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Hubert Hayes awards prizes to the jamboree participants

One of Kellen Carpenter鈥檚 first memories during his early days working at Hunter Library as a technician in special collections is of helping an older gentleman find a picture of his family band. The gentleman had come in with his grandchildren to show them pictures from when he had performed at the Hubert Hayes Youth Jamboree with his brothers.

Carpenter helped them search through the hundreds of pictures within the Hubert Hayes Collection, and that was when he found a box of reel-to-reel tapes with recordings of the Jamboree. No one knew what exactly was on the tapes, and with no way to play them, they sat dormant in the special collections.

Almost ten years later, Carpenter, now head of Special Collections, and Beth Thompson, head of Hunter Library鈥檚 Content, Organization and Management, eResources and Technology Department, have received a $15,556 Library Services and Technology grant from the State Library of North Carolina to digitize the reels, and finally see what is on them.

鈥淎s near as I know, these tapes have never been played at Western,鈥� Carpenter said.

What library staff do know is that the reels contain recordings from the Hubert Hays Youth Jamboree, a folk festival that showcased traditional dance and music. Founded in 1948, the event took place in Asheville over the span of four days where children from around the region could participate in clogging contests and singing competitions.

The man who started the jamboree, Hubert Hayes, studied theater at Trinity College, now known as Duke University, before dropping out and working as a traveling actor for some years. Upon returning to Asheville, he bounced between several jobs.

During WWII he taught meteorology to US Air Force Pilots. He worked as a firefighter and wrote and directed plays. One play titled 鈥淭ight Britches,鈥� would later appear on Broadway.

Perhaps the most significant role he would take in his lifetime was when he became the manager of the Asheville City Auditorium. It was around this time that Hayes was inspired by Lumsford Lamar Bascomb鈥檚 Mountain Dance and Folk Festival and wanted to create something akin to it, a talent show for kids to perform traditional dance and music.

This 1955 photograph taken by Richard P. Putnam shows Hubert Hayes giving trophy to the Canton Cloggers (also known as the Champion YMCA elementary square dance team) at the opening of the Grove Park Inn.

Hayes passed away in 1964, and his wife, Leona, would continue to run the jamboree until 1973. In their final year, the jamboree travelled to the International Folk Festival in England as a last hurrah for the program.  It is estimated that over the 25-year span of festival that over 52,000 children participated. Leona gifted the majority of the Hubert Hayes Collection to 甜瓜视频app over 40 years ago. The collection included Hayes鈥檚 personal letters, photographs of the events, a bust of Hayes, a log cabin, and the tapes. 甜瓜视频app 40 of the tapes were given to Hays鈥檚 alma mater, Duke University.

Carpenter began to explore how he could play the recordings on the magnetic reels. Finding a reel-to-reel player was difficult, and upon further investigation Carpenter learned that if the magnetic film was not properly treated early-on, replaying the tapes could cause permanent damage. The delicate magnetic film deteriorates constantly, with time and temperature demagnetizing the film.

Thanks to the grant from SLNC, a third party will finally digitize the reels that have been housed at WCU and Duke. Once digitized, the reels will be housed on the Southern Appalachian Digital Collections website. The website is a collaboration between WCU, UNC Asheville, and the John C. Campbell Folk School. Yet Carpenter and Thompson have bigger plans for the content.

First, they will have to see what is on the tapes, but they plan on engaging with the public with presentations and potentially an exhibition during the weeklong Mountain Heritage Days celebration, which will be held Sept. 21 to 26, 2026.

While it is important for historical scholarship to access the recordings, there has always been a human element driving this project. Carpenter kept remembering the man he helped find photographs of his family band.

鈥淭here's this local community emotional connection to the project that's not just 鈥榟istory is cool.鈥� It鈥檚 that this stuff matters to people from around here, to 52,000 of them,鈥� he said.