Historian David Cecelski begins the tale of shark hunter Russell J. Coles, a pioneer of the scientific study of sharks and rays who spent much of the early 20th century at Cape Lookout.
The Story of Shad Boats
Historian David Cecelski introduces his 12-part series, “The Story of Shad Boats,” that explores the origins, construction and history of the workboats found on the North Carolina coast in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Piney Grove: Touring Brunswick County’s Past
Historian David Cecelski visits with Brunswick County’s Marion Evans, who leads him on a tour of the Piney Grove community, sharing rich, old stories and showing him the little-known sites where they took place.
Singing At The March on Washington
Historian David Cecelski writes about a photo of Jacquelyn Bond and Golden Frinks, both central to the Williamston Freedom Movement, at the March on Washington in 1963.
Our Coast’s History: Working in the Logwoods
North Carolina historian David Cecelski searched the Forest History Society’s archives for photographs of coastal North Carolina and came across images of logging and lumber mills taken between 1900 to 1950 along the coast.
Beaufort’s Scandinavian, Dutch Fishermen
David Cecelski writes about the “largely forgotten enclave of Norwegian, Swedish and Dutch fishermen” who, along with their families, left New Jersey to make their home in Beaufort beginning in the 1910s.
Our Coast’s History: Chloe’s Story
The only recorded passage about the life of Chloe, a woman enslaved in Currituck County in the first half of the 1800s, reveals a great deal about her and the lives of other enslaved women on the North Carolina coast.
North Carolina and the Turpentine Trail
Historian David Cecelski writes about North Carolina losing its stranglehold on the naval stores industry after the American Civil War, forcing workers to follow the “turpentine trail” in search of untapped longleaf pine forests in other southern states.
The Quaker Map: From Harlowe to Mill Creek
North Carolina historian David Cecelski uses a map he found recently and other sources to explore the history of a largely forgotten group of Quaker settlements that flourished on the North Carolina coast more than 200 years ago.
The Wreck of the Nomis
Historian David Cecelski writes about the motor schooner Nomis that went aground the summer of 1935 on Ocracoke Island’s outer shoals and the successful rescue of the six crewmen by the U.S. Coast Guard.
Songs on a Nags Head Porch
Author and historian David Cecelski visits with Gerret Warner and Mimi Gredy, who are making a documentary on Frank and Anne Warner and the coastal North Carolina folksingers and musicians who shared their songs and stories with the two American folk music collectors.
Marines: Last Days of a New River Village
State historian David Cecelski writes about the visit of Greensboro photographer Charles A. Farrell to Marines in 1941, soon before the Onslow County village was displaced to make way for Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune.
Pitch Pines and Tar Burners: A 1792 Account
North Carolina historian David Cecelski shares an historical account of what he thinks might be the best description of tar making in the state he has ever read, written by an English merchant from a 1792 visit to coastal North Carolina.
Newspaper Archives: The Turpentine State
North Carolina historian David Cecelski discusses how the British press covered North Carolina in the 18th and 19th centuries, and their focus on the vital products of its vast pine forests.
The Birth of NC’s Coastal Wildlife Refuges
Historian David Cecelski came across in the Denver Public Library a collection of letters and maps from the 1930s that provide insight into the origins of some of the state’s coastal wildlife refuges.
