A recent donation of Horace Kephart’s personal correspondence, photographs and other belongings will become part of the new “Horace Kephart and Laura Mack Kephart Family Collection” at Western Carolina University’s Hunter Library.

An iconic figure of Western North Carolina history and culture, Kephart penned Our Southern Highlanders and helped spearhead the movement to establish Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The bulk of the 700 new materials are personal letters, including those Kephart exchanged with his wife and his children who he lived apart from after coming to Western North Carolina.

The Horace Kephart and Laura Mack Kephart Family Collection is in the process of being catalogued and placed in protective enclosures. The materials are expected to be accessible to the public in early 2013. WCU will explore digitizing the collection, which could include around 2,500 images, to build on Kephart materials already available online at www.wcu.edu/library/digitalcollections/kephart.

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