• Articles

    ASA Special Collections Committee Response to Kentucky Flooding

    This article appeared in the Volume 3, Issue 3 Winter 2022 issue of the Appalachian Curator. Click here to view a PDF of the full issue. By Stewart Plein, Chair, ASA Special Collections Committee Following the devastating flooding in Kentucky, the ASA Special Collections Committee extended assistance on a number of fronts, individually and institutionally, specifically concerning Appalshop in Whitesburg and Hindman Settlement School in Hindman. Two committee members have been engaged in weekly response phone calls coordinated by the Kentucky Arts Council with others from across Appalachia. Discussions on funding sources, volunteers, best practices and other recovery topics were an important part of this weekly discussion. Members of the committee,…

  • Editor's Statement

    Editor’s Column

    This article appeared in the Volume 3, Issue 1 Spring/Summer 2021 issue of the Appalachian Curator. Click here to view a PDF of the full issue. Welcome to the new issue of Appalachian Curator – we’re now into Volume 3! Thanks to all of you who have contributed to and read the newsletter over our first six issues. We look forward to hearing ideas about articles or features so don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have something that you think would fit in these virtual pages. Two feature stories highlight this issue. The first is an interview with Trevor McKenzie, the recently appointed Director of the Center for Appalachian…

  • Articles,  New Aqusitions

    What’s New in Appalachian Special Collections?

    This article appeared in the Volume 3, Issue 1 Spring/Summer 2021 issue of the Appalachian Curator. Click here to view a PDF of the full issue. New collections in regional repositories: Appalachian State University Berea College Eastern Kentucky University University of Tennessee  Virginia Tech Western Carolina University W. L. Eury Collection, Appalachian State University MerleFest Archives (AC-1279): The W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection received the MerleFest Archives (AC-1279) in June.  MerleFest is an annual music festival held on the grounds of Wilkes Community College. It began in 1988 in memory of Merle Watson, son of musician and songwriter Doc Watson. The collection includes audio and video recordings of performances, photographs, and…

  • Articles,  Featured Collections

    Featured Collection: The Appalachian Studies Artifacts Teaching Collection – Loyal Jones Appalachian Center, Berea College

    This article appeared in the Volume 3, Issue 1 Spring/Summer 2021 issue of the Appalachian Curator. Click here to view a PDF of the full issue. By Christopher A. Miller, Associate Director and Curator, LJAC; College Curator, Berea College In recent years, the role of artifact collections in colleges and universities has been evolving. It is not that museums, galleries, or artifact collections are new on campuses.  Nor is it new for students to occasionally encounter cultural artifacts. For a long time, a visit to a campus museum, a tour of some exhibits, and talk from a curator were a low-key break from the classroom. However, artifacts in the classroom are…

  • Articles,  Featured Collections

    Appalachian Studies Association Records at Berea: An Overview and Reflections on Research

    This article appeared in the Volume 2, Issue 3 Winter 2021 issue of the Appalachian Curator. Click here to view a PDF of the full issue. Editor’s note: The Appalachian Studies Association’s official records are housed at Berea College. As many reading this probably know, these records were used extensively in the research of the 2003 article, “Where Have We Been? Where Are We Going? A History of the Appalachian Studies Association” (Appalachian Journal Vol. 31, No. 1 (Fall 2003)), written by Howard Dorgan and students in his “Colloquium in Appalachian Studies” course at Appalachian State University. We thought it would be interesting to pair Lori Myers-Steeles’ article about the ASA…

  • Articles

    Chronicling COVID-19 at Appalachian Special Collections

    This article appeared in the Volume 2, Issue 3 Winter 2021 issue of the Appalachian Curator. Click here to view a PDF of the full issue. In March 2021, as the pandemic entered its second year, Curator editors asked Appalachian archivists if they were collecting information about how their institutions were responding to COVID-19. Had repositories collected information? If so, why types of information? Several institutions responded, and their reports are below: Appalachian State University As Coordinator of Special Collections and the University Archivist, I made the decision not to pursue creating an online location for individuals to submit their COVID stories. The decision wasn’t made lightly but was made for…

  • Articles

    Working during COVID: Appalachian archives respond

    This article appeared in the Volume 2, Issue 2 Fall 2020 issue of the Appalachian Curator. Click here to view a PDF of the full issue. Appalachian Curator editors asked regional archivists how they responded to working during the COVID pandemic. We received ten responses from a range of collections that reflect the different types of archives we have in Southern Appalachia – large research universities, smaller public and private liberal arts colleges, and a public library.  Several general themes are consistent in these responses – repositories closed, staff developed new workflows and tackled new projects, and many places have reopened with limited hours, limited access, and different workflows. West…

  • Articles

    What’s New in Appalachian Special Collections

    This article appeared in the Volume 2, Issue 2 Fall 2020 issue of the Appalachian Curator. Click here to view a PDF of the full issue. Due to the COVID pandemic and the fact that many repositories have been closed, we have fewer items in our New Acquisitions section this issue. New collections in regional repositories: Berea College University of Kentucky Berea College The Phil Primack Photographs and Papers (1924-2000) is comprised of photographs, correspondence, and writings of journalist Phil Primack. The collection contains numerous photographs, most of them taken while Primack worked as a reporter for The Mountain Eagle in Whitesburg, KY. In addition to documenting coal mining, the life and work of coal miners, the…

  • New Aqusitions

    What’s New in Appalachian Special Collections?

    This article appeared in the Volume 1, Issue 3 Winter 2020 issue of the Appalachian Curator. Click here to view a PDF of the full issue. New collections in regional repositories: Appalachian State University Berea College East Tennessee State University  University of North Carolina Asheville  Virginia Tech Western Carolina University nbsp; W. L. Eury Collection, Appalachian State University Private William Rufus Barlow Civil War letters – In the summer of 1862, William Rufus Barlow (1827-1865) of King’s Creek, Iredell County, North Carolina was conscripted into the Confederate Army, joining other draftees in Company B of the 18th North Carolina Infantry. The letters sent home by Barlow to his wife, Elizabeth German…

  • New Aqusitions

    What’s new in Appalachian Special Collections?

    This article appeared in the Volume 1, Issue 2 Fall 2019 issue of the Appalachian Curator. Click here to view a PDF of the full issue. New collections in regional repositories: Appalachian State University Berea College East Tennessee State University  University of Kentucky University of North Carolina Asheville  Virginia Tech Warren Wilson College West Virginia University   W. L. Eury Collection, Appalachian State University Paul Ashley Records:  A major recent acquisition was the record collection of Paul Ashley of Creston, North Carolina. Ashley was an audiophile who collected all styles and genres of music, but had a particular affinity for Gospel music. At over 22,000 records, this collection contains a…

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