Lynne was our first volunteer. She started helping us scan photographs when Pack Memorial Library was closed for renovation in 2010. The North Carolina Room staff had been shipped off, along with the boxes of all of our stuff, to work on Special Collections in the former Tractor Supply building on Tunnel Road (a dank place to say the least) and Lynne followed right along. That’s a sign of a good and true volunteer. Lynne helped us through those dark days by getting us to laugh.
Most recently, Lynne came up with the idea of forming a Friends of the North Carolina Room! This had never occurred to any of us. The idea probably came to her when she realized she’d never live to see the end of the boxes of postcards in line behind the one she was then working on. We got the Friends of the North Carolina Room off the ground, and it needed a Treasurer, since there was no new board yet — so she became the Treasurer. She would probably like for us to add here that: We are looking for a board, or at least a Treasurer. Interested?
We are very lucky to have her. Lynne worked with the Strong Museum in Rochester, New York for 20 years, and — after retiring — was Special Projects Curator at the Asheville Art Museum for 10 years. She recently served on the board of the Swannanoa Valley Museum and is a member of the Jr. Vetust. She was honored with the Katherine Coffey Award for outstanding service to museums by the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums in 1996 and she received the North Carolina Museum Council Service Award for Stewardship in 2007.
Lynne is an expert in the heritage of our local handcrafters and has a fond eye for all things rustic. She and her husband Jim Wilson set a keen dinner table of china and silver for all friends who stop by for dinner. Their house often seems like a bed & breakfast, always open to their many friends from out of town.
We in the North Carolina Room, thank you Lynne, for focusing your talent our way, and for being our first volunteer — and our first official friend.
Hooray and Thanks!