Podcast Appalachia: "Moonshine"

The latest episode of Podcast Appalachia is now available. In this episode, we examine the colorful history and culture of moonshine, the most famous 'spirit' of Appalachia. You can listen here or read a transcript here.

Podcast Appalachia: "Mountain Religion"

The latest episode of Podcast Appalachia is now available! In this episode I discuss the role of religion in shaping Appalachian culture and examine some of the most prominent churches in Appalachia. You can listen here or view a transcript here.

Podcast Appalachia: "The Scots-Irish"

The latest episode of Podcast Appalachia is now available! In this episode, I look at the Scots-Irish and their contributions to Appalachia and America. Are you or any of your relatives from the Appalachian region? Then you are probably of Scots-Irish descent. You can listen to this episode here or view a transcript here.

Podcast Appalachia: "Daniel Boone"

The latest episode of Podcast Appalachia is available for download! In this episode I provide a biography of frontiersman Daniel Boone, an early explorer of Appalachia and one of the most famous people in American history. You can find Podcast Appalachia on iTunes, or you can listen to this episode directly here. A transcript is also available here.

Podcast Appalachia: "Where is Appalachia?"

The first real episode of Podcast Appalachia is now available for download. You can find it on iTunes or download it directly here. In this episode, I attempt to define the geographic boundaries of Appalachia and examine how these boundaries have changed over the years. Please, take a listen and let me know what you think! You can also find a transcript (and the rss feed for subscribing via iPods and mp3 players) here.

Photos from Chimney Rock, NC

Photos taken December 28, 2007.












Cross posted at Appalachian Scribe

Biltmore

Biltmore House, Asheville, NC

Cross posted at Appalachian Scribe

French Broad

The French Broad River, in Hot Springs, NC.

Cross posted at Appalachian Scribe

Cherokee Voices: Early Accounts of Cherokee Life in the East

(Image of the cover of Cherokee Voices: Accounts of Cherokee Life before 1900 by Vicki Rozema, published by John F. Blair Publisher)

So there I was, browsing the shelves of a local bookstore, not intending to buy anything in particular, just passing time really, and, as so often happens, I stumble across a tome that demanded my attention, Vicki Rozema's Cherokee Voices: Early Accounts of Cherokee Life in the East. Why did this work grab my attention so absolutely? Let me explain:

So often in our lessons (both taken as students and given as instructors) what we call "history" is hardly history at all. It is selected interpretations of events, emphasizing our someones' (ours included) goals. Inconvenient truths are consciously or unconsciously excised, left behind to emphasize the villainy or innocence of one party or another, minor events swell in their apparent importance with time (and after the "winner's editing"), and so on. Now, I hardly think that every history book writer or teacher, formal or informal, has a conscious political-economic goal set leading them to propagandize (though some certainly do). But between winners' need to justify their win (victory always being the successful domination of one or more parties through coercion, threats of coercion, or bargaining to achieve unequal goods), survivor's desires to both justify their survival and to reiterate their ancestor's value (eg. they lost but only because of rule-violation), and "-ists" of all kinds need to demonstrate the properness of their respective "-isms", well, history tends to become, well, something else.

Thus my attraction to first-materials, both for teaching and for learning. Sure, reading a book about the Constitution is sometimes a good decision, but it is a helluva' more important undertaking to read the thing itself (repeatedly, frankly) . . . not to mention its predecessors, the contemporary arguments of those who made it, and the official justifications of its passage (The Federalist Papers, if you were wondering).

This leads me to my laud for Rozema and others of her ilk. Far to rarely are first materials drawn together for easy consumption of subjects that less popular (or rather have fewer proven markets) than, say, American Constitutionalism, despite their genuine importance. Academics have a tendency to sneer at their peers who focus exclusively on such work (I have heard more than one peer refer to such collections as mere "textbook fodder"), while normal folks are rarely pushed to seek them out (especially since, if they include works in excess of 150 years old, they're generally written off as simply "hard to read," a symptom of our "write to the six-grade level" culture).

