Gideon Laney, daughter Grace Laney, a boy, and a man
Photo courtesy of Western Carolina University Southern Appalachian Digital Collections
Western Carolina University has an amazing digital collection that’s easily accessible to anyone with a computer or smart phone. I’ve long known about the resource and used it for my work here on the Blind Pig & The Acorn. Along with amazing photos you can view letters, maps, paintings, publication documents, and more!
I also used the collection when I worked at the folk school. Surprisingly the collection has photos of the folk school community that the school either never had or lost over the passage of time.
My interest in the collections was rekindled last year when Don Casada, who played a role in some of the recent donations, shared photos with me that were related to my county of Cherokee.
If you missed it, Don also wrote a post detailing the three collections he has worked with. You can read his post here.
Not long after Don wrote the guest post I was able to talk to David Anderson about the photo collection he helped secure for Western North Carolina. It was especially dear to me because the photographer, Gid Laney, was from Brasstown. (see Gid in photo above and follow this link to hear our conversation)
As Jim Casada and I worked on our cookbook project “Celebrating Southern Appalachian Food – Recipes & Stories from Mountain Kitchens” we agreed historic photos would only add to our book of stories and recipes. Jason Brady who works at the college was more than helpful as we looked through the massive collection in search of food related items.
I’m tickled pink that some of Gid Laney’s photos are in the cookbook and I know Jim feels the same way about the photos from Bryson City where he was raised.
While searching for photos to use in the cookbook it occurred to me it was a down right shame that more people didn’t know about the wonderful resource.
I shared my thoughts with Jason and he agreed it would be nice if more folks utilized the collection for research, but also just for the pleasure of seeing the wonderful old photos.
Photos like the one at the top of this post.
Whenever I see an old picture I take it all in at once then I slowly go back and try to see every detail and let my mind wonder about what my eyes see.
Have I ever been in the exact location Gid and the others are standing in? Maybe since I’ve lived in Brasstown pretty much my entire life. I console myself that even if I’ve not been right there maybe I’ve been close or maybe Pap walked down that very road at some point.
Gid and his daughter seem to be very well dressed. I wonder if his photography business made a good living for them. I see the overalls under the suit jacket of the gentleman in back and they make me smile. My Papaw Wade always wore overalls unless he was going to church.
I’m always interested in the footwear, or lack thereof, that shows up in old photos.
Since Gid was in the service I wonder if his tie clip is related to his time in the military.
I wonder if the briar patch behind them is blackberry briars or multiflora rose.
I wish with great longing that I could have heard what they talked about just before the photo and just after. Did Gid instruct them on being still while he fixed the camera? Or did he have someone else working the camera for him? Were they going to church? A funeral? A wedding?
So many questions!
All old photos cause my mind to invent stories to ponder on.
But the ones from my area of Appalachia bring a hope to my heart. They give me solace that those who went before me soldiered on so I should too.
Visit the Southern Appalachian Collection of Western Carolina University. You won’t be sorry, with over 26,000 items you’ll be thoroughly entertained and if you’re from the area, or your people are from the area, you might just see family show up on your screen.
I plan to share more photos from the collection in the future so be on the lookout for the next post showcasing another amazing historic photo.
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Old photos & old letters are two amazing things to find. It is better if you know who the photos are of. alot of our family photos have ‘disappeared’ because they were entrusted to the great I am named after. She was a nun, so obviously no offspring, and when she died a couple of years ago they ‘disappeared’. Don’t know if the convent tossed them or gave them to some of the nieces/nephews. But my family doesn’t get on with each other, so I will never know. Luckily someone had scanned a bunch of these photos onto some kind of digital photo album. Unfortunately, its some old software; it can’t be printed off of, it ‘turns pages’ like a virtual album & there is no good way to just flip through the pictures, & none are labelled. I can piece a lot of the images together with help from relatives, but it isn’t great. If you have albums, get someone to help you label them before they die & you are left with nameless people.
I too have an interest in old photos and scrutinize over and over for detail. It is so sad to have these photos and not have an identity of people, place or occasion. This being the case my grandson and I have taken old family photos beginning about 1900 and put them on a website with my commentary describing my memories and history of these people. We also took topics, such as mule drawn equipment, dirt roads, funeral custom, etc. and I gave commentary on these. I would encourage every one to at least write names on the back of pictures.
We have recorded about 20 hours and still have about 2 hours to go. For anyone interested the site is family.sbarnes.net.
I like to look and study the old pictures of my family members. I had a great uncle that was a professional photographer during the first half of the 1900’s. His name was Will Kirby and he lived in Gaffney, SC. I was about 6 years old when he died and don’t remember much about him. Today I saw some flowers coming up and even some that had already bloomed out. I am not much on the name of flowers but I think they were daffodils. The morning low’s were in 20’s a few days ago, I thought it was still to early for them.
I love to look at old pictures, whether it’s someone in my own family or strangers. I study what they have on, where they may have been going, and so many times the somberness of their faces. My husband and I have some pictures of great grandparents as well as many others and they are not smiling, and I wonder if they just were shy about the camera or the hard life they had. Now that both sets of our parents have gone on, some pictures we have no idea who they are, even though we know they are family. If we look hard and long enough all these wonderful old pictures seem to tell a story. Thanks for the wonderful post today and I am going back to search what you shared with us. Have a blessed day everyone!!
