News

Historical Society to hear about parkway history

By Bill Moss, Published: July 29, 2015

Anne Mitchell Whisnant, author of the Blue Ridge Parkway history “Super-Scenic Motorway,” will be keynote speaker when the Henderson County Genealogical and Historical Society hold its annual meeting on Saturday at the Chariot.

“According to most accounts, the Parkway was a New Deal ‘Godsend for the needy,’ built without conflict or opposition by landscape architects and planners who traced their vision along a scenic, isolated southern landscape,” UNC Press said of Whisnant’s book. “The historical archives relating to this massive public project, however, tell a different and much more complicated story.”
Anne WhisnantWhisnant, who received her Ph.D. in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is director of Research, Communications and Programs for the Office of Faculty Governance and is an adjunct assistant professor of history at the university. She has worked as a consultant to the National Park Service and is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation.
Going beyond the Parkway views, scenery and wildflowers, her talk delves into the complicated and often contentious process that brought the road into being from the 1930s to the 1980s. Drawing on her experience as the scholarly adviser to “Driving Through Time: The Digital Blue Ridge Parkway,” an online portal to Parkway history, Whisnant digitally overlays historical maps on present-day landscapes to illustrate her presentation.
The society’s annual meeting starts at 11:30 a.m. For tickets and information call 828-693-1531.