Hugh Morton Collection Now Online

The Photographic Archives of the North Carolina Collection in Wilson Library has recently mounted a new digital collection, the Hugh Morton Collection of Photographs and Films. At present approximately 1500 images are available online, which represents only a small fraction of the many tens of thousands in the Morton collection at UNC. A View to Hugh is an award-winning blog that has documented the processing of this collection, and the posting announcing the digital collection also solicits input from users as the project develops further. As described on the project web site:

The Hugh Morton Collection of Photographs and Films (Collection P081, North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, Wilson Library) documents Hugh MacRae Morton's career covering eight decades (1930s-2000s) as a prominent North Carolina businessman, political figure, tourism booster, conservationist, environmental activist, sports fan, and prolific image-maker. The still images and motion pictures in the collection cover aspects of Morton's various involvements: as a photojournalist; a soldier in the Pacific Theater during World War II; the owner and operator of the Grandfather Mountain tourist attraction in Linville, N.C.; a well-known figure in state government and friend of many North Carolina politicians, entertainers, and media personalities; an alumni, booster, and frequent sports-event attendee of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and an ardent admirer of nature and lover of travel.

The Morton digital collection is searchable by keyword and browseable by name, location, subject, and decade. Morton's lens ranged over a wide range of subjects, and although the digital collection will be greatly increasing in size as additional images are processed, there are already images in the following health-related categories under Browse by Subject:

-- Health care facilities
-- Hospitals
-- Medical aspects of war
-- Medical equipment and supplies
-- Nurses
-- Nursing homes

A finding aid to the Morton collection is also available online.

The image above is from the Morton Collection (#P081). Entitled "WW2 Medic Helps Injured Man," it was taken during Morton's WWII service with the 161st Signal Photography Corps in the Pacific Islands.

Information on other digital collections at UNC Libraries and the Health Sciences Library is available in the Digital Collections section of the HSL Special Collections web site.