Cataloochee: Sarah Parton

This photograph of Mrs. Sarah Parton of Cataloochee was taken in 1936, when she was 74 years old. Behind her are "shuck" beans, strung on the wall for winter food. The photograph notes that Parton had 4 bushels of these beans, 3 bushels of soup beans, and 1 bushel of pickle beans. The photograph was made by Charles S. Grossman (1900-1972). An architect by trade, Grossman worked with the Civilian Conservation Corps, but spent most of his time on historic preservation projects for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. In the 1930s, he began an inventory of existing structures in the park, cataloguing more than 1,500 buildings. Grossman favored an “open-air museum” approach to historic preservation, collections of preserved buildings without occupants. He thought that much could be learned about pioneer life from studying its material culture