Postcards of North Carolina

Having a collection of postcards from an ancestral hometown state or region can be better than even photos. They are professionally done, can be lessen known or no longer in existence locations and usually there is some description to each.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has online a super collection of postcard images for the state of North Carolina. There is approximately 12,000 postcards and they cover all the counties of the state. Plus this collection is adding more postcards in digital format each month. Along with each postcard image is any available information or description to help of the name, the location and date.

There is a search box in the upper right side. You can search by a specific location or a certain topic – subject. Click on a selection and the image will enlarge. Scroll down for additional information relating to the card. The variety of subjects and topics of a card are numerous. Besides buildings, schools, churches, businesses, homes, industries, street scenes, there are scenes of African-American workers, actors, military units, natural disasters, transportation systems, sports, children, parades, family photos, hog killing, picnics, soldiers, etc.

Putting in a family surname could produce individuals or places with that name. Placing the keyword ‘Indian’ or ‘Cherokee’ produced 96 postcards, a nice variety of such images. Kitty Hawk and the Wright Brother flying feats of 1903 are done on postcards. There is a ‘download’ button to save any of the images to your computer.

The places, people and events are very well represented in the North Carolina postcards.

Newland Hall for Boys, dormitory, at the Appalachian Training School, Boone, N.C, in 1911, signed by J.G.G. who worked at the school.