Appalachian Photos of Cecil Sharp On Display In Yadkinville

The exhibit The Appalachian Photographs of Cecil Sharp 1916 to 1918 is on display at the Yadkin Cultural Arts Center. The intimate black and white images were taken in the mountain regions of five states, and they provide an important historical record of the people who lived there and the cultural traditions they passed on.

Sharp was a noted English musician, teacher, and folk collector who came to America in search of surviving traditional English folk songs. He suspected that they had accompanied the early immigrants who settled in the mountains of Appalachia. 

In all, Sharp spent 46 weeks touring there beginning in North Carolina's Madison County visiting inhabitants many times, often staying at their homes. Project Coordinator Donald Hughes says Sharp's access comes across in the photographs.

"It's something I like to call 'presence,'" says Hughes. "He'd get them to stand or sit, or just be there, and they weren't shy from it. It comes down to strong mountain women — most of his subjects were women — you know, 'I'm here. We're here. We do this. We are who we are.' And I think it just projects right through." 

Sharp eventually collected more than 1,600 tunes and countless photographs of the mostly women musicians who sang them: playing the banjo or churning butter on a log cabin porch surrounded by small children.

Yadkin Cultural Arts Center Executive Director Sarah Smith says the images take viewers back to a time when life was anything but easy.

"They look at it and they see their grandfather or they see one of their family members," says Smith. "And so, I think people are really relating to it especially in this area."

The "Appalachian Photographs of Cecil Sharp" exhibit will remain on display through February 21.