Rozema, however has chosen a tremendous subject. She collects works dating back into the early 18th Century. She concentrates on a subject (British-Cherokee and American-Cherokee political, social, and economic discourse and negotiation) that hardly has common appeal (especially since it does not concentrate on the Cherokee people as either a model of utopia or a warrior culture and certainly not as a Romantic epic). She annotates her work, but sparingly, letting it speak for itself - I wish I was half as elegant and precise. And through reading words that she "merely" found and brought together, she outlines the ever greater intersection of British-American culture with that Cherokee (as well as several other peoples), an intersection that yields tremendous truths about acculturation, assimilation, conquest, cultural preservation, and the seeds of the Cherokee people's survival in modern America (a success many, if not most, native American peoples sadly did not achieve). To say I admire this work is an understatement; I wish only that it was longer, that the picture was fuller, rounder. Oh - and I wish it had maps . . . many, many maps.

I don't want to give away too much, because this is a book that deserves to be purchased. I just want to tell you that the exchange of documents regarding the assault of Hanging Maw and his family and friends reads like shortened version of the long relationship between British and American authorities and those of the Cherokee - one of promises from well-meaning parties being unable to prevent the predations of parties damned and determined that cohabitation simply wasn't an option. It is this theme, along with that of a Cherokee people who constantly adapt to British and American political-economics at first as a way of gaining power and influence (as well as certain key goods), but who ultimately become dependent on that political-economy, rendering them essentially conquered long before their lands were entirely seized, but ironically leaving them better prepared to preserve other parts of their culture after conquest. The story, if it can be called that, is in other words complex - - - there are no simple answers, because no matter what the high school history textbooks my tutorees are issued proffer, the conquest of the native American nations cannot be summarized in half-page essays. There are untold lessons our people, our democracy, needs, both moral and practical, in these original documents, hard lessons that sanitized history simple cannot and does not teach.

In summary, this is a damn fine book - a quick read (157 pages, though the official website indicates less) that is so good that should I see an updated, expanded edition (hint hint, wink wink) I won't hesitate to buy it. But I know what you want - - - so here they come.

Publisher's Official Site

Vicki Rozema's home page

Seriously - all fancy words aside, this is a great work, not only for students of the Cherokee people, but for students of intercultural (and inter-systemic) relations in general. And, of course, for us Appalachians, it is a record of one of the most crucial junctures in our region's history.

Appalachianista Blogs

Hotel Sign in Rainelle, West Virginia
(Image from the tremendous Field Guide to What's Good)

You know me - I love "technology" and the "internet." It makes me all giddy. Well, this morning while I was surfing during breakfast I decided to hit up the legendary (among bloggers) Technorati and perform a very particular sort of search - I decided to specifically look for those blogs claiming to be about Appalachia in general - 70 sites were listed for my blog-pleasure as a result. I decided to rank order them according to their authority rating and list 'm for you (editing out spurious or dead entries as well as sites which haven't updated since August of this year) for your life-pleasure. The results, maestro:

Authority of 77: Smokey Mountain Breakdown

Authority of 66: Hillbilly Savants

Authority of 53: Buffy Holt

Authority of 50: Shuck and Jive

Authority 0f 41: Appalachian History

Authority of 36: The Herbwife's Kitchen

Authority of 31: Pocahontas County Fare

Authority of 22: Among the Hills

Authority of 18: Appalachian Writers

Authority of 18: Quo Vadis

Authority of 15: Tales From Creekistan

Authority of 12: Rednecromancer

Authority of 9: Mari's Midnight Garden

Authority of 9: Tug's Life

Authority of 8: Beyond the 9th Wave

Authority of 6: Plummer's Hollow, Pennsylvania

Authority of 4: Quilts and Creativity

Authority of 2: Garysworld 'Appalachia'

Authority of 2: Mindracket

Authority of 2: Zezrie's Ponderings

Authority of 1: Dog and Pony Show

Authority of 1: epizoodiks. . .

Authority of 1: Guide to What's Good

Authority of 1: Life Through 4 Eyes

Authority of 1: pfly

Authority of 1: Pictures and Words

Authority of 0: Appalachia

Authority of 0: Appalachia and Beyond

Authority of 0: Appalachia's Best Mullets

Authority of 0: Appalachian Music Blogger - Henry Queen

Authority of 0: Cross-Cultural Encounter: Appalachia

Authority of 0: Oh, Appalachia!

