Durwood Barbour collection of North Carolina postcards

ArchivalResource

Durwood Barbour collection of North Carolina postcards, 1905-1980s, 2007

Durwood Barbour collection of North Carolina postcards

1905-1980s, 2007

https://finding-aids.lib.unc.edu/P0077/

The collection assembled between the 1950s and 1980s by white alumnus of the University of North Carolina Marion Durwood Barbour (1929-2016) contains nearly 8,000 picture postcards with views of nearly every North Carolina city and town during the first half of the twentieth century. These picture postcards depict parades and public gatherings; schools; agriculture; textile mills and other industries; vistas in the mountains and on the coast; courthouses, railroad stations and other public buildings; fires, floods, train wrecks, and other disasters; performances of outdoor dramas; and vignettes of the state’s military history. The collection also contains photographic postcards created by twentieth-century North Carolina photographers from across the state, including Bayard Wootten of New Bern and Victor Meekins of Dare County, and printed postcards produced by Albertype Company, Hugh Leighton Company, and other widely known printing companies of the era. Many postcards depicting African Americans, including agricultural laborers, prisoners on chain gangs, children, and elderly men and women, and postcards depicting members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in traditional costume including headdresses, illustrate racist stereotypes of the period. Some captions contain language that underline the racist undertones of the images.

approximately 7834 items

eng, Latn

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives.