Like every other place in the world, this beautiful, mountainous state was built on the backs of people as these historic photos of North Carolina show. While ruggedly handsome and mystical throughout, the spellbinding truth in their eyes will tell without even a word of the daring adventures, hardships, and fun that existed in the state long before we came along. And what remains is so valuable as we have built upon the greatness they started in agriculture, industry, education, and cultivation of ideas and dreams they lived and died trying. It is with great reverence these photos are shared of our long-gone fellow North Carolinians whose lives mattered just as much as ours.
This magical photo from the book “In Cloudland Mayview Park, Blowing Rock, North Carolina” published around 1920, shows an extraordinary land of promise and wonder.
Internet Archive Book Images, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
And tucked inside the vast, wild land people made plans for dinner, such as in this 1918 photo of Queens College in Charlotte.
Queens College (Charlotte, N.C.);Queens College (Charlotte, N.C.). Bulletin, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons But before there was food, there were farmers.
This shot from the 1915 book “Uncle Abner’s Legacy,” reminds us how many farmers used automobiles as tractors.
Internet Archive Book Images, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
If they were lucky, they had one of these two-story frame farm buildings.
State Archives of North Carolina, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons It was photographed between 1900 and 1905 by Oliver W. Cole.
And before clothing existed, there were workers.
Internet Archive Book Images, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
By the early 20th century, High Point, North Carolina, became one of the state’s most prominent manufacturing centers, especially in furniture and textiles.
Lewis Hine, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Some of the African-American workers lived in these homes in High Point, North Carolina.
And there were children, such as this lovely 11-year-old young lady looking outside on a cold November day in 1908 from the Rhodes Manufacturing Co. in Lincolnton, where she was a spinner for more than a year when this was taken.
Lewis Hine, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons She was photographed by Lewis Wickes Hine.
This young man also worked at a textile mill, Loray Mill, in Gastonia North Carolina, which was opened in 1902.
Lewis Hine, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons This photograph was taken in October 1908, also by Lewis Wickes Hine.
And yet another young boy worked at a warping machine and had been there two years when this photo was taken by Hine in 1908 at Clyde Cotton Mill in Newton, North Carolina.
Preus museum, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Thank goodness for Lewis Wickes Hine, a reform-minded journalist or what was called a muckraker, an American sociologist, and photographer, who took this portrait of himself in 1930.
Lewis Hine, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons His exposing photographs were instrumental in bringing about the passage of the first child labor laws in the U.S.
The children learned as well, such as these students in the early 1900s at Professor Jacob’s School in Lake Waccamaw, North Carolina.
State Archives of North Carolina, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
Others lived in orphanages, such as these two girls at The Thompson Orphanage and Training Institute in 1909. A 40-acre campus had a functioning farm, which offered daily chores for the children.
Internet Archive Book Images, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons The orphanage was built on the outskirts of Charlotte in 1886.
But to get there, the roads were treacherous, as this picture taken in 1920 shows.
North Carolina State Highway Commission;North Carolina State Highway and Public Works Commission, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
And before there were roads, there were workers, such as these toiling away on project No. 62, which was 3.43 miles of bituminous macadam, 18 feet wide, laid on a broken stone base course between Black Mountain and Ridgecrest, which began on March 15, 1920.
North Carolina State Highway Commission;North Carolina State Highway and Public Works Commission, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
Long before construction, there were workers developing engineering and other ideas to make our lives better.
Internet Archive Book Images, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
And building dreams of flying machines in this photo possibly snapped by Orville Wright, Dec. 14, 1903, at Kitty Hawk. If you look closely at the bottom right, you can see his shadow.
The Library of Congress, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons The picture shows Wilbur Wright in a damaged machine after an unsuccessful trial, but on they tried.
These athletes on the boys’ baseball team from Bingham School in Mebane, North Carolina, also had fun.
State Archives of North Carolina, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
And so did this fine group of tennis players posing in a wooded lot in Raleigh, sometime before 1910.
State Archives of North Carolina, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
Another stunning photograph from “In Cloudland” shows one more exceptional day in earlier North Carolina.
Internet Archive Book Images, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons The book was written and arranged by Crete Hutchinson. The historic photographs of North Carolina were taken by H.W. Pelton and Earl Hardy.
Whether we are striving to make ends meet every day or making decisions on a board of directors, remember whatever contributions we make in life matter to the next generations. How lucky we are to appreciate and remember that we once lived in this beautiful, vast open space called North Carolina. Here are 14 more historic photos of North Carolina. Do any of these photos conjure up some memories you’d like to share in the comments below?
Internet Archive Book Images, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
Queens College (Charlotte, N.C.);Queens College (Charlotte, N.C.). Bulletin, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
But before there was food, there were farmers.
State Archives of North Carolina, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
It was photographed between 1900 and 1905 by Oliver W. Cole.
Lewis Hine, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Some of the African-American workers lived in these homes in High Point, North Carolina.
She was photographed by Lewis Wickes Hine.
This photograph was taken in October 1908, also by Lewis Wickes Hine.
Preus museum, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
His exposing photographs were instrumental in bringing about the passage of the first child labor laws in the U.S.
The orphanage was built on the outskirts of Charlotte in 1886.
North Carolina State Highway Commission;North Carolina State Highway and Public Works Commission, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
The Library of Congress, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
The picture shows Wilbur Wright in a damaged machine after an unsuccessful trial, but on they tried.
The book was written and arranged by Crete Hutchinson. The historic photographs of North Carolina were taken by H.W. Pelton and Earl Hardy.
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