Haywood Snapshot Project: An Online Exhibition Showcasing Photos, Items, and Stories Submitted by the Residents of Haywood County, NC

Posted by William VanderVeen on November 28, 2022.

Welcome to the Haywood Snapshot Project website! The purpose of this website is five-fold:

1. To revitalize a project that began in 2010 to collect and promote local historical photos in physical exhibitions,

2. To give the current residents of Haywood County an opportunity to take stock of where they live and why it is important by submitting photos and items they believe are representative of the area,

3. To give these residents an opportunity to celebrate their culture and history,

4. To give the diasporic members of Haywood County (that is, members who once lived in the area but have since moved away) an opportunity to celebrate their culture and history by accessing this website from anywhere in the world, and

5. To encourage comparisons between historical photos and contemporary submissions.

The direction and layout of the website have been designed with these things in mind. Insights used to influence the website were gathered using ethnographic fieldwork during the summer of 2022, when I spent two months working closely with members of the Haywood County Historical & Genealogical Society and the Museum of Haywood County History to determine the goals of the website. By observing, interviewing, and collaborating with the fine people of these institutions (who in turn introduced me to many more people in the community, compounding the design insights) we were able to successfully co-design a website, workshop, and submission portal all geared towards celebrating the culture and history of Haywood County. I am eternally grateful to those who helped me get this project to where it is today as it would not be as strong without their guidance and support.

To Mike McLean, who gave me access by hiring me as Museum Manager and helped me secure the space to hold the workshop; Carol Adams, who let me run an ad for the workshop for free in her magazine “Positively Haywood;” Lorna Sterling, who gave me the knowledge and documentation I needed to understand the origins of the Haywood Snapshot Project (which was largely the brainchild of her late husband Peter Sterling); Roland Osborne, who has long supported the Haywood Snapshot Project as photo editor and who supported me by helping me recover old Photoshop files; Michael Beadle, another longtime supporter of the Haywood Snapshot Project who helped me pair the recovered photos with their information panels; and Carol Litchfield, who first opened my eyes to the many archival efforts of Haywood County; as well as Jeff Childers, Sharon Shook, Sharon Gardner, Kay Waller, Mark Stoffan, and Brock Sorrells: thank you all so much for your help!

Haywood Snapshot Project Origins

The Haywood Snapshot Project began in February 2010 with the goal of shifting focus away from the dire state of the economy, still suffering from the Great Recession and a major rockslide on Interstate 40 which had cut off the region to tourist traffic. Waynesville resident Peter Sterling first had the idea for the project as he and his wife Lorna were walking along Main Street in Waynesville. The stores on Main Street had been mostly closed up, their owners forced to leave because of the recession. To Peter this presented an opportunity: instead of having a bunch of drab kraft paper filling the windows, why not photos of historic Waynesville? Not only would these be more fun to look at, but they would also strengthen the current residents’ sense of community and identity by promoting the region’s past as an important part of what it is today.

After several months of development, pulling largely from a collection of photos used for the publication of Haywood County: Portrait of a Mountain Community, the project had its first opening on Saturday, July 3, showcasing seventeen 16” x 20” photographs with several other smaller photographs and information panels on the front lawn of the Haywood County Courthouse, just in time to celebrate the Fourth of July.

Over the next two years, Peter and the Historical & Genealogical Society developed the project as a pop-up exhibition so that it could be displayed in other spaces and events in the area. Among the locations they exhibited included Folkmoot, the lobby of Haywood Arts Regional Theater (or “HART”), the lobby of the former Gateway Club at 37 Church Street in Waynesville, and the Canton branch of the Haywood County Public Library. In 2012, the Haywood Snapshot Project received a Barringer Award from the North Carolina Society of Historians, establishing it as a valuable historical enterprise and giving Peter and the Historical & Genealogical Society the recognition they deserved.

Fast-forward to the summer of 2022 when I started working as the Museum Manager for the Museum of Haywood County History. The Snapshot Project was in a significantly different place. Many of the people who had initially supported the project had either passed onto other work or other places, leaving the project sitting idle. As I was familiarizing myself with the museum, exploring its different rooms and exhibitions, I came across a newspaper clipping from the Smoky Mountain News advertising one of the project’s first exhibitions at HART. The Haywood Snapshot Project, the article read, “aims to gather, preserve and present unique, black-and-white photographs to the public as a tangible reminder of the county’s rich cultural history.” This was strikingly similar to the mission of a project I had started working on six months earlier, which had basically the same purpose except it focused on contemporary photos instead of “black-and-white” photos.

