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 Pauletta Hansel, Project Director; Urban Appalachian Community Coalition Core Member The Urban Appalachian Story Gathering Project is an activity of the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition, a small nonprofit which formed in 2014 when the decades old Urban Appalachian Council was disbanded. UACC traces its origin to the 1964 founding of Cincinnati’s Main Street Bible Center, which served Appalachian migrants chiefly in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood. The Urban Appalachian Council was established in 1974 and provided services for forty years to urban Appalachians and their descendants…
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Collections at the University of Tennessee: Great Smoky Mountains, Wilma Dykeman, Marilou Awiakta and others
By Jennifer Benedetto Beals This article appeared in the Volume 3, Issue 2 Fall 2021 issue of the Appalachian Curator. Click here to view a PDF of the full issue. The Betsey B. Creekmore Special Collections and University Archives includes rare books collections, manuscript collections, the university archives, and the Modern Political Archive (housed in the Howard H. Baker Center for Public Policy). In 2017, the department was renamed in honor of a long time and generous supporter of special collections. Acquisition efforts are focused on topics of global interest with regional significance. Priorities continue to evolve in order to support changing academic needs and the goals of the University…
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ASA Special Collections Committee Conference Update
by Jeremy A. Smith This article appeared in the Volume 3, Issue 2 Fall 2021 issue of the Appalachian Curator. Click here to view a PDF of the full issue. The ASA Special Collections Committee sponsored two events at this year’s conference, both on Saturday March 19. The Committee held a business meeting that morning to continue ongoing discussions around collaborative projects and best practices for Appalachian archives and libraries. Members in attendance were: Jeff Dey (Urban Appalachian Community Coalition), Stewart Plein (West Virginia & Regional History Center), Scott Sikes (Emory and Henry College), Jeremy Smith (Archives of Appalachia at ETSU), and Jed DeBruin (PhD candidate in the Department of…
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Featured Collection: Appalshop Archive
This article appeared in the Volume 3, Issue 2 Fall 2021 issue of the Appalachian Curator. Click here to view a PDF of the full issue. Appalshop Archive, Whitesburg, KY By Leo Shannon The Appalshop Archive preserves art and media from central Appalachia with a focus on the work created by Appalshop, Inc., a non-profit documentary organization located in the eastern Kentucky community of Whitesburg. The organization was launched in 1969 by the Community Film Workshop Council, a War on Poverty jobs training program to help young people in economically distressed areas find work in the growing national media industry. Instead of leaving eastern Kentucky for industry jobs, the Whitesburg…
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Fred Hay retires from Appalachian State University
This article appeared in the Volume 3, Issue 2 Fall 2021 issue of the Appalachian Curator. Click here to view a PDF of the full issue. By Gene Hyde Fred J. Hay, Librarian of the W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection at Appalachian State University, retired earlier this spring after 28 years at ASU. Raised in the Georgia mountains, Hay obtained his PhD in Anthropology from the University of Florida and Master’s in Library Science from Florida State. After working five years in the anthropology library at Harvard University, Hay returned to Appalachia in 1994 when he was hired by Appalachian State as Librarian of the W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection,…
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What’s New in Appalachian Special Collections?
This article appeared in the Volume 3, Issue 2 Fall 2021 issue of the Appalachian Curator. Click here to view a PDF of the full issue. New collections in regional repositories: University of North Carolina Asheville Western Carolina University Western Regional Archives, Asheville West Virginia University University of North Carolina Asheville Elaine Roland Gales Collection – This collection primarily contains newspaper clippings about events or pivotal episodes in the history of The Block, and articles about or obituaries for prominent individuals, social organizers, business leaders, or political figures from The Block and East End neighborhood. Also included are photographs (original or photocopied) of Elaine Gales, her friends and acquaintances,…
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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…
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Archives in Appalachia 2020-21 Survey: Kentucky
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 Derek Whisnant and Gene Hyde Introduction: The 2020-21 survey was administered through a combination of online research and contacting repositories via email and phone. The survey was done in two sections. The first section used the original 1985 survey to ask the following: Is the repository still open ? If so, have their been any administrative changes (name change, merged with another repository, etc.) ? Is there a website or email contact? Once repositories were identified, Derek sent them this email query: We are…
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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…
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Interview with Trevor McKenzie, Director of the Center for Appalachian Studies at Appalachian State University
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. Gene Hyde: Thanks for talking with me Trevor. I’d like to discuss your current position and your older position and how being the archivist influences your current job. But, first, could you tell me about your current position? Trevor McKenzie: I’m the Director for the Center for Appalachian Studies, which is focused on providing programming and research support for people interested in Appalachian Studies here at ASU. It’s been restructured from a previous position that also oversaw the academics, or the degree granting portion of…
