Research & Subject Guides: University Archives and Special Collections: Digital Collections

Researching A&T History in Digital Collections

Using a combination of digitized yearbooks, bulletins, newspapers and other resources can help you discover a lot about North Carolina A&T's history remotely. When searching the digital collections keep these tips in mind.

1. Use different versions of a person, organization or a place's name (ex. "James B. Dudley", "J. B. Dudley", "President Dudley", OR "A&T College", "A. and T. College", "Agricultural and Technical College, School of Engineering, "College of Engineering".

2. OCR (optical character recognition), the software used to read text off of scanned items is not perfect, so do not be discouraged if your first searches do not work. OCR can not read special fonts, hand-written signatures, and artistic text styles like those used in ads and posters.

3. Take advantage of advanced search functions like boolean operators "AND" "OR", "NOT", and time or geographic limiters.

4. Use regional and A&T resources to confirm histories found in larger databases.

5. Narrow your search as much as possible for best results. (ex. "A&T" AND "Dudley" VS. "A&T College" AND "President Dudley" AND "administration"

Digital Collections from University Archives & Special Collections

The major digital collections of primary resources and scholarship produced by the N.C. A&T community and maintained by the library, including text, audio, videos and images. Several of these resources are available in their original physical formats, preserved in Bluford Library Archives. New collections are added continually.

A&T Register - Historical Student Newspapers
The A&T Register from 1915 through 2009, covering the sit-ins, higher education at Historical Black Colleges and Universities, and everyday student life.
AC Phoenix Newspapers
The AC Phoenix is a historical African-American community newspapers based in Winston-Salem. It was founded by A&T alumni Rodney J. Sumler.
Aggie Digital Collections and Scholarship
F.D. Bluford Library supports the institutional repository, Aggie Digital Collections and Scholarship. This service is provided to the university community as a means of increasing the reach and visibility of the scholarly and creative works produced by University faculty, students, staff, and researchers. In addition to showcasing the value of the University’s research and creative works, other benefits for supporting an IR include, but are not limited to, long term preservation of the University’s scholarship, stable access to works with persistent URLS, easy discoverability of work through internet search engines such as Google, and compliance with funding agency requirements.
Aggie Digital Video Collections
The Aggie Digital Video Collection currently holds footage from the Jerald and Constance Marteena Home Movie Collections and the Aggie Sport Films with over 50 football games.
Ayantee Yearbooks
Beginning with 1939, and the complete run from 1946 through 2009, the student yearbook of record.
Better Living in North Carolina: Bringing Science and Technology to the People
Better Living provides researchers with primary source documentation and related historical information on the impact of the NC Agricultural Extension / Cooperative Extension offices, staff, faculty, and students on the development of the state's agricultural economy and on North Carolina citizens. The project is a collaboration between the NCSU Libraries and the F. D. Bluford Library at North Carolina A&T State University.
Campus Buildings
Photos and brief descriptions of the buildings located on the N.C. A&T campus.
Campus Bulletins & Catalogs
College bulletins from 1895 with a complete run from 1898 through 2008, containing course listings and campus facts for each school year.
New Farmers of America Collection
The New Farmers of America (NFA) collection reflects the history of the organization from the early twentieth century until the civil rights era during the 1960s, making available photographs, conference brochures, and publications from the organization’s past. The national organization was officially established in 1935 to promote vocational agriculture education for young African-American males in southern public schools. The organization was established at a time when the United States promoted the “separate but equal” doctrine in the country. North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University served as the headquarters of the New Farmers of America national organization. The NFA existed for thirty years until the “separate but equal” law was overturned in 1965. During its existence the NFA membership grew to over 58,000 and more than 1,000 chapters were founded.

The three-year project is funded by the National FFA Foundation and Tractor Supply Company.
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University Commencement Bulletins
Programs for past commencements from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. Available programs includes lists of speakers and degrees with awardees.
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University History Books
Thanks to a grant from UNC Press, 4 rare and out of print histories about NCA&T are now available online.
Textiles, Teachers and Troops: Greensboro, NC 1880 - 1945
Digital resources on the history of textiles, education, and military life in Greensboro
Textiles, Teachers, and Troops makes available more than 175,000 digital images documenting the social and cultural development of Greensboro from Reconstruction to World War II.

Regional Digital Collections

Digital NC - North Carolina Digital Heritage Center
Provides access to "original materials from 272 libraries, museums, and archives across North Carolina", including A&T yearbooks, bulletins, and historically black newspapers.
Digital NC - North Carolina Newspapers
Free access of over 100 college, high school and community newspapers in North Carolina
Civil Rights Greensboro - UNCG Digital Collections
"Civil Rights Greensboro provides access to archival resources documenting the modern civil rights era in Greensboro, North Carolina, from the 1940s to the early 1980s".
North Carolina Digital Collections
Digital resources provided by "through the partnership of the State Library of North Carolina and the State Archives of North Carolina."

NCpedia Articles on A&T History

Efforts are growing by the F. D. Bluford Library to increase knowledge of A&T's earliest histories. NCpedia articles are one way of reaching this goal.

Below are biographies of A&T faculty and staff who were active from 1896 - 1925

National Digital Collections

Library of Congress
The Library of Congress provides access to documents related to A&T and other HBCUs going back over 100 years.
Chronicling America
"Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1789-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present". News about A&T can be found in historically Black and national newspapers.
Digital Public Library of America
Ove 36 million items available from digital libraries around the county. Materials related to A&T History can be found in various collections from around the country.
Hathi Trust
HathiTrust is a open digital library with over 18 million text for research and scholarship.
American Archive of Public Broadcasting
Massive digital collections of public broadcasting from radio and television. Several programs include interviews with A&T faculty like Samuel D. Proctor and alumni like Rev. Jesse Jackson.
National Museum of African American History and Culture - The Collection
Link to the catalog for digital collections at the NMAACH, that includes materials from the Smithsonian's Open Access Initiaves