Rowan Public Library Edith M. Clark History Room

The Rowan County Public Library is located in Salisbury, North Carolina. It is home to the Edith M. Clark History Room, which concentrates primarily on Western North Carolina genealogy and history, including all areas of Rowan County.

The Edith M. Clark History Room’s holdings include over 19,000 books, 57,000 microforms, 268 manuscript collections, dozens of genealogical journals as well as a solid collection of civil war and civil war prison materials. Genealogy materials include abstracts, indices, and guides to primary source material used by genealogists as well as popular online databases – Ancestry.com and HeritageQuest. Local and regional oral histories, films, and maps also supplement the collection.

Collections that are available at the History Room include:
* High school annuals from the county
* Church and club newsletters
* City directories
* Local organizations’s minutes and scrapbooks
* Family letters
* Diaries
* Research notes

The McCubbins Surname Index is part of the Edith M. Clark History Room’s genealogy resources. The Rowan Public Library acquired the research papers of Mrs. Mary Louisa Gaskill “Mamie” McCubbins in 1954. The McCubbins Surname Index also includes the research of Jo White Linn, who left her research to the Rowan Public Library upon her death in 2005.

The McCubbins Surname Index can be viewed on the Edith M. Clark History Room website. It is only an index, and it intended to indicate whether a surname file exists or not. Genealogists can search the actual database at the History Room.

There are several Digital Exhibits that genealogists can view online. They include:

* Yesterday Photos – Photos that have appeared in the Salisbury Post
* Ramble through Rowan – Presented by The Friends of the Rowan Public Library in collaboration with Rowan Publics
* Buerbaum’s Salisbury – Theo Buerbaum’s Salisbury, a digitized collection of historical photos
* Catsby Vol. 1 – Catesby Collection Volume I
* Catsby Vol. 2 – Catesby Collection of Volume II

The Kluttz Map Collection focuses on the Early Landowners of Rowan County, North Carolina. The maps were published by James W. “Bill” Kluttz. They are presented by the Genealogical Society of Rowen County, which currently holds the copyright to these maps.

The Travels with Balfour Pink Exhibit is a collection of glass slides that were given to the Rowan Public Library from a local family. These magic lantern slides documented various paving and curbing projects done throughout the United States in the early 1900s. The Harris Granite Quarries Company was world-renown for Balfour Pink “The Granite Eternal.”

Related Articles at FamilyTree.com:

* Genealogy Resources at the Staunton Public Library

* Genealogy Resources at the St. Charles Public Library

* Genealogy Resources at Davenport Public Library