If you’ve spent any time with me, you already know I’m “aggressively enthusiastic” about the past. The period between the Revolutionary and Civil Wars in Western North Carolina is particularly fascinating to me. It’s an era when Buncombe County was rapidly transforming: Buncombe County folk were carving roads through mountains, new communities were taking root,

Join Special Collections for events in September and October discovering histories of labor, agriculture, and rural communities in Western North Carolina.

Growing up in Buncombe County, I was introduced to Thomas Wolfe at an early age. I remember no fewer than three field trips to the “Old Kentucky Home” throughout my school years, and it was instilled in me and my classmates that the Look Homeward, Angel author was our claim to literary fame. No one else was ever mentioned, so it seemed to me that Wolfe

New month, new BCSC event roundup! This summer, come see exhibitions about North Carolina's role in the American Revolution and Asheville street art and murals at Pack Memorial Library, several Leicester History Project events taking place at Leicester Public Library, and more.

Postcards are defined by their small size, but recently, some have taken on a new scale. New interior wall murals at Pack Memorial Library bring these pocket-sized scenes to larger-than-life dimensions. Buncombe County Special Collections holds several thousand postcards depicting scenes of Asheville, Buncombe County, and Western North Carolina. For muralist Max Dowdle, they provided

Join Special Collections for events in May and June to preserve and celebrate the history of Leicester, learn and reflect on local history through One Book, One Buncombe community read, and discover more about the photographers whose work shaped our region.