WVU Libraries

Blog post by Michael Ridderbusch, Associate Curator, WVRHC.

Two centuries ago in western Virginia, if you were a settler, your way of life would be very different when compared to the standards of today.  That is definitely the impression one receives when browsing lists of personal property in the Harrison County Court records, as we have recently in the course of our work at the History Center.  Such an impression is, of course, not unexpected for an encounter with records two hundred years old.  Read the rest of this entry »

“A Legacy of Leadership” Exhibition Highlights Service of Senator John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV

By Danielle Emerling, Assistant Curator

Left: Senator Rockefeller speaking at the Pepper Commission press event, 1990; Center: Rockefeller being sworn into the Senate by Vice President George H.W. Bush, 1985; Right: Rockefeller speaking at the Democratic National Convention, 2008.

The West Virginia & Regional History Center announces the opening of the exhibition, “Jay Rockefeller: A Legacy of Leadership,” in the Rockefeller Gallery located in the Downtown Campus Library.

Jay Rockefeller arrived in West Virginia in 1964 as a young VISTA volunteer in the small mining community of Emmons. With the people of Emmons, Rockefeller worked to affect change, from lobbying the school board for a bus stop to building a community center.

The experience was transformative. The young man from one of the wealthiest families in the country found an unlikely home in the hills and hollows of the state and a purpose that drove his fifty-year career in public service.

Characterized as compassionate, conscientious, and tenacious in pursuit of making a difference on issues he cared most about, he spent 30 years in the United States Senate working on some of the most challenging matters of the day.

The exhibition, “A Legacy of Leadership” documents Senator Rockefeller’s early years in West Virginia, his election to the United States Senate, and some of his many accomplishments during his long and distinguished career as a U.S. senator. It draws on staff Legacy Memos, written for Senator Rockefeller’s retirement, to highlight his work in the areas of health care reform; West Virginia’s jobs, economy, and industry; children, families, and education; and veterans’ affairs.

Items on display come from the Senator John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV papers, a treasure among the congressional collections held by the West Virginia & Regional History Center. To learn more about Senator Rockefeller, the archival collection, and the Legacy Memos, please visit rockefeller.lib.wvu.edu.

The exhibit was curated by Danielle Emerling, Assistant Curator, Congressional and Political Papers Archivist. Installation support was provided by Francisco Tovar, Laura Bell, and Casey DeHaven.

By Danielle Emerling, Assistant Curator

The West Virginia & Regional History Center is pleased to announce the opening of the Rockefeller Legacy Memos, part of the Senator John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV congressional collection.

The Legacy Memos provide a comprehensive overview of Senator Jay Rockefeller’s service and accomplishments in several important issue areas in which he worked during his 30-year career in the U.S. Senate, 1985-2015, as well as during his time as Governor of West Virginia, 1977-1985. They highlight major initiatives and legislation, such as the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP); treatment of service related illnesses, such as Gulf War Illness; the Coal Act of 1992; the Public Safety Spectrum Act; and many others.  Read the rest of this entry »

By Danielle Emerling, Assistant Curator, WVRHC

Congress Week takes place each year during the first week of April to commemorate the month in which Congress achieved its first quorums in 1789. It is a perfect time to highlight the extensive collection of congressional papers held by the West Virginia & Regional History Center.  Read the rest of this entry »

Blog post by Stewart Plein, Rare Book Librarian.

Many of us have fond Easter memories from our childhoods.  Here’s a look back at the ways we celebrated Easter in West Virginia in the early years of the twentieth century.  Read the rest of this entry »

Blog post by Jane Metters LaBarbara, Assistant Curator, WVRHC.

This year, World Storytelling Day occurred on March 20^th.  The day is a global celebration of the art of oral storytelling.  This year’s theme was “Strong Women”.  The WVRHC’s oral history collection features some amazing women telling their stories.  Read the rest of this entry »

Blog post by Lori Hostuttler, Digital Projects and Outreach Archivist, WVRHC.