The future of that project, which was called the Haywood Wish Book (learn more about that project here), was at that moment called into question: if I was going to spend my summer working on a project that was meant to benefit the cultural preservation of Haywood County, shouldn’t I focus on reinvigorating this one, so similar in its efforts, instead of imposing a new one? This shift away from my project wouldn’t just be for the benefit of the county; in gaining access to dozens of photos and tons of information gathered during the foundational years of the original Snapshot Project, I would be giving myself more material to work with to populate the website I wanted to build. Shifting my focus away from the Haywood Wish Book and towards the Haywood Snapshot Project, then, seemed like a win-win for everyone.

After being granted permission by Lorna Sterling to move forward with adapting the Haywood Snapshot Project, I began working on collecting the digital files used to print the original pieces for the exhibition (which were scattered across the county in different hard drives, if at all) while also figuring out the right balance between showcasing historical and contemporary content, which I still thought the website should include. Obviously a place’s historical legacy is important, as it gives its residents perspective on how they live their lives today, but Haywood County has a lot of residents who are new to the area and therefore divorced from that legacy. How, then, do you create a project that is compelling to both longtime residents and new residents, upholding the traditions that have been established by longtime residents while also encouraging the participation of new residents—those who should also feel compelled to understand their positions in the county as historically significant? From the end of May to the end of July, 2022, I set out to answer just that, leaning on the forms of ethnography, interviewing, and experimental workshops to inform my research and design insights.

How Ethnography Helped Me to Design the Haywood Snapshot Project Website

The design of the Haywood Snapshot Project website was largely informed by insights I gathered while conducting ethnographic fieldwork during the summer of 2022. For two months I observed, interviewed, and collaborated with various members of the Haywood County Historical & Genealogical Society and Museum of Haywood County History to determine the outcomes of the website. It was the members of these organizations who taught me, either implicitly or explicitly, how to devise the website, submission portal, and workshop meant to solicit submissions from the community. The insights they contributed ultimately proved to be invaluable, as I could not have made certain design decisions without them. The scenarios in which these insights were revealed are collected and retold here in order to demonstrate the value of ethnography to the design process.

Vetting and the issue of historical accuracy

Early on in the summer I had a conversation with Mike, one of my primary interlocutors, about an issue that he and his colleagues ran into when reviewing the contents of a time capsule recovered from the Haywood Institute school in Clyde. In many cases, it was unclear what the relevance of the content of the capsule was to the Haywood Institute. This prompted a discussion around the historical accuracy of the photos and items I’d be collecting for the Haywood Snapshot Project, which were of similar historical concern. How would I know that items people submitted had a connection to Haywood County? How would I know that the photos they submitted were taken in Haywood County?

As far as items were concerned, I’d have to take the participants at their word. However, the question of historical accuracy in relation to photos proved to be a little more generative, as many photos that are taken today (on smartphones) come with embedded information about the location, date, and time the photo was taken. Having this information would be hugely beneficial for future archival work as there would be no need to research these details after the fact. As designer of the website, all I needed to do was plan for a submission portal that would preserve the original information embedded in photos as they were submitted. The services that Jotform offered proved to be useful enough, even if it did sometimes recalibrate this information.

The switch from the Haywood Wish Book to the Haywood Snapshot Project

As mentioned above, the shift that I made away from the Haywood Wish Book, my own project focusing on contemporary photos, to the Haywood Snapshot Project, a project with years of work put into it already embraced by the local community, proved to be vastly more useful for both the county and the amount of content for the website. By leveraging photos from the original Haywood Snapshot Project, browsing inventory increased by 121%. Working under the auspices of a locally-recognizable name like the Haywood Snapshot Project also proved helpful: by using its name I was able to make more connections within the community (to those associated to the project beyond the museum and Historical & Genealogical Society) and establish more authority in regards to the workshop I was building awareness for. None of these things would have been possible if I had not gained access as Museum Manager and explored the different rooms of the Museum of Haywood County History. I would have been stuck with the somewhat redundant Haywood Wish Book, working to build awareness for it with no ability to do so (beyond online advertising).

