Durham North Carolina

Local history institutions

  “Welcome to Durham'' City of Durham.CivicPlus, Accessed Feb 21,2024, Durham, NC | Official Website (durhamnc.gov).

The official website of the City of Durham there are a lot of tabs to go and get different information on Durham. This site gives you the modern and current lens of what is going on in Durham now.

  “The Durham Museum” National Trust for Historic Preservation, Accessed Feb 21, 2024,The Durham Museum | National Trust for Historic Preservation (savingplaces.org).

This website is for the National Trust for Historic Preservation here you can navigate to things that the National Trust for Historic Preservation is doing. This website specifically focuses on a historical building in Durham that was saved by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

  “Museum History” Official Website.McNealy Design and STsteet, Accessed Feb 21,2024 Museum of Durham History.

This website is on the homepage of the Museum of Durham. From here you can navigate to different exhibits and events that they have going on and they also have a page of different videos that they have up informing you on some historical events old and recent that happened in Durham.

  “Digital Materials at Duke University Archives” Duke University Libraries. Duke University, Accessed Feb 21, 2024 Publications, Photographs, Audio/Video, and Maps - Digital Materials at Duke University Archives - LibGuides at Duke University

This website gives you information about the Duke university archives collection. Duke university is in Durham making Durham a  part of the research triangle in North Carolina

Libraries and collections

“Home Page”Durham County Library, Accessed Feb 21, 2024 Durham County Library.

This is the home page of Durham county library and here you can navigate to a variety of things. This page can also lead you to more historical information and some current things in Durham.

  “Welcome to Durham County Library’s Digital Collections”Durham County Library, Accessed Feb 21,2024 Durham County Library Digital Collections | Durham County .Library.

On this page there is the home page of the digital collection of Durham County Library. There are about seven pages that you can go to. From there there are things like Durham city markets, Historical photograph collection, a bunch of different family photos and papers, Durham commerce letters and many more items in this collection.

  “Durham Civil Rights Heritage Project Collections” Durham County Library, Accessed Feb 21, 2024 Durham Civil Rights Heritage Project Collection | Durham County Library.

This page is from the Durham county library from the digital collection and it is the Durham Civil Rights Heritage Project collection. In this collection is 125 photos and 22 oral histories, and these accounts share some people's experiences living in a segregated life, and their involvement in the movement and the photos also capture this. 

  “Old North Durham Architecture Site” Durham County Library, Accessed Feb 21, 2024 Old North Durham Architecture Slides | Durham County Library.

 One collection from the Durham Library that I found interesting was the Old North Durham Architecture site. This showed a lot of pictures of the inside, outside, and specific parts of historical houses. Additionally, it also showed restoration and rehabilitation of historic preservation projects.

  “Learn - History Beneath our Feet” Museum of Durham History, McNealy Design and DStreet, Accessed FEb 21, 2024 History Beneath our Feet - Museum of Durham History.

This is another collection found in the Museum of Durham History that I found interesting. This collection is called history beneath our feet, it is a searchable resource that helps discover the origins of many important historical places and areas in Durham’s history.

  “Durham Public Library, Home” Durham Public Library, Accessed Feb 21,2024 Durham Public Library.

This is the home page of the Durham public library and from here you can navigate to different pages to different events that the library is doing and different collections that the library has.

  “Durham County Library'' Digital NC, Accessed Feb 21, 2024 Durham County Library · DigitalNC.

This is the digital archives for Durham library and here is a good resource to find newspapers or articles from almost any year from Durham.

  “About Open Durham'' Open Durham. Preservation Durham, Accessed Feb 21 ,2024About Open Durham | Open Durham.

This site is the about page to open Durham that has partnered with Preservation Durham in 2016. This site is an archive site built by the community of historical places, people, and history in Durham.

  “Welcome to the City of Durham” City of Durham. CivicPlus, Accessed Feb 21,2024 Welcome to The City of Durham | Durham, NC (durhamnc.gov).

This site is a page from Durham City official website. This page tells you specifically what Durham is known for which is medicine and why that is. 

