Harvey "Bruce" Elledge
Photograph included with student application. Courtesy of Western Regional Archives
Courtesy of Western Regional Archives
FOCUS
General Studies
ROLE
Student
ATTENDANCE
1939 - 1940
BIRTH
1918-12-22
Pittsburgh, PA
DEATH
1996-07-03
Merritt, NC
Harvey was a student from fall 1939 to spring 1940. While a student, he participated in the Waiting for Lefty production. He was in the Army from 1951 to 1954.
Black Mountain College Project
Mary Emma Harris interviewed Harvey in 1987 and the transcript is available from Appalachian State University under The Mary Emma Harris and Black Mountain College Project, Inc. Oral History collection.
Topics: Arrival at BMC – family background – service in World War Two – work with the circus as rigger and advance man – career in circus, as garbage man, as teacher – violin study – life in PamlicoCounty, NC – homosexuality at BMC – Kirill Chenkin, Russian-French background and circus – Clifford Odets visit to BMC – Elledge clown act at BMC – as prankster at BMC – Sue Spayth dance classes at BMC – music performances as adult – Jack Lipsey (cook) – Galax fiddler’s festival
Courses Taken
Fall 1939:IntroductoryWriting (Wunsch), Music I (Evarts), Orchestra (Jalowets),Violin Lessons (Straus), English Novel (Kurtz)
Spring 1940: Music I (Evarts), English Novel (Kurtz), Violin Lessons (Straus),Orchestra (Jalowets)
Author
Amanda Hartman
Amanda Hartman is the creator of BMC Yearbook, serving as the lead director, engineer, and researcher. She holds a MLIS in archive/ collections management, MA in art/ museum education, and BA in design. After working in museums and archives for a decade, she made the transition to tech and is now a software developer specializing in applications for museums, archives, and higher education.
Her interest in Black Mountain College began while working as a digital archivist with the Asheville Art Museum's BMC archive collection. She transcribed and digitized over 1500 documents created by the college. While working closely with these archives, she began independent research on the interracial program and Negro Week activities BMC, writing biographies of lesser known students and staff members. That research transformed into this BMC Yearbook project.
