This is an image from the Alleghany County Centennial parade held in 1959 in Sparta, North Carolina. The Alleghany Historical – Genealogical Society is currently working on a book of photographs of the Centennial Celebration from half a century ago.
Category: Uncategorized (Page 7 of 9)
The new Historical Museum display at the Blue Ridge BDC.
The folks at the Blue Ridge BDC invited the Historical Society to place a display case in the lobby of the facility to publicize last fall’s photographic exhibit, Alleghany Images. They have also agreed to host presentations for future Historical Museum exhibits.
For the Spring exhibit, Fancy Pants- A Presentation of Old-fashioned Fashions, we have featured an iridescent, two-piece, taffeta outfit that belonged to Susan Parks Doughton, wife of North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Rufus Alexander Doughton. Mrs. Parks was born in 1865 and passed away in 1951.
The BDC is an important partner for the Museum as it is also the home of Wilkes Community College and, at the end of this year, the Alleghany County Public Library.
We appreciate very much the opportunity to advertise the Museum at the BDC.
The Museum opens for spring, Thursday, March 31. If you have clothes, shoes, hats or any historically, fashionable accessories you’d like to loan for display, contact Reba Evans at the museum 336-372-2115.
Below is the original scan of the image: (Click to enlarge.)
Below is a zoomed-in version with enhanced brightness & contrast. In this image, you can more clearly see the photographer’s long-distance device, which allowed him to be a part of the selfie. (Click to enlarge.)
AHGS will have a booth at Brinegar Day September 26. The event, held at Brinegar Cabin, will be from 10am-4pm, on the Blue Ridge Parkway. At our booth, we will share information on regional farming practices from the late 1800s. Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway plans to have a demonstration on making apple butter. We look forward to seeing you on the 26th of September!
The next exhibit for the Alleghany Historical Museum is called Alleghany Images and was inspired by the upcoming exhibit, Looking at Appalachia at the Blue Ridge Business Development Center. That traveling show will begin at the BDC September 19 and last through the end of October and it will feature 175 photographs of the Appalachian Mountain region. Get more info here. The BDC is located at 115 Atwood St in Sparta, North Carolina. Contact administrator, Dale Caveny for more information or visit his blog, Absolutely Alleghany.
Looking at Appalachia is the brainchild of Roger May, “an Appalachian American photographer currently living in Raleigh, North Carolina. He was born in the Tug River Valley, located on the West Virginia and Kentucky state line…” It promises to be an interesting look at the region, “… fifty years after the declaration of the War on Poverty. Drawing from a diverse population of photographers within the region, this new crowdsourced image archive will serve as a reference that is defined by its people as opposed to political legislation.”
Our own exhibit will feature historic photos from Alleghany that represent our roots, here in the Blue Ridge. Some familiar and some never before published, the images include a look at religion, schools, families and work on the farm. The exhibit is sponsored by the Historical Society, NAPCO and Imaging Specialists.
Alleghany Images will begin September 1 and will be on display through the end of 2015. The Alleghany Historical Museum is open Thursday though Saturday from 10am to 5pm and admission is free. Donations to maintain the museum are, however, appreciated.
The current exhibit at the Alleghany Historical Museum is Grandma’s Hands – a showcase of quilts from members of our community. Read the poem that inspired the name.
David Andrew Sturgill’s essay on the Ride of Martin Gambill, featured in the current AHGS newsletter, was originally part of the 1984 New River Symposium. Read his entire essay on the National Park Service’s website, and see the rest of the articles that were part of the 1984 Symposium.
The Alleghany Historical Museum will re-open Thursday April 2 at 10:00, after being closed for the winter months. The first exhibit of the year will be called Faith of Our Fathers, and will focus on community church histories.The Museum is open Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 10:00-5:00 and is located at 7 North Main Street in Sparta, across from the Alleghany County Courthouse.
The Museum is asking for loans and donations for the exhibit. The exhibit will begin with items already in the collection of the Alleghany Historical-Genealogical Society, but is expected to expand over the coming months with the help of the community. Please bring items for display during the Museum’s regular operating hours.
AHGS welcomes the involvement of every citizen of the county. If you’d like to volunteer or contribute to Alleghany Historical Museum, the Society is a certified 501(c)(3) organization and donations are tax deductible.
In an effort to reach potential new members, at the last meeting, the members of Alleghany Historical-Genealogical Society voted to move the meeting date and time from the fourth Sunday of the month at 2pm, to the second Friday of the month at 4pm. It is hoped that more people would be able to attend the weekday meetings. The last Sunday meeting will be April 26 at 2pm, and the first Friday meeting will be May 8 at 4pm at the Alleghany Public Library.
