The Verona Joyner Langford North Carolina Collection is celebrating the New Year with an eye on the pomp and pageantry of gubernatorial inaugurations in North Carolina.  Entitled simply "North Carolina Inaugurations," a newly installed exhibit features a number of noteworthy and valuable printed materials from the collection of Carroll H. Leggett, an administrative assistant to former N.C. Attorney General and U.S. Senator Robert B. Morgan. Of note are programs, formal invitations, tickets, and other ephemera related to the installation of former governors Sanford, Holshouser, Hunt, Martin, and Easley. Also included in the exhibit are North Carolina Office of Archives and History prints of rare inaugural scenes associated with Gov. Locke Craig (1913) and Gov. J. C. B. Ehringhaus (1933), and First Lady Dorothy Martin's inaugural ball gown from 1988.  Among those materials originating from the files of the North Carolina Collection are official souvenir programs for the inaugurations of Governors R. Gregg Cherry, Luther Hodges, and Dan Moore.

Some of the documents in the exhibit reflect North Carolinians' involvement in the inaugurations of Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.   An official White House photograph from the 1980s features President and Mrs. Reagan with ex-presidents Nixon, Ford, and Carter.

The Carroll H. Leggett Collection is housed within the East Carolina Manuscript Collection, a unit of the Special Collections Division of Joyner Library.  The North Carolina Collection is delighted to display these and other ECMC items in its current exhibit, which can be viewed during the department's regular hours through February.

For further information contact NCC Exhibits Curator Fred Harrison at 252-328-0249 or 252-328-6601.