Dear friends,
I am pleased to share the first issue of our reinstated West Virginia & Regional History Center (WVRHC) Newsletter with you. In the nearly four years since our last issue, the History Center has thrived, preserving and providing access to the rich history and culture of West Virginia and the central Appalachian region.
We continue to serve as an important and growing hub for research, instruction, and outreach. Our staff is excellent and dedicated, though you will see some new faces. I am excited to be at the helm of this team as we further the History Center’s mission and shape it into a modern archive.
I have been the director of the WVRHC since 2022, building on 22 years of experience at West Virginia University Libraries. As a native West Virginian, it is my greatest privilege to be in this role, uncovering and collecting the pieces of history that hold the stories of the state, its people, and the power of this place.
I want to acknowledge some long-time, instrumental colleagues that have left the History Center since our last issue. The first is John Cuthbert, the former director of the History Center for many years. John, now emeritus, retired at the end of 2021. Other departures include Head of Archives and Manuscripts Michael Ridderbusch, Curator of Printed Ephemera Anna Schein, Curator of Rare Books and Printed Resources Stewart Plein, Reference Specialist Christy Venham, and Archives Processing Assistant Linda Blake. I feel fortunate to have worked with this group of people. They all shaped me and the WVRHC.
Now, the WVRHC team is focused on preservation, access, and engagement and committed to creating and documenting stewardship practices that will ensure our collections are available for generations to come. We have much work to do and much to be proud of.
We continue to seek out and preserve unique archival collections of people and organizations from across the state and region. We have worked closely with individual donors and our friends and supporters on the Distinguished West Virginians advisory board, as well as the Feminist Activist and Women’s History Collection steering committee, to develop our collections. From the papers of former Rep. David McKinley to the organizational records of the West Virginia Sierra Club, to photographs and newsletters from coal miner Elizabeth Lindsay Dingess, and many more, the WVRHC’s holdings reflect all aspects of the history and culture of our state and region.
The History Center’s holdings have expanded significantly. To make collections available to the public quickly, we have instituted an efficient processing practice. You may notice the finding aids for some new collections prioritize collection-level description.
That enables us to open them to researchers in a timely manner. Processing staff will return to these collections and create more comprehensive descriptions and contents lists over time.
Preservation of and access to the WVRHC’s book and manuscript collections are essential for engagement. The archives are increasingly used in instruction on the WVU campus and beyond. Through the collections, students learn primary source literacy and archival research skills. Our collections are teaching tools, ripe for analysis and study, and sometimes for inspiration of creative pursuits.
Even West Virginia’s K-12 students are engaging with WVRHC materials. We’ve presented Civil War documents and artifacts to local 5th grade students two years in a row and Grafton High and University High students visited the WVRHC as part of the West Virginia National Cemeteries project for the last three years.
Beyond instruction, the WVRHC is engaging with users through innovative exhibitions and programming. We’ve continued our West Virginia Day tradition and featured our collections in exhibits on poetry, statehood, and folklife. The WVRHC has also expanded beyond the Davis Galleries in the History Center and now routinely installs displays in the Rockefeller Gallery, Milano Reading Room, and the Downtown Library entrance. We have opened physical and digital exhibits on West Virginia women’s history, book covers designed by Margaret Armstrong, the Buffalo Creek disaster, West Virginia folk music, and others.
The WVRHC has also offered a top-notch slate of programs and events that highlight our collections. Last year, we hosted Dr. Colleen Shogan, Archivist of the United States at that time, as well as Pulitzer Prize winning author, Jayne Anne Phillips. In previous years, we opened the papers of mathematician Katherine Johnson, sponsored poetry readings by West Virginia Poet Laureate Marc Harshman, and helped to open the Nick Joe Rahall Congressional Archives House on the campus of WVU Tech Beckley, to name only a few.
Though only a small sample of all that’s been going on since we last reached out with our newsletter, I hope I have expressed how active and vibrant the WVRHC continues to be. And all this is because we have supportive friends, donors, and an exceptional staff who make it all happen, both behind the scenes and in the public’s view.
I hope you enjoy this new newsletter!
Sincerely,
Lori Hostuttler
WVRHC Director