The more than 7,000 historic images from The Daily Reflector, Greenville, NC's daily newspaper, document the sweeping changes in Eastern North Carolina between 1949 and 1967. This period of dramatic social and economic change saw the increasing power of federal and state governments, improvements in industry and agriculture, and social upheavals related to race relations — not just in Eastern North Carolina, but across the country.

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RECENT COMMENTS

Mike Perry05/11/2009
Here they are NOT sorting tobacco--instead, they are tieing the harvested leaves onto sticks. These sticks of tobacco will then be hung in the barn for a full week of curing by heat. This process was simply called "putting in" tobacco, and all tobacco farmers did this one day a week throughout the summer.
Mike Perry05/11/2009
Tobacco is not "picked!" Tobacco plants are primed or cropped--depending upon which county you're from! Here they are priming tobacco to be taken to the tobacco barns for tieing onto sticks and hung in the tobacco barns for curing. Essentially, they're "harvesting" tobacco!
Mike Perry05/11/2009
Again, this is NOT "collecting" tobaacco leaves! This is a transplanter. We used to call it a "tobacco setter." We used this to set transplanted tobacco plants out in the field in spring. I would be happy to tell you what all these things are that are mislabeled if you would like :) My email is starmanva@aol.com. Thanks!
Mike Perry05/11/2009
This WAS a tobacco harvester at one time, but clearly (as I've seen done over the years) this harvester was converted into a sprayer. Note that the chains which transport tobacco have been removed, as has been the canopy, etc.

EXPLORING the Collection
Use different tools to explore the facets of the collection including browsing the collection by theme, exploring an illustrated timeline, navigating the "subject cloud," or watching the development of Greenville through historic maps.


The HISTORY of Greenville and Pitt County
Learn more about the historical period documented in these images to understand the development of the city and county and get an inside look at the development of the paper.


Resources for EDUCATORS -- Coming Soon!
A workshop is planned for Fall 2009 on the advantage of the Seeds of Change collection in aiding the development of National History Day projects. Workshop materials will be available for download once the workshop has been completed.


The Creation of the Online COLLECTION
The Daily Reflector Image Collection took more than a year to complete. Find out more about the behind-the-scenes work that went into creating the digital images and the online collection...