Exhibit Explores North Carolina Immigrant Communities, 1866-1940
Cultivating the "Great Winter Garden": Immigrant Colonies in Eastern North Carolina, 1866-1940
In the North Carolina Collection Gallery, Wilson Library
March 5 - EXTENDED THROUGH JUNE 5, 2009
Information: (919) 962-1172 or wilsonlibrary@unc.edu
Listen to WCHL radio interview about the exhibit
Author Susan Block will discuss her research on Van Eeden, a North Carolina agricultural settlement that became a haven for Jews fleeing Nazi Germany, in a program March 5 at Wilson Library. Her free public talk, "Mules to Mozart: Holocaust Escapees at Van Eeden," will begin at 5:45 p.m.
The program marks the opening of the exhibit Cultivating the "Great Winter Garden": Immigrant Colonies in Eastern North Carolina, 1866-1940 in the North Carolina Collection Gallery of Wilson Library. A reception and exhibit viewing will begin at 5 p.m.
Photograph of the Heimann family
at Van Eeden, N.C. From the exhibit
Cultivating the Great Winter Garden.
"Their lives didn't stop," says Block of the immigrants. "They had babies. They created new bonds. They worked very hard. Dissension in the diverse group was fueled by the frustration of worrying about family members they had to leave behind and many difficulties such as poor land drainage, the extreme heat of the summers in the Southeast and even the mosquitoes. But these people were so fortunate to have a garden of Van Eeden."
Through approximately 85 books, pamphlets, maps, and photographs, Cultivating the "Great Winter Garden" documents various efforts to attract immigrants to North Carolina from northern states and Europe.
During and after Reconstruction, the South made a concerted effort to repopulate, says Stephen Fletcher, the North Carolina Collection photographic archivist in Wilson Library. But the prevailing pattern of immigration in the U.S. flowed north and west.
In order to restore agriculture as part of the economy, governments and businesses sought to attract people to the state. On view will be brochures from about 1915 that refer to North Carolina as "the Nation's Garden Spot" and "the Great Winter Garden," from which the exhibit title is taken.
The exhibit also documents specific attempts in the early 20th century to draw European immigrants. In addition to 16 photographs of the Van Eeden settlement in the 1930s, the exhibit will include photographs of five other colonies founded by MacRae. Italian immigrants, for example, settled at St. Helena in Pender County. Other immigrants came to Castle Hayne and Marathon, both in New Hanover County, and Artesia and New Berlin (now Delco) in Columbus County.
Many of the original colonies have been abandoned or show no trace of their origins, Fletcher says. At Van Eeden, cement foundations interrupt acres of farmland, with two or three lingering walls that evoke memories of the historically rich colonies.
Related links
- News release from UNC News Services
- North Carolina Collection Gallery
- Susan Block Web site
Block, a native of Wilmington, has written 12 books and many articles, focusing primarily on Wilmington and southeastern North Carolina. Her honors and awards include the N.C. Society of Historians' 1999 "Historian of the Year - East."
