Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Images from the D. Hiden Ramsey Collection

As befits the first post on this new blog from Special Collections at UNC Asheville’s D. Hiden Ramsey Library, we’ll take a look at some images from the D. Hiden Ramsey Collection at UNC Asheville.

Ramsey was raised in Asheville and attended the University of Virginia, receiving undergraduate and graduate degrees in economics in 1912-13.  In 1920 he joined the Asheville Citizen newspaper staff as an associate editor, beginning a career in journalism that culminated as general manager of the Asheville Citizen-Times from 1930-1954.  The library at UNC Asheville is named after Ramsey.

Weaving through Ramsey’s career was an ongoing love of the Appalachian mountains, and his collection includes pamphlets and photographs testifying to that effect. Some of these images are below.

A group of people picnicking at Craggy Gardens, 1911


Ramsey's collection includes several Great Smoky Mountain tour guides.


"Cedar Cliff, 1915" One of the many sepia images in a photo album from the Ramsey Collection.


 
One of several issues of the Smoky Mountains Hiking Club Handbook in the collection.


This photo has the curious caption "Ego - Sawyers 1913"


"Greybeard 1914" - D. Hiden Ramsey,  pensive pipe smoker man in repose.


"Bear Hunters," c. 1915
The Ramsey Collection contains speeches, correspondence, articles by and about Ramsey, photographs, and transcriptions of a series of local history lectures Ramsey delivered at Asheville-Biltmore College (the precursor to UNC Asheville) in 1962. These lectures reveal a deep knowledge of Western North Carolina history, delivered with a journalist's snappy style and an understated wit.  Part of the history of Asheville includes the 1916 flood, as documented in the following photo:

The 1916 flood engulfs Asheville's National Casket Company.