Traditional weaver Leota Davy. Photo by Gerald Milnes, courtesy Augusta Heritage Center. Part of the documentation of the "Mountain Weavers Guild and Fiber Art Traditions in the Potomac Highlands," one of West Virginia's Local Legacies projects.

West Virginia

The American Folklife Center was created in 1976 by the U.S. Congress through Public Law 94-201 and charged to "preserve and present American folklife." The Center incorporates the Archive of Folk Culture, which was established at the Library of Congress in 1928, and is now one of the largest collections of ethnographic material from the United States and around the world.

Collections

The rich and varied folk traditions of West Virginia are well represented in the collections of the American Folklife Center. Among its recordings are: interviews with the Hammons family, documenting the family's musical and story-telling traditions; Pentecostal religious services; folk music and folklore of bituminous coal miners; and hundreds of hours of other folk music, including fiddle tunes, hammered dulcimer, banjo, and guitar. From 1991 to 1993, in cooperation with the National Park Service, the Center conducted the New River Gorge Folklife Survey, documenting the folk traditions of the area in and near the New River Gorge National River. The survey led to recommendations to the National Park Service on the creation of a cultural heritage center in the park.

In 1994 the Center began the Coal River Folklife Project, an ethnographic study of cultural heritage and environment, particularly focusing on traditional and innovative practices connected with the forest, land, and other natural resources in and around the Big Coal River of southern West Virginia. This project forms the basis of the American Memory online presentation Tending the Commons: Folklife and Landscape in Southern West Virginia.

• West Virginia Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture [full text]

West Virginia participated in the Library's Bicentennial Local Legacies project, which includes documentation of local traditions and celebrations for the American Folklife Center's Archive of Folk Culture.

• View West Virginia's Local Legacies projects

Concert Webcast

December 12, 2007: Gandydancer presented traditional string band music. [webcast and flyer]

Field Research Projects

• 1991-93 New River Gorge National River Cultural Heritage Survey.
• 1994-99 Coal River Folklife Project. [catalog record] [online presentation]

Published Recordings

• The Hammons Family: A Study of a West Virginia Family's Traditions, Library of Congress AFS L65-66. [audiocassette] [compact disc (ROUN 1504)]