Articles,  Editor's Statement

Editor’s Column

By Gene Hyde

This article appeared in the Volume 1, Issue 2 Fall 2019 issue of the Appalachian CuratorClick here to view a PDF of the full issue.

Welcome to the second issue of the Appalachian Curator: A newsletter about Appalachian special collections and archives.

Just a few weeks after the first issue of the Appalachian Curator was published in March 2019, an arsonist set fire to one of the buildings at the Highlander Research and Education Center in New Market, TN. Initial reports indicated that documents and other materials were destroyed. To find out what happened, and what the results were for Highlander’s rich archival history, we interviewed Susan Williams, coordinator of Highlander’s Library/Resource Center. That interview leads off the current issue of the Appalachian Curator.

Community archiving was a theme during the last Appalachian Studies Conference in Asheville. Community archiving can take many forms and shapes, but an underlying thread is always strong participation and input by the group or community being archived. Many times the materials gathered during a community archiving project remain with the community itself – oral histories, photographs, documents and other materials – and sometimes scanned copies or duplicates may be deposited in another archive. Sometimes archivists and scholars are part of the process, but not always. There are many variations of community archiving in Appalachia.

With this in mind, the Appalachian Curator editors reached out to the Appalachian Studies community and asked for stories about community archiving projects. This issue includes five such stories: the documenting of the Cherokee Snowbird community by community residents, a narrative about Foxfire’s ongoing community archiving projects, how the Kentucky craft community engaged in documenting its work, how radio station WSGS is archiving photos from the Hazard County, KY area, and how filmmaker Burr Beard worked with Helen Horn to insure that her oral histories of coal town women found an archival home.  Several more community archiving profiles are in the works for the Winter issue, and we would love to include more stories about Appalachian communities are archiving their stories. 

Two collections are profiled in this issue, the National Park Service Collections Center at Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the McClung Historical Collection in Knoxville, TN.  Thematically, both encompass a range of primary sources related to the Smokies and the people who have worked with and in the GSMNP, administratively, one is part of the National Park and the other is part of the public library system in Knoxville, a small snapshot that helps showcase the range and diversity of archives found in Southern Appalachia.

This issue also features “What’s new in Appalachian Special Collections,” our list of new acquisitions at collections throughout the region. This is our most visited section of the newsletter, so please send us your new materials so we can include them.

A bit of housekeeping for the librarian and archives readers of the Appalachian Curator. We now have an ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) – making it easier to catalog and index periodicals in library systems. Our ISSN is 2642-8822 and appears on the header of each page.

We are actively seeking articles by archivists, librarians, and Appalachian researchers. We are looking for stories and articles about anything related to Appalachian archives – things you want to share with the Appalachian Studies community.  Possible story ideas include:

  • community archiving projects
  • digitization projects
  • histories and profiles of archival repositories
  • profiles of archivists and donors
  • descriptions of collections
  • articles on the craft and practice of archival work
  • lists of new acquisitions
  • upcoming workshops or training opportunities
  • upcoming or current exhibits and events
  • news about grants or collaborations
  • or anything else related to Appalachian archives

Have an idea? Please contact the editors – Gene Hyde (ghyde@unca.edu) or Liz Skene Harper (eharper@email.wcu.edu). 

Our next issue (Volume 1, No 3, Winter) will be published in December, with an article deadline of November 30. 

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