Encouraging connections between historical and contemporary content

As the summer went on, I became increasingly aware that the newer residents of Haywood County whom I interacted with did not see their connection to the region as historically significant. This insight came from dozens of conversations I had with newer residents who, when told about the new Haywood Snapshot Project website, would dismiss their ability to contribute because they weren’t from Haywood County. In addition, I also observed long-time residents expressing pride for their connection to the area, in some cases rebuking newer residents because of their lack of legacy. While what counts as being “from” somewhere is certainly debatable, what is more concerning, I think, are the environmental and societal impacts that may come from not feeling historically connected: if people cannot see their historical connection to a place, are they also unable to understand their role in how that place develops? Are they unable to conceive of and plan for its future? It’s possible that the feeling of historical connectedness plays a part in the responsibility one feels about where they live. If nothing else, feeling historically connected may help one find community in the short term.

It’s because of this concern over historical connectedness and belonging that I decided to juxtapose traditionally-historical content (that is, black-and-white photos) with contemporary content on the website. I did this both on the home page, which organizes content not by date but by theme, and at the bottom of each entry’s detail page, which prompts the user to consider how the theme in the photo appears in Haywood County today. It’s by organizing content by theme that the website encourages residents to see the connection between the two supposedly different types of “old” and “new”—and to understand that if one type is historically significant then the other must be, too. And by encouraging participation with the “Submit Your Snapshots” button under every prompt, I urge users to consider themselves according to these entries and the roles they play in shaping the history of a place.

Not everyone in Haywood County cares about the shared experience of living in Haywood County (insight #1)

Informed by a conversation I had with Lorna Sterling, it seems that some of those living in Haywood County may identify more strongly with the smaller communities in their immediate vicinities (and sometimes not at all with others). As Lorna put it, “Fines Creek could care less about the Shook House [in Clyde].” This insight inspired the addition of the “What is your connection to Haywood County?” field in the submission portal which gives users the option to elaborate on their connections (and gives me the opportunity to learn more about how people feel connected). While this field still gets colored by the overarching messaging put forth by the Haywood Snapshot Project, it attempts to give its users the ability to identify on their own terms.

Ethnographic Insights for Future Design Work

In addition to the ethnographic insights that affected the current iteration of the Haywood Snapshot Project website, there are also insights worth considering for future design work. These insights are as follows:

Not everyone in Haywood County cares about the shared experience of living in Haywood County (insight #2)

Informed by the same conversation with Lorna (mentioned in “insight #1”), because some people identify more strongly with smaller communities, these communities must be addressed directly as the people within them are probably less susceptible to the general messaging put forth by the Haywood Snapshot Project. As Lorna put it, messaging like “‘we want Hazelwood stuff,’ or ‘we want Fines Creek stuff. Bring us your specific artifacts’” would help the project get more participants. These more specific prompts could be used in conjunction with additional workshops, which could be held in each of Haywood County’s different townships.

Building community with those who would prefer to remain anonymous

Over the summer I observed two people asking if they could submit items to the Haywood Snapshot Project while remaining anonymous. It’s an interesting question considering how one of the goals of the project is to build community. While the logistics of such a request is simple (all I needed to do was omit the words “submitted by so-and-so” on their entry page), I think the question of whether to support anonymous participation should be considered more fully. What are the effects of viewing an anonymous submission to the website, and what are the effects of identifying a contributor? Does knowing there’s a contributor make users feel closer to their community, or does it not matter? What if, similar to how Airbnb celebrates its hosts, the Haywood Snapshot Project decided to hold a gathering to celebrate the people who contributed submissions? How would anonymous participants be recognized in this scenario?

Whether the Haywood Snapshot Project should solicit specific social media accounts

Part of the effort to build awareness for the Haywood Snapshot Project included running ads on Facebook and Instagram. Many of those who responded to these ads (by submitting photos through the portal) would also “like” or comment on the ads which would in turn identify their social media accounts. These accounts contained many more images beyond what was submitted through the portal, prompting a question about followup submissions: should contributors be approached for additional submissions if specific photos on their accounts exemplify Haywood County in a certain way, or is this overstepping bounds? Within this question is another about what counts as exemplary: how do I know that what I think exemplifies Haywood County is the same for everyone else? If I solicit a specific photo for display on the Haywood Snapshot Project website, am I imposing my own beliefs about how the county should be represented, or is this just how regular old curation works?