Finding Photographs at Wilson Special Collections Library: Frequently Used Collections

Here are a few of our most commonly requested collections.

Our North Carolina County Photographic Collection is one of our largest and most frequently used collections.  The collection consists of images depicting places, events, and people in each of North Carolina's 100 counties. It's organized by county. If you are searching for particular information about a specific county I would recommend looking at some of the subject headings that are linked in the finding aid.

Image from NCPedia

Our Portrait Collection is a popular collection. It contains over 35,00 portraits of people who have a connection to North Carolina from circa 1720-1997. The collection is organized by surname and then forename. 

Alderman, Edwin Anderson (1861-1931), in the Portrait Collection #P0002, North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

Many of our users want to find pictures of UNC. We have a list of most collections that possess pictures of UNC that can be found here (scroll down to the section titled "Collections with photographs of UNC-Chapel Hill").

• The bulk of photos of UNC can be found in Photographic Laboratory Collection P0031 and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Image Collection P0004.
• If you are looking for our oldest pictures of UNC, they can be found in the Kemp Plummer Battle Photograph Album P0100.
• Most of our pictures after the 1980s will be in the News Services of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Records  #40139. This should help get you started in your search. As always, feel free to reach out to a reference archivist if you need any assistance. 

Old Well 3.26.97, in the News Services of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Records #40139, University Archives, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.