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University of North Carolina at
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Title |
W. B. McEwen and Caroline Nichols McEwen Collection |
| Identifier | http://toto.lib.unca.edu/findingaids/mss/mcewen/mcewen.html |
| Creator | Caroline Nichols McEwen ; Wooster Baird McEwen |
| Subject |
Keyword : YMCA ; Lake Toxaway Inn ; Beaucatcher Mountain ; Patton Avenue ; Pack Square ; Mt. Mitchell ; French Broad River ; Pearson's Bridge ; Biltmore Estate |
| Subject |
LCSH : McEwen, Wooster Baird McEwen, Caroline Nichols Asheville (N.C.) -- Description and Travel |
| Date | 2001-04-08 |
| Publisher | D.H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804 |
| Contributor | Southern Highlands Research Center |
| Type | Collection ; Text (scrapbooks) ; Image (photographs of Western North Carolina) |
| Format | text/html (.htm, .html) ; 1 cu. ft. material |
| Source | M79.15.1 |
| Language | English |
| Relation | William R. Walls Collection, D.H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804 , contains four other photographs of the McEwen family, container number D-111, folder 5. |
| Coverage | c. 1900-1925 ; Asheville, NC and environs |
| Rights |
No restrictions. Any display, publication, or public use must credit the D.H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville. Copyright retained by the creators of certain items in the collection, or their descendents, as stipulated by United States copyright law. |
| Donor | Donor Number 79 |
| Description |
This collection consists of one folder of miscellaneous items, photographs; one photographic scrapbook, dated 1906, of Asheville, Lake Toxaway, Biltmore House, Biltmore Village, and other scenic mountain sites; one scrapbook containing souvenirs of travels in 1904, including hotel advertisements, menus, tickets and telegrams, etc. The numbered photographs which follow in the item list are included in the 1906 scrapbook; an asterisk indicates that more information can be found on that particular photograph in the physical card file for photographic prints located in Special Collections. |
| Acquisition | 1979-11-07 |
| Citation | W. B. McEwen and Caroline Nichols McEwen Collection, D.H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804 |
| Processed by | Special Collections staff, 1979 and 2001 |
| Biography |
Wooster Baird McEwen, born March 26, 1841 in Oxford, New Haven, Connecticut and died January 3, 1912. He was buried in Oxford Congregational Cemetery in the town of his birth. McEwen was president of the McEwen-Gibson Lumber Company, located near Asheville, which dealt in hardwood flooring. Like many other entrepreneurs of the day, he came to Asheville to take advantage of the rich forests and the booming lumber trade. He started his company in 1899 for the sum of $2,000. On July 18, 1904 Wooster Baird McEwen married Caroline Nichols. Caroline was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Nichols of Asheville. She had two brothers, J.T. and Arthur, and three sisters, Elizabeth, Jane, and Kate, Lucy. Caroline was a member of the Young Women’s Christian Association and chairman of the membership committee. The scrapbook from this collection contains many mementos of her social life and from that account we learn that she headed a team that raced miniature cars for a membership drive for the YWCA - certainly a unique campaign! Caroline and Wooster had one son, James Edward, and a daughter named Louise. Many of the photographs in the McEwen Collection contain candid images of the family and their travels, particularly their local travel in western North Carolina. The collection is also rich in details of societal life in Asheville at the turn of the century. |
