Historic Alamance County: A Biographical History, William Murray Vincent, 2009 $35.00 120 pp.

Contains a brief general history of the area, including information on aboriginal history, 18^th century explorers of the region, early settlement patterns, pertinent Revolutionary and Civil War history, industrialization, and the development of local medical, educational and cultural services.  Also included are biographies of more than 60 individuals who have made significant contributions to the history, growth, and development of the county.  The book concludes with an overview of several local businesses whose impacts are felt locally and beyond.  More than 180 photographs – in black-and-white and color – supplement the text.

Shuttle and Plow: A History of Alamance County, N.C., Carole Troxler and William Vincent, 1999 $40.00 541 pp.

In this two-part history the authors place Alamance County in the context of regional and national history.  The book spans more than three centuries and focuses on cultural changes, religious dynamics, and socio-political themes within the central Piedmont.  Discussions of economic currents range from the Indian Trading Path’s impact on settlement patterns to methods of farming and home manufacturing, the functions of cross-roads trading and manufacturing centers, transitions to wage labor and commercial farming, and the rise and domination of textiles.  Twentieth century adjustments in the textile industry, issues and changes in labor relations, and race relations are included, together with expected topics such as the Regulators, the Battle of Alamance and the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Covering the Holt textile dynasty from the founding of the Alamance Cotton Factory in 1837 to the strike of 1900, the book provides an excellent social history of southern industrial development.  The author intersperses chapters on the rise of the Holts with profiles of their workers to provide a thorough explanation of how industrialization affected sectional, familial, racial, and gender relations across class lines.

Facsimile reprint of the author’s UNC master’s thesis originally published in 1900.  Contains an overview of the county’s early history, oral history accounts, and selected genealogies.  Often cited and long out of print, the book was reprinted by the museum in 1986.

Cookbook containing historical and contemporary recipes from Alamance County and the central Piedmont.  The book also includes a forward by Dr. William Vincent discussing the social history of food in the Piedmont Region of North Carolina, and contains fifteen line drawings of National Register Historic Properties located in Alamance County, as well as illustrations of the area’s famous textile, the “Alamance Plaid.”