Orpheus Schantz scrapbook

Collection

Identifier: AC-262

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This handmade scrapbook contains black and white photographs, original poems, and typed narratives of a trip to the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and Gatlinburg in June 1923. The scrapbook was compiled by Orpheus M. Schantz with one poem reading "This is the tale of the jolly four / who spent the night on a balsam floor / on top of Leconte in Tennessee / above the clouds 'neath a balsam tree." All the poems are written by Schantz. The typed narratives are from Jennie A. Russ and Gertrude D. Schwass, the two women in the trip's party. The fourth member of the trip was Frank A. Freels. The four of them travelled from Chicago and were led by the famed Great Smokies guide Wiley Oakley to climb Mount Le Conte.

Dates

Creation: 1923

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

The materials from Appalachian State University Libraries' Special Collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright law. The nature of these collections means that copyright or other information about restrictions may be difficult or even impossible to determine despite reasonable efforts. As a result, the user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source.

Conditions Governing Use

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the Appalachian State University assumes no responsibility.

Biographical / Historical

Orpheus Schantz (1864-1951) was a naturalist, President of the Chicago Audubon Society, and director and treasurer of the Chicago Geographic Society. According to his obituary in the New York Times on September 4, 1951, he was one of the group instrumental in establishing the Great Smoky Mountain National Park in Tennessee and was chairman of the Excursions Committee which conducted tours there. Jennie A. Russ (d. 1972) worked in the stenographic division of the Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company of Chicago for 25 years before retiring in 1941.