Tuesday, October 07, 2003

WILMINGTON, NC – In celebration of the State Fair’s 150th anniversary, University of North Carolina at Wilmington Professor Emeritus of History Melton A. McLaurin has written The North Carolina State Fair: The First 150 Years. Copies will be available during the state fair Oct. 17 – 26, and McLaurin will be on hand at the fair to autograph copies in Dorton Arena at Raleigh.

With an annual attendance of 700,000 visitors, the North Carolina State Fair is the state’s largest event and is the largest 10-day agricultural fair in the country. During October, the state fair is celebrating 150 years of blue ribbon fun. To mark this milestone, the N.C. Office of Archives and History and the State Fair Division of the Department of Agriculture have jointly published a history of the annual autumn event.

McLaurin’s book, The North Carolina State Fair: The First 150 Years, is illustrated with over 300 color and black-and-white pictures selected by Paul Blankinship. The new hardcover book is the most comprehensive account ever published of the people, politics and events that have shaped the North Carolina State Fair. Each chapter provides insight into a different aspect of the state fair over the years since its founding in 1853. The book delves into the fair’s structure, the fair as carnival, its social aspects and agricultural and industrial promotion.

Melton A. McLaurin, the author of seven books and numerous articles on the American South, is professor emeritus of history at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, where he taught for 25 years. A native North Carolinian, he received B.S. and M.A. degrees from East Carolina University and a Ph.D. in history from the University of South Carolina.

Paul Blankinship grew up in Brevard, N.C. In 1971, he moved to Raleigh, where he earned an M.S. degree in oceanography from N. C. State University. He has conducted years of research and assembled a variety of materials on the history of the state fair, which have been exhibited at the fair each year since 1992.

The North Carolina State Fair: The First 150 Years, 236 pages, clothbound, illustrated, index) sells for $25. North Carolina residents should add 7 percent state sales tax. Shipping charges are $4 for the first book ordered and $.75 for each additional book.

Order from: Historical Publications Section (N), Office of Archives and History, 4622 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, N.C. 27699-4622. For credit card orders call 919/33-7442 or order online from the Historical Publications Shop at http://store.yahoo.com/nc-historical-publications/.

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During the state fair Melton A. McLaurin will be available for interviews with the media in Dorton Arena. For a comment contact McLaurin at 910/962-4046 or 910/392-0395. For more information contact Heather Overton at 919/33-4216 or Frances Kunstling at 919/733-7442 in the N.C. Office of Archives and History.