© 2000 North Carolina State Archives. All rights reserved.
Available for research.
Copyright for photographs and other materials resides with the creators of the items in question, unless otherwise designated.
[P.C.1870] Norman B. Weston Collection, North Carolina State Archives, Division of Historical Resources, Office of Archives and History.
Gift, Norman B. Weston, Bloomfield Hills, MI, and Chapel Hill, NC, 1997.
Finding aid completed by George Stevenson.
Completed April 16, 2002.
In 1933 John Andrew Rice and a small group of faculty at Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida, resigned during a controversy over educational methods employed at the college. The dissidents under Rice then agreed to found a college of their own with an organizational and educational plan that embodied the principles of progressive education and that raised study of the fine arts to the full curricular status. In casting about for facilities suitable as a physical plant for their college, they hit upon property belonging to the Young Men's Christian Association at Black Mountain, North Carolina. Here they founded Black Mountain College in the fall of 1933. Among the Rollins College students who followed their teachers into the new college were Norman Betts Weston (1913-2000) and Anne Howard Chapin (1913-1992). Mr. Weston and Miss Chapin were married in January, 1935. Miss Chapin had been a student at Rollins College from 1930 until 1933, and Mr. Weston during the school year of 1932-1933. Both were at Black Mountain College from 1933 until 1938, the period that saw the original faculty at Black Mountain College strengthened by the addition of European educators forced by war from their campuses in Europe.
The bulk of this material is made up of photographs and printed matter collected by Mr. and Mrs. Weston while students at Black Mountain. A significant element in the collection relates to Josef and Anni Albers during their post-Black Mountain College period. The contents of the collection are reported below, folder by folder.
23 Christmas Cards from Josef and Anni Albers representing reproductions of 21 works by Josef Albers (2 of the cards were used again in subsequent years). Many of them do not have titles. Others do: Overlapping, 1927; Sanctuary, 1942; XXXplusXXX=60 [ms title in pencil]; Homage to the Square; [name in series lacking, but original oil on masonite panel owned by Yale Univ. Art Gallery]; Home to the Square: Glow, 1966; [Homage to the Square: name in series lacking, but black center square on white, blue, and grey squares]; [Homage to the Square: n ame in series lacking, but squares in varieties of green]; White Line Square XV (Red) (used in two different years); Intaglio Solo X, 1953; Ascension, 1973; others without title. Post card, J.A. from Mexico to "Liebe Westons."
Letter, Fred Mangold, Gilbertsville, NY, Feb. 18, 1971, to Norman and Nan Weston on the subject of Duberman and his history of Black Mountain College. (The Westons are sceptical; the Mangolds less so, but still somewhat sceptical.)
1. n.d. At New Art Circle, J.B. Neumann, director, 509 Madison Ave., NY, March 9-30. Invitation card; Listing of works in oil and works in glass exhibited at the New Art Circle.
2. 1938 Dec. 6-31. At the Artists' Gallery, 33 West S Street, NY. Invitation card and "catalog."
1. 1933 Roof, backside of Robert E. Lee Hall: Alice Lee Swan (left) and an unidentified female figure in right and male figure in between. Taking the sun. [Porch roof?].
2. [1933] [Same location] John Evarts and John Applegate taking the sun on a blanket. [Porch roof?]
3. 1933-4? Bobbie Dreier (Mrs. Theodore) taking the sun on a blanket on the roof of Robert E. Lee Hall. [Porch roof?]
4. 1937? Aldous Huxley(?), John Rice, Nan Weston - on a picnic.
5. 1937? Picnic, left to right: Nan Weston, John Evarts, John Rice, Aldous Huxley(?)
6. n.d. Frank Rice and Mitz Martin(?)
7. n.d. Josef Albers art class on porch at Robert E. Lee Hall-any year.
8. 1935, Spring. John A. Rice and Davis Bailey, Black Mountain.
9. 1935-1938. John Andrew Rice playing with dogs, clipped from an unidentified BMC publication.
10. n.d. John Andrew Rice sitting in chair in Robert E. Lee Hall, clipped from unidentified BMC publication.
11. c. 1938. John Andrew Rice, pencil drawing, by Anne Chapin Weston(?),
12. n.d. Frank Rice and others with a cut tree, clipped from unidentified BMC publication.
1. (Xerox copy) Lebenslauf, John Evarts.
2. (Xerox copy) Aus dem Musik-Programm anlasslich der Ausstellungeroffnung. Georg Muche -
1. 1935. Reprint from
2. Article from
1933/34
1934/35
1935/36
1936/37
1937/38
1938/39
1939/40
1941/42
no.2
no.5
no.6
no.7
1. Lake Eden Inn and Cottages, 1939 Season (small poster)
2. Lake Eden Inn and Cottages, 1939 Season (small folder)
3. Special Summer Music Courses in Voice and Piano, 1940, at Lake Eden Inn (Music School, Black Mountain College) (folded poster)
1. 1935 March. Josef Albers. Announcing design for Black Mountain College seal and bookplate.
2. n.d. brochure.
3.
4.
1. 1933 Aug 24. Raleigh, N.C.,
2. n.d. Black Mountain College, Railroad Station, Black Mountain, N.C.; Post Office, Blue Ridge, N.C.
3. n.d.
4. 1938 May.
5. 1938 Jan 28, "
6. 1938 Thanksgiving.
7. n.d.
8. Summer Vacation Addresses, 1938. (mimeographed)
9. Summer Addresses, n.d. (mimeographed)
10.
1. [1936?]
2. 1938 May 14.
3. 1938 May 28.
1. Offprint.
2.
3. 1936.
4.
5. Empty envelope with the note: "(Interview with Mary Harris, of BMC Project, in file drawer under B.)"
Additional information on topics found in this collection may be found in the Manuscript and Archives Reference System (MARS) at