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Within a joint collection of historical photographs compiled by Western Carolina University and the University of North Carolina at Asheville, there lies a treasure trove of historical Haywood County mystery.

This Southern Appalachian Digital Collections is home to the remnants of the Sherill’s Studios collection, including literally hundreds of images of people and places that are unidentified. Because the studio was based in Waynesville, and because the images themselves give clues, clearly the majority are Haywood County pictures.

Some of the photographs are simply not identified. Others are images that the studio developed from film left by customers who never returned to pick them up. The pictures are tantalizing, engrossing — does the viewer recognize the ridge line or the house in the image? Is there a familiar face, perhaps captured in its youth?

These photographs give us glimpses into Haywood County’s past, particularly the 1920s through the 1940s. The unclaimed photographs taken by customers are particularly insightful.

For example, it shows that people loved their automobiles. It seems that if one wanted to take a photograph outdoors, the automobile was the primary prop. There are multiple images of young couples, clearly dating or married, posing in front of their vehicles. Babies and toddlers were propped on the hood, on the spare tire, on the bumper. Entire family groups, from matriarchs and patriarchs to grandchildren, pose with these still-new marvels of transportation.

People also loved their guns, and not just when they posed for hunting scenes. A number of shots combined three great passions, with men posing, gun in hand, in front of the vehicle, their girl beside them. In one photograph, a young man and woman sit on the bumper while he holds a handgun and she has her hand wrapped around the barrel.

The images also remind us that Haywood County roads were largely unpaved even in the 1940s. Most of the automobile pictures are taken on dirt roads; some of those routes seem to barely cling to the mountainsides.

The pictures also give us an idea of the remarkably varied living conditions, of the 1920s and 1930s, with many families living still in cabins or uninsulated houses on rock pillar foundations. A number of cabins have hand-hewn wood shingles.

In one picture, a woman stands in front of a two-room cabin with five small children in the yard around her. In another image, a girl plays a piano in an elegant living room. Whether modern or primitive, the pictures convey the importance of the front porch. Along with the automobile, it is the favorite setting among these images, reminding us that this was the place a family would gather, particularly when summer heat drove them outdoors.

These photographs are stamped with dignity, particularly in the faces of the older generation, faces lined by years of trouble and labor, still stoic and strong. The older women stand in dresses and aprons, wearing workbooks or brogan shoes, their hair drawn back in tight buns. The men wear overalls, often with a white collared shirt, or a Sunday get-up with shirt collar stark above the dark coat. These are faces that deserve to be identified and remembered. At least, thanks to digital technology, they are preserved in a way that makes it possible.

Sherrill’s Studio photographed many historical moments in Haywood County, including construction of Stuart Auditorium in the earliest days of the Lake Junaluska Assembly, the old Haywood County Fair, the Sulphur Springs gazebo and construction of the “new” courthouse in 1932. We owe many of those early familiar historical images to the work of George D. Sherrill and his family.

George Sherrill established a photography studio on Depot Street in Waynesville in 1902, when he was only 23 years old, after learning the trade from Ensley relatives in Jackson County. His studio was the first in the state west of Asheville to obtain a franchise to sell Kodak products. The story of the studio was told by a family member, Alan Ashe, in a 2005 letter to the Mountaineer.

“As one time the word ‘photography’ in Haywood County was synonymous with Sherrill’s Studio,” Ashe wrote.

Sherrill’s nephew, Ralph Ensley, began working with his uncle while still a young man, learning the photography business and making picture frames. When Beulah Ashe married Ralph at the age of 18, “she went straight to work at the studio, learning all the tricks of the photography craft from George,” Ashe continued. “At that time photos were exposed on oxide-coated glass negatives, and all photos needed retouching or coloring by hand – something that is now a lost art.”

George Sherrill died in 1931, at age 52, and the Ensleys took over the business, keeping the Sherrill’s Studio name. In 1942-3, the Ensleys built a new studio, with an International architectural style featuring metal casement windows, a central porthole window and glass block wall sections.

Ashe had vivid memories of that structure. His Aunt Beulah, he said, “was always a very stylistic lady. … It’s no wonder then that when she and Ralph decided to build a new studio … they would choose an art deco design more common in big cities at the time.

“The first floor of the building housed the portrait studio and the darkroom. The second floor was office space and a shop for making picture frames. Ralph and Beulah lived on the third floor. Visiting them when I was a young child … I felt like I was in New York City where people lived in tall buildings and worked in their street level shops.”

The Ensleys also had a home in Thomas Park.

After Ralph’s death in 1975, Beulah continued the studio until the early 1980s. She died in 1991, at the age of 92. The Sherrill’s Studio building has been restored and is now the site of the Orchard Coffee cafe.

In an effort to identify more of the Sherrill collection, Western Carolina University is pairing with the Haywood County Public Library in August and September to host an exhibit of some of these images.

Two sets will be displayed in the North Carolina Room of the Waynesville library branch, one in August and the second during September. Viewers will be able to contribute information about the photographs through notecards at the library or by going online.

There will also be a binder of additional photos for identification, according to WCU. For more information, you can contact Special Collections at WCU at specialcollections@wcu.edu or call at 828-227-7474.

To view the full Sherrill’s Studio collection – which consists of more than 2,300 images, visit southernappalachiandigitalcollections.org and search for Sherrill’s Studio. While the site is a joint effort of UNCA and WCU, the Sherrill’s photos are part of the Western Carolina University archives.

If you find images you can identify, or if you know anyone in these photographs, please contact Kathy Ross, kathymnross@gmail.com for a possible follow-up story.

Haywood’s first photo studio — Sherrill’s studio.

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