Photographs can bring history to life and help us to make connections between the past and our dailylives. With Johnston County, authors Todd Johnson and Durwood Barbour have created a work that trulyteaches us and guides us from the past of this area into the new millennium. In this exciting new work, every one of the county's seventeen townships has been covered, with rare images dating primarily from the turn of the century to 1945. Mostly candid shots of people who have influenced Johnston's social, cultural, and economic development, these images bring us to a time when the pace of life was slower. Other, more well-known citizens we meet include film star Ava Gardner and Lunsford Richardson, inventor of Vick's VapoRub. Also featured in this book are images of important events, like the highly publicized, catastrophic munitions truck explosion near Selma in 1942.
The over 200 rare images featured in this collection were gathered from the Johnston County Room of the Public Library of Johnston County and Smithfield, the North Carolina State Archives, the photograph collection of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the private collections of gracious local residents. Proceeds from the sales of this book will benefit the new Johnston County Heritage Center.