The Carolina Mountains: Photography of Margaret Morley

Image credit: Margaret Morley. Going Home, photograph. Courtesy of the N.C. Museum of History

February 20 - April 25, 2013

The exhibit The Carolina Mountains: Photography of Margaret Morley offers an intimate look at everyday life in western North Carolina around the turn of the 20th century.

In the 1890s, New Englander Margaret Morley visited western North Carolina’s mountains and fell in love with the land and its people. The visit so inspired her that she moved to Tryon, south of Asheville, by the end of the decade. The well-known biologist, writer, illustrator, and educator spent the next 12 years exploring the region and recording scenes of everyday life in captivating photographs and delightful prose.

With pen and camera, Morley traveled throughout the lofty land, observing its natural wonders and befriending the mountain people. In 1913 Houghton Mifflin published her impressions in The Carolina Mountains, which was an immediate success and is still considered one of the best books about the region.