Lee County Virginia, a Pictorial History

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Most of the photographs in this book were taken over a period just shy of five decades, from 1900-1949. On the surface, fifty years is a razor-thin slice of history; but something is revealed here that extends far beyond this narrow window of time, and far beyond the borders of Lee County itself.

Long before the beginnings of photography, Lee County was the gateway to the American frontier. Before that, it was the frontier, well known to its indigenous inhabitants and to a small handful of European explorers, but otherwise hidden, like the rest of Appalachia, from the eyes and experience of the Tidewater colonists, and therefore mysterious to them.

In some ways, Lee County is still a mystery to many outsiders, hidden more today by persistent misunderstandings of Appalachia as a whole than by forbidding wilderness or remoteness, although many Virginians are still surprised to learn that some parts of the County lie to the west of Detroit. Part of the value of a book like this is the truth it reveals about a place to those of us who know it only from outside.

Together, these photographs show Lee County and its people living through a time of momentous change, adjusting to the demands and opportunities of the modern age with resilience and enthusiasm. They reveal a changing agrarian economy, industrialization, the arrival of new technologies and new modes of transportation. But they also show, clearly, the persistence of community through shared work, recreation, and the expression of faith.