Tag Archives: history

Blackbeard’s Sunken Prize: The 300-Year Voyage of Queen Anne’s Revenge

Chatham Community Library will host a program on Blackbeard’s famous ship, Queen Anne’s Revenge, on Saturday, December 1, at 1:00 pm in the Holmes Meeting Room.  The program will be facilitated by Chatham County resident and co-author of Blackbeard’s Sunken Prize: The 300-Year Voyage of Queen Anne’s Revenge, Linda Carnes-McNaughton.
In 1717, the notorious pirate Blackbeard captured a French slaving vessel off the coast of Martinique and made it his flagship, renaming it Queen Anne’s Revenge. Over the next six months, the heavily armed ship and its crew captured all manner of riches from merchant ships sailing the Caribbean to the Carolinas. But in June 1718, with British authorities closing in, Blackbeard reportedly ran Queen Anne’s Revenge aground just off the coast of what is now North Carolina’s Fort Macon State Park. What went down with the ship remained hidden for centuries.
Having played a vital role in the shipwreck’s recovery and interpretation, Carnes-McNaughton discusses the ship’s first use as a French privateer and slave ship, its capture and use by Blackbeard’s armada, the circumstances of its sinking, and more based on a wealth of artifacts now raised from the ocean floor. Carnes-McNaughton is the current Program Archaeologist and Curator at Fort Bragg’s Cultural Resources Management Program.
This program is free and open to the public. Funding is made possible by the generous support of the Friends of the Chatham Community Library.
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eBook Friday: The Radium Girls

The Radium Girls, by Kate Moore

A New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal Bestseller!

the glowing ghosts of the radium girls haunt us still.”—NPR Books

The incredible true story of the women who fought America’s Undark danger

The Curies’ newly discovered element of radium makes gleaming headlines across the nation as the fresh face of beauty, and wonder drug of the medical community. From body lotion to tonic water, the popular new element shines bright in the otherwise dark years of the First World War.

Meanwhile, hundreds of girls toil amidst the glowing dust of the radium-dial factories. The glittering chemical covers their bodies from head to toe; they light up the night like industrious fireflies. With such a coveted job, these “shining girls” are the luckiest alive — until they begin to fall mysteriously ill.

But the factories that once offered golden opportunities are now ignoring all claims of the gruesome side effects, and the women’s cries of corruption. And as the fatal poison of the radium takes hold, the brave shining girls find themselves embroiled in one of the biggest scandals of America’s early 20th century, and in a groundbreaking battle for workers’ rights that will echo for centuries to come.

Written with a sparkling voice and breakneck pace, The Radium Girls fully illuminates the inspiring young women exposed to the “wonder” substance of radium, and their awe-inspiring strength in the face of almost impossible circumstances. Their courage and tenacity led to life-changing regulations, research into nuclear bombing, and ultimately saved hundreds of thousands of lives…

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Every Friday, we highlight a title from our collections at
http://e-inc.overdrive.com,
 http://nckids.overdrive.com/, or http://chathamconc.oneclickdigital.com. Let us know what you think of these selections, and tell us about eBooks you’ve enjoyed – we may feature them here!

Library to Host “Titanic: Ship of Dreams” Program on September 13

Chatham Community Library will host Titanic: Ship of Dreams on Thursday, September 13, at 6:30 pm in the Holmes Meeting Room. This program will be presented by Dr. Melinda Ratchford, an NC Humanities Council Road Scholar.

Take a glimpse into 1912 and the 2,228 amazing people who boarded the most luxurious and largest ship in the world and sailed off into immortality. Having traveled to all the sites that have connections to the R.M.S. Titanic (Belfast, Southampton, sinking site in North Atlantic, Halifax, NS et al.), Dr. Ratchford takes the audience on a voyage in time to learn about the Titanic, as well as to see her extensive collection of Titanic memorabilia. She will “introduce” listeners to the young Robert Spedden and his Stief bear, Polar; the world’s richest man and his beautiful new wife who had to leave New York society under a cloud of shame; and the elderly man and wife who tested the vow of “til death do we part”. This program will offer the chance to experience the world of courage, fear, love, and cowardice that is still alive over one hundred years after the Titanic’s sinking.

A native of Kannapolis, NC, Dr. Ratchford received her B.S. in Social Science and a Sixth Year degree in Curriculum from Appalachian State University.  She received her Masters in Library Education from UNC-Greensboro.  She also attended UNC-Chapel Hill where she received her Doctorate in Education. Her avocation has been a 60-year interest in the study of the R.M.S. Titanic and her history.  She has given presentations to over 225+ groups on the topic.

This program is brought to you in conjunction with the NC Humanities Council and is free and open to the public.

Friends of the Library to Celebrate 50th Anniversary!

 

 

 

 

The Friends of the Chatham Community Library will celebrate its 50th anniversary with a gala open house at the library on Saturday, May 19th from 2:00 to 4:00 pm. Activities will include children’s entertainment (face painting, balloon animals), live music, historical displays, free books for adults and children, a plaque dedication and more! Refreshments will be served.

