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. Special Collections: Let’s Discuss Re-Opening! In these days of changing health and safety protocols, questions abound. Some institutions are being directive; others are indecisive or non-communicative. Are you in a quandary about re-opening your archives and special collections this fall? Do you have re-opening ideas and news that you would like to share with regional colleagues? If either answer is yes, please plan to participate in a special Online Town Hall meeting of the ASA Special Collections group. (If both answers are yes, be…
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Cultivating Community Access in a Time of Distance: Transforming Buncombe County’s Public Archives Space
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. By Katherine Calhoun Cutshall This article appeared in the Volume 2, Issue 3 Winter 2021 issue of the Appalachian Curator. When I think back on the last year, I often feel like I was better prepared than others for the changes brought by 2020. When I submitted this article for the January 2020 Curator my colleagues and I were already bracing for transformation at our institution. Buncombe County hired a new, progressive library director in fall 2018, and in December 2019 a most valuable…
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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…
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Foxfire Museum’s crowd-sourced COVID oral history project
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. By Kami Ahrens, Curator and Educational Outreach Coordinator, Foxfire In March 2020, the Foxfire Museum responded to the nation-wide shutdowns by launching a crowd-sourced oral history program, as so many museums and archives did. For over 50 years, Foxfire has been collecting oral histories, including experiences during the Influenza Pandemic of 1918. This project aligns with our organization’s mission to preserve, protect, and promote Southern Appalachian history. Initial submissions to the project were largely from a class assignment out of the University of North…
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Featured Collection: Marshall University Archives and Special Collections, Huntington WV
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. By Elizabeth James Founded in 1972, Marshall University Archives and Special Collections has collected materials documenting the rich history of Appalachia, especially the West Virginia and the Huntington areas, for nearly fifty years. While the archives considers all of its more than 850 collections important, standout collections include the WSAZ media archives documenting news in the greater Huntington area between 1955 and 1995, oral histories documenting Appalachian traditions and experiences, the Nelson S. Bond Collection of science fiction writings, and the records of numerous…
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ASA Special Collections Committee 2020 Year in Review and 2021 Conference Update
This article appeared in the Volume 2, Issue 3 Winter 2021 issue of the Appalachian Curator. By Stewart Plein, Chair, ASA Special Collections Committee Looking back on 2020 I can certainly say that this was an eventful year filled with unexpected challenges. The year began with an ending. Racheal Vagts,’ the first chair of the Special Collections committee, departed for a new position in Colorado. Following her departure, I was asked to fill the position. Next up was the emergence of the COVID 19 virus. Due to the virus and the subsequent cancellation of the 2020 conference, the first meeting of the Special Collections Committee, which was to be held…
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Raising Archival Awareness in a Regional Studies Organization: The Appalachian Studies Case
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. By Gene Hyde and Liz Harper In September 2020 Gene Hyde and Liz Harper presented a virtual Ramsey Library Brown Bag Talk at UNC Asheville. Their presentation, “Raising Archival Awareness in a Regional Studies Organization: The Appalachian Studies Case,” was originally accepted for the 2020 Society of North Carolina Archivists’ Conference in March 2020 at Elon University, which was canceled due to COVID. Their presentation describes how archivists led efforts to create a Special Collections Committee in the Appalachian Studies Association and also discusses…
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Reparative Description at University of Tennessee’s 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. By Amanda Touchstone and Laura Romans, Betsey B. Creekmore Special Collections and University Archives, University of Tennessee For a long time, the Manuscripts unit of the Betsey B. Creekmore Special Collections and University Archives has wanted to conduct an audit of every published finding aid description in SCOUT that represents a Manuscripts collection. (SCOUT is an online catalog of our special collections.) It was a priority — but often put off in favor of a collection that needed to be processed on a deadline or to…
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What’s New in Appalachian Special Collections?
This article appeared in the Volume 2, Issue 3 Winter 2021 issue of the Appalachian Curator. East Tennessee State University Scott Honeycutt Ramble Maps, 2020, AppMs 879. Three (3) hand-drawn pictorial maps of the Cherokee, Pisgah, and Nantahala National Forests created by ETSU professor Scott Honeycutt with funding from the Margaret Byrd Huffman Grant. https://archives.etsu.edu/repositories/2/resources/825 Johnson City Centennial Time Capsule, 1969, AppMs 877. The contents of the time capsule that was buried in 1969 and open during the Johnson City, Tennessee Sesquicentennial Year (2019). Documents include local city, industry, and school information. Masengill’s Store Records, 1916-1959, AppMs 878. Thirty-four (34) ledgers from Masengill’s women’s wear shop in downtown Johnson City,…
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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…
