Roanoke Colonies Research Newsletter
Volume 8, Numbers 1 & 2 (November 2002/ May 2003)

From the Editor . . .

After a hiatus, the Roanoke Colonies Research Newsletter is back in publication. There is one major change in the newsletter, moving from a twice-a-year to a once-a-year publication. The format will remain the same, though a bit longer, including our main features, such as the annual checklists of Roanoke colonization-related publications and newspaper articles. We will also continue to cover items related to the Roanoke colonization efforts of the English in the 1580s coming from academia and popular culture. Please continue to send us items for inclusion, especially those that are in unlikely sources that we may otherwise miss.

Not out yet, but forthcoming, most likely in the winter of 2003-2004, is Searching for the Roanoke Colonies: An Interdisciplinary Collection, edited by E. Thomson Shields Jr. and Charles R. Ewen. Being published by the Historical Publications Section of the North Carolina Office of Archives and History, the collection includes essays based on presentations from the 1993 “Roanoke Decoded” symposium and the 1998 “Roanoke Colonization: An Interdisciplinary Conference” as well as a few essays not presented at either gathering. Areas represented include literature, history, and archaeology. Of special note is what may be David Beers Quinn’s last published original essay, “Investment in the Roanoke Colonies and Its Consequences,” based on his presentation at the 1993 symposium.

The North Carolina Historical Review has made several of its past articles on colonial North Carolina available through its web site <http://www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/sections/hp/colonial/Nchr/Subjects/>. At least three of the available articles are of interest to people examining Roanoke colonization-related subjects. Included are William S. Powell’s 1973 “Creatures of Carolina from Roanoke Island to Purgatory Mountain”; Ruth Y. Wetmore’s 1979 “The Role of the Indian in North Carolina History”; and Powell’s 1957 “Roanoke Colonists and Explorers: An Attempt at Identification.” This last article Powell updated and published as “Who Were the Roanoke Colonists?” in the volume Raleigh and Quinn: The Explorer and His Boswell (1987). It has been updated once more as “Who Came to Roanoke,” which was presented along with “The Search for Ananias Dare” at the 1993 “Roanoke Decoded” symposium, both of which are included in the forthcoming Searching for the Roanoke Colonies.

Keep your eyes open over the next year or so for several possible television productions about Roanoke colonization. At least three production companies from both the United States and England have contacted people with connections to Roanoke colonizationrelated studies about possible documentaries.

Congratulations to Lawrence Keech of the Washington Daily News from Washington, North Carolina. His series of eight articles published between May 26 and July 7, 2002, on various issues surrounding the Roanoke colonies of the 1580s helped Keech to be named one of Presstime Magazine’s “20 Under 40,” which honors rising newspaper professionals.

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