Photography business. As a result of the news collection’s rediscovery, the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce donated digital use rights to the George Flowers Collection, which Digital Watauga is currently processing, with plans for digitization to begin in the spring. Plaag remains astounded by and
grateful for Flowers’s gift to the Chamber. “He had a vision that exceeded the technology limits of his time,� Plaag said. “He donated his work—estimated in 1998 at four million negatives and prints—to the Chamber long before projects like ours existed, with hopes of it being freely available to the public someday.� Today, almost
The Troubadours of Appalachian Elementary School march east on Howard Street across the Depot Street intersection in 1952. Behind them is old City Hall and, to the right, the back of the Farmer’s Hardware block. Image by Palmer Blair, courtesy of Digital Watauga Project, Historic Boone Collection.
20 years later, Flowers’s vision is becoming a reality, in large part because of the commitment by David Jackson, the current Chamber president, to seeing the collection preserved through Digital Watauga. Plaag emphasized that using Digital Watauga to view images is easy—and free—through the projects website, Digi-
Shot of the American Legion Parade, 1954, marching down West King Street, as seen from the lawn of the Daniel Boone Hotel. The building at center is the John W. Hodges Building, with the Carolina Hotel/Qualls Block to the right of it (under the hotel sign). Behind the Hodges Building is the west building of the Goodnight Brothers complex on Howard Street. Palmer Blair Collection (Pal-Bla-2-219).
The Consignment Cottage Warehouse
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