Browse Items (57 total)

This photograph was taken to document the vandalism on the side of the Vance house, which occurred December 8, 2017. The spray paint reads "Black Lives Matter."

The Juneteenth Exhibit highlights the names of people enslaved by the Vances and includes an audio tour with biographical information. It stands in front of the spray painted "Black Lives Matter" on the side of the Vance house in conversation…

Image from the Asheville Citizen Times, May 14, 1960. On-lookers gather for a log-raising ceremony on May 13, 1960, which included speeches from distinguished guests and the groundbreaking. The date was chosen because it was Zebulon Vance's birthday.…

A cow bell is attached to livestock so that their owners can locate them. Livestock was often free-range and the only fenced areas were the spaces that you wanted to keep livestock out of. So, if your animal wandered off, you could keep track of…

A shaving horse is a work bench that you sit on, which also held whatever piece of wood you are working on in place. The user would sit down across from the piece of wood, then push the foot pedal to move the dumbhead down. The shaving horse outside…

This tool would have been used to scoop grain out of a barrel for livestock. There are two holes in the wood which provide a means of holding the tool, the smallest for the thumb, and the largest for the rest of the fingers. A groove is visible…

A bear trap was used to wound bears (in this region specifically, the American Black Bear). The trap would be set with the metal clamps open. The bear would step on the metal plate beneath it, which would trigger the closure of the clamps around the…

A sickle has a wooden handle and a curved metal blade. It is used to cut a bunch of stalks or stems (such as grass or crops), either to harvest or trim.

This wooden rake, or pitchfork would have been used to move hay, straw, and wheat—raking actions as well as scooping and lifting. The tool could relieve some of the labor of harvest.

A double bitted axe would be used for cutting wood: trees, branches, limbs, or logs into their preliminary size before being shaped or smoothed. Both sides of the blade feature a bevel, so that the axe cuts on both sides.