Digital Scholarship and Initiatives

Blake Tyner, the author of this pictorial history, is director of the Maxton Historical Society, editor of its newsletter, The New Scottish Chief, and a history major at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. The diverse array of photographs, historical documents, postcards, and drawings reproduced here (with detailed captions to document them) came from the collection of Tyner and his wife as well as from the private collections of others and the collections of public libraries and archives, newspapers, museums, historical societies, UNC-Pembroke's University Relations office, and churches. The roughly 230 images are grouped into the following chapters: 1. Home life and family. 2. Work life. 3. Religious life. 4. Education. 5. Government. 6. Military. 7. Robeson County citizens. 8. Social and community events. The following lists give examples of the variety of images provided in each chapter. 1. Home life and family: The swamp near Ten Mile Church and School in the early 20th century; a WPA mural showing early Scottish settlers with the ancestors of the Lumbees; Henry Berry Lowery’s home; various other historic houses from the county (some of them no longer in existence); 2. Work life: sawmills, grist mills, cotton pickers, cotton mills, tractors, tobacco warehouses, railroads, tracks, and depots, storefronts, a midwife, and milliners. 3. Religious life: churches, and a parsonage. 4. Education: school buildings; portraits of student groups and teachers; 5. Government: courthouses, a fire department, a health department, portraits of elected and government officials; 6. Military: portraits of veterans; monuments; soldier’s funeral portraits; a National Guard building; the Laurinburg-Maxton Air Base; various images related to the Henry Berry Lowery period and the Ku Klux Klan routing. 7. Robeson County citizens: Portraits and more candid photographs of a wide range of notable individuals, including Lorna McNeill and Rebekah Revels; 8. Social and community events: a Lumbe Homecoming pow-wow, canoeing, a May Day celebration, a minstrel show, parade floats, the Carolina Theatre, the African American Cultural Center, baseball teams, boy scouts, an American Legion children’s auxiliary, and various 50-year centennial, and bicentennial celebrations.The varied, interesting, and carefully chosen images are enhanced by detailed, fact-filled captions. An index would have made the book even more valuable to researchers. According to the Carolina Indian Voice (Aug. 7, 2003, p. 1), all proceeds from book sales are being donated to the Robeson County Historical Commission.