Tipper, I study details in photos just like you do. I appreciate the priceless contributions of early photographers, including those with simple box cameras. Gid had a good lens and an assistant, I’m sure.
In the 1950s I photographed my late mother at Whitewater Falls, above Salem, SC. In the background is the rock on which her mother had stood for a snapshot in the 1920s at a July 4th picnic. The photographer is unknown. That snapshot is the best of only two pics of my grandmother, Dora (Moss) Alexander, that we have. She was killed in 1928 when a Model T Ford in which she was a passenger overturned.
I kinda have a reputation for liking ‘old stuff’; old books, old pictures, old houses. I don’t think it says anything good about the present to scorn what is old because it is old. If I am not mistaken, (it has been awhile since I was there) one of the collections at WNC is the Ramsey Library of photos that has US Forest Service images dating back to around 1900. They are not so much people as land and resources. But then I am like Sadie Belle Ledbetter – camera shy and besides I don’t photograph well.
I love old photos. The history and the memories are precious.The old photos from our families are treasures. Looking forward to the cookbook!
My late Momma passed away January of last year. My uncle, her brother was helping me clean out her house after her passing. We found 4 large plastic containers of pictures in her bedroom. One of those pictures I will treasure forever…It was an old black and white photo of a couple…My great grandparents, Momma’s grandparents that I never got to meet as they both had gone on to their rewards before I was born. I wouldn’t have known who they were had my uncle not been there with me to tell me. There was no writing on the back nor nothing. Come to find out, my uncle was named after his grandpa. He told me story after story. I will treasure that picture always!!
My aunt recently showed me a video she took in the 90s, of my great granddeddy, from the coal hills of Morgantown KY. He was 100 yrs old, lying in bed talkin to her, in the house he lived in most of his life. I only met him once. I’m blessed to have a recording of it. And I will be blessed to own your cookbook, can’t wait!
What a great informative post today. Thank you Tipper for sparking the curiosity in us through your own imagination on how folks lived in days gone by. I don’t have time today, but later on I’ll explore the historical photos on the link you gave. It will be a fun digital adventure to see all the site has to offer. I’m looking forward to your cookbook coming out too!
Tipper, I’m simply looking forward to holding in my paws your wonderful cookbook that’s going to take me to the next level of entertaining and feasting! I’ll be the hostess with the mostest when that happens! I suppose folks will come a’runnin’ when good Carolina cooking is on the menu! I’m getting excited now! I think that picture is somewhat pitiful myself. No one is smiling, they all look rough as a cob and like it’s been a rough life. I do think the little girl is pretty though. I have a thing about photos and don’t like mine taken one bit! I can’t describe it, but it makes me very uncomfortable. I like pictures as long as they’re not me.
The main reason no one smiled in those old photos is due to the camera. You had to be still for a long time to get the camera to take the picture. Most people could not hold a smile that long so it was standard practice for everyone to keep a straight face so that they wouldn’t be out of focus. I always wondered the same thing until an old photographer friend explained how those old cameras worked.
Grace reminds me of Queen Elizabeth I at that age and the boy resembles her son, Charles.
I too am excited to see that cookbook.
I have most of the old family photos ranging back generations on both sides. for some reason no one wrote who they were on the back. my grandmother had 2 tintypes one of herself as a toddler the other of Abraham Lincoln. she never showed the others to us so we have no idea who they were or how they came to be
This collection is fantastic! Over 26,500 in the different subjects. Just perfect for any kind of research, including the GENEALOGY that I’m compiling for my family members, to describe the area, the history, The People. Oh. My. Had no idea about this resource. THANK YOU, TIPPER.
I have pondered over too many photos to count. That moment in time is forever captured, and we are left with all the questions about the people, and sometimes we will see something else of interest when we view the photo again. My extended family has become so much more known to me through genealogy, and FB has brought all of us much closer. So many questions such as “why does the mother of my third cousin look exactly like my own mother? Unfortunately, those of us who wonder and care over these details can be a puzzle to those who are not interested. One catchy photo was one of my 2x great uncle who stood in front of a rock formation in a photo. His hat was comically hung on a stray branch jutting out into the photo field. Everybody offered comments and questions about that rock and puzzled over the location. We all have interests, but to seek out and learn about the people who made up our history is one of the most fascinating endeavors to me. The food that will be featured in your cookbook has its own history, and I am certain this book will be a great success. Maybe in your future videos you might be able to prepare the dishes. Whatever you and Jim Casada as a team get into, it has to be a big success. We look forward to this.
I’m sure there are old photo albums sitting on closet shelves and in old trunks all over the place waiting to once again be discovered. I’ve found two recently that my grandmother put together many years ago. I see different things every time a turn one of the fragile pages. I’m looking forward to searching that incredible resource you shared.
Tipper, it’s amazing that you have been able bring this picture back and publish it! I have a few old pictures among my family photos that I can only look at and wonder about then though I have no way to know who they are.
Pictures of ‘history’ are always telling, no smiles, no shoes and then the background. I also love looking back. I cannot wait on the cookbook, it is gonna be a winner, I can tell.
When was multiflora roses introduced to this country