Homer Boblin

Photograph included with student application. Courtesy of Western Regional Archives

Courtesy of Western Regional Archives

FOCUS

Art/ Design/ Craft

ROLE

Student

ATTENDANCE

1941 - 1942

BIRTH

1928-04-15

Brooklyn, NY

DEATH

2013-08-16

Black Mountain, NC

Homer was a student for the fall of 1942. He shared in his application that he was interested in gaining "a thorough business education and a broad cultural backgorund." He had just graduated high school when applying and all of his reference mention that he is shy and timid, but a good student.

A letter from John Evarts of 9/4/1941 shared, "Boblin is, as you may know, no intellectual giant. He's a blondish youth with blue eyes, pink cheeks, and earnest expression. In appearance he suggests a less husky, shorter Bob Bliss. He's quiet but responsive-- and serious. For the last three summers he's fone carpentry work and built cottages. His pa teaches wood work and mechanical drawing in a high school. The boy is very nice, not bright (underlined), would probably be slow in his work and would try very hard-- wants to find out what he's best at." He shared that he has interest in building and architecture.

Relationships

Wife, Fellow BMC student, Elizabeth Ferris Kelley

Asheville Art Museum Collection

Homer regularly wrote to the college bulletin to send updates on his time in the war. These can be seen in digitized college bulletins on Asheville Art Museum's collection website: collection.ashevilleart.org. They can be found by searching these accession numbers: 2017.40.119. 2017.40.135, 2017.40.026, 2017.40.139, 2017.40.127, 2017.40.146, 2017.40.151

Courses Taken

Fall Semester 1941-1942: Introductory Psychology (French), Types of Literature (Kurtz), Modern European History (Boyden), Introductory German (G. Straus)

Spring Semester 1941-1942: Modern European History (Boyden), Introductory Psychology (French), Introductory German (G. Straus), Types of Literature (Kurtz), Piano Lessons (Cassotta, supervised by Jessie (Jay) Ann Nelson)

Fall Quarter 1942-1943: Algebra and Trigonometry (Dreier), Mechanical Drawing (Kocher)

Photograph of author

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.

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