In 2009, when I was involved (as a board member for Blue Ridge Parkway 75) in planning the celebration of the Blue Ridge Parkway’s 75th anniversary celebration, I wrote a reflection on “Conundrums of Commemoration: Blue Ridge Parkway’s Seventy-fifth Anniversary” for an issue of Sitelines: A Publication of the Foundation for Landscape Studies (vol. V, no….
(Originally posted on Virtual Blue Ridge’s Blue Ridge Parkway Blog, July 16, 2009) This post isn’t specific to the Blue Ridge Parkway, but I thought readers might be interested in a project that I’m involved in that is taking a comprehensive look at the state of history in the National Parks. Here’s our official…
(Originally posted on Virtual Blue Ridge’s Blue Ridge Parkway Blog, June 24, 2009) I’m delighted to announce that a new digital publishing project I’ve been working on with colleagues at the Carolina Digital Library and Archives (part of the UNC-Chapel Hill Library system) has been funded (to the tune of $150,000 total over two years) by…
(Originally posted to Virtual Blue Ridge’s Blue Ridge Parkway Blog, June 12, 2009) The nonprofit organization planning the celebration of the Parkway’s 75th Anniversary in 2010 has released the call for proposals for Part I of our two-part 75th Anniversary Symposium, “Imagining the Blue Ridge Parkway for the 21st Century.” Part I of the symposium,…
(Originally posted on Virtual Blue Ridge’s Blue Ridge Parkway Blog, May 8, 2009) I have just had time to review the promotional video for the proposed “Blue Ridge America” project that Florida-based developer Larry Vander Maten is planning for a site just off the Blue Ridge Parkway, at what has for the last decade or so…
(Originally posted to Virtual Blue Ridge’s Blue Ridge Parkway Blog, February 26, 2009) I apologize for the long delay in offering any new postings for “A Historian’s Parkway.” Readers will have to have patience with my infrequent contributions for a while. To be honest, I have taken on too many obligations and am struggling…
(Originally posted to Virtual Blue Ridge’s Blue Ridge Parkway Blog, October 21, 2008) I was pleased to be involved in the kickoff a couple of weeks ago for the celebration of the Blue Ridge Parkway’s 75th Anniversary. While the official celebration won’t really happen until 2010, the two-state group working on the plans wanted…
In 2008, I wrote about the Parkway’s impending 75th anniversary for National Parks Traveler. Here, I reflected on a symposium on Parkway history that I helped organize for the celebration: Titled A Living Past on a Borrowed Landscape: The Blue Ridge Parkway at 75, our symposium aimed to focus on the struggles this park…
(Originally posted to Virtual Blue Ridge’s Blue Ridge Parkway Blog, October 12, 2008) (The following piece was written with my husband, David E. Whisnant, and was first published on October 12, 2008 in the Raleigh News & Observer.) Recent reports have brought welcome news that the state of North Carolina will purchase about 2600 acres…
Point of View article first published in the Raleigh (NC) News & Observer, 12 October 2008 The route to buying Grandfather Mountain Anne Mitchell Whisnant and David E. Whisnant Recent reports have brought welcome news that the state will purchase about 2,600 acres of the spectacular Grandfather Mountain for protection as a public park….