A Western North Carolina Farm: Virtual Tour

Welcome!

Please wander around our virtual farm. Like an actual farm, this virtual one continues to develop over time, so we don't think of it as being finished. But we do hope that you will explore the pages on gardens, forests, soil, tobacco, poultry, draft animals, bees, orchards, and water using the tabs to the left.

You can also return to the Virtual Tour Map.

Or go on a guided tour developed and recorded by Chloe Metcalf.

The purpose of this exhibit is to represent some of the common features of western North Carolina farms during the first half of the twentieth century. This tour is not based on any single farm; instead, it collects images of and articles about a variety of places from the period between roughly 1920 and 1950.

This exhibit draws upon resources and materials found in the James G.K. McClure, Jr. Collection of the Southern Appalachian Archives at Mars Hill University. Some photographs from this collection are available here.

Michaela Lambert and Professor Ethan Mannon began this project in August of 2019. Their work was supported by a grant from the Council of Independent Colleges as well as by the tireless assistance of MHU's archivist, Dr. Karen Paar. Jamie Jennings, Chloe Metcalf, and Sharnel Friedrich continued CIC-grant-funded work on this tour in the spring of 2020. In the fall of 2021, Dr. Mannon and Chloe Metcalf further developed the tour as part of their Hart-Melvin research fellowship. Please contact Dr. Paar (kpaar@mhu.edu) if you are interested in using the Virtual Tour Worksheet/Quiz or in visiting the archive and viewing the materials in this collection.