Modern Governors' Papers

The Papers of W. W. Holden

The Historical Publications Section of the Division of Archives and History is mandated by law to “collect, edit, publish, print, and distribute books, pamphlets, papers, manuscripts, documents, maps, and other materials relating to North Carolina archives and history.”

The documentary volumes have continued to constitute one of the most distinguished features of the historical publications program. In 1930 A. R. Newsome, then commission secretary, articulated the rationale of the documentaries when he wrote:

the most important service which the Historical Commission can render is the more extensive publication of documentary sources of state history, especially for the period after 1790. Documents stored in archives are accessible to the relatively few students who visit the collection; when published they are immediately and simultaneously accessible to the entire group of historians, in whose articles, monographs and textbooks the newly revealed facts of state history become available to the general public and the public schools. Moreover, the historical value of documentary volumes do not decrease with the passage of time. (Public History in North Carolina, 1903-1978, p. 34.)