The Friends got its start officially on October 3, 1968, when an organization committee meeting was held to revitalize an informal group of Friends which had been started as early as January 28, 1928. At that time, 12 Pittsboro citizens formed the McNeill Book Club. One of its members, Margaret (‘Maggie’) Horne, became Pittsboro’s first librarian 14 years later.

When the group met in 1968, the members felt that Pittsboro deserved better than the series of makeshift libraries which had served the citizens up until then, such as (1) small collections in homes, academies and schools in the 19th Century, (2) a bookmobile in the 1930s funded under the Works Progress Administration, (3) small collections in the basement of the Siler City Town Hall in the 1940s and (4) a bookcase in Maggie Horne’s living room from 1942.

Later, the library was housed in the Pittsboro Jaycees Community House and the basement of the County Agricultural Building. During all this time, there had been an informal group of supporters who met occasionally to discuss ways of improving the library’s structure and services.

During the meeting on October 3, 1968, the participants agreed that Pittsboro finally needed a library that was larger than “any extra, one room in any existing building anywhere in Pittsboro”. Marvin Reeves, perhaps influenced by his wife Myrtle, a McNeill Book Club member since 1947, saw this need, and he did something important to meet it.

In his 1969 will, Reeves left $20,000 for a new library building, and this bequest was the spark that inspired the overwhelming interest in and effort leading to the building of the Pittsboro Memorial Library. This facility on West Street served the community well until the new Chatham Community Library was built on the campus of Central Carolina Community College, which opened to the public in September 2010.

eBook Friday: Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight [Audiobook]

Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, by Alexandra Fuller

Alexandra Fuller tells the idiosyncratic story of her life growing up white in rural Rhodesia as it was becoming Zimbabwe. The daughter of hardworking, yet strikingly unconventional English-bred immigrants, Alexandra arrives in Africa at the tender age of two. She moves through life with a hardy resilience, even as a bloody war approaches. Narrator Lisette Lecat reads this remarkable memoir of a family clinging to a harsh landscape and the dying tenets of colonialism.

* this audiobook is available through RBDigital (formerly OneClickDigital)

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Every Friday, we highlight a title from our collections at
http://e-inc.overdrive.com
or http://chathamconc.oneclickdigital.com. Let us know what you think of these selections, and tell us about eBooks you’ve enjoyed – we may feature them here!

eBook Friday: All the President’s Men

All the President’s Men, by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward

The most devastating political detective story of the century: the inside account of the two Washington Post reporters who broke the Watergate scandal, now with a 40th anniversary Afterword on the legacies of Watergate and Richard Nixon.
This is the book that changed America. Published just months before President Nixon’s resignation, All the President’s Men revealed the full scope of the scandal and introduced for the first time the mysterious “Deep Throat.” Beginning with the story of a simple burglary at Democratic headquarters and then continuing through headline after headline, Bernstein and Woodward deliver a riveting firsthand account of their reporting. Their explosive reports won a Pulitzer Prize for The Washington Post, toppled the president, and have since inspired generations of reporters.
All the President’s Men is a riveting detective story, capturing the exhilarating rush of the biggest presidential scandal in US history as it unfolded in real time. It is, as Time magazine wrote in their All-Time 100 Best Nonfiction Books list, “the work that brought down a presidency…perhaps the most influential piece of journalism in history.”

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Every Friday, we highlight a title from our collections at
http://e-inc.overdrive.com
or http://chathamconc.oneclickdigital.com. Let us know what you think of these selections, and tell us about eBooks you’ve enjoyed – we may feature them here!

eBook Friday: Carowinds: Images of America

Carowinds: Images of America, by Scott Rutherford

Located near Charlotte, Carowinds has long been considered the “Thrill Capital of the Southeast!” The brainchild of Earl Patterson Hall, a self-made businessman and real estate developer, Carowinds is an exciting day for children and adults alike. Inspired by a trip to Disneyland in 1957, Hall envisioned an amusement park for the citizens of the Carolinas. In 1973, after four years of planning and construction, Carowinds opened to the public on a large site that straddles the North Carolina-South Carolina border. Throughout the 1970s, visitors enjoyed rides such as the Witchdoctor and White Lightnin’. Currently, the park features rides, shows, and attractions for all, including Intimidator, the tallest and fastest coaster in the Southeast. Carowinds showcases the rich history of this Carolina amusement park celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2013.

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Every Friday, we highlight a title from our collections at
http://e-inc.overdrive.com
or http://chathamconc.oneclickdigital.com. Let us know what you think of these selections, and tell us about eBooks you’ve enjoyed – we may feature them here!

Library to Host Film and Discussion Series on U.S. Presidents

Chatham Community Library will host a six-week film and discussion series on U.S. Presidents beginning Thursday, August 24th, from 6:00-8:00 pm in the Holmes Meeting Room. The series, Presidents, Politics and Power: American Presidents Who Shaped the 20th Century, is part of the “Let’s Talk About It” project sponsored by the North Carolina Humanities Council and the North Carolina Center for the Book (a program of the State Library of North Carolina).

