John Andrew Rice

Courtesy of Western Regional Archives, a branch of the North Carolina State Archives

John Andrew Rice, Jr. (1888-1968) was the founder and first Rector of Black Mountain College from 1933 to 1939 (resigned 1940).  This section of the exhibit covers the College's founding and Rice’s years as Rector when the College was located at the Blue Ridge Assembly campus.  It includes documents about the intellectual principles of the school and their continued discussion at faculty meetings, writings from students and photographs of student life, evidence of the College’s unstable financial situation, and the aftermath of Rice’s departure in 1939.