Margaret Cole
Photograph included with student application. Courtesy of Western Regional Archives
Courtesy of Western Regional Archives
FOCUS
Art/ Design/ Craft
ROLE
Student
ATTENDANCE
1944 - 1947
BIRTH
1913-08-13
Chester, PA
DEATH
2011-08-29
Margaret was a secretary for the 1944-1945 school year and a student for the summer of 1947, where she took Weaving with Franziska Mayer. She held a BS in library science from Drexel University and took coursework in art and weaving from Berea College and Temple University before attended BMC. Her obituary shares, "A published author, writing was her lifelong passion. She earned fame in the 1950s for her novel, The Varmints, followed by short stories and poetry published in various anthologies as well as Harpers Bazaar, Mademoiselle, New World Writing and Life."
Black Mountain College Project
Mary Emma Harris interviewed Peggy in 1996 and the transcript is available from Appalachian State University under The Mary Emma Harris and Black Mountain College Project, Inc. Oral History collection.
Topics: Family background in Florida and North Carolina – How heard about BMC – study with Alfred Kazin – Theodore Dreier (math faculty) and Barbara Dreier – college facilities– Max Dehn (geometer) – Heinrich Jalowetz (musician) – Martin Duberman interview – Novel The Varmints – BMC students – Josef Albers courses – George Zabriskie (writer) – BMC parties – literary life in New York
Courses Taken
1947 Summer Semester: weaving (Meyer), Bookbinding (Jalowetz), Chaucer(Bell), Sociology (Miller), Philosophy (Dehn), Gothic to Romantic Art and Music(Bell)
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.
