America pageants, but she was also a coach, chaperone, judge, producer, and director at numerous regional and local pageants. The Hannah Solomon Block Collection features materials that show the depth of her involvement, and includes items like correspondence, pageant program books, nametags, newspapers, and photographs. Also present in the collection is evidence of Block's support of the Wilmington community; for example, the Hannah Block Historic USO at 120 South Second Street bears her name to commemorate Block's work coordinating performances for troops during World War II. To view these materials and other items related to Block's life, visit our Reading Room or contact us. 

Sources

• Newspapers, 1952-1967, Folder: 47, Box: 2. Hannah Solomon Block Collection, SC-MS-181, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History.
• Correspondence, 1960-1961, undated, Folder: 5, Box: 3. Hannah Solomon Block Collection, SC-MS-181, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History.

Summer has arrived to campus, no matter what the seasonal calendar says! It has been, as it always is, a busy year of processing manuscript collections, staffing our Reading Room, teaching with primary sources and rare books, creating catalog records, growing the Center’s digital collections, navigating technology upgrades, and countless other tasks.

The Center aims to connect the people and communities and Southeast North Carolina to the sources of their history and culture by collecting materials, providing access to those materials, sharing collections with the campus and broader region, encouraging and engaging scholarship on the region, and supporting and partnering with regional cultural heritage groups. You can see some of this history and culture, as well as the work we do to make it accessible, in blog posts completed by the Center across the year, discussing a variety of topics including:  

• Government Information librarian Elisabeth Garner wrote a series of posts about the North Carolina Manual’s history and content, starting here.
• University Archivist Adina Riggins wrote about records management at the University: how employees can tackle their records and the assistance that the University Archivist can provide. Also, if you’re reading this in May, check out June’s State Archives workshop specifically for higher education records management.
• Center specialist Isabella Walker used those University records to write about vocational education and the unexpected history of football on campus.
• Special Collections Specialist Nicole Yatsonsky complied clips from WHQR’s Sounds Local episodes that highlighted interviews with Black artists in honor of February’s Black History Month.
• Special Collections Librarian Rebecca Baugnon highlighted the materials available in Special Collections overall, and graduating student worker Sarah Creel shared holiday cards preserved in scrapbooks from the Reverend Edwin E. Kirton Family Private Papers collection.
• Public Services Archivist Samantha Crisp highlighted all kinds of materials, including two posts of fashion images in honor of Fashion Week on campus and (underrated?) film Muppets from Space, shot in town.

While the blog goes on hiatus for the summer, we will be continuing our work behind the scenes, providing access to collections through the Reading Room - by appointment - and preparing for August. I know it doesn’t seem like it but any academic librarian knows, the first day of classes is right around the corner! 

Summer has arrived to campus, no matter what the seasonal calendar says! It has been, as it always is, a busy year of processing manuscript collections, staffing our Reading Room, teaching with primary sources and rare books, creating catalog records, growing the Center’s digital collections, navigating technology upgrades, and countless other tasks.

The Center aims to connect the people and communities and Southeast North Carolina to the sources of their history and culture by collecting materials, providing access to those materials, sharing collections with the campus and broader region, encouraging and engaging scholarship on the region, and supporting and partnering with regional cultural heritage groups. You can see some of this history and culture, as well as the work we do to make it accessible, in blog posts completed by the Center across the year, discussing a variety of topics including:  

• Government Information librarian Elisabeth Garner wrote a series of posts about the North Carolina Manual’s history and content, starting here.
• University Archivist Adina Riggins wrote about records management at the University: how employees can tackle their records and the assistance that the University Archivist can provide. Also, if you’re reading this in May, check out June’s State Archives workshop specifically for higher education records management.
• Center specialist Isabella Walker used those University records to write about vocational education and the unexpected history of football on campus.
• Special Collections Specialist Nicole Yatsonsky complied clips from WHQR’s Sounds Local episodes that highlighted interviews with Black artists in honor of February’s Black History Month.
• Special Collections Librarian Rebecca Baugnon highlighted the materials available in Special Collections overall, and graduating student worker Sarah Creel shared holiday cards preserved in scrapbooks from the Reverend Edwin E. Kirton Family Private Papers collection.
• Public Services Archivist Samantha Crisp highlighted all kinds of materials, including two posts of fashion images in honor of Fashion Week on campus and (underrated?) film Muppets from Space, shot in town.

While the blog goes on hiatus for the summer, we will be continuing our work behind the scenes, providing access to collections through the Reading Room - by appointment - and preparing for August. I know it doesn’t seem like it but any academic librarian knows, the first day of classes is right around the corner! 

Flashback to a hundred years ago—it's the summer of 1926 and you’re riding the trolley from downtown Wilmington to Wrightsville Beach. The car rattles along the tracks, the air thick and humid, a warm breeze reaching you every now and again. As you cross Bradley Creek, the sun sets in the west behind you. You can hardly tell, though, as a second sun seems to rise from the ocean in the darkening distance.

