Our readers voted the Museum of Appalachia in Norris, Tenn., as best museum, but among the many suggestions were some intriguing destinations,
including a number of museums following a common theme: celebrating significant people in the Blue Ridge.
Legendary baseball hitter Ty Cobb’s record-high lifetime batting average still stands today. So does the education fund he began to help Georgia students go to college. The Ty Cobb Museum in Royston, Ga., follows Cobb’s career from baseball player to charity worker.
“He was a true philanthropist,” says Candy Ross, clerk at the museum. “He was competitive, but he had a very giving heart as well.”
O. Winston Link was “a typical Brooklyner,” says Allie Hasson, on staff at the O. Winston Link Museum in Roanoke,Va. Although Link is most well known for photographing trains – one reason the late artist chose a former passenger rail station as the site for his permanent collection of more than 300 photographs – his lack of humility was notorious as well. “He knew his work was really good,” says Hassan.
The Andy Griffith Playhouse in Mt. Airy, N.C. is special not only because it houses the Andy Griffith Collection, a private collection of memorabilia owned by Emmett Forrest.
“This is where Andy and Emmett went to school – Rockford Street Elementary,” says Executive Director Tanya Jones. “They were childhood friends.”
P. Buckley Moss is an exceptional artist, and also an activist for special education children, says P. Buckley Moss Museum tour guide Carol Simonton. At 18,000 square feet, the Waynesboro, Va., museum has plenty of room to showcase many of Moss’ thousands of paintings, as well as foster occasional visits from Moss herself. “She’s 75 and still painting,” says Simonton. “The quantity and quality of her work is overwhelming.”
An interactive museum complete with touch screens and music clips, the Ralph Stanley Museum in Clintwood, Va., celebrates the legendary musician. Located in a four-story, century-old home, the museum displays three of Stanley’s Grammy awards. For his part, Stanley remains connected to the museum and his roots. “He tries to come by the museum once or twice a month,” says Assistant Museum Director Pam Morris.
—Carrie Fowler
