Connecting the Docs: True Stories from the Old North State
connectingthedocsnc
57 episodes
2 weeks ago
Connecting the Docs is a podcast from the State Archives of North Carolina where archivists connect documents from our collection to fascinating, true stories from the past. Sometimes the documents solve a puzzle; other times, they lead to one.
All content for Connecting the Docs: True Stories from the Old North State is the property of connectingthedocsnc and is served directly from their servers
with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
Connecting the Docs is a podcast from the State Archives of North Carolina where archivists connect documents from our collection to fascinating, true stories from the past. Sometimes the documents solve a puzzle; other times, they lead to one.
Black Mountain College: Experimental Education in the Mountains of North Carolina
Connecting the Docs: True Stories from the Old North State
1 hour 12 minutes
2 weeks ago
Black Mountain College: Experimental Education in the Mountains of North Carolina
One of the nation’s most significant experiments in education and community took shape right outside of Asheville, North Carolina, and it started during the Great Depression. When a small group of students and teachers renounced their old university to begin building an educational community in Black Mountain, NC, they couldn’t have realized that it would attract and produce some of the world's best minds in avant-garde visual art, poetry, architecture, and music (including people like Buckminster Fuller, Charles Olson, William and Elaine de Kooning, Ruth Asawa, Ray Johnson, Jacob Lawrence and Gwendelyn Knight Larence, Arthur Miller, Josef and Anni Albers). What they did know is that the traditional American education system was failing, and that they could counter the nation’s problems with a new type of learning.
Today, podcast intern Amelia Gantt explains to host John Horan, Correspondence Assistant Annabeth Poe, and Microfilm and Imaging Specialist Erin Templeton that this experiment developed from the Great Depression to post-war anti-communism. Listen along to understand why many, including Eleanor Roosevelt, suggested ‘progressive education’ as the only path towards a better version of America, and how that promise for a better future lived on even after the College closed.
Primary Sources:
Roosevelt, Eleanor, “My Day.” March 21, 1936. North Carolina Museum of Art, Black Mountain College Research Project print collection, Western Regional Archives. Record ID 61.12.2, Box 10.
“Education in Wartime.” Black Mountain College Bulletin Newsletter, vol. 3, no. 7, July 1945. North Carolina Museum of Art, Black Mountain College Research Project print collection, Western Regional Archives. Record ID 61.12.6. https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/black-mountain-college-bulletin-newsletter-iii-no-7-1945/3657369?item=3657505 .
Adamic, Louis. “Education on a Mountain: The Story of Black Mountain College.” Theodore and Barbara Loines Dreier print collection, Western Regional Archives. Record ID PC.1956.74.
Adamic, Louis, Correspondence 1934-1937. Black Mountain College Records print collection, Western Regional Archives. Record ID 506.2.1.6.
[“Artistic approach to life…” letter from Adamic to Rice]
Black Mountain College Digital Collection, https://digital.ncdcr.gov/spotlights/bmc .
Western Regional Archives Flickr Photo Collections https://www.flickr.com/photos/133487183@N07/albums/ .
Straus, Erwin, “Education in a Time of Crisis.” Black Mountain College Bulletin, vol. 7, April 1941. North Carolina Museum of Art, Black Mountain College Research Project print collection, Western Regional Archives. Record ID 61.12.6. https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/black-mountain-college-education-time-crisis/3657509?item=3657766 .
Black Mountain College Bulletin Newsletter print collection, Western Regional Archives, Record ID 506.2.26 and 506.2.27.
Albers, Josef, “Address for the BMC Meeting at New York.” Black Mountain College Bulletin Newsletter, June 12, 1940. North Carolina Museum of Art, Black Mountain College Research Project print collection, Western Regional Archives. Record ID 61.12.2, Box 12.
“Education for democratic citizenship...” Black Mountain College Bulletin Newsletter, vol. 1, no. 3, pg. 1, April 1943. North Carolina Museum of Art, Black Mountain College Research Project print collection, Western Regional Archives. Record ID 61.12.6. https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/black-mountain-college-bulletin-newsletter-i-no-3-1943/3657360 .
Gisela Kronenberg (Herwitz) Letters print collection, Western Regional Archives. Record ID PC 7073.
Charles P. Boyce interview by Mary Emma Harris, North Carolina Museum of Art, Black Mountain College Research Project print collection, Western Regional Archives. Record ID 61.12.3, Box 27.
Released Interviews [Paul Francis Williams, Stuart Atkinson, Leonard D. “Knute”, Betsy Anne Weinrib (Williams), Thomas Scott Cutsh
Connecting the Docs: True Stories from the Old North State
Connecting the Docs is a podcast from the State Archives of North Carolina where archivists connect documents from our collection to fascinating, true stories from the past. Sometimes the documents solve a puzzle; other times, they lead to one.
