Ruth "Peggy" Barton

Ruth Barton was a student at the college from the fall of 1935 to the spring of 1938 and served as a Student Officer. She married fellow BMC student, Nathaniel Stowers French. She played the flute during the Danse Macabre performance in 1938.

She also attended the Beaver Country Day School and Bennington College. She later became a teacher and headmaster at the North Shore Country Day School.

Alternative name: Ruth French

Relationships

Cousin: Fellow BMC student, Sydney Carter

Black Mountain College Project

Mary Emma Harris interviewed Ruth in 1997 and the transcript is available from Appalachian State University under The Mary Emma Harris and Black Mountain College Project, Inc. Oral History collection.

Topics: Hearing about BMC – music study at BMC – music curriculum: John Evarts, Allan Sly, Josef Albers classes – drama curriculum – general atmosphere of college – educational philosophy – desk designed byJosef Albers – Thomas Whitney Surrette summer music programs in Concord, Massachusetts – Alamoosook Camp – Cambridge School – French family and polio – North Shore Country Day School, Winnetka, Illinois – marriage to Nathaniel French – Jack Lipsey (cook) – work program – John Andrew Rice – college conflicts

MEH: Do you remember how you got there the first time?

PBF: Uh-huh (POSITIVE). I rode down from New York with Robert Hillard [???] and John somebody-or-other, a blond. We arrived at Black Mountain College about midnight or one o’clock, and it was the spookiest, eeriest entrance because here was that great Lee Hall. Have you ever seen it? You’ve seen pictures of it certainly. All dark except for one dim light and the doors, of course, were wide open and around it in various spots were these columns with heads, busts of famous people and just enough light to see all these busts. It was the most eerie place. Somebody was apparently expecting us because somebody did take me sort of in the dark up to the room where I was going to be sharing a bed or a room anyway. I walked in and didn’t turn on any light. This voice said, “I’m your roommate but let’s not meet until tomorrow morning.” And I said, “Fine.” So I got into bed and went to sleep, and when we woke in the morning, it was Mary Beaman. But it was a very strange introduction, a very strange way to enter a college for the first time.

Courses Taken

Fall 1935-1936: Music Appreciation with Evarts, Music Study and Practice with Sly, Post War World with Martin, Goldensen and Portell-vila, and Drawing I with Albers.

Spring 1935-36: Music Appreciation I with Evarts, Music Appreciation and Theory with Sly, Drawing I with Albers, Plato with Rice, Ethics with Goldensen, Flute with Sly, and Modern World Affairs with Portell.

Fall 1936-1937: Music II& III with Evarts, Plato II with Rice,Form in Literature with Waug, Old, Country Dancing with Sly, Choral singing with Sly, Dramatics II with Wunsch, and Current World Affairs with Portell-vila.

Spring 1936-1937: Music Appreciation II and III with Evarts, Plato II with Rice, Choral Singing with Sly, and Physics of Sound with Dreier.

Fall 1937-1938: Drawing II with Albers, Plato II with Rice, Harmony Tutorial with Evarts, Tutorial with Sly, Music Seminar with Surette, Orchestra I & II (cello) with Sly and Music Period (flute) with Sly.

Spring 1937-38: Harmony Tutorial with Evarts, Drawing II with Albers, Plato II with Rice, Music Period with Surrette, Music Seminar with Sly, Physics of Sound with Dreier, Orchestra I (flute) and II (cello) with Sly, and Flute study with Sly