Driving through Time
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http://docsouth.unc.edu/blueridgeparkway/
We invite you to take a virtual trip through the history of this beautiful 469-mile "elongated park." Conceived during the depths of the Great Depression as part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal and completed in 1987, the Parkway continues to evolve through its ever-changing relationships with surrounding communities, landowners, and the public. The park winds its way through 17 North Carolina counties, numerous communities, and countless different southern Appalachian landscapes. Its economic, social, and psychic impact on western North Carolina-where its most fervent early supporters were based-has been profound.
"Driving Through Time" brings together for the first time a vast array of primary source materials documenting the Blue Ridge Parkway’s history in North Carolina from the 1930s to the present:
- Thousands of historic photographs from the collections of the Blue Ridge Parkway-National Park Service and the North Carolina State Archives.
- Hundreds of historic maps and drawings from the Blue Ridge Parkway and the North Carolina State Archives
- Letters and documents from the University of North Carolina Libraries pertaining to the history of the Little Switzerland community on the Parkway.
- Historic photographs from UNC’s Hugh Morton Collection depicting the history of the Parkway at Grandfather Mountain, NC.
- Oral histories with key individuals, from the collections of the Blue Ridge Parkway/National Park Service.
- Selected historic photographs, documents, postcards, maps and other materials about the Parkway from the University of North Carolina Library’s North Carolina Collection.
UNC University Libraries
