Western Carolina University WCU University of North Carolina Asheville UNCA

Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

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WCU - Picturing Appalachia

Flower girl and Ronnie Smith as ring bearer

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  • This photograph shows Ronnie Smith as the ring bearer and an unknown flower girl and is from film that was brought to Sherrill’s Studio for developing, but the prints were never picked up. The two are part of the wedding party for Robert and Glenda Thompson Arrington. The name written on the unclaimed envelope is Mrs. Robert Arrington. George Dexter Sherrill (1879–1931) opened the first photography studio in Haywood County on Depot Street in downtown Waynesville in 1902. In 1906 his studio became the first Eastman Kodak franchise west of Asheville and the third in North Carolina. Sherrill’s photography roots began in Jackson County where he learned the art from his brother-in-law, A. L. Ensley. Beulah Eloise Ashe Ensley (1899-1991) apprenticed with Sherrill in 1917 and worked in the studio with her husband, Sherrill’s nephew, Ralph Ensley (1894-1975) until Ralph’s death. The Ensley’s demolished the original studio in 1943, dug the site to street level, and built an International style building.

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Picturing Appalachia

This digital collection brings together several notable photographic collections that depict the landscape and people of western North Carolina in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Notable...

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