Joy Kime Benton scrapbook

Unprocessed Material — Flat_Box: ViU2024-0052_001

Identifier: ViU-2024-0052

Staff Only

Content Description

This collection contains a scrapbook belonging to Joy Kime Benton (1886-1957) of Burlington, North Carolina, an author, poet, painter, and weaver. The contents of scrapbook items are principally documents from 1905 to 1908, although some paste-ins are from the 1930s. There are 128 pages with photographs, clippings, drawings, and ephemera pasted and laid in. The album primarily documents her college days at the Salem Female Academy (later Salem College). It includes her artwork created for "The Ivy" literary magazine, clippings from school and local newspapers, and photographs of buildings and club activities at the school. It is filled with her artwork and writing. The album also provides a glimpse into life at Salem Female Academy, with clippings showing the campus, buildings, and portraits of faculty members, images of groups like the Virginia Club, tennis and basketball teams, and "The Cooking Squad." Joy Rebekah Kime grew up in Burlington, North Carolina and was the valedictorian of her graduating class at the Salem Female Academy. She served on the editorial staff and provided all of the artwork in The Ivy. After graduation she worked with her father, a horse dealer. After college, Joy married Homer Benton, and settled in the mountains near Asheville. Joy, inspired by an elderly neighbor, learned the process of dyeing, painting, and book-weaving rags into homespun rugs. Her tapestries were widely exhibited, appearing in, and winning prizes at, the International Textile Exhibit in Brooklyn, the Corcoran Art Gallery in Washington, the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto and the Chicago World's Fair. Joy was also recognized for her achievements in poetry and short story writing, having twice won the Separk poetry cup and three times the O. Henry short story prize. The Bentons spent winters in Miami, Florida, where she was also a staff writer for Tropic magazine.