HISTORY HOUR
Monthly Lecture Series
2026 Speakers & Topics
Join us for History Hour, our monthly lecture series exploring the rich history of western North Carolina.
The hour long-program features a guest speaker and concludes with a brief Q&A session.
History Hour takes place on the last Tuesday evening of every month.
January 27th
Tuesday
6PM – 7 PM
Hybrid Event
On Zoom & at the Reuter Center, home to the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI)
Ronnie Pepper
The Kingdom of the Happy Land
Ronnie Pepper will introduce attendees to the history of the Kingdom of the Happy Land and the individuals and families who resided there. In Henderson County on the border of North and South Carolina, there were a group of freed people who had a dream of a land. A land that could bring them peace, hope and a beginning of a dream. Their dream was rooted in an ancestral tribal memory and sustained by the hope for a promised land. The land on which they settled came to be known as the Kingdom of the Happy Land. Come hear the facts of the story as it has been researched and documented by the Black History Research Group of Henderson County. Hear about the documents that surround those families that resided on a Land Known as the Kingdom, presented by Ronnie Pepper.
February 24th
Tuesday
6PM – 7 PM
Hybrid Event
On Zoom & at the Reuter Center, home to the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI)
Anne Callison Stokely
James Vester Miller: Asheville’s Artist in Brick
Anne Callison Stokely will introduce attendees to James Vester Miller (1860-1940), who built many of Asheville’s most remarkable historic brick buildings during its Golden Age of the late 19th and early 20th century, yet he remains largely unknown. Born into slavery and self-taught, his artistry and craftsmanship were sought out by Asheville’s leading architects, including Richard Sharp Smith, the supervising architect of the Biltmore House. Come learn more about his life story, as well as about the James Vester Miller Historic Walking Trail created by his granddaughter, Andrea Clark.
March 31st
Tuesday
6PM – 7 PM
In-Person Event
At the historic Smith-McDowell House, home to the Asheville Museum of History (AMoH)
Elizabeth “Liz” Colton, Ph.D.
‘Mountain Scenery’ by Henry Elliott Colton, 1859: Discovering WNC & Asheville, Promoting Tourism in the 1850s
Elizabeth “Liz” Colton will introduce “Mountain Scenery: The Scenery of the Mountains of Western North Carolina & Northwestern South Carolina” (1859), a guidebook written promoting tourism by her great-great uncle Henry Elliott Colton and published by companies in both Philadelphia and Raleigh. 
The fascinating, beautiful, still useful, now treasured book is a detailed introduction to WNC and Asheville by an explorer of the region and former editor of the Asheville newspaper, “The Spectator.” Come learn about our city and region as already before the Civil War recognized for the touristic value of their remarkable natural beauty and the main town’s welcoming residents all hailed in this vividly informative book.