Jolly Jewelry & Optometry

The NC Digital Collections website has recently added several photos of the Jolly family members of Raleigh, and their family jewelry and optometry store.   The store was opened in 1881 by Benjamin Rush Jolly and closed in in 2011 – quite an established history.

Jolly Jewelers in the 1925 Raleigh directory

 

Photos added to the online collection vary but include pictures of Frank Moseley Jolly, Susan Jolly, and various interior and exterior shots.  I particularly love this photo of the inside of the store – it just looks so peaceful.

And, wasn’t their model cute?

Visit the NC Digital Collections site to see more Jolly family & business photos.  These images, and more, are part of the Albert Barden photo collection.

Frank Mosely Jolly (1880-1919), son of Benjamin Rush Jolly

Interested in more? Check out this article that features Benjamin’s great-great grandson, Frank Ragsdale Jolly as he talks about his family’s history with the store.

Raeford B. Whitley

Recently, while browsing a photo collection from the Library of Congress, I came across the following photo two photos  of Raeford Bryant Whitley,  a businessman of Wendell; and one of the founders of the town.

What was funny about this was that this same day  I’d been looking at the yearbook photo of his son Phillip Ray Whitley. Phillip graduated from the University of North Carolina @ Chapel Hill in 1929.

Phillip Ray Whitley, c/o 1929 UNC-Chapel Hill

I’ve added some brief information on the Whitley Family Tree to my database of NC Families.