Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the George Myers Stephens papers #4749, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from George Myers Stephens II in May 1995 (Acc. 95054).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Asheville (N.C.)--Description and travel.
• Asheville (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
• Great Smoky Mountains (N.C. and Tenn.)
• Mountains--North Carolina.
• North Carolina--Description and travel.
• North Carolina--History.
• Publishers and publishing--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• Stephens Press.
• Stephens, George Myers, 1904-1978.

• George Erwin Gullett Stephens (father) Papers (#1487); The North Carolina Collection has a comprehensive collection of Stephens Press imprints. Interviews with George Myers Stephens are available in the UNC-Asheville Special Collections.

George Myers Stephens I was born 19 July 1904 in Charlotte, N.C., to George Erwin Gullett and Sophie Convere Stephens. When he was fifteen, his family moved to Asheville, when his father and Charles Webb purchased the Asheville Citizen.

Stephens graduated from the Asheville School for Boys and attended the University of North Carolina where he received an A.B. in history and government (1926). He worked in several positions, including as a timber cruiser for the North Carolina Park Commission, associate director of Camp Sapphire in Brevard, N.C., and editor of the Farmers Federation News, until he started his own publishing firm, the Stephens Press, in 1936. Along with commercial printing, he specialized in books, guides, and maps about the Smokies and western North Carolina. The Smokies Guide was his first book, and it became the popular guide to the region.

Stephens was very active in his community and the state. He served as president of the Carolina Mountain Club, founding president of the Carolina Appalachian Trail Club, and treasurer of the Howard Kephart Memorial Association. He was a founding board member of the Western North Carolina Historical Association and a trustee for the University of North Carolina (1946-54). He served as a trustee of the Asheville Public Libraries and as president of the North Carolina Association of Library Trustees. He also served as president of the Friends of the Library at UNC-CH and as chairman of the North Carolina Botanical Garden Association Board. He received an honorary doctorate from UNC-CH in 1964.

George Stephens died in Asheville at age 74 on 20 December 1978.

Files include public lectures and writings on western North Carolina, Asheville, and the Great Smoky Mountains. Some information about the Stephens Press and Stephens's involvement with mountain clubs and civic groups is also included.