Ocracoke Scrapbooks

Thanks, in part, to a grant from the Ocracoke Occupancy Tax Board to the Ocracoke Preservation Society nine scrapbooks in the Society's collection have now been digitized and added to DigitalNC. These scrapbooks range from the 1940s to the 1980s and include photographs, newspaper clippings, brochures, booklets, drawings, letters, maps, short stories, and histories about Ocracoke.

Below is a photo from one of the scrapbooks. It is the ship's clock from the wreck of the Victoria S, 1925:

The newspaper articles are often about local people and families, events, and news such as park projects and ferries. The brochures and booklets are typically informational, about nature, animals, boats, and lighthouses on the Outer Banks and Ocracoke Island .

The 1955-1981 scrapbook in particular features information about lighthouses and lighthouse keepers and ships and sailors. The 1956-1980 scrapbook is full of photographs from Ocracoke, including buildings, houses, ships, and the lighthouse.

The photo below is typical. It is the freight boat, Bessie Virginia:

All of the scrapbooks can be accessed here: 
http://library.digitalnc.org/cdm/search/collection/scrapbooks/searchterm/Ocracoke!Ocracoke%20Scrapbook/field/all!all/mode/all!all/conn/and!and/order/nosort/ad/asc

These scrapbooks contain a wealth of historic information that was once difficult to access, but is now available to residents, visitors, and researchers from their laptops or other devices. We hope you enjoy perusing these on-line scrapbooks.

I will periodically share specific stories, photos, and other documents in future blog posts.

This month's Ocracoke Newsletter is the dramatic story of life-saver Rasmus Midgett and his rescue of the crew of the barkentine Priscilla in August, 1899. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news052116.htm.