Saturday, May 9, 2015 – 1:15 PM – Troutdale Trading Post
Don’t miss a tour of Troutdale, Virginia, the highest incorporated town in Virginia and the first town in Virginia to have a female mayor!
Learn about: buildings that still stand and buildings that are no longer there; the trains, train station, and train tracks that are gone; the chartering of Troutdale in 1906. Listen to tidbits from stories by Sherwood Anderson, a nationally known author and Troutdale’s most famous resident. See copies of photographs from various times in Troutdale’s history. Spend about 3 hours of your Saturday afternoon and become an expert on the history of a really neat town.
QUESTIONS
Have questions or need more information? Contact the tour guide, Ed Clayton at veclayton@gmail.com or call Ed at 919-467-1082.
The North Carolina Society of Historians awarded several honors to the Alleghany Historical – Genealogical Society, Saturday, October 19 at its annual Awards Banquet in Mooresville, North Carolina.
AHGS won a Joe M. McLauren Newsletter Award for our quarterly newsletter and a Paul Green Multi Media Award for our program: Alleghany Memories- five episodes that featured Jeanette Anders, Pauline Meals, Walter Bell, the New Haven Quilters and the History of Alleghany Cares.
Alleghany Memories won an additional Paul Green Award for four episodes produced in collaboration with the Marine Corps League, Walter Frank Osborne, Jr. Detachment 1298, that featured local USMC veterans, Bobby Irwin, J.T. Pardue, Bill Sebastion and Charles Pugh.
Alleghany Memories is available for viewing any time at www.actv.me.
Of 81 eligible nominations, 22 projects were awarded Paul Green Awards and of 20 eligible nominations, 7 won Joe M. McLauren newsletter awards.
Thank you to the NCSH, its Board and the Judges for these honors!
A Tribute to President Kennedy was written in 1963 by J.D. Higgins, Jr. to memorialize the fallen President and featured J.D. Higgins (Vocal), James Billings (Guitar), C. Ray Billings (Auto Harp), Paul Wooten (Bass).
This is just one of the items that were on display in the Alleghany Historical Museum for the exhibit on Mountain Music called These Hills are Alive with Music. If you have items that illustrate our common heritage, consider loaning them to the museum. More participation means more diversity, more education and more fun! The upcoming exhibit will be called Mountain Manufacturing: A History of Big Business in the Blue Ridge and will feature the factories that once operated in our area and will last through February of 2014. If you have items that you think would be appropriate, bring them for display!
At right- Western Regional Archivist, Heather South (center) with Government Records Section Head, Becky McGee-Lankford (left) and State Archivist Sarah Koonts (right) at the opening of the Western Regional Archives.
If you missed the July meeting of AHGS, you missed a doozy. Heather South of the Western Regional Archives spoke about her job and the importance of proper storage and archiving techniques. Sounds dry as dust, right?
Absolutely the opposite. Heather is an enthusiastic (and fun!) speaker who gives technical information in a way even I can understand it. She says- as she holds up a giant 10″ bug- “People remember more with visuals. You’ll more easily remember what I say about pest prevention when you remember the lady with the bug.” When talking about the proper handling of documents or museum artifacts she wears a huge pair of Mickey Mouse gloves.
But, don’t let the silliness fool you. She gave us tons of practical information in her presentation. Like: People store things in boxes everywhere, in barns, basements and storage units. And tiny bugs love to make nests inside the corrugated cardboard of the boxes! So, as a rule, she isolates donations and re-boxes everything into clean, new cartons for storage at the archives.
And: Get your photos out of those magic magnetic photo albums (with the clear plastic sheet over the adhesive cardboard.) They aren’t acid-free and will slowly kill your photos instead of preserving them. Smell a photo album before you buy it for a “plastic-y” odor. If it has that beach ball smell, don’t buy it. The smell means the plastic is giving off gasses that will react with your photos. Heather claims she is “on security camera tapes all over the Carolinas smelling photo albums.”
And: Manilla folders and standard copy paper are generally “neutral” and therefore, safe for storing prints and documents.
We originally met Heather at a Museums in Partnership (MIP) meeting in Ashe County hosted by Ramona Renfroe and the Museum of Ashe County History. MIP is the brain child of Jill Jones, who was Director of the Swannanoa Valley Museum for ten years and is now Director of Marketing & Communications at Blue Ridge National Heritage Area. MIP has been a valuable resource for us, giving us access to a network of area museum professionals for information and advice. Thanks, Ramona and Jill for inviting AHGS to the group!
And THANKS HEATHER, for a fun and informative presentation. Please plan to come back to Alleghany soon!
Alleghany Historical Museum
45 North Main Street in downtown Sparta, NC.
Thu.-Sat. 11am - 3pm.
Free Admission.
336-372-2115
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