From the upper porch of her house, a young Bayard Wootten could watch New Bern wake and stir, come and go, and fade with the light on the nearby Neuse River. This vantage point defined her work as a photographer: The first woman to take aerial photos, Wootten was also skilled at capturing the down-to-earth in her home state. Her portraits from the 1920s and ’30s, of potters and weavers, farmers and soldiers, mothers and children, showcase the dignity of everyday life. Her landscapes — a cotton field, a mountain homestead, a foot-printed dune — are both familiar and mysterious. Toward the end of her life, Wootten returned to the house where she grew up, and when she died there in 1959, she left a trove of some 600,000 photographs.
Little-Known Fun Fact: While living at this house, Wootten designed the first Pepsi-Cola logo for a neighbor, the pharmacist who invented the drink.
In North Carolina, spring brings the scent of fresh-cut grass and memories of helping Dad mow the lawn.
Nostalgic burger joints are like time machines, delivering something extra special that keeps us coming back.
This tiny city block in downtown Greensboro once had a gigantic reputation. Not so much for its charbroiled beef patties — though they, too, were plentiful — but for its colorful characters and their wild shenanigans.
In the 1950s, as Americans hit freshly paved roads in shiny new cars during the postwar boom, a new kind of restaurant took shape: the drive-in. From those first thin patties to the elaborate gourmet hamburgers of today, North Carolina has spent the past 80 years making burger history.
