Official visitor information site for Durham, NC

Durham Bibliography

Learn more about the history and architecture of Durham. Discover the famous families behind Durham's tobacco, textile, and insurance enterprises. See childhood through the eyes of a young black woman growing up here mid-century. Or curl up with works of fiction set in Durham.

In preparation for a visit or to follow-up on intriguing facts from your stay, consult this bibliography compiled by staff of the Durham County Library.

Durham County Library
300 N. Roxboro St., Downtown Durham
North Carolina Collection: (919) 560-0171
Readers' Advisory Room and Fiction Collection: (919) 560-0147

History/Architecture

    • Anderson, Jean Bradley. A History of Durham County, North Carolina, 1991.
    • Boyd, William Kenneth. The Story of Durham: City of the New South, Durham, NC, 1925.
    • Darkis Jr., Fred. Durham, North Carolina, City of Medicine, USA, 1991.
    • Dixon, Wyatt. How Times Do Change: a Series of Sketches of Durham and Her Citizens, 1987.
    • Dula, W.C. Durham and Her People: Combining History and Who's Who in Durham of1949 and 1950, 1951.
    • Flowers, John Baxton. Bull Durham and Beyond: A Touring Guide to City and County, 1976.
    • Greene, Christina. Separate Ways: Women and the Black Freedom Movement in Durham, North Carolina, 2005.
    • King, William E. If Gargoyles Could Talk, 1997.
    • Kostyu, Joel A. and Frank A. Durham: a Pictorial History, 1978.
    • Lougee, George. Durham My Home Town, 1990.
    • Massengill, Stephen E. Durham, North Carolina: a Postcard History, 1997.
    • Reynolds, P. Preston. History of Watts Hospital of Durham, 1992.
    • Roberts, Claudia P., et al. The Durham Architectural and Historic Inventory, 1982.
    • Vann, Andre, and Beverly Washington Jones. Durham's Hayti, 1999.
    • Wise, Jim. Durham: A Bull City Story, 2002.

Growing Up In Durham

    • Davidson, Osha Gray. The Best of Enemies: Race and Redemption in the New South, 1996.
    • Evans, Eli. The Provincials: A Personal History of Jews in the South, 1973.
    • Holloway, Betsy. Heaven for Beginners: Recollections of a Southern Town, 1986.
    • Holloway, Betsy. Unfinished Heaven, 1994.
    • Leyburn, James G. The Way We Lived–Durham 1900-1920, 1989.
    • Lougee, George. Durham My Home Town, 1990.
    • Mebane, Mary E. Mary, 1981.
    • Murray, Pauli. Proud Shoes: The Story of a Family, 1978.
    • Webb, Mena. The Way We Were: Remembering Durham, 2003.

Famous Families/Business

    • Anderson, Jean Bradley. Piedmont Plantation: The Bennehan-Cameron Family and Lands in North Carolina, 1985.
    • Covington, Howard E. Jr. Favored by Fortune: George W. Watts & the Hills of Durham, 2004.
    • Durden, Robert F. Dukes of Durham, 1865-1929, 1975.
    • Durden, Robert F. Bold Entrepreneur: The Life of James B. Duke. 2003.
    • Roberts, B.W.C. and Snow L. Bull Durham Business Bonanza, 1866-1940, 2002.
    • Weare, Walter B. Black Business in the New South: a Social History of the North CarolinaMutual Life Insurance Company, 1973.
    • Webb, Mena. Jule Carr: General Without an Army, 1987.

Fiction And Poetry

    • Applewhite, James. River Writing: An Eno Journal, 1988.
    • Cannon, Taffy. Convictions: A Novel of the Sixties, 1985.
    • Dinin, Aaron. The Krzyzewskiville Tales. 2005.
    • Edgerton, Clyde. Raney, 1985; Walking Across Egypt, 1987; Floatplane Notebooks, 1988.
    • Ehle, John. Move Over Mountain, 1957.
    • FitzSimmons, Foster. Bright Leaf, 1948.
    • Kremen, Barbara H. Tree Trove, 1985.
    • McKay, Amanda. Death is Academic, 1976; Death on the Eno, 1981.
    • Parker, Gwendolyn M. These Same Long Bones, 1994.
    • Patterson, James. Kiss The Girls, 1995.
    • Patton, Frances Gray. Good Morning Miss Dove, 1954.
    • Rogers, Gloree. Love, or a Reasonable Facsimile, 1989.
    • Seeman, Ernest. American Gold, 1978.
    • Sharp, Paula. The Woman Who Was Not All There, 1988.
    • Slaughter, Jane M. Espy and the Catnappers, 1975.
    • Wolfe, Thomas. Streets of Durham, 1982.

Sauda Zahra: "With these Hands: Quilting as a Spiritual Odyssey" Exhibit

Art quilts by Sauda Zahra, in the Ella Fountain Pratt Legacy Gallery. FREE admission.

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