Back in the Spring of things…
As we settle into spring here at BCSC, work continues on our new archive-safe Fire Suppression system. Throughout our partial closure staff have been working hard behind the scenes to provide our community with greater access to our resources.
Beginning Tuesday May 3, 2022, BCSC will resume our regular operating hours:
Tuesday-Friday 10 am to 6 pm and Saturday 10 am to 5 pm. Research appointments may be available on Mondays.
Did you know the open stacks at BCSC are home to thousands of new and historical scholarly works, poetry and literature, and reference material. No matter where your local history research takes you, there’s sure to be a volume in the open stacks to help you along.
BCSC purchased more than $7,000 worth of new reference material this year. Follow the links to see more info about some of our favorite new titles:
Junaluska: Oral Histories of a Black Community ed. by Susan E. Keefe (McFarland, 2020)
Beyond the Mountains: Commodifying the Appalachian Environment by Drew A. Swanson (UGA Press, 2018)
Edible Wild Plants of the Carolinas by Musselman and Schafran (UNC Press, 2021)
As always, keep your eye on HeardTell and our other social media platforms for announcements and updates.
We heard yesterday that the Yankees were in Asheville. Not much excitement. I hear this morning it is not so […] The mail don’t go up the river any more. So we get no news only as it comes by hand. We have some beautiful weather now: Apple trees shedding their bloom [and] the garden isn’t doing so much [it has been] so dry.
Cornelia Catherine Henry, April 21, 1865.
from Henry Family Diary, Ref. nc b henry, see also MS020, Henry Family Collection
Upcoming Events
No programs are scheduled at this time, but be on the lookout for announcements, soon! Follow the link below to stay up-to-date on BCSC programs.
In the meantime, check out our YouTube Channel where you can view past programs.
Featured Resource
Flowers, Trees, Birds and Bees
It’s Spring. Flowers and trees are blooming, birds are chirping, and bees are buzzing. And we have books covering all these things.
The Special Collections research room includes several thousand volumes of rare, historical, and even recent, books about a wide range of topics. Titles such as Trees as Good Citizens (1922) by Charles Lathrop Pack, son of George Willis Pack, Nik-Nar Nursery: Native Plants from the Land of the Sky (1936), The Old Naturalist’s Notebook (1968), and Wildflowers of the Appalachian Trail (1999) will introduce you to trees, plants, and flowers. If you are more interested in birds and bees, we have you covered there as well. Just a few of the books in our collection about these topics are The Auk (1886) an ornithology journal, Hollows, Peepers & Highlanders: An Appalachian Mountain Ecology (2004), Birds of North Carolina (2006), and Bees of the Eastern United States (1960).
So before heading out to garden, bird watch, go hiking, or just enjoy the beautiful outdoors, come by and leaf through some of our books on nature.
From the Friends
The Friends of BCSC help us go above and beyond when providing programs and services to our patrons. As we enter the summer months, we’re looking forward to hosting more programs and expanding our circle of friends!
In 2022, your membership as a Friend of the Buncombe County Special Collections will help support special new initiatives including a partnership with the YMI Cultural Center and the development of a new exhibit featuring the history of the land we now call Pack Square.
Our goal is to raise $15,000 to support this work in the coming year. We hope you will join us in meeting and exceeding that goal.
The next meeting of the Board of the Friends of Special Collections will be held Wednesday May 18, 2022 at 4:00 pm in the BCSC reading room. All dues-paying members of the Friends are always welcome to attend. We kindly ask that you RSVP.
To RSVP to the meeting or for questions about The Friends of Buncombe County Special Collections, please reach out to friendsbcsc@gmail.com.
