For the next few weeks, the work of North Carolina photographer Hugh Morton will be on display at the N.C. History Center in New Bern.
Morton, who died in 2006, was well known for his camera work — he not only scoured the state of North Carolina and was also published in “The State” magazine (later changed to “Our State”) but was a newsreel cameraman in the Pacific Theater during World War II. But he was also known for his work with state tourism and his work with Grandfather Mountain, near Boone, a popular tourist spot he inherited in 1952 and went on to develop, adding a mountain top visiting center in 1961.
That mountain had been in the family since 1885, when his grandfather Hugh MacRae first owned it, and Morton spent many of his childhood years there. It was at nearby Camp Yonahnoka that he took a photography course
and caught the camera bug.
His military service resulted in a Bronze Star for his photography work and a Purple Heart for injuries sustained in a 1945 explosion on the Philippines.
Back in civilian life, he was a big fan of sports and jazz.
A short biography of his life hangs in the gallery, but his real story is told through the numerous photographs, most black and white, that are on display at the center.
A few shots are from his days in the military and catch everything from the grandeur of Pacific landscapes to the minutiae of a soldier in training, running, screaming, with fixed bayonet toward the photographer at Camp Davis.
Some scenes are pure, bucolic North Carolina: a farmer, hand on his haystacks, staring off into the fields; an old woman fondly showing off a pet goose. Men drag a boat out of the surf on Carolina Beach and a man wanders determinedly across flooded ground after Hurricane Hazel, while fire pours out of a one-story home behind him.
Musical scenes are everywhere, many of them from folk performances at and around Grandfather Mountain. Other shots show his love of jazz: “Even while Morton was still a UNC student,” a card reads, “he had already photographed every major jazz performer and big band in the country.”
A large number of his photographs feature Grandfather Mountain.
“Hugh Morton’s photographs provide us with an intimate glimpse of North Carolina’s history and people,” according to Palace collections manager Richard Baker. “By seeing the state through his eyes, we are able to tap into the human experience of what it meant to be a North Carolinian in the 20th century.”
Or, in layman’s terms, this stuff is really good, and by visiting you’ll learn a lot of what Tarheelism is all about.
The gallery is free and will remain at the center through Feb. 22.
Bill Hand is a reporter for the Sun Journal.
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