Editor's note: This story was co-reported and written by Pherson Jordan and Libby Owenby, students at West Henderson High School, in collaboration with Blue Ridge Public Radio reporter Gerard Albert III as part of a Report For America fellowship service project.
Behind locked doors of the Biltmore Estate, where thousands of people tour the halls of the largest mansion in the United States, are hidden treasures not accessible to most of the public.
There are more than 50,000 unique items in the collection, which is run by curator Lauren Henry, archivist Jill Hawkins and their team.
“There is so much still to learn from it. It's like finding buried treasure,” said Henry. "It reveals so much to us about the people who worked here and who lived here.”
The private collection is full of photographs, documents and books that once belonged to the Vanderbilt family.
Among the many challenges of preserving thousands of archival pieces is how to keep them from deteriorating.
The archivists store some items in secure rooms, while other items, such as photographs, are in areas specifically made for handling light-sensitive items. Unlike modern digital photographs, these original photographs were developed using chemicals and the only way to stop these chemical deterioration is to freeze them.
“Most of our older photos are currently being stored in a freezer, as is best preservation practices for these materials,” said Henry.
The ultimate goal of the archivists is to catalogue the photographic collection, Henry said.
In rooms not accessible to the public there are a series of shelves housing books and prints. These are occasionally exhibited in rooms open to the public.
"We're just keeping all of this that belongs to the family and documents our full history from George Vanderbilt to the present, and we'll continue to do that into the future,” said Henry.
Among the most visually stunning pieces in the archives are the painted doors that are sometimes displayed throughout the house. Cornelia Vanderbilt, the only child of George and Edith Vanderbilt, was thought to be the one who creatively painted these doors. Her fascination with seascapes brought a unique style to her art.
“She was maybe in her mid twenties. She was living in here and at some point decided that she wanted to use the doors as her canvas. She must like boats a lot. She does seem to do a lot of seascapes,” said Henry.
Another rare find among the thousands of books is a first edition copy of Charles Darwin’s “On The Origin of Species.”
George Vanderbilt had a variety of books in his beloved collection. Some of the authors were able to visit the house and some of the books contain architecture and landscape architecture studies that served as the inspiration for the estate.
“George Vanderbilt was a religious man, but he also showed that he was very intellectual and very curious,” said Henry.
Before Hurricane Helene hit Western North Carolina, many precautions were taken to keep the estate and archives secure.
"We are constantly always thinking about disaster preparedness and the work we do because a fire can start, a natural disaster can happen. There were actually people here on site during Helene who were keeping tabs on everything,” said Henry.
After Hurricane Helene, there was not much damage thanks to the elevation and location of the Biltmore Estate.
