RALEIGH – There’s something arresting in the demi-smile of the confident, composed gentleman wearing a seersucker suit in the photograph who looks out at you. He is formally posed, and cradles a bag of corn meal in his lap. What is he telling us? His photograph is among the 50 images, 18 from the North Carolina State Archives, included in the “Telling Our Stories Photography Exhibit” now touring the state. The exhibit will be at the Harnett County Public Library, 601 S. Main Street, Lillington, through Feb. 26. Public libraries in 34 cities will display the exhibit.
The N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, which includes the Office of Archives and History and the State Library of North Carolina, arranged the tour, which has an eastern and western route. Images from some of the state’s best professional photographers, top winners of the “Our State” magazine photography contest, and for the first time, images from the State Archives, are on tour. The exhibit has been popular in stops New Hanover, Bladen and other counties. The next stop is the Public Library of Johnson County and Smithfield, then on to Joyner Library at East Carolina University in Greenville.
Identified as “Middle Aged Gentleman” from the Dunn area, the gentleman now has a name. He is Walter Judson Jones, and was known as the “Corn Meal King” in the 1930s. When his daughter-in-law, Frances Jones, saw the story and picture in the “Dunn Daily Dispatch,” she recognized it immediately. She has one just like it at home. Her late husband was his son and she could tell the story of Walter Judson Jones.
“He had a feed store and sold all kinds of fertilizer, grains, seed, and feed,” she recalls. “They gave him, or he may have put on himself, “Corn Meal King” as a gimmick. He was successful at it. He died at 53 in the store of a heart attack.”
The picture came to the State Archives inauspiciously. It was one in a set of negatives from the Lewis White Studio in Dunn in the 1930s. They were discovered in some trash by Walt Smith, Vice President of Aversboro Battlefield and Museum, and given to Dunn Planning Director Steve Neuschafer, who brought them to the State Archives. State Archivist Kim Cumber is communicating with Frances Jones, who turns 91-years-old on Feb. 19, in hopes of identifying other images from the Lewis White studio. Scans of many images from the White studio are viewable online at http://www.flickr.com/photos/north-carolina-state-archives/sets/72157604114646266.
Additional help in identifying some of the people and places in the archives collection is greatly appreciated. The State Archives Special Collections Branch includes thousands of images dating from the 1860s to the 1990s. The State Archives collects, preserves, and makes available for public use materials relating to the history and culture of the state. Other images from the State Archives collections are at http://www.flickr.com/photos/north-carolina-state-archives/.
For additional information on the tour call Fay Mitchell at 919-807-7389. For information on the State Archives Special Collections call Kim Cumber at 919-807-7311. The State Archives, Office of Archives and History, and State Library of North Carolina are all part of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, a state agency dedicated to the promotion and protection of North Carolina’s arts, history and culture. Join Cultural Resources in observing the 2009 theme “Treasure N.C. Culture.” Podcasts and with information about the Department of Cultural Resources, are available 24/7 at www.ncculture.com.