Verona Joyner Langford North Carolina Collection

About the Verona Joyner Langford North Carolina Collection

Our collection holds current and historical information related to the history and culture of Eastern North Carolina and its people. Our holdings include state and colonial government documents; county records; current magazines and periodicals; historical newspapers; rare books; and general, legal, and genealogical reference sources. We also maintain the Roberts Collection of North Carolina Fiction, which consists of books set or written in North Carolina, and provide access to databases with North Carolina content.

Resources

For information on how to search our collections, visit our Research Help page.

North Carolina Periodicals Index

To search abstracts of articles from 68 current and historical North Carolina publications, please visit our periodicals index. The articles themselves are available in the North Carolina collection or via interlibrary loan.

Search the North Carolina Periodicals Index

NC County Records on Microfilm

The county records on microfilm include bonds, land, marriage and vital statistics, roads and bridges, schools, tax and fiscal, wills and as well as other records.

View our NC County Records on Microfilm

The Ross-Kammerer Photo Archives

A collection of images of people and places from Pitt County’s history. All the images being shared were digitized from borrowed originals. Many of the pictures are being offered here to anyone who either cherishes what they stand for, or who might find them valuable documentation for historical research.

Visit the Ross-Kammerer Photo Archives

Collection History

ECU’s library began collecting North Caroliniana soon after the school opened in 1909. By the early 1940s, the growing collection was housed in a room in the Whichard Building. Wendell Smiley, East Carolina’s librarian from 1943 to 1973, strengthened the library’s commitment to developing the North Carolina Collection. He hired Frankie Cubbedge in 1962 to serve as librarian of the collection. Several years later the collection moved to Joyner Library. Marguerite Wiggins, who served as librarian from 1968 until 1991, expanded the collection’s holdings in North Carolina history. In 1996 the North Carolina Collection moved to its current space on the third floor; it was renamed in honor of ECU benefactor Verona Joyner Langford in 2000.