But that’s no sun—that's Lumina [pictured¹].

When Lumina opened near the end of the Wrightsville Beach electric trolley line in 1905, over a thousand incandescent bulbs lit up the new entertainment pavilion. Built by Hugh MacRae, owner of the local electric utility, he hoped its brightness would encourage more people to use electricity. It did allow ships to navigate by it and was soon nicknamed "The Palace of Light."

Lumina had three levels of recreational activities for white leisure-seekers, like bowling at the ground floor lanes, dancing in the second-floor ballroom [pictured²], or taking in the sweeping ocean views from the top-level promenade. From there, you could also watch movies on the large, over-water screen [pictured³] or look down upon the dance floor below. The pavilion also featured restaurants, dressing rooms, and a dress code for the ballroom that staff enforced diligently.

After 1940, the pavilion faced several difficulties, like the closure of the trolley, increased automobile access to the beach, and newer entertainment options. It was damaged by Hurricane Hazel in 1954 and continued to decline through the 1960s, until it was finally condemned in 1972 and later demolished in 1973. The pavilion was located near what is now the Sandpeddler Inn & Suites on S. Lumina Avenue.

Though gone for over 50 years, Lumina continues to be a fond memory for those who once visited "The Palace of Light." A North Carolina historical marker (D-97) for Lumina, dedicated in 1992, can be found on Waynick Boulevard between Nathan Street and Iula Street.

For more information on Lumina and Wrightsville Beach history, visit the CSENCAH reading room to view these published works:

• Wrightsville Beach: A Pictorial History by Greg Watkins, 1997
• Cape Fear Lost by Susan Taylor Block, 1999
• Hometown Memories--Wilmington Tales: A Treasury of 20th Century Memories by Bob Lasley and Sallie Holt, 2002
• Lumina: Illuminating the Forgotten Past by the UNCW Department of Sociology, 2003

Image Sources:

Teaser: "Lumina" Wrightsville Beach, N.C., James Evans Postcard Collection

1. Lumina by Moonlight, Wrightsville Beach, Wilmington, N.C., James Evans Postcard Collection
2. Interior of Lumina Dancing Pavilion at Night, Wrightsville Beach Near Wilmington, N.C., James Evans Postcard Collection
3. Movies "Over the Waves" at Lumina, Wrightsville Beach, N.C., James Evans Postcard Collection

You can view these images and more in the digital collection of the James Evans Postcard Collection.

National Library Week may be over, but it’s never a bad time to appreciate our library. At UNCW Library, librarians and library workers have been providing services to students, faculty, staff, and community members for over 70 years. A great deal of change and growth occurred in the past few decades. Why not take a look back?

Wilmington College, the predecessor of UNC Wilmington, spent its earliest years sharing class space at New Hanover County High School on Market Street. In 1961, the college moved to a new campus on College Road, where just three buildings accommodated the school’s faculty, staff, and students. One of those structures, the Administrative Building, housed both the administrative offices and the library. In 1965, the North Carolina General Assembly approved funding for Wilmington College’s first stand-alone library. After years of sharing limited space, the library had room to grow. The library was completed in 1969 and named William Madison Randall Library after the school’s third president. More importantly (to us library workers, at least), Randall was also a trained librarian.

In 1987, additional construction on Randall Library was finished, adding more space for seating, employee areas, and—of course—books. The 1980s also saw the creation of computerized cataloging. In Randall and in other libraries across the country, the long-lasting card catalog was slowly replaced. Materials in our archive capture just how important the card catalog was to everyday operations in the library; a Randall Library guide from the 1970s called it “in many ways…the most important tool in the Library” (pg. 8).

Smatterings of growth occurred from the 1990s to the present day, including the opening of the Technology Assistance Center in 2008 and the creation of new annual traditions like the African American Read-In, the FlashLIT writing contest, and the much-loved 48 Hour Film Competition. Significant change arrived in 2022 when construction began on a library expansion and renovation project. With the project’s completion in 2024, Randall Library became Randall Hall, while the new structure connected to Randall’s western side was dubbed Discovery Hall. Together, the two buildings—and the employees, services, technology, and resources they hold—make up today’s UNCW Library. 

To learn more about the history of UNCW Library, view our Digital Collections records, which include textual materials and photographs concerning Randall Library. You can also visit our digital exhibit all about library history. It includes floor plans, a helpful timeline, and even more photographs!

The book Just Yesterday: North Carolina People and Places features photography produced by Bruce Roberts, described as "a prominent twentieth-century photographer." These prints cover everyday life, from ordinary tasks to people doing all kinds of work, capturing "the essence of life in North Carolina in the mid-to late twentieth century." The photographs have been divided by four geographic regions across the state of North Carolina: the Outer Banks, the East, the Piedmont, and the Mountains. For those who grew up in North Carolina or have lived here for quite some time, several of the images may be recognizable and nostalgic.

