External resources
Digital Resources
Digital NC
Materials from our collection hosted online by the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center. Explore original materials from 299 other libraries, museums, and archives across North Carolina.
Bull City 150
The mission of Bull City 150 is to invite Durhamites to reckon with the racial and economic injustices of the past 150 years and commit to building a more equitable future. Bull City 150 uses public history exhibitions to do extensive community engagement and to facilitate educational opportunities, deep dialogue, and a collective reckoning.
Hacking Into History: Reckoning with Racial Covenants in Durham
A community-driven project to tell the story and impact of racially restrictive agreements contained in property deeds in Durham, North Carolina, using public records information and archival documentation. The Hacking Into History Curriculum Kit, developed in 2021-2023 as part of the Civic Educators Fellowship Pilot, and in partnership with Durham Public Schools. contains pilot exercises, sample deeds, a slide deck and additional resources that K-12 educators can use for teaching students about racial covenant clauses in Durham.
Durham’s Black Wall Street
A digital exhibit created through the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University.
Three Black Wall Streets
An interactive exhibit created to bring attention to vibrant Black communities that were prosperous and self-sustaining, but which no longer exist. Durham’s Black Wall Street is featured alongside Tulsa, OK and Richmond, VA.
Royal Ice Cream Sit-In
The Southern Foodways Alliance produced a film about the Royal Ice Cream Sit-in in Durham, North Carolina. Part of the Virtual Martin Luther King, Jr. Project out of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at NC State University.
Our Community Stories
The “Our Community Stories” series is a dedicated space for sharing histories from Durham’s marginalized and underrepresented communities. The series is a program provided by the Community Engagement division of the Neighborhood Improvement Services Department at the City of Durham.
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
The NDLDT promotes the adoption, creation, use, dissemination and preservation of electronic theses and dissertations from all fields.
NC Literary Map
Visit the Durham page of the NC Literary Map which provides information on authors associated with Durham and literature mentioning or taking place in Durham, including both fiction and nonfiction.
Mapping Inequality
Redlining maps for more than 300 U.S. cities.
Making a Way Out of No Way: Stagville and Her Descendants in Durham
Explore how formerly enslaved people and their descendants contributed to the making of early Durham and its surrounding areas from the post-Emancipation era until around the 1930s.
FromThePage
This is a platform for archives and libraries where volunteers transcribe, index, and describe historic documents. The State Archives of North Carolina, UNC-Chapel Hill, and the Greenville County Library System have transcribed collections with Durham connections, including African American Education records and the Cameron Family Papers – Records of Enslavement.
Local Historic Sites and Museums
- Museum of Durham History: oral histories, online exhibits, and other resources for exploring Durham’s history.
- Historic Stagville
- Duke Homestead
- Bennett Place
- Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice
- Hayti Heritage Center
Local University Resources
Duke University Libraries
Duke’s David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library’s Durham-related collections include:
- Research guide for Durham and local history at the Rubenstein Library
- University Archives
- Durham County Papers: papers on a variety of subjects covering the 1870s to 1996. Subjects include: activism, art, business, churches, clubs, courts, education, landmarks, minorities, politics, public works, publications, senior citizens, the Watts Hospital, women, YMCA/YWCA.
- Student Action With Farmworkers Records
- North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company Archives (administered jointly with North Carolina Central University)
- Wyatt T. Dixon Papers
- Several manuscript, oral history, and photography collections of African Americans in Durham as part of the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture
- Tobacco Advertising in the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History
- The Duke Family Papers
- and many more.
- Durham and Southern Railway Company records
Duke University Medical Center Archives
Separate from the university library system, the Medical Center Archives house the legal, administrative and historical records of Duke Medical Center and Health System, as well as personal manuscripts, departmental records, photographs, and other materials related to the center.
North Carolina Central University Libraries
NCCU’s James E. Shepard Memorial Library’s Durham-related collections include:
- NCCU yearbooks, available to view online
- NCCU Faculty and Staff Photograph Records
- Durham Fact-Finding Conference Records
- Helen G. Edmonds Papers
- James E. Shepard Papers
- and many more.
North Carolina State University Libraries
NC State University Libraries’ Rare and Unique Digital Collections Documenting NC State and North Carolina through historic photographs, architectural drawings, yearbooks, archival materials, and more.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
UNC’s Wilson Special Collections Library:
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- Southern Historical Collection: home to over 5,000 distinct archival collections comprised of unique primary documents, such as diaries, correspondence, photographs, maps, and oral histories. Documentation of all periods of Southern history since the late eighteenth century, particularly the Antebellum era through the Civil Rights Movement.
- Julian Shakespeare Carr Papers
- John Sprunt Hill Papers, George Watts Hill Papers and George Watts Hill, Jr. Papers
- Durham Kennel Club, Inc. Papers
- Debutante Ball Society of Durham, Inc. Records (see also Durham County’s Debutante Cotillion and Christmas Ball Collection)
- Kemp Plummer Lewis Papers
- and many more.
- North Carolina Collection: The North Carolina Collection attempts to acquire every published regional, county, and town history for North Carolina. The NCC also collects family histories, architectural guides, photographs, maps, city directories and phone books, and some published government records and has many other items of interest to local historians and genealogists.
- Durham Herald Co. Newspaper Photograph Collection, circa 1945-2002: 1.6 million photographic negatives and prints made by over 40 staff photographers at the Durham Morning Herald (1945-1991), Durham Sun (1945-1991), and The Herald-Sun (1991-2002).
- Southern Historical Collection: home to over 5,000 distinct archival collections comprised of unique primary documents, such as diaries, correspondence, photographs, maps, and oral histories. Documentation of all periods of Southern history since the late eighteenth century, particularly the Antebellum era through the Civil Rights Movement.
State and Local Government Resources
Register of Deeds
Land transaction documents and vital and other public records.
The State Archives of North Carolina
Collects, preserves, and provides public access to historically significant archival materials relating to North Carolina.
The State Library of North Carolina
Includes an extensive library of North Carolina genealogy materials.
National Resources
Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Divisions
The Library of Congress owns hundreds of photos of Durham and Durham County.
National Archives and Records Administration
Preserves important documents and materials created in the course of United States government’s business. These records may help if you are researching your family’s history, need to prove a veteran’s military service, or are researching a historical topic.