Children with school bus

Children with school bus

Children

Portraits, Group

School buses

A group of children and a few adults pose for a photograph in front of a school bus. It is likely that the first two girls in back row on left are Edith Welch and Hattie Wilson. The group is standing at the southwest corner of Bryson City town square, looking northwest. The brick building at the far left was, at the time, T. I. Hughes Store and it later became M. C. Close, then N. C. Clampitt Hardware. The building on the right is the oldest in town. A sign reading “Appalachian Lunch Room Mrs. Cordell, Prop.” is visible in the background. B 365 is written on the negative. The photographer, “Doc” Kelly Bennett (1890-1974), was a prominent pharmacist in Swain County, NC. Owner of the Bryson City Drug Company, Bennett served as alderman and mayor of Bryson City, on the Swain County Board of Education, as well as several terms as NC State Senator and NC State Representative. He participated in numerous other initiatives and organizations. Known as the “Apostle of the Smokies,” Bennett was an instrumental figure in the movement to create the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. He was also an avid photographer, skillfully documenting a wide variety of people, places, and events in Swain County and the surrounding area.

Bennett, Kelly, 1890-1974

Kelly Bennett Collection

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/

negatives (photographs)

portraits

eng

StillImage

71019

https://southernappalachiandigitalcollections.org/object/71019

Bryson City (N.C.)

Swain County (N.C.)

3.5" x 5.75"(dimension)

Picturing Appalachia