Ashe County is a photographer's treasure trove full of southern Appalachian gems sparkling in the northwest corner of North Carolina. Within these pages you will discover 388 photographs brought to you by 76 professional and amateur photographers who were inspired to capture all that is Ashe County. These thoughtful, creative, inquisitive, talented photographers have sought out every nook and cranny of Ashe County to bring you their pictoral insight. They have left no boulder unturned in their quest to chronicle the historical life, times, people, places and things in this magnificent blue ridge paradise.

Ashe County is a photographer's treasure trove full of southern Appalachian gems sparkling in the northwest corner of North Carolina. Within these pages you will discover 388 photographs brought to you by 76 professional and amateur photographers who were inspired to capture all that is Ashe County. These thoughtful, creative, inquisitive, talented photographers have sought out every nook and cranny of Ashe County to bring you their pictoral insight. They have left no boulder unturned in their quest to chronicle the historical life, times, people, places and things in this magnificent blue ridge paradise.

Native North Carolinians tend to learn the state toast (adopted by the General Assembly in 1957) in childhood. As with the state motto, Esse Quam Videri (To be rather than to seem), such words from the toast as "Here’s to the land of the longleaf pine” hold an amazing power to inspire the varied denizens of North Carolina, a state with deep and varied agricultural and industrial histories. Words are fine for inspiration, and for recording the achievements of those who once heard or spoke such words. However, a single photograph offers a window into a lost past that is difficult to capture in words alone. This volume, Historic Photos of North Carolina, provides nearly 200 such glimpses of life in the Tar Heel State. From the mid-1800s through the mid-1900s, from Cape Hatteras to Asheville, from scenes of farm families working in the fields to Orville Wright in flight at Kill Devil Hills, these historic black-and-white images seek to capture the essence of change in the land of the longleaf pine.

Nestled in the northwestern corner of North Carolina, the mountainous Ashe County boasts the most picturesque landscapes that painters and other artists could hope to find. This spirit of natural artistry runs deep through the county's culture--towns offer murals, street art, galleries and institutions like the Florence Thomas Art School. Even in West Jefferson, a town in which getting lost is impossible, there is an "art district." Truly an art destination, Ashe County is home to hundreds of painters inspired by the natural beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the New River valleys. This book showcases the talented painters of Ashe, professionals and hobbyists alike, across generations and paint media. Works from 103 artists are represented in 415 full color images.

Appalachia: The place and its people have long inspired a special fascination among travelers and commentators. The rugged, ecologically rich mountains, at once forbidding and inviting, have provided a place of retreat and exploration for lovers of natural beauty and outdoor adventure, while the region’s resources have long lured both capitalists intent on creating wealth and regular folks just looking for a steady wage. The inhabitants native to the region have often been held up as pure, strong, and self-sufficient on the one hand, and derided as primitive, backward, and exotic, on the other.Not quite south or north, east or west, the region continues to defy easy classification. Yet it emerges in Historic Photos of Appalachia as both distinct and as familiarly American. The nearly 200 photographs included here portray the region’s land and people in all their distinctive and sometimes surprising specificity—including views of towns, houses, and farms; families at home and on the job; railroads, mining, and logging; and beautiful streams and mountain landscapes.

Monuments honoring leaders and victorious armies have been raised throughout history. Following the American Civil War, however, this tradition expanded, and by the early twentieth century, the Confederate dead and surviving veterans, although defeated in battle, ranked among the world's most commemorated troops. This memorialization, described in North Carolina Civil War Monuments, evolved through a challenging and contentious process accomplished over decades. Prompted by the need to rebury wartime dead, memorialization, led by women, first expressed regional grief and mourning then expanded into a vital aspect of Southern memory. In North Carolina, 109 Civil War monuments--101 honoring Confederate troops and eight commemorating Union forces--were raised prior to the Civil War centennial. Photographs showcase each memorial while committee records, legal documents, and contemporaneous accounts are used to detail the difficult process through which these monuments were erected. Their design, location, and funding reflect not only the period's sculptural and cultural milieu but also reveal one state's evolving grief and the forging of public memory.

After an unwanted southern migration, an upside-down world in 1943 offers military wife and mother, Maggie Slone, a job at Charlotte's largest wartime employer--the massive and dangerous Shell Assembly Plant. Meanwhile, military wife and Alabama native, Kora Bell's steadfast determination enables her to navigate the challenges she faces as a Black woman seeking employment under Jim Crow. A shared love of literature begins an unlikely friendship between Kora and Maggie, and the two work together to unify the plant's workforce. Stringent rules are necessary when the air is charged with gun powder and polite society, until Maggie and Kora must break them in order to support their families, end the war, and bring their husbands home. Told from two perspectives, Poster Girls is driven by the true but forgotten events and accomplishments of a diverse group of American women, both relevant and necessary to stop modern cycles of misundestanding.

How could the peace and quiet of Ashe County, North Carolina (in the mountains, at the Virginia-Tennessee corner), turn into a nightmare of crime and drugs, and the old copper mine itself become a dumping ground for the dead? In 1982, two bodies had been chipped from an icy grave and brought up from the 250-foot mine shaft where they had been thrown while still alive. Now, there were rumors of 21 bodies still down there. If the mine was ever re-opened, what would they find--copper or bodies? Murder, drugs, prostitution and gangs come together in the history of the Ore Knob Mine. A small Appalachian community became the heart of a vicious drug ring ruled by the Outlaws motorcycle gang from Chicago. Ashe County made national headlines when a police informant came forward confessing that he had pushed a man alive into the Ore Knob Mine shaft. This book is the full story.

In the Blue Ridge Mountains of northwestern North Carolina, along the Virginia and Tennessee borders, sits rural, mountainous Ashe County. When an act of the North Carolina General Assembly created Ashe in 1799, the county had previously been claimed by four other counties, the short-lived State of Franklin, and even France, based on treaty claims that the New River drained into the Mississippi. This work is a reprint of the first-ever complete history of the county, originally commissioned by the Ashe County Research Association, written by Arthur Lloyd Fletcher and published in 1963. Chapters cover early explorers, the ill-fated War of Regulation, the county's creation in 1799, the county's role in the Civil War and both World Wars, religion, education, industry, community leaders and newspapers, recreation, and folklore, among other topics.

Media and gender refers to the relationship between media and gender, and how representations of the different genders created for and by mass media. Media can range from newspapers, magazines, comic strips, novels, CDs and music videos. These representations can influence the general public's perception of the different genders. It is important to continue exploring interactions of media and gender to dismiss personal choices, but to see the larger context, and potential consequences for ourselves and others. Advertisements and pictures in magazines carry significant messages about cultural norms and values, but also norms of gendered relations for both men and women. Gender Equality' is much debated issue in almost all the countries of the world. It is more relevant in the context of developing countries where maltreatment and exploitation of women has been tradition which goes on unabated. This book, in two parts, encompasses vital information on the problem of gender equality and allied issues. Based on authentic information, gathered from various authoritative sources and supported by facts and figures, this has become a veritable mine of information. The book, we feel would prove to be of enormous relevance and immense use for social scientists, social activists social planners and programme executives connected and concerned with the subject."e;