During the twentieth century the American presidency became the most powerful office in the world. The basis for the power inhered in the extraordinary natural wealth of the United States, in a dynamic economy that operated within an expanding free market, and in the vigorous entrepreneurial energy that those conditions encouraged. But these ingredients did not themselves constitute national power. It required the agency of strong national leadership to make the decisions and shape the policies that would transform the United States by century’s end from an insular, second-rate military entity to an indispensable world power.

Presidents, Politics and Power focuses on six U.S. leaders: Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan and offers a direct route into central policy questions. Those questions include managing economic growth while balancing the demands of a free market with the needs of labor and consumers, and shaping foreign and military policy to maintain national security and define the country’s changing relationship to the world.

The series consists of six sessions, each featuring a film biography to provide context for discussion. North Carolina Humanities Council Road Scholars Willie Nelms and Billy Yeargin, Jr. will lead the discussion and film sessions.

Session dates and times are as follows:

  • Session 1. Theodore Roosevelt: The Bully Pulpit – Thursday, August 24, 6:00pm-8:00pm
  • Session 2. Franklin Delano Roosevelt: No Ordinary Times – Thursday, August 31, 6:00-pm-8:00pm
  • Session 3. Harry S. Truman: Cold Warrior – Thursday, September 7, 6:00pm-8:00pm
  • Session 4. Lyndon Johnson: Anxious Power – Thursday, September 14, 6:00pm-8:00pm
  • Session 5. Richard M. Nixon: Power Used and Abused – Thursday, September 21, 6:00pm-8:00pm
  • Session 6. Ronald Reagan: Reordering Priorities – Thursday, September 28, 6:00pm-8:00pm

All sessions are free and open to the public.

This project is made possible by funding from the North Carolina Humanities Council, a statewide nonprofit and affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the North Carolina Humanities Council.

For questions regarding the upcoming film and discussion series please contact Rita Van Duinen, Branch Manager for the Chatham Community Library at 919-545-8083 or via email at [email protected]

eBook Friday: Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! The Story of Pop Music from Bill Haley to Beyoncé, by Bob Stanley

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! The Story of Pop Music from Bill Haley to Beyoncé, by Bob Stanley

“Breezy, opinionated and totally delicious.”—David Kirby, Wall Street JournalAs much fun to argue with as to quote, Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! is a monumental work of musical history, tracing the story of pop music through individual songs, bands, musical scenes, and styles from Bill Haley and the Comets’ “Rock around the Clock” (1954) to Beyoncé’s first megahit, “Crazy in Love” (2003). It covers the birth of rock, soul, R&B, punk, hip hop, indie, house, techno, and more, and it will remind you why you fell in love with pop music in the first place.Bob Stanley—musician, music critic, and unabashed fan—recounts the progression from the Beach Boys to the Pet Shop Boys to the Beastie Boys; explores what connects doo wop to the sock hop; and reveals how technological changes have affected pop production. Working with a broad definition of “pop”—one that includes country and metal, disco and Dylan, skiffle and glam—Stanley teases out the connections and tensions that animate the pop charts and argues that the charts are vital social history.Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! is like the world’s best and most eclectic jukebox in book form. All the hits are here: the Monkees, Metallica, Patsy Cline, Patti Smith, new wave, New Order, “It’s the Same Old Song,” The Song Remains the Same, Aretha, Bowie, Madonna, Prince, Sgt. Pepper, A Tribe Called Quest, the Big Bopper, Fleetwood Mac, “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini,” Bikini Kill, the Kinks, Mick Jagger, Michael Jackson, Jay-Z, and on and on and on. This book will have you reaching for your records (or CDs or MP3s) and discovering countless others.For anyone who has ever thrilled to the opening chord of the Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night” or fallen crazy in love for Beyoncé, Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! is a vital guide to the rich soundtrack of the second half of the twentieth century.

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Every Friday, we highlight a title from our collections at
http://e-inc.overdrive.com
or http://chathamconc.oneclickdigital.com. Let us know what you think of these selections, and tell us about eBooks you’ve enjoyed – we may feature them here!

eBook Friday: Veterans: The Last Survivors of the Great War

Veterans: The Last Survivors of the Great War, by Richard Van Emden

Using the veterans’ own words and photographs, the book brings to life a mixture of their excitement of embarkation for France, their unbound optimism and courage, the agony of the trenches, and numbing fear of going over the top. The fight for survival, the long ordeal of those who were wounded and the ever present grief caused by appalling loss and waste of life make for compelling reading.

The veterans give us first hand accounts of stark honesty, as they describe in many cases more freely than ever before about experiences which have lived with them for over 80 years.

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Every Friday, we highlight a title from our collection at
http://e-inc.lib.overdrive.com
.  Let us know what you think of these selections, and tell us about eBooks you’ve enjoyed – we may feature them here!

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