March is Women’s History Month and WVU Libraries is celebrating the 125^th anniversary of the first woman to graduate from West Virginia University with a series of events running March 15-17, 2016.  In this post, we take a look at just a few of the women who went first and opened up doors for future women students and faculty at WVU.  Read the rest of this entry »

Blog post by Michael Ridderbusch, Associate Curator, WVRHC.

Recently at the History Center, when reviewing inventories of household property in the estate records of the Harrison County Court, I encountered the names of items that were unfamiliar to me, such as “swingle trees” in the 1818 appraisal for the estate of Mary Cunningham:

Estate record for Mary Cunningham, 1818.
Can you find “Swingle Trees and Cleavisses” in the above list?  Read the rest of this entry »

Blog post by Stewart Plein, Rare Book Librarian.

Recent weather conditions have showered rain and snow on West Virginia with just a few sunny days sprinkled in between.  These bright days let us know that Spring is around the corner, but just how far away is that corner?  While it seems Spring may never get here, we can enjoy the flowers of Spring through the beauty of illustrated botanical and medical texts.  Let’s take a look at some of the beautiful flowers from William Woodville’s Medical Botany that can be found right here in West Virginia.  Read the rest of this entry »

Blog post by Jane Metters LaBarbara, Assistant Curator, WVRHC.

During the 19th century, factory production and paper lace made paper Valentines more affordable and plentiful, and they continue to be popular even as times change and many people send Valentines digitally.  Some of you will remember an old exhibit of historical valentines that we used to have up on the WVU Libraries website—though that exhibit was taken down, the original Valentine cards remain in A&M 2116, Ephemera Collection.  Come to the WVRHC and take a look; they might inspire you to make a few greeting cards of your own!  Though Valentine’s Day is almost a year away, it’s never a bad time to send a card to someone you care about.  I have included ten of my favorite Valentines below; they date from the early to mid-1900s.  Read the rest of this entry »

Blog post by Lori Hostuttler, Digital Projects and Outreach Archivist, WVRHC.

Van A. Bittner (1885-1949) was a noted United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) representative and labor organizer.  He worked as a miner in the western Pennsylvania coal fields and became president of his local union by age 16. During his long career in the labor movement, Bittner led union drives in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama before focusing his efforts in West Virginia. His early organizing efforts in the state were largely unsuccessful, but he made great gains in the southern coal fields during the 1930s.  Bittner is also known an instrumental figure in the organization of steel workers in the United States.

Van A. Bittner speaking at a miner’s rally in West Virginia, ca. 1920-1929.

Read the rest of this entry »

Blog post by Michael Ridderbusch, Associate Curator, WVRHC.

“The life of Mother Jones is a faded memory, a half-forgotten story.”  So begins the 2003 biography of Mother Jones by Loyola University history professor Elliott J. Gorn.

Perhaps no longer.  The recent 26 January 2016 premiere on Public Television of “The Mine Wars” has now brought to national attention the story of coal labor strife in West Virginia, and among the characters highlighted in the documentary is the Irish lady Mary Harris Jones, otherwise known as “Mother Jones” (1837-1930).

“The most dangerous woman in America”:  these were the words federal prosecutor Reese Blizzard used to describe Jones during her trial in 1902 for involvement with strike activity in West Virginia.  Though arrested in Clarksburg and brought to Parkersburg for imprisonment, the jailer and his wife decided to let her stay in their apartment.  She was ultimately acquitted by the judge in order to avoid making her a martyr.   Read the rest of this entry »

Blog post by Stewart Plein, Rare Book Librarian.

“Not many things I know nor do,
But one;
This my poor heart
so vacant and so frail
can love you
can love you
and dispossess
itself of content
and of strength.”

Fragment of an unpublished poem written on a gardening catalog, pictured above

Today, February 6, we celebrate the 134^th birthday of Anne Spencer, poet of the Harlem Renaissance, civil rights activist, teacher, librarian, accomplished gardener, and West Virginian.  Read the rest of this entry »

Blog post by Jane Metters LaBarbara, Assistant Curator, WVRHC.