Beginning with the Outer Banks, there are countless photos of this unique area of our state. Some of the photos include images of many fishermen partaking in a time-honored tradition to our coastal areas. The Cape Hatteras lighthouse features prominently over a few pages, along with the Bodie Lighthouse surrounded by a light blanket of rare snow. One Stacy Franklin Guthrie was highlighted in a photograph, depicting the elderly gentleman next to one of many boats he crafted on his own property. Images from shrimping and fishing boats are brilliantly captured in both black and white and color, depicting large net catches of the highly valued seafood.

Closer to Wilmington's geographic area of southeastern North Carolina, the book next focuses on the East, with a full-page black and white photograph taken in Robeson County from 1959. It shows a father and son walking together next to a large oak tree, as the father holds a hoe. In his description, Roberts states that the son will assuredly use newer methods of farming, namely a tractor. Let us not forget that tobacco was once king in North Carolina, with photos depicting many instances of this crop and how it was farmed. Men walking through tobacco houses at an auction, women separating dried tobacco leaves as a result of the "flue-cured" process, and stories of men placing bricks in the bottom of their tobacco piles since "it was paid for by the pound."

The battleship USS North Carolina is also featured, in a photograph from 1961 returning to Wilmington "after being mothballed since World War II in the naval reserve fleet." Roberts talks about the statewide fundraising, where "thousands of students contributed dimes and quarters to the effort" of bringing the ship to Wilmington. 

Another notable photo in this section devoted to "the East" depicts Suzy Sterling, a white 18-year-old college student with a very young African American child sitting on her lap, staring into each other’s eyes. Sterling had "joined ninety-nine other North Carolina college students in the opening battle of a statewide interracial war on poverty." The photo was taken in Rockingham, NC, in an old two-room schoolhouse in which Sterling had been sent to work in a daycare, playing with and teaching the young students. The little boy in her lap had just fallen and was seeking attention when Sterling pulled him up onto her knees and they proceeded to have a staring contest. This image went on to be included as a full page "in the state of North Carolina’s official history book for eighth graders in 1992" and Roberts exhibited it at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

This book shares beautiful photos of people and places throughout the Piedmont and mountain areas of our state. It is worth a leisurely look at, to  appreciate the varied aspects of our state’s history over the last several decades.

The State Archives has opened registration for a June workshop that many employees on campus may find valuable: Managing Public Records for Higher Education Employees. 

This free, virtual workshop provides an overview of the maintenance, retention, and disposition of public records for employees in the UNC System and the NC Community College System. It’s the perfect class for higher education employees who want an introduction or a refresher on how to take care of public records. 

When:  Tuesday, June 9, from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM. 

Register:  online via the State Archives.  

The workshop will be recorded so if you register, following the workshop you will receive a link to the recording.

The City of Wilmington’s roots in the film industry reach back to at least 1983, when producer Frank Capra, Jr., selected several local spots as filming locations for his project, Firestarter. The Center’s collections offer a treasure trove of information on the film industry in North Carolina, featuring documents such as scripts, casting headshots, posters and publicity material, original artwork, and production files for both feature films and television shows.

One of the Center’s most extensive collections related to the film industry is MS 175 Fincannon and Associates Script Collection. Fincannon and Associates, a casting agency based in Wilmington, was founded in 1979 by Craig Fincannon, later assisted by his brother, Mark. The company has been involved with numerous major motion pictures and television shows over its 40-plus years of operation, collaborating with major industry leaders such as Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Dino DeLaurentiis.  

One such project was 1999’s Muppets from Space, filmed locally at Screen Gems Studios in Wilmington, located out near the airport. Shooting began in the fall of 1998. It was the second Jim Henson production to be shot in Wilmington, after Elmo in Grouchland, which wrapped earlier that summer. Muppets from Space centers on the character Gonzo, who discovers his extraterrestrial origins after years of referring to himself as “a whatever.” In addition to Screen Gems Studios, other filming locations included the Dixie Cement Company and Fort Fisher; the house shared by the Muppets in the film was located on North Seventh Street. Stars such as Jeffrey Tambor, Andie MacDowell, and Ray Liotta traveled to Wilmington to shoot scenes alongside local cast members and extras. The film must have been a fun challenge for Fincannon and Associates to cast, due to the large number of cameo appearances made by major celebrities (for which the Muppets franchise is well known).

Below are some samples of documents from the production, all reproduced from the Fincannon and Associates Script Collection. If you’d like to learn more about this region’s connection to the film industry, check out the Center’s subject guide, Hollywood East: Film in Southeast North Carolina. Or you can visit our reading room to view these original documents in person.