Native North Carolinians tend to learn the state toast (adopted by the
General Assembly in 1957) in childhood. As with the state motto, Esse
Quam Videri (To be rather than to seem), such words from the toast as
"Here's to the land of the longleaf pine" hold an amazing power to
inspire the varied denizens of North Carolina, a state with deep and
varied agricultural and industrial histories.
Words are fine for inspiration, and for recording the achievements of
those who once heard or spoke such words. However, a single photograph
offers a window into a lost past that is difficult to capture in words
alone. This volume, Historic Photos of North Carolina, provides nearly
200 such glimpses of life in the Tar Heel State. From the mid-1800s
through the mid-1900s, from Cape Hatteras to Asheville, from scenes of
farm families working in the fields to Orville Wright in flight at Kill
Devil Hills, these historic black-and-white images seek to capture the
essence of change in the land of the longleaf pine.