A lot of archives have what we call “hidden collections”—great materials that aren’t findable online or just aren’t described well.  At the WVRHC, one of our hidden collections is our panoramic photos collection.  The photos are large; the longest is 64 inches long—roughly the height of the average American woman!  I am working on describing and rehousing these photos so that we can put their descriptions online in our Guide to Archives & Manuscripts (check it out at A&M 4167).  In this post, I highlight one of the photographers and share some of his work.

We don’t have any photos of Ribble, but we do believe one of these shadows is him, standing next to his camera with his assistant.  Read the rest of this entry »

Blog post by Ashleigh Coren, Resident Librarian, WVU Libraries.

The Rare Book Collection in the West Virginia & Regional History Center recently acquired Ohioan Paul Laurence Dunbar’s (1872-1906) When Malindy Sings, an illustrated book of poems and photographs published in 1903 by Dodd, Mead and Company. While the Rare Book Collection is home to a variety of wonderfully illustrated rare books, the six Dunbar books in our collection: Howdy, Honey, Howdy; Poems of Cabin and Field; Candle-Lightin’ Time, Folks from Dixie, Li’L’ Gal, and now When Malindy Sings, are in a category of their own. Dunbar, who Darwin Turner hails as “a symbol of the creative and intellectual potential of the Negro,” died at the early age of 33. The six decorated books in the Rare Book Room showcase the wonderful marriage between text and image that was prevalent in the 19th and early 20th century. The Dunbar collection is a great example of what booksellers and bibliophiles refer to as decorated Publishers’ Bindings.  Read the rest of this entry »

Blog post by Stewart Plein, Rare Book Librarian.

At first glance, Puck may not be what you might consider one of the jewels among the collections in the Rare Book Room, however, it is an important publication that deserves its place in those rarified surroundings.  In its day, Puck was known as a magazine that satirized American politics and politicians, reporting events, sports and fashion trends throughout its run during the latter nineteenth and early twentieth century.  Read the rest of this entry »

Blog post by Jane Metters LaBarbara, Assistant Curator, WVRHC.

I wanted to write another blog post combining two things I love, food and history, and my fellow blogger Lori recommended a recently published book that has exactly what I’ve been looking for.  Serving Up History: Savor the Flavors of Early West Virginia Cookery 1776-1860 was written by Martha and Richard Hartley, who researched part of the book here at the WVRHC.  (We are ordering the book for our collection, so check the shelves soon!)  The cookbook is a companion to their earlier book, The Frontier Table: A Treatise & Source Book on Western Virginia Foodways History 1776-1860, and contains over 100 historical recipes with modern translations.  It also has “Cook’s Notes” that contain useful tips or recipe variations, and “Historic Insights” to help modern readers understand the original recipes.  Out of all the fantastic recipes it contains, I chose to make Hasty Pudding, Lemon Pudding, and A.P.s.  Read the rest of this entry »

Blog post by Lori Hostuttler, Digital Projects and Outreach Archivist, WVRHC.

I was attending the Harrison County Historical Society Christmas Party last weekend and some friends and I were trying to identify a postcard that was labeled as Main Street, Clarksburg.  It was unrecognizable as Main Street as we knew it, so we started talking about the clues that the postcard presented us about the time period it was created so we could use Clarksburg City Directories to find the location of the home in the photo.  Read the rest of this entry »

Blog post by Michael Ridderbusch, Associate Curator, WVRHC.

During this busy time of year people often choose the convenience of eating out to save time, and the diner has always been there as an option for those with challenging schedules.  Having emerged in the late 1800s, diners are now attracting interest as a historical phenomenon as evidenced by the considerable attention given the topic by publishers in recent decades.  There are now many books that survey the subject photographically by region with some related historical narrative.  A variety of genres are represented in this publishing effort, including children’s books, cook books, mysteries, travel diaries, and even a dictionary (entitled The Diner’s Dictionary:  Word Origins of Food and Drink by John Ayto).  Read the rest of this entry »

Blog post by Stewart Plein, Rare Book Librarian.

From its early origins in Germany, where a cut and decorated tree was called “Tannenbaum,” to its arrival in this country in the mid-19^th century, Christmas trees have become an essential component of our holiday celebrations.  Read the rest of this entry »