Native North Carolinians tend to learn the state toast (adopted by the General Assembly in 1957) in childhood. As with the state motto, Esse Quam Videri (To be rather than to seem), such words from the toast as "Here’s to the land of the longleaf pine” hold an amazing power to inspire the varied denizens of North Carolina, a state with deep and varied agricultural and industrial histories.

Words are fine for inspiration, and for recording the achievements of those who once heard or spoke such words. However, a single photograph offers a window into a lost past that is difficult to capture in words alone. This volume, Historic Photos of North Carolina, provides nearly 200 such glimpses of life in the Tar Heel State. From the mid-1800s through the mid-1900s, from Cape Hatteras to Asheville, from scenes of farm families working in the fields to Orville Wright in flight at Kill Devil Hills, these historic black-and-white images seek to capture the essence of change in the land of the longleaf pine.