Ashburn, Leah Wong and Wong, Oscar
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Brewers Association
label: Collection Interviewer
content: Harry, John
label: Collection Interviewer
content: Johnson, Paula, Curator
label: Collection Interviewer
content: McCulla, Theresa
label: Collection Creator
content: National Museum of American History (U.S.)
setName: label: See more items in
content: American Beer Brewing Oral History Collection
label: See more items in
content: American Beer Brewing Oral History Collection / Series 1: Born-Digital Interviews
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 738.08 Megabytes (Total Running Time: 01:13:07, audio/wav)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2021-01-05
container: label: Container
content: Item NMAH-AC1595-BDA0004
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Audio
label: Type
content: Megabytes
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Oral history interview with Oscar Wong, founder and vice president, and Leah Wong Ashburn, president, chief executive officer, and family owner, of Highland Brewing Company in Asheville, North Carolina. Topics covered include Wong's childhood in Jamaica; coming to the United States to study engineering; his career in the field of nuclear engineering; Ashburn's childhood in New Jersey and other cities; her study of journalism; and her early career. Wong talks about founding Highland Brewing Co. in 1994, at a time when there were no other small breweries in the region; his efforts to convince local authorities and customers to support the business; Ashburn's decision to join the brewery; how the brewery's portfolio of beers has changed over time; the brewery's ties to the history of the region; Ashburn's strategies for growing the brewery; and how the brewery confronted the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.