In this video Bill Hart describes highlights from the fourth bookshelf in his personal library. This shelf includes early travel accounts in Western North Carolina as well as regional histories.
Hart provides an annotated survey and anecdotes about a number early works on Western North Carolina and Southern Appalachia, including The Cherokee Physician, Or Indian Guide to Health, as Given by Richard Foreman, a Cherokee Doctor, published in Asheville in 1849. Other works discussed include The Heart of the Alleghenies, or Western North Carolina, as well as works by Francis Asbury, Thomas Clingman, Charles Lanham, and others
Hart also discusses his Buncombe County roots, noting that he’s a descendent of James Reeves who settled on Big Sandy Mush in 1799.
This video was filmed in the Hart’s personal library prior to donating the collection to UNC Asheville’s Special Collections. The books in the Bill and Alice Hart Collection are shelved in the same order as in the Hart’s marvelous personal library.