1967
Myra Champion,
NC Collection at Pack Memorial Library

Myra Champion (1905 – 1988), librarian at the North Carolina Collection in Pack Memorial Library of Asheville received the award in 1967 for her efforts over the previous decade to grow the collection to approximately 10,000 cataloged pieces, all related to North Carolina. “The collection is the depository of most of the valued manuscripts of the library. In it are early accounts of the Carolinas going back to 1590; significant North Caroliniana from the presses of the state dating from 1752; old maps; pictures, handwritten diaries, hundreds of Civil War letters, autographs and a host of other items that make it one of the most distinguished collections of North Caroliniana in existence. Scholars come from afar for research there, especially with reference to the leading writer of Western North Carolina, Thomas Wolfe.”