D. H. Ramsey Library Special Collections and University Archives

Collaborative Projects

"Keystone Project: Documenting the African American Urban Renewal Experience in Western North Carolina," application for EMC Heritage Trust grant, (Dec. 2007). (Denied January 2008)
The urban Southern Appalachian African American experience produced the first black freestanding cultural center, elected school board member, sheriff, and integrated YWCA, and all in Buncombe county. Massive urban renewal was initiated in the 1960's and 1970's and transformed the community in a variety of ways. This project will communicate that urban renewal transformation and will catalyze the creation of a definitive online cultural heritage resource that will trace the events leading up to the urban community of  African Americans in Asheville, NC. This grant is intended to be a starter grant for the "Western North Carolina African American Heritage Project, proposed under the NC ECHO LSTA Digitization Grant guidelines.
 
"Western North Carolina African American Heritage Project" (WNC-AAH) Letter of Intent for NC ECHO LSTA Digitization Grant, (Nov. 2007). (Denied Dec. 2007)
A proposed collaborative grant in which UNCA and the Institute for Historical Research and Education under the direction of Darin Waters, propose to digitize and contextualize over 5,000 items from 18 collections, to create the first comprehensive picture, from Reconstruction to the present, of the unique and under-documented Appalachian African American experience in Western North Carolina. This project will extend the work of UNCA's previous grant, "Asheville's Built Environment," by digitizing newly acquired material that describes the dislocation of African Americans during two large urban renewal projects in the 1970's and 1980's as well as other undigitized materials. The project also leverages IHRE preparation for major exhibits and a full-length scholarly manuscript regarding blacks in WNC. Outcomes also include K-12 curriculum materials and cultural tourism documentation.
 
Flat Rock Playhouse Archive - a collaboration of the Flat Rock Playhouse (North Carolina State Theater) and UNCA, (2007)
The project subsidized by the Playhouse will utilize student interns to process and place online key documents, records, photographs, and other materials that will provide a history of the Playhouse and the many activities of the theater since its inception in 1924 at Flat Rock, North Carolina.
 
"YWCA of Asheville 100 Years" Project is a collaborative project with the Asheville YWCA and UNC Asheville, funded in part by the NC Humanities Council, through the YWCA (2006-2007)
This project, principled by Holly Jones and coordinated by Sallie Klipp, with contributions from students, faculty of the university and staff at the YWCA was charged with the production of exhibit panels commemorating the 100 year anniversary of the YWCA in Asheville and the creation of a comprehensive web-site to commemorate the 100 year history of this remarkable institution. The first YWCA in the South to integrate, the institutional history of the merger and the events leading up to the integration provide a unique window into the history of Asheville and its diverse communities. This event and others detailed in the documents and the photographs in the archive are rich in detail. The comprehensive archive of the YWCA held at UNCA and the online finding aid, provides users the opportunity to study this institution and to celebrate its many accomplishments.
 
Heritage of Western North Carolina: Land of the Sky: "Asheville's Built Environment" Project (2004-2005) - LSTA Grant
A collaborative digitization project through an NC ECHO LSTA Digitization Grant with UNCA (principle), the Asheville Art Museum, and the Asheville-Buncombe County Library. ABOUT "ASHEVILLE'S BUILT ENVIRONMENT"

The Asheville's Built Environment Project  is 100% supported with federal LSTA funds made possible through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, administered by the State Library of North Carolina, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources.