 Archival collection

  “Durham Urban Renewal Clipping, Volume 1, Feb 1” North Carolina Collections. DigitalNC, Accessed Feb 21,2024 Durham Urban Renewal Clippings, Volume 1 (digitalnc.org).

This Urban Renewal clipping was from 1961-1963, which are significant dates because that is when urban renewal started to become very popular in America. Thai shows how that shift in historical preservation and urban planning affected Durham.

  Guild-map of Durham, North Carolina, Courtesy of Durham Bank and Trust Co” North Carolina Collections. DigitalNC, Accessed Feb 21, 2024 Guide-Map of Durham, North Carolina, Courtesy of Durham Bank & Trust Co. (digitalnc.org) 

This is a historical map from 1955 printed by Durham Bank and Trust Co. This Map is interesting because it shows how Durham was before its urban revival projects in the 1960s and it is an interesting change to see Durham in 1955 and the 1961 when the Urban revival projects started and how urban revival changed Durham.

Newspapers

  “Search Results Durham'' North Carolina Newspapers. DigitalNC, Accessed Feb 21, 2024 Search Results · North Carolina Newspapers (digitalnc.org).

This scours shows only newspapers from Durham. This collection has about 955,481 digital newspapers available for anyone to view from 1775-2023.

  “Newspapers, Newsletters, and Periodicals,” Durham County Library, Accessed Feb 21, 2024 Newspapers, newsletters, and periodicals – Durham County Library.

This source gives a list of newspapers and magazines that involve Durham. People can click and view multiple volumes from each newspaper or magazine  about Durham that is available through the Durham County Library.

Books about Durham

 “Books about Durham'' Programs and initiatives. Duke Trinity College of Arts and Science, Accessed Feb 21, 2024 Books About Durham | Service-Learning (duke.edu).

This source is a list of books from Duke university that are about Durham. 

  Bradley, Jean Anderson, Durham County: A History of Durham County, North Carolina, North Carolina, (Duke University Press, 2011).  Duke University Press - Durham County (dukeupress.edu)

This is a book from Duke University Press that is about the history of Durham county.

  Green, Christina, Our Separate Ways: Women and the Black Freedom Movement in Durham, North Carolina, (the University of North Carolina Press, 2005). Our Separate Ways: Women and the Black Freedom Movement in Durham, North ... - Christina Greene - Google Books

This book gives a detailed account of Women's movements and African American freedom movements in Durham. The time period that this book starts to focus on is 1950s-1940s and the book goes more into depth in 1957-1963 Movements in Durham.

  Durden, Robert F., The Dukes of Durham 1865-1929,(Duke University Press, 1975). The Dukes of Durham, 1865-1929 - Robert Franklin Durden - Google Books

This book is about how the Duke brothers got started and how they started the tobacco industry in Durham, North Carolina.

Documentaries about Durham

  “Durham’s Black Wall Street: Grounds for the Future”Boss The Black Experience in Business. PBS, Accessed 21,2024 Durham’s Black Wall Street: Grounds for the Future | Video | Boss: The Black Experience in Business | PBS.

This is a documentary on a historical place in Durham called Black Wall street and how this was a center for a big population of successful business and entrepreneurship too in the African American community in this area called Black Wall street. 

  “Durham: A Self-Portrait 150” PBS North Carolina. PBS, publication date11/05/2020 Durham: A Self-Portrait 150 Extras | PBS North Carolina Presents | NMPBS (knme.org).

This documentary is about the rise and fall and revitalization of Durham in the past 150 years.

  “Learn-Durham Stories” Stranger Times. Museum of Durham History, Accessed Feb 21, 2024 Durham Stories - Museum of Durham History

This is a collection of videos from the Museum of Durham History. This collection of videos are about how COVID affected Durham.

Something that they are known for historically

  “Cultivation of a Tobacco Empire”, North Carolina Historical Sites, North Carolina Division of State Historical Sites and Properties, Accessed Feb 24, 2024 Cultivation of a Tobacco Empire | NC Historic Sites

This scour highlights how Durham was the center of the booming tobacco empire in the 1800s and how the Duke’s capitalized on that and built their first tobacco factory in Durham. This source highlights another thing that Durham is known for and that is tobacco.