ECC Begins Project to Preserve History

This article describes the establishment of the East Carolina Manuscript Collection. This and other articles may be found in the University Archives.

Citation for this article is: "ECC Begins Project to Preserve History," News and Observer, January 16, 1966.

---

East Carolina College announced Saturday a project to track down and preserve materials relating to the history of Eastern North Carolina.

It is a joint venture of the history department and the Eastern N.C. Regional Development Institute, based at East Carolina.

Thomas W. Willis, institute director, said the project will be manned mainly by two faculty historians, Dr. Charles L. Price and Dr. Fred Ragan, with cooperation and guidance from departmental chairmen, Dr. Herbert R. Paschal Jr.

The historians will also seek out and interview indiviuals who have first hand knowledge of historical events.

A key to the project's success, said Willis, will be "good response from our people who are interested in preserving the history of our region."

"We want old photographs, letters, diaries, deeds, journals, papers . . . any such thing that might have a bearing on out history," he said.

Willis urged residents of the region to send such materials to the college for safe-keeping or for copying. "Anything the family might want to keep can be copied by photostat and we can return the original," he pointed out.

Willis also urged persons who would be good interview prospects, and persons who know of such potential historical interviewees, to notify his office. Price and Ragan, said Willis will screen and organize the materials for deposit as the Eastern North Carolina Collection in Joyner Library on the ECC Campus.