The majority of the items included in this theme are digitized from the 85,000 negatives that were donated to Joyner Library from The Daily Reflector, a Greenville, North Carolina-based newspaper. Many of the photographs were used in the newspaper between ca. 1920 and 1967. The images offer insight into the dramatic changes in agriculture, manufacturing, transportation, architecture, race relations, health, and education that took place during this period. They are also important as a historical reference and as a means of maintaining a memory and sense of past for Greenville and the surrounding areas during this period of major change and growth.
Historian David Cecelski has written several award-winning books and hundreds of articles about history, culture and politics on the North Carolina coast. In December of 2020 he posted an article about the images digitized from the Daily Reflector Negative Collection.
...I found them to be much more often about the small, often intimate moments in the day-to-day lives of Pitt County’s people: a child’s first day at school, teenagers discovering rock ‘n roll, a choir at a tent revival, victims of the polio epidemic learning to stand in their braces, Girl Scouts selling cookies and countless other images that remind us of the daily stuff of life back then.
Dubbed “Seeds of Change”, this project was partially supported with federal LSTA funds made possible through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, administered by the State Library of North Carolina, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources. The Seeds of Change project began to take shape in 2005, when the Manuscript Curator at Joyner Library, Dale Sauter, determined that The Daily Reflector Negative Collection, a donated collection of photographic negatives documenting the history of Greenville's local newspaper, had significant historical value. Staff and faculty had spent several years processing the finding aid and ensuring the images were maintained in archival-quality sleeves and boxes. Digitizing at least a portion of the nearly 85,000 negatives and making them available through the library’s Digital Collections would grant wide and lasting access to the collection.
In August 2006, the library’s Digital Editorial Board recommended further development of the project and formed a planning committee, and the Manuscript Curator, who took on the role of Project Director, discussed the project with state library staff. A grant proposal was accepted by the NC ECHO LSTA Digitization Grant Program and the project began in July 2008. After being digitized, the images were cataloged and described by library staff so that users could explore the collection in a variety of ways.
In addition to the digitized images, the project included a companion website that provided information about the history of Greenville and Pitt County and the Daily Reflector newspaper.
In 2020, the “Seeds of Change” companion site was retired. However, the Daily Reflector images are still available through the Digital Collections site. As always, the images are freely available for private research, study, and educational use.
If you have any questions about this or our other collections, please contact us.
In conjunction with the grant, Dr. Christopher Arris Oakley wrote the article Seeds of Change: The Evolution of Post-War Eastern North Carolina in which he describes how these images document the sweeping changes in Eastern North Carolina between 1949 and 1967.
On January 14, 2009, Dale Sauter (Grant Project Director) and Chris Oakley (Grant Historian) interviewed David J. Whichard II and Stuart Savage. Both Whichard and Savage have been at the Daily Reflector for most of their lives. Whichard’s grandfather and his grandfather’s brother founded the newspaper in the late 1800s. Savage retired in March 2009 with fifty years at the newspaper. They had both been involved in the newspaper in many capacities, including Whichard as one time publisher, and Savage as photographer. What makes this interview so special are the reflections of both Whichard and Savage about their experiences at the newspaper and in the Greenville area.
Obviously, many changes have occurred since the start of their careers and the present day. These changes include both the physical processes, as well as the whole nature of the newspaper business. During this time there have also been dramatic and sweeping social transformations in Greenville that also mirror changes that occurred on a state and national level. In the interview, both Whichard and Savage reflect back on this interesting time in history. Some highlights include the dramatic (and continuing) growth of East Carolina University, the evolution of Greenville’s economy from an agricultural-based economy to a service-oriented economy, the rising cultural importance of the automobile and local race relations during the Civil Rights era. Also mentioned is John F. Kennedy’s visit to Greenville (the first presidential candidate to visit) and the effect it had on the local population.
Perhaps most interesting, the last segment of the interview features Whichard and Savage viewing and trying to identify some of the scanned images from the Daily Reflector Negative Collection. This was no doubt the first time that these men had seen these images in nearly fifty years. As a result, the viewer can be a part of their re-discovery as the interviewees reminisce, remembering people, places and events that were a major part of their lives and careers. Finally, the two men comment on the value of these images to current online viewers, and what they may mean to future generations.
A workshop was conducted on November 4, 2009 with K-12 educators on the advantage of the Seeds of Change collection in aiding the development of National History Day projects. The workshop was attended by 25 North Carolina K-12 educators and included discussions on using the library’s Digital Collections website in the classroom, developing hands-on activities, lesson plans, and National History Day projects.
The library received the 2010 Gale Cengage Learning Award for Excellence in Reference and Adult Library Services for production of the online digital exhibit, “Seeds of Change: The Daily Reflector Image Collection.”
The award was presented for development of imaginative and unique resources to meet patrons’ reference needs.
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