Going into the special collections, I had feelings that there was going to be little to surprise me. I knew that universities were repositories for documents but I assumed that being there are much larger, more important schools, not too far from here, that they would be stored there. It didn’t take long for those thoughts to leave. It wasn’t that Charlotte somehow had something unique and spectacular but the fact that it had varied items from throughout the history. Thinking back, most of the artifacts were on the side of insignificant but that is to be expected. Cities will just unload their old files once they have reached a certain date.
The collection of arbitrary Charlotte history held the first artifact that caught my attention. I will …show more content…
Sadly, it was checked out until January of 2016. I didn’t even know it was possible to do so. Regardless, I was back on the search. I turned to the book The Carolina Gold Rush by Bruce Roberts. This contained an interesting nugget of information. In the mid 1800’s when the gold rush was active in Charlotte. Charlotte became the location for a US mint and began mining gold coins in 1836. Charlotte had its own mint mark of “c” on the coins produced. It was convenient to mint in Charlotte due to its location to the gold being mined nearby. The mint produced $1, $2.5, $5, and a quarter eagle coin. “The last gold coins made in Charlotte bear the date 1861. No one knows whether the Confederates minted the gold that was on hand when the mint was seized…” (Roberts, 1971, pp. …show more content…
The front of the postcard included an image of the hotel and information regarding the establishment. The header reads, “From the principle hotel of North Carolina’s principle city.” It contained information regarding the rates and the amenities provided in the hotel. The hotel provided 400 rooms each with a private bath and two restaurants to choose from. The rear of the postcard contained a message of general update between two individuals. The most important aspect of this side is the post mark date which is Oct 1, 1937. The hotel appears a titan for its day with the number of room and amenities. Examining the structure shows a building over 10 floors tall. This would have been an undeniable skyscraper in its
The collection of arbitrary Charlotte history held the first artifact that caught my attention. I will …show more content…
Sadly, it was checked out until January of 2016. I didn’t even know it was possible to do so. Regardless, I was back on the search. I turned to the book The Carolina Gold Rush by Bruce Roberts. This contained an interesting nugget of information. In the mid 1800’s when the gold rush was active in Charlotte. Charlotte became the location for a US mint and began mining gold coins in 1836. Charlotte had its own mint mark of “c” on the coins produced. It was convenient to mint in Charlotte due to its location to the gold being mined nearby. The mint produced $1, $2.5, $5, and a quarter eagle coin. “The last gold coins made in Charlotte bear the date 1861. No one knows whether the Confederates minted the gold that was on hand when the mint was seized…” (Roberts, 1971, pp. …show more content…
The front of the postcard included an image of the hotel and information regarding the establishment. The header reads, “From the principle hotel of North Carolina’s principle city.” It contained information regarding the rates and the amenities provided in the hotel. The hotel provided 400 rooms each with a private bath and two restaurants to choose from. The rear of the postcard contained a message of general update between two individuals. The most important aspect of this side is the post mark date which is Oct 1, 1937. The hotel appears a titan for its day with the number of room and amenities. Examining the structure shows a building over 10 floors tall. This would have been an undeniable skyscraper in its