The Pitt County Digital Tobacco History Exhibit is a website devoted to the history of the rise of tobacco farming in Pitt County, North Carolina.

Collection Principles

This exhibit is part of a broader collection of Eastern North Carolina Digital History Exhibits which was put together by the Joyner Library of East Carolina University. The tobacco exhibit includes a few different formats of information and is divided into Business, Newspapers, Warehouses, Census, and Records/Photos in an attempt to facilitate research and navigation. The majority of the material was taken from the North Carolina Collection and Special Collections. As far as what material was selected the exhibit was curated to show the tobacco industry grew and developed in Pitt County and "allow the user to understand this important phenomenon in the context of socio-economic trends."

Metadata

Each item is provided with its corresponding title and publication date (where applicable), as well as the location and call number. One is also able to access the full catalog record as well. In addition, a brief statement providing context is provided for many of the items. Information regarding the technical aspects of the scanning, however, does not seem to be available.

Object Characteristics

One thing about this exhibit that kind of perplexes me is that certain items are inexplicably not scanned. For instance, there is the case where in lieu of scanning newspaper articles the website simply provides the text. However, the newspaper advertisements are indeed scanned. Where items are scanned the quality is good and one is able to click on them for a larger image.

Intended Audience

In the introduction to the exhibit it states, "It is the hope of J.Y. Joyner Library that this exhibit will be useful to scholars, students at all levels, local historians, and family historians." In particular, I would imagine people interested in North Carolina and the tobacco industry would be particularly interested.