Henry of Ghent Transcription Project (2004-2005)
In cooperation with the Department of Philosophy [Dr. Gordon Wilson] and the Department of History, D.H. Ramsey Library Special Collections is scanning for translation the two volume set of Henry of Ghent's Summae quaestionum ordinariarum theologi / recepto preconio solennis Henrici a Gandavo cum duplici repertorio . St. Bonaventure, N.Y.: Franciscan Institute, 1953. [Used with permission]. The Henry of Ghent transcription is expected to join a growing body of work in translation by the author, available on the Web.
Mountain Dance and Folk Festival Collection Project (2005)
 In collaboration with the Asheville Chamber of Commerce, the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival Board of Directors and Mars Hill College, UNCA will preserve, organize and digitized the core material for the long-running "Mountain Dance and Folk Festival" and "Shindig-on-the-Green," musical traditions that have long made Asheville a center of Mountain music and dance. The digital union of the collections at UNCA and Mars Hill will bring together photographs, historical manuscript material, posters, and ephemera for researchers, scholars and students to study. A generous grant from the North Carolina Arts Council will support the two collections' conservation and digitization. 
Collaborative Project on Jewish Life in Western North Carolina  (2003 - ongoing )
 While not all the collections here represent single collaborative projects, the materials in the collections are being augmented by a variety of contributors who wish to create a definitive resource for information on Jewish life in the western area of North Carolina. Because the aggregated collections are intended to grow in scale and scope, they are treated as a collaborative project. 
"Birthplace of American Forestry" Project (2002-2003) - LSTA Grant
"U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station Photographs"
A collaborative pilot digitization project through an NC ECHO LSTA Digitization Grant with the NCSU Libraries Special Collections Department (principle), the Biltmore Estate Company in Asheville, and the Forest History Society in Durham, NC. 
In collaboration with NCSU Libraries Special Collections Department, the Biltmore Estate Company in Asheville, and the Forest History Society in Durham, UNCA cooperated to provide a collection of 3,249 photographic prints and some documents that detail the work of the U.S. Forest service in the states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, West Virginia, and Tennessee, from 1897 through 1952. Special web pages for the Bent Creek Research Station, African Americans in logging and a Forestry Bibliography for resources on regional forestry and forest history, were also included. The $50,000 North Carolina ECHO (Exploring Cultural Heritage Online) EZ-Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) digitization demonstration grant was a continuation of the original "Birthplace of American Forestry" Web site (http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/archives/forestry) established with a 2001-2002 EZ-LSTA NC ECHO grant.

The earlier NCSU grant, the "Birthplace of American Forestry" concentrated on Carl Alwin Schenck and the Biltmore Forest School. During this second LSTA grant, the focus was expanded to include statewide and southern United State forest history materials. Resources added to the NCSU Web site in addition to those from UNCA are the following:

  • Digitized versions of the body of Carl Schenck's correspondence from the Biltmore Estate Collections
  • Digitized photographs, correspondence, and oral histories that further detail the development of the forestry profession in the United States from the collections of the Forest History Society.
  • Digitized photographs, correspondence, reports, and publications found in the NC State College of Natural Resources Hofmann Forest collection and processed by NCSU.

UNCA's materials from the NFS Region 8 resources and those from the partner institutions will enable users to access forest management and review the geographic area for environmental concerns, and trace the development of NFS activities in the southeastern United States. NCSU notes that "the access to the Hofmann Forest materials will permit researchers to make direct comparisons of nineteenth- and twentieth-century educational methods and forest management approaches between western (Pisgah National Forest) and eastern (Hofmann Forest) North Carolina."  The Web site was made active in July 2003 at the end of the grant cycle.

The "Birthplace of American Forestry" Project and its extension, was 100% supported with federal LSTA funds made possible through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, administered by the State Library of North Carolina, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources.

Western North Carolina Heritage Project (2001-2002) - LSTA Grant  <wncheritage.org>
A collaborative pilot digitization project through an NC ECHO LSTA Digitization Grant with Appalachian State University (principle), the Asheville Art Museum, the Asheville-Buncombe County Library, the Southern Highland Craft Guild, the YMI Cultural Center, and the Appalachian Cultural Museum, Boone.  ABOUT WNC Heritage  

The pilot grant sought to provide a digital repository of cultural information related to Western North Carolina. The preliminary phase of this project was called the "Land of the Sky" project and included UNCA, the Asheville Art Museum, Asheville-Buncombe County Library, and the YMI Cultural Center. "Land of the Sky" had as its primary focus materials by and about African Americans and other ethnic minorities in Western North Carolina. The new WNC Heritage collaboration continues the focus of the earlier project grant but extends the cultural base to include a wide range of other regional topics.                                        
  
The Western North Carolina Heritage Project  was 100% supported with federal LSTA funds made possible through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, administered by the State Library of North Carolina, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources.
"Land of the Sky" Project (2000-2001) _ LSTA Grant
A collaborative pilot digitization project through an NC ECHO LSTA Digitization Grant.
ABOUT THE PROJECT.
The Western North Carolina Heritage project, the previous "Land of the Sky Project" , the "Birthplace of American Forestry"and the current Land of the Sky: "Asheville's Built Environment"  are supported by the state-wide cultural initiative North Carolina ECHO.   

NC ECHO projects are 100% supported with federal LSTA funds made possible through grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, administered by the State Library of North Carolina, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources. NC ECHO seeks to provide resources and a variety of grants for repositories throughout the state of North Carolina and to assess the needs of the state's cultural repositories..

NC ECHO Buncombe/Rowan County Repository Survey completed in 1999 as a preliminary test of a state-wide repository survey.
Buncombe County Repositories List (preliminary)
Special Collections
Ramsey Library
UNC Asheville