MARS HILL -- Mars Hill College officials say they have exceeded a $1.5 million goal to receive a matching $500,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The funds will be used to benefit the Southern Appalachian Archives, housed at the school near Asheville.
A celebration of the achievement is planned at 7 p.m. Friday on campus.
The archives includes the Ruskin Collection of Cherokee artifacts; the James G.K. McClure Farmers Federation Collection of nearly 3,000 photographs of farm scenes from the mid 20th Century; and a collection of letters and more than 2,300 hand-written folk songs and ballads from Bascom Lamar Lunsford.
