Asheville Museum of History

02/10/2024

Join us Thursday, February 29 from 6-7PM for this live online event via Zoom focusing on equity in archives and community memory. The program will be recorded. Tickets are $5 for members and $10 for general admission.

For more details and to register visit our website https://www.ashevillehistory.org/programs/ or see the link in our bio.

02/01/2024

As we celebrate Black History Month we invite you to this special event featuring Ann Miller Woodford. Ann was the winner of our 2020 Outstanding Achievement Award and an exhibit titled When All God's Children Get Together: A Celebration of the Lives and Music of African American People in Far Western North Carolina (based on her book of the same name) was on display in the Smith-McDowell House in previous years.

This event is free and takes place in person at the Cashiers Community Library Feb 7 at 4pm. It is presented in partnership by Albert Carlton - Cashiers Community Library, Cashiers Historical Society, Friends of the Library, and WCU Mountain Heritage Center.

To learn more visit fontanalib.org/events and stay tuned to our calendar for more AMoH events to be announced!

01/19/2024

Asheville Museum of History will close today 1/19 due to snow. Check out our website for more WNC historical content! https://www.ashevillehistory.org/

01/18/2024

Asheville Museum of History and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute bring you a special documentary screening, Thursday, January 25 from 6:30-8PM. This hybrid event will be held in person at OLLI at UNCA and also airs live via Zoom.

When storytelling, native wisdom and nature’s intelligence converge, something beautiful can arise. That’s the theme of the new film Nature’s Wisdom Thru Native Eyes by award-winning documentary filmmaker David Weintraub and the Center for Cultural Preservation. Weintraub will be joined by Cherokee elders Davy Arch and Mary Thompson for a screening Thursday, January 25 co-sponsored by Asheville Museum of History and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at UNCA. There will be time for audience questions at the conclusion of the film.

Register through our website https://www.ashevillehistory.org/schedule/

09/27/2023

Last Wednesday, we were grateful to have Dr. William Miller (UNCA emeritus professor of environmental studies) lead us on a short hike to the former Ray mica mine near Burnsville. Many of the deep pits and tailings from the mica extraction are visible, as are countless specimens scattered all throughout the area. We learned about the ancient geologic forces which shaped this area and the social history of mining in the area in much more recent times. We hope you'll join us for more hikes and outings in our Hikes With a Historian series in 2024!

09/19/2023

Annnnnnd that's a wrap on our 2023 Cemetery Series! We set out to humanize history and learn more about WNC, especially the foothills, during the 18th and early 19th centuries. We toured private and community cemeteries, church graveyards, places where unknown people were buried, and historic sites associated with them. Thanks so much to everyone who attended and for those who hosted us and shared oral history and stories about the places we visited.

If you missed an event, you can see pictures and sources, read more about the history, and find recaps of the events on our website at https://www.ashevillehistory.org/guided-hikes-and-outings/

Stay tuned for another series at new locations in 2024!

08/17/2023

This year marks the 100th anniversary of a startling but largely forgotten racially-targeted riot in the mountains.

Tuesday, September 5 at 7:00 p.m. the Mitchell County Historical Society presents "Railroaded: The Spruce Pine Race Riot of 1923." Speakers will share an account of the events surrounding the riot that took place September 26 and 27, 1923 when African-Americans were forcibly deported from the Spruce Pine, NC area along with the response to the riot from the State of North Carolina and from local authorities. Admission is free. Please bring a lawn chair and your questions. Tell friends and family about the program. All are welcome!

You can also read more about the historical event in one of our previous On This Day posts https://www.ashevillehistory.org/september-26-1923-spruce-pine-mob/

08/09/2023

Did you know museums have been around in Asheville since 1930?

Nearly a century later there are numerous places in and around Asheville to learn or reflect, to find inspiration and be creative, to take family and friends, or to just peruse by yourself. Thanks to AVLtoday for mentioning us and several other great local museums in this handy guide. We can't wait to see you when we reopen this fall!

https://avltoday.6amcity.com/city-guide/play/museums-asheville

Whether you’re a history buff, art aficionado, or music lover, these 12 museums in Asheville have it all.

08/02/2023

What pairs best with history in the morning? How about coffee and a bagel?

Join us Saturday, August 12 at 10am for this presentation on pivotal WNC politician David Lowry Swain, subject of a new biography by Willis P. Whichard. Grab a free bagel or a muffin, some coffee or tea, and enjoy the discussion. Books are available for purchase afterward as well by cash or check.

Tickets: $10 for General Admission/$5 for AMoH/OLLI members. We also have a few no-cost, community-funded tickets available and a Zoom livestream option.

For more information and to register see our website www.ashevillehistory.org

07/24/2023

The Asheville Museum of History is excited to offer our popular cemetery tours again this year!

Join us to explore these cemeteries, graveyards, and associated sites, learning more about the individuals and communities whose stories are intertwined. These tours are led by our staff and by local historians and descendants. They take place on three consecutive Wednesday mornings in late summer.

Tickets are on sale now through our website https://www.ashevillehistory.org/ Register for individual events, or for the entire series at a discount!

For more information see our website or email [email protected]

07/12/2023

This past Saturday, July 7, we partnered with MountainTrue and Conserving Carolina, host of the 2023 French Broad Series, to lead a guided float on the French Broad River. Guests enjoyed a beautiful day and learned about the historic and modern relationship between people, wildlife, and the river itself. From rare salamanders, to Cherokee names and sites, dams, floods, pollution, and cleanups—we explored all this and more between the Swannanoa River and the Craggy area.

A huge thanks to all those who participated, helped organize, and took photos!

To learn more about future outdoor events, follow our calendar at ashevillehistory.org

06/29/2023

Coming this fall! Palaces for the People: Guastavino's Great American Places, a major exhibit exploring the innovations of the Guastavino Fireproof Construction Company (1889-1962) brought to the science and art of building.

Originally organized by MacArthur Fellow and MIT professor, John Ochsendorf, for display at the Boston Public Library, the exhibit will be expanded at Asheville Museum of History to include three major Guastavino sites in Western North Carolina - Asheville's Biltmore House and Basilica of St. Lawrence and Guastavino's Black Mountain estate, Rhododendron.

Many thanks to Mike and Mary Alice Murphy and Helen Johnson for their help mounting the exhibit. Thanks also to and the !