Dwyane Wade Miami Heat Photos, Prints

"I own two of Bob Wade's 'Cowgirl' pieces. If he makes more, I'll buy those, too. And if you try to beat me to 'em, I'll drop kick you all the way to Dallas. This stuff is bodacious, righteous, enduring art. Just like Texas." --Linda Ellerbee "I hated those frogs, but my heroes have always been cowgirls." --Willie Nelson

For a century after its incorporation in 1740, Wilmington, North Carolina remained a sleepy port city. Then, the coming of steam-power, especially railroad and steamship, enabled a steady growth. War, whether the Civil War with its blockade-runners or the shipbuilding born of the world conflicts of the 1900s, brought more growth. With that expansion came, of course, growing pains. The story of Wilmington, North Carolina is a story of rivers, sounds, and sea, and of a city that grew near the places where those waters mingled. It is the story of a port that became the “Lifeline of the Confederacy” as well as the lifeline of a state. And in this case, it is the story of over a hundred years of history (1860s to 1970s) told through almost two hundred photographs—the captured essences of people and events now lost.

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.