Step back in time with us as we delve into the rich history of the Highlands Biological Station. Notes from the Archives offers a glimpse into the stories, discoveries, and milestones that have shaped our legacy. From rare photographs and historic documents to personal accounts and scientific breakthroughs, this page is dedicated to preserving and sharing the moments that connect our past to the present.
Join us on a journey through the archives as we celebrate the people, events, and ideas that continue to inspire our work today.
The Clark Foreman Museum: Now the Highlands Biological Station Nature Center
As you walk into the front door of the Highlands Biological Station’s (HBS) Nature Center, on the right you will see a plaque stating the “Clark Foreman Museum”.
Today, few know who Clark Foreman was or his tremendous contribution in establishing “the museum” or the Highlands Biological Station.
Clark Howell Foreman was born in 1902 and died in 1977. He was the son of Robert Langdon (R. L.) Foreman (1867-1940) and Effie Park Howell (1870-1943). The Howells were a prominent Atlanta family who had a lengthy involvement with the HBS. Clark’s namesake, his great uncle, was Clark Howell Sr. (1863-1936), owner and editorial executive of the Atlanta Constitution for 53 years.
On July 4, 1927, the Highlands Museum opened in a one room addition to the Highlands Library. “The Highlands Museum was started for the purpose of preserving and increasing some of the private collections made by first citizens in the region.” Open daily during July and August, the collections included the Cleaveland Cherokee artifacts, the Wheeler Herbarium and the J. Jay and Mary Chapin Smith Collection of minerals from North Carolina as well as a limited series of birds, insects, native woods and pioneer implements and crafts of North Carolina. The Museum was supposed to be housed in Library for 5 years, at which time the room would be given to the Library. But it was not until 1938 that a new building for the museum was proposed on East Main Street where it is located today.
The Highlands Museum of Natural History was incorporated on July 21, 1930. Twenty-five founders include names we still hear today: Ravenel, Harbison, Foreman, and Kelsey to mention a few. Clark Foreman was President.
Clark Foreman’s correspondence concerning the museum goes back to at least July of 1928 when he was visiting museums in North Carolina and the American Association of Museums in Washington, D. C. which he joined “in order to get help in forming the Highlands Museum.” He also was seeing the Curator of Biology at the Smithsonian, then the National Museum.
Still in the Nature Center today, Mr. Foreman writes about the Hemlock slice. “Mr. Holmes in Raleigh told me the best way to get a tree to dry out without cracking was to cover both cut sides with wax and thus force the tree to dry through the bark. This takes a long time but he says it is worth doing. Tell this to Mr. W. M. Cleaveland so that he can do it for us when he cuts down the hemlock stump.” The Hemlock stump/slice has between 425 and 439 rings, was from a tree on the Highlands Estate, now the Highlands Country Club given by Scott Hudson and was officially accepted at a Museum Board Meeting on July 8,1929. Many years later Robert (Bob) Zahner counted the rings again and marked the historical events on the slice we see today.
In order to build the museum, the land on which the proposed new museum would stand was deeded to the Town of Highlands. The architects were Arthur Kelsey and Alfred Kastner of Kastner and Bella in Washington, D. C. They worked with Atlanta architect, Linton H. Young, a cousin of Clark Forman. The Town applied to the Works Progress Administration (WPA) for a grant to help with the construction of the new museum which funded – $13,509 for labor and equipment of the $20,940 building. The Museum was constructed from chestnut trees from the National Forest and stone from the town quarry across from Wilson Gas today.
Mr. Cleaveland of Highlands built the Museum which was completed in 1941 and also built the Samuel T. Weyman Laboratory Building completed in August of 1931.
The saga of building the Museum is revealed in Clark Foreman’s 182 letters between 1934 and 1941, revealing Foreman’s frustration with the WPA. Another story to be told.
Yet through Mr. Foreman’s perseverance, the Highlands Museum opened June 20, 1941. The Visitor’s Register for that day still resides in HBS Library Archives.
With many thanks to Clark Foreman, we remember the building the Highlands Museum.
Documents for this story are housed in the E. E. Reinke Archives of the Highlands Biological Station Library.
– Bryding Adams, Volunteer Archivist, January 2025
Samuel T. Weyman Building
On August 29, 1931, the newly incorporated Highlands Museum and Biological Laboratory held the dedication ceremony for the first building constructed on campus. Then referred to as the Sam T. Weyman Memorial Laboratory, this building was constructed in under two months and functioned as a research facility for biologists nationwide upon completion.
The building gained notoriety not only as the first biological laboratory in the region at the time, but also for its unique architecture designed by Atlanta firm Tucker & Howell with consultation on the architectural design from renowned German architect Oscar Stonorov. The building was constructed in the International Style of modern architecture and featured pale yellow exterior walls with mahogany red trim to mimic the Dutch de Stijl.
The Weyman building functioned as the Station’s research laboratory until 1957, when it was converted into a dining hall and a separate laboratory was built next door. The renovation erased the structure’s international-style architecture. Shingles were added to the exterior walls, and the roof was converted from a flat roof to a gabled roof and the walls and trim were repainted.
This building served as a dining hall for the next two decades and has continued to serve the Station’s researchers and staff in various capacities since. In the 1970s, the cooking equipment was removed and replaced with refrigerators, dining tables, and lounge furniture. In 2023, Weyman was renovated once again thanks to a generous donation by R.B. Haynes and work from facilities manager Mike McMahan. This renovation allowed the building to function as a gathering place year-round. This included the installation of HVAC and insulation, skirting around the foundation, and remodeling the building’s interior with new flooring.
-Cora Bauman, December 2024
E. E. Reinke
Between the Thelma Howell Administrative Building and the Coker Laboratory at the Highlands Biological Station is the E. E. ( Edwin Eustace) Reinke Library established by Dr. Reinke, a Founder and the First Director of the Highlands Museum and Biological Laboratory. Little known to visitors of the Nature Center or Botanical Gardens, the many college and graduate students and researchers from around the world use this library for their studies.
First suggested in 1941 by Botany Professor Kaufman visiting from the University of Alabama, he and other researchers told Reinke and the Trustees that they needed a library to aid in their study of the plateau flora and fauna. To that end, Reinke established the library in 1945 and then others began to donate books and published research reprint papers to the Station for library use. Upon Reinke’s death in 1945, his widow, Emily, gave all of his books and a collection of this personal papers to the Station which comprised the initial library. Other major donors to the library include: Lindsay Olive, C. K. Wall family, Sargent Family, and the family of Byron Ingram among others.
Dr. Reinke was a Princeton graduate awarded at Ph.D in Biology in 1914. He was primary affiliated with the Biology Department of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, holding various positions in that department including Chairman. Reinke spent his summers in Highlands with his family for many years, even commissioning a log cabin by local famed builder, Joe Webb, which still stands today as the location of the Highlands Hiker.
In 1928-1929 Clark Foreman of Atlanta and a summer resident of Highlands, approached Reinke about a biological station in Highlands. The Station Trustees asked Reinke to study the Highlands region with a view of establishing a southern biological research station in the mountains. His findings were published in the Highlands Museum of Natural History Publication No. 1, entitled “Report on the Necessity of a Mountain Biological Research Station in the South.”
Reinke’s primary research included experimental work in the field of hormones and the pituitary gland in the life pattern of vertebrates, namely salamanders, which he carried out at the Highlands Laboratory. Some of his original drawings were included in his correspondence files, an illustration of which is shown here.
The Reinke Library is non-lending library, except for registered students and research faculty, but is open to visitors by reservation. Its holdings are available online through the Hunter Library at Western Carolina University.
-Bryding Adams, November 2024