WVU Libraries

Jon E. Cawthorne, associate dean for public services and assessment at Florida State University Libraries, has been named dean of libraries at West Virginia University.

“Dr. Cawthorne brings a winning combination of experience and visionary thinking to WVU,” said Michele Wheatly, WVU provost and vice president for academic affairs. “As we work to achieve some ambitious goals for our libraries, I am excited to know that we will do so under his leadership.”

Cawthorne said, “I am thrilled to join a great institution at this time in their history. With so much support from the students, faculty and administration, I look forward to working with everyone to advance WVU Libraries in the years to come.”

Dr. Jon E. Cawthorne

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On January 27, 1945, the largest Nazi death camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, was liberated by Soviet troops.  In 2005, that date was declared to be International Holocaust Remembrance Day by the United Nations General Assembly, to memorialize the victims of Nazi-led genocide during World War II.  Other concentration camps were liberated before and after Auschwitz, as Allied troops advanced into Nazi-held territory.  The first major camp to be liberated, Majdanek or KL Lublin, was discovered by the advancing Soviets on July 23, 1944; Theresienstadt was not officially liberated until May 8, 1945.  The West Virginia and Regional History Center preserves pieces of Holocaust and post-war history.  (Please note, this post includes an image of the dead.) Read the rest of this entry »

The West Virginia and Regional History Center has acquired a major archive of photographs of the operatic singer Frances Yeend, who substantially contributed to the cultural life of America in the mid twentieth century.  In this collection of 300 photographs, we not only see Yeend costumed in the many operatic roles she rendered, but also her illustrious collaborators, including conductor Eugene Ormandy, tenor Richard Tucker, and composer Gian Carlo Menotti, among others. Read the rest of this entry »

Today we celebrate the life and work of Louise McNeill Pease, a noted twentieth century Appalachian poet and author, poet laureate of West Virginia from 1979 to 1993, and professor of history and English.  She was born on January 9, 1911 in Buckeye, Pocahontas County, West Virginia.  Her writings and personal papers are held in the West Virginia and Regional History Center in A&M collections 2215 and 3201. Read the rest of this entry »

A uniquely valuable resource for historical research is the picture postcard.  First introduced in the later 19th century as a novel method for convenient communication, the postcard soon became a collectible item in itself, apart from its function for conveying messages.  Millions of them were published at the height of the collecting “craze,” peaking in the period 1900-1920.  For present-day researchers, the sheer quantity of images produced during this period opens a wide window onto the material culture of the era, including the architecture, transportation, businesses, etc. of cities, towns, and even rural areas.

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For our pre-Christmas post, we bring you images of Christmas in West Virginia from the 1890s through the 1970s.  These photographs, available through the West Virginia History OnView database, capture scenes of family and community life, the state’s diversity, caring for the sick, providing for those in need, and celebrating the holiday with pageantry and food.

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WVU Today

In a national celebration of beloved librarians, West Virginia University’s rare books curator is among the top 10.

Harold Forbes was named Tuesday one of 10 winners of I Love My Librarian Award by the Carnegie Corp. of New York and The New York Times, through the American Library Association. The award has been presented to just 60 librarians nationwide since 2008.

Forbes’ colleagues say he clearly deserves the award, which recognizes select librarians for service to their communities, schools and campuses.

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The advent of the holiday season evokes in the mind sights and sounds, even smells, related to food, music, and winter landscapes.  Certainly one such holiday image would be sleigh riding, and the mountain landscape of West Virginia provides an ideal backdrop for such imagery, such as that found in Randolph County around the small town of Helvetia.  Settled by the Swiss in the 19th century, this isolated community sustained its cultural identity well into the 1900s.

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The winter season has long been associated with holidays, friends, family, and food.  For this week’s blog post, we bring you four recipes from the 1800s that show us how Appalachian people from that time would have made popular holiday dishes of today:  pound cake, fruit cake, corn meal rusk (a kind of corn bread eaten for breakfast), and mince pie.

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Just over a century ago, in the spring of 1912, a fight broke out between labor and corporate interests in the coal fields around Paint and Cabin Creeks in Kanawha County.  When redress for apparent wage inequality was denied by the mine owners, the workers went on strike, a decision that eventually led to violence, property destruction, and many deaths. Read the rest of this entry »

November is, among other things, National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short.  West Virginians writing novels this month (or any other) can take inspiration from fellow Mountaineers who have written for pleasure and profit, some of international fame.  Aspiring novelists can explore the writing processes of these authors by examining collections of their papers, some of which have been collected and preserved by the West Virginia and Regional History Center.

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People from the University and Morgantown communities gathered together recently at the Downtown Campus Library to participate in a read-in and discussion focused on the Libraries’ new collection of Islamic culture books.

The event, hosted by the Libraries, the WVU Religious Studies Program, and the Islamic Center of Morgantown, promoted the Muslim Journeys Bookshelf, a collection of books, films, and an online database funded through an award by the National Endowment of the Humanities and the American Library Association.

Students from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds read selections from poetry, prose, and personal narratives. Participants took time to discuss each reading and offered their thoughts the on works.

“Sharing literature helps us recognize commonalities that transcend geographic origins or religious beliefs,” said Beth Toren, media and religious studies librarian for the WVU Libraries. “Recognizing our common humanity broadens and balances our perspectives.”

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WVU Libraries will host a free workshop on grantseeking basics for nonprofit organizations on November 19, 2013, from 9-11 a.m., in Room 136, Downtown Campus Library.

