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. By Ethan Mannon and Karen Paar, Mars Hill University During the fall 2019 semester at Mars Hill University, work began on a project made possible by a “Humanities Research for the Public Good” grant from the Council of Independent Colleges. The project—“Influence and Legacy: The Farmers Federation in Madison County, North Carolina”—started with research in the James G.K. McClure, Jr. Collection housed in the Southern Appalachian Archives at Mars Hill University. The McClure Collection includes many of the records, publications, and photographs that the…
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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…
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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…
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Scholarly Responses to the Pandemic: Lloyd Tomlinson, West Virginia University
This article appeared in the Volume 2, Issue 1 Spring/Summer 2020 issue of the Appalachian Curator. Click here to view a PDF of the full issue. Researching in a Pandemic Lloyd Tomlinson I defended the prospectus for my dissertation in February, and immediately started filling out funding applications and planning for a summer of research. A couple of weeks after that is when I first remember hearing about the coronavirus. By March, West Virginia University had made the decision to shift all classes online and to not have students return for the second half of the semester. Accompanying that decision was a moratorium on all travel related to university travel. By…
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Scholarly Responses to the Pandemic: Savannah Paige Murray, Virginia Tech
This article appeared in the Volume 2, Issue 1 Spring/Summer 2020 issue of the Appalachian Curator. Click here to view a PDF of the full issue. My Archive Fever by Savannah Paige Murray I am a frequent sufferer of what French philosopher Jacques Derrida has diagnosed as “Archive Fever.” For Derrida, le mal d’archive, or the sickness that afflicts some archival researchers, represents the “feverish desire” of longing for the archive (Steedman 1159). For sufferers of Archive Fever, it is simply not enough to visit an archive. The Fever brings about an intense need to possess the archive itself. Archive Fever elicits “a compulsive, repetitive, and nostalgic desire for the archive”…
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The Library of Appalachian Preaching: A Digital-Humanities Project at Marshall University
This article appeared in the Volume 2, Issue 1 Spring/Summer 2020 issue of the Appalachian Curator. Click here to view a PDF of the full issue. The Library of Appalachian Preaching: A Digital-Humanities Project at Marshall University Robert H. Ellison and Larry Sheret The Special Collections Department at Marshall University has a small but significant collection of sermons preached in Appalachia, or delivered elsewhere in the United States by preachers with ties to the Appalachian region. On the shelves are about 30 books published between 1865 and 1980. Some, like William Cutter Condit’s What Is My Life?, are pamphlets containing just one sermon. Others, like John R. Gilpin’s Sparks from a…
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Interview with Catherine MacPhee, Archivist at the Skye and Lochalsh Archive Centre, Isle of Skye, Scotland
By Gene Hyde This article appeared in the Volume 2, Issue 1 Spring/Summer 2020 issue of the Appalachian Curator. Click here to view a PDF of the full issue. Catherine MacPhee is the Trainee Archivist at the Skye and Lochalsh Archive Centre in Portree on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. I met Catherine while visiting the archives in Skye in June 2019 and interviewed her at her home on Skye via Zoom on May 8, 2020, while she was on furlough from work due to the pandemic. Gene Hyde: Hi Catherine. I wanted to ask you some general questions about your work in the archive, picking up on what we discussed…
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What’s New in Appalachian Special Collections?
This article appeared in the Volume 2, Issue 1 Spring/Summer 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 are closed, we have fewer items in our New Acquisitions section this issue. New collections in regional repositories: Appalachian State University East Tennessee State University University of North Carolina Asheville Warren Wilson College W. L. Eury Collection, Appalachian State University Curtis Williams papers The papers of Curtis “Curt” Williams (1890 August 18 – 1959 December 5), a farmer, fur and herb trader, unschooled veterinarian, and distiller of whiskey from Lawrence County, Kentucky. The son of…
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Archives in Appalachia 2020 Survey: Georgia
By Derek Whisnant and Gene Hyde This article appeared in the Volume 2, Issue 1 Spring/Summer 2020 issue of the Appalachian Curator. Click here to view a PDF of the full issue. Introduction: NOTE: September 28, 2020 – This updated version includes final formatting. The 2020 survey was administered through a combination of online research and contacting repositories via email. 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…
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An Introduction to the Archives in Appalachia 2020 Survey
By Gene Hyde This article appeared in the Volume 2, Issue 1 Spring/Summer 2020 issue of the Appalachian Curator. Click here to view a PDF of the full issue. Introduction This issue of the Appalachian Curator includes the first round of results in our efforts to revisit and update the Appalachian Consortium’s 1985 survey, Archives in Appalachia: A Directory, which remains the only attempt to comprehensively document archival repositories in the region (thanks to our colleagues at Appalachian State University for digitizing the original 1985 survey). During the discussions leading up to the formation of the Special Collections Committee in ASA, the need to update the 1985 survey was identified as…
