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"Going Home" Margaret Morley, Photographer |
Selections from the
Ramsey Library Special Collections Prepared for exhibit March 2001 and expanded for Web display 2003 |
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| SUBMIT A BIOGRAPHY | |||
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Some women came to western North Carolina as visitors and recorded their visit in personal dairies, in novels, and in journal articles. Some of the women stayed, and some went back to their homes in Charleston, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Chicago, and other cities. The records of the early travelers fill us with admiration for their high independence and spirit of adventure. Theirs is a world of contrasts described in the language of the sublime and picturesque. What these early traveling women seemed to have that is so missing in today’s world, is time. Today, women find time precious. They still travel to the mountains and they still record their experiences in word, art, sound and deed, but they do so as part of busy twentieth-century schedules. And, Woman Time is different than Man Time, and so is Woman Space. The space these early travelers record is often precious, and closely observed, nature at its most intimate and human nature at its most vulnerable and needy. The story of women and travel is most remarkable. The experiences of these early travelers, the visitors, are recorded in woman time and space. They teach us about what we value today and what we miss and they remind us of the adventurer in us all as we journey to the future. Some women came to western North Carolina and lived for brief, but important years. When they went away they took with them the essence of the place in which they lived and the friends they made and the experiences they had in “The Land of the Sky”. Their brief or long residence gave and continues to give to the region, diverse cultural, social, and educational elements. Some women lived in the city, others in the country. In Asheville, the urban dweller rubs shoulders with the rural dweller and the cross-cultural influences can be seen in many of the stories and documents of women who live and lived in the western region of the state. The values of these temporary dwellers speak to all women who have put down roots in some far-away place and have come to call it home. Theirs is a unique perspective, one that has had time to savor the local color, the values, the relationships, the culture and to distill it in exploring ways. When they have shared their thoughts, they have enriched us with their ability to look at us all in western North Carolina with a fresh eye and a discerning pen. They have found ways to lend service to the community in ways the community never realized and they pushed against stasis and against conformity in ways that the traveler and the native born could not be expected to do. Some women were born in western North Carolina. Their stories come from deep within the culture and mingle all the influences of past years and family roots. Their stories are often filled with personal pride, with civic pride, independence of spirit and an over-arching love of family. They believe themselves to be honest and true, the mountain "oracle". There is a homogenous pride that runs through their stories and an over-arching sense of place. The native born have a singular drive to be known as native born and to continue the pride of community found ingrained in their parents, and grandparents. Theirs are stories of successful careers, of homemakers, of debutants, of public servants, of charitable organizations, of politicians and pundits. They have served their community as legislators, as candidates for Congress, as leaders in education, and models of motherhood. Some have not served their community but have followed darker paths and for those digressions, have found a place in history. These women are foundation and they are strength in the regional history. They are the region’s continuity. All these women, the traveler, the dweller, and the native born, have contributed to this region we call western North Carolina and to the diverse culture that today makes this area one of the most desirable locations in which to live in the United States. Though the region has, overall, always grown at a slower pace than that of the Piedmont, the strong appeal of the region to women at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century continues its pull on women of all ages, today. The demographics of the region show a population of women somewhat higher than that of men and older than the Piedmont and the Coastal area women. It is not surprising to find women graduates of the local colleges staying on and a growing migration of women from the piedmont to the mountains. Women appear to like it here. All the women in this exhibit had some connection to
western North Carolina. But, they need not be confined by place. All
contribute to our understanding of the nature of women, their
accomplishments, their dreams, their talents, their mystery, their
mischief, their meanness, their dedication and determination to be their
own person. Throughout the biographies and stories of these women, we can
see ourselves staring back. These women remind us that our dreams, our not
told stories, our secret desires, will not be confined by dulled
imagination, by an unwillingness to allow, by limited horizons, by glass
ceilings, or a myriad of other real and construed obstacles to selfhood.
These women compel us to celebrate ourselves, to celebrate all women in western
North Carolina, and to celebrate the multitudes of women of the world. |
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| BY GENRE | ALPHABETICAL LIST | ||
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ACTRESSES AFRICAN AMERICANS (AA) ARTISTS ATHLETES AUTHORS/WRITERS BUSINESS LEADERS CHEROKEE (C) EDUCATORS GREEKS HOMEMAKERS INFAMOUS INSTITUTIONS LATINOS ORGANIZATIONS PIONEERS POLITICIANS RUSSIANS SCIENTISTS
LINKS
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American Association of University Women,
Western NC
Asheville Normal & Collegiate Institute Asheville Garden Club Etta Baker Beirne, Barbara Thelma Harrington Bell (author) Pam Blankenship (C) Annie Mae Bolden (AA) Jackie Bradley (C) Kathryn Stripling Byer (author) Ethel Burgan (AA) Jean L. Bushyhead (C) Frances Hodgson Burnett Olive Dame Campbell Ruth Carroll (author) Cherokee Women's Auxiliary Choir (C) Exum ClementVera Cleaver Charles Egbert Craddock (see Mary N. Murfree) Amanda Crowe (C) Birdie Crowe (C) Irene Dayton (author) Grace DiSanto Hilda Downer Betty DuPree (C) Federated Women's Club, Asheville Emma Garrett (C) Jane Hicks Gentry Gail Godwin Christina Goings (C) Louise Goings (C) Frances Goodrich Gail E. Haley (author) Eleanor Hall Jenean Hornbuckle (C) Gloria Huston Holly Jones Maria Junaluska (C) Lea Karpen Patsy Keever Lucille Lossiah (C) Ramona Lossie (C) |
Gertrude Dills McKee Shirley McLaughlin Ann Harlee McNair MacRae Betty Maney (C) Katrina Maney (C) Melissa Ann Maney (C) Kathleen Morehouse Lucy Morgan Mary Noilles Murfree Dorothy Ogburn Shirley Jackson Oswalt (C) Mary Parker Polly Rattler (C) Patsy Reed Lucy Riley (C) Mary Rodge, UNCA author Where the Creosote Blooms Florence Ryan Frances Stewart Silver Nina Simone (Eunice Waymon) Mary Martin Sloop Nancy Simpson (author) Betty Smith Emily Smith (C) Carrie McDonnell Stewart Amanda Swimmer (C) Emma Taylor (C) Shirley Taylor (C) Ethel Terrell Edith Sturtevant Vanderbilt Amy Walker (C) Amelia Watson Julia Westall Wolfe Women's Edition of the Asheville Citizen - November 1895 Sprinza Weizenblatt
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