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Willis N. Hackney Library

Special Collections

North Carolina Collection

The North Carolina Collection consists of published and archival material related to the history of North Carolina.  It also includes the Hackney Brothers Body Company Collection, which is explained in further detail below, and the C.C. Ware North Carolina Miscellany.

Collection Examples

The Colonial and State Records of North Carolina, 1662-1790 (26 volumes)

For more information on these records, please visit the Documenting the American South, hosted by the University Library of the University of North Carolina.  To view digitized versions of the records, please visit the Hathi Trust website.

Title Page of the Colonial Records of North Carolina, Volume 1, 1662-1712

Title Page of the Constitution of the State of North-Carolina Together With the Ordinances and Resolutions of the Constitutional Convention, Assembled in the City of Raleigh, Jan., 14th, 1868.

Hackney Brothers Body Company Collection

In 1854, Hackney and Sons was organized by Willis N. Hackney, as a carriage shop in Wilson, North Carolina.  In 1877, the company became known as Hackney Brothers, one of the largest manufacturers of buggies and wagons in the South. The present name, Hackney Brothers Body Company, was adopted in 1914, and formally incorporated in 1920.  It was in these early years that the company pioneered the manufacture of school bus bodies and refrigerated bodies.  The company was sold in 1996, and this collection was given to Barton College shortly thereafter.  Two of the presidents of Hackney Brothers Body Company, Thomas J. Hackney, Sr., and Thomas J. Hackney, Jr., were both Chairmen of the Board of Trustees at Atlantic Christian College during their tenures at Hackney Brothers.  The bulk of the collection consists of capital assets (invoices), brochures, and photographs.