“Introduction to Grantseeking” will be led by Penny Pugh and Alyssa Wright and will provide an overview of the funding research process for nonprofits seeking grants from foundations, corporations, and grantmaking public charities.

Participants will learn how best to identify funding sources for their nonprofit organizations, using the electronic and print resources available for free at WVU’s Downtown Campus Library.   The workshop will include a demonstration and hands-on practice with the Foundation Directory Online, the Foundation Center’s premiere searchable database that provides information on more than 110,000 grantmakers and more than 3 million grant records.

Please register by email: ppugh@wvu.edu or by phone: 304-293-0337.

Veterans Day is celebrated annually on November 11 as a remembrance of those who have served in the United States armed services.  Founded as “Armistice Day” by President Wilson in 1919, it was intended to honor the heroism of the veterans of World War I on the day that hostilities ceased.  The holiday was later designated through law to officially recognize all US military veterans under the current name of “Veterans Day.”

The West Virginia and Regional History Center also honors veterans through the acquisition and preservation of records that document their service.  We have records of West Virginians who have served in many conflicts, including the Civil War, World Wars I and II, and Vietnam.

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On June 9, 1840, Peter Garnall of Wheeling, [West] Virginia, wrote a letter to his nephew Mordecai Garnall in Pensacola, Florida.  He wrote about the importance of staying in touch with one’s family, his curio cabinet, and predictions for the upcoming presidential election, which pitted General William Henry Harrison (“Tippecanoe”) and his running mate John Tyler against then-President Martin Van Buren.

Excerpt from Garnall’s letter (A&M 2543):

The approaching Presidential election has produced an excitement far beyond anything of the kind I have ever witnessed.  The people assemble in thousands.  We have on the vicinity of this place four very large meetings. That at West Alexander is said to have numbered from eight to ten thousand.  They had one yesterday of some three thousand at a small village eight miles above Wheeling & there is to be another … on the 3rd September, which will in all probability number many thousands, but so far they [all] gone off in harmony, the prevailing opinion amaze many of the [?] who have been collecting information that Gen. Harrison will get two hundred & forty eight electoral votes out of the two hundred & ninety five.  The Whigs are very sanguine of success.  Senator Tallmadge in a letter I read yesterday says that Gen. Harrison’s majority will exceed that of General Jackson in his palmiest days, he says that N. York will give the former a majority over Mr. VanBuren of fifteen thousand at least.  In & about Wheeling an overwhelming majority of the men women and children are all alive to the success of Harrison.

Mr. Garnell’s sources were very nearly correct:  Harrison won 234 out of 294 electoral votes, and he won the popular vote in New York, Van Buren’s home state, by over 13,000 votes.  The popular vote in Virginia was close, with a little over 1000 votes swinging all of the state’s electoral votes in favor of Van Buren.

Harrison’s election was unique for many reasons.  First, he broke with tradition and became the first president to actively campaign.  However, his first campaign, for the presidency in 1836, failed.  Harrison’s campaign tours were not the type of campaigning Americans usually see today— Harrison was trying to show people that he was healthy enough for the presidency.  Unfortunately, he became the first president to die in office, holding his presidency for only one month.

HarpWeek has more information on the evolution of presidential campaigning here.

Blog post by Jane Metters.

Join Jo Brown, Research Librarian and Appalachian Bibliographer, for a screening of The Last Mountain, a moving and controversial documentary about the battle to save Coal River Mountain. The film will be shown at 1:30 PM on Wednesday, November 6th, in the Mountainlair Gluck Theatre, as part of Mountaineer Week. The Last Mountain takes an unflinching look at the practice of mountaintop removal mining and the environmental, health, social, and economic effects of the using coal to meet America’s energy needs. A discussion will follow the screening.

The West Virginia and Regional History Center recently acquired glass lantern advertising slides that were once projected in the local theater of the small Calhoun County town of Grantsville.  Dating from the early 20th century, they announced upcoming movies to be screened at the Kanawha Theater to captive local audiences seeking entertainment and distraction.  These slides, nearly a century old, document the transition from silent cinema to the modern sound film.

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The West Virginia University Libraries, the WVU Religious Studies Program, and the Islamic Center of Morgantown will host a read-in and discussion on Nov. 6, from noon to 1:30 p.m. in the Downtown Campus Library, room 104.

The read-in, which is open to the public, promotes the Muslim Journeys Bookshelf, a collection of books, films, and an online database funded through an award by the National Endowment of the Humanities and the American Library Association.

WVU is among 840 institutions across the nation to receive the Muslim Journeys Bookshelf, an introduction to Islamic cultures in the United States and around the globe. Muslim Journeys is the first in the National Endowment of the Humanities Bridging Cultures series.

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Whether you are researching West Virginia ghost stories or just looking for Halloween costume inspiration, the West Virginia and Regional History Center has something for everyone.

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Hearing someone describe their own experience of events in the past, as an eyewitness, provides an almost tangible connection to history, a connection that can be found missing when compared to reading second hand accounts of past events by historians and others.  The immediacy of oral history interviews can make them a compelling resource for research, whether the subject is a veteran of World War II, a striking miner, or a mountaineer discussing folklore.

The West Virginia and Regional History Center possesses a large and diverse collection of oral history recordings.  A catalog of this material is now available online for researchers.  Most of the interviews in this collection were recorded from the 1940s to the 1980s.  Some of the earliest interviews contain narratives that speak first-hand about life in the 1800s.

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