Authority of 0: Reading in Appalachia

Authority of 0: Six Weeks in Appalachia

Authority of 0: Ups and Downs in Appalachia

So the final count is about 35 - we're a pretty elite group of writers, eh? Of course there are tons of localist Appalachian bloggers writing about a particular county, town, city, or sub-region, but wow - - - surprisinglicious. Anyway - if there are sites you haven't visited, you should check'm out (I'll be adding several permanent peer links in the next few days, in case you're wondering) - there are some gems in amongst this group. And stuff.

Back From the Dead (With Charon's Recommended Appalachian Assorted Links and Stories)

Bam. I am back. You may have noticed I have been AWOL for an age. Reason? Well, (1) I moved most of my stuff to Christiansburg, VA from Knoxville, TN, then moved it back (long story), (2) I finished editing and defending my dissertation, now rendering me Doc Smith, (3) I put together a fund-raiser to help fight cancer (concert/art show), and (4)have traveled up and down the length of the Southern Appalachians repeatedly (e.g. Radford, Virginia; Greenville, West Virginia; Bastian, Virginia; Kingsport, Tennessee; Salem, Virginia; and so on) for everything from weddings to job interviews. But as I (re)settle into my life here in Knoxville, opportunities to blog are more readily available. Which is awesome.

That said, I haven't gotten together anything too mind-blowing yet. Sure, I'm working on a football preview, and yeah, I have been reading up on native American political-economies and societies so I can write up some jibba-jabba on the great Shawnee culture, and I'm putting together a link on Islam in Appalachia, but let's be honest, those require sustained attention that I'm still not capable of. And stuff. So, in the interim I'm going to return to my tried, true, and relatively interesting method of putting together some contribution to this hodgepodge of hillbilly heuristics - a long list of links. Enjoy and stuff.

Paper that looks like one of my students
turned it in from the San Jose Mercury News

China, West Virginia, and Lawyers

Alligator (you can tell from the snout)
from Southwest Virginia Community College

The Community College I Can't Get a Cell Signal At

Sweet, delicious blueberries (not Gummi Berries)
from Virginia Tech's Virginia Cooperative Extension

Undermining Capitalism, Undermining Small Farmers,
Annoying Developmental Theorists (Cough.)

The Honaker mountains by Volker. B. Radek, a German bicycle enthusiast.

The Ghost That Smokes Cigarettes in an Educational Setting

Image from Ed's Old Blue Bus

Empathy For Humans Who Brave the Dark to Give Us Light

Repetition of negative word from swissmiss

The Swiss/New Yorker and the Knoxville Awesome


Birds on drawing of quilt from the Center for the Quilt

A Poem About Something Wooly and Un-Wooly Simultaneously

Devil Anse from Sid Webb

The Devil and the Breaks

Liquor and tomatos from the Purloined Letter.

Vittles in Ashevegas

LBJ in the E-KY from Time's Election 2004 "Campaigns in Time."

Hillbillies, Democracy, and Propaganda.

Our First Award

The blog is doing pretty darn good here lately - really solid recent posts, some complimentary links, over 42,000 visits in just over a year, and now, (throwing confetti) we have received our first award - - - the Thinking Blogger Award!

Bam.

I am freaking ultra-cited about this, but before I get carried away in my own giddiness (dance party, Old Crow Medicine Show, and RC Cola anyone?), let me make some key statements.

First, we here at HS want to thank the folks over at Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi for nominating us. It means a heckuva' lot, guys - for ya'll who haven't checked out HCMCM do so - - - it is an damned excellent read.

Second, the Thinking Blogger Award is a nifty sorta' thing - it works on the principle that good bloggers know other good bloggers when they see'm. Makes sense, eh? Sure enough. So every blogger who receives the award is obliged to nominate five other "thinking blogs" who, in turn, do the same. I know, I know. It is brilliant. Of course blogs that have already been nominated can be renominated, but (as far as I can tell) not by their previous nominator. Regardless, it is a really interesting system creating networks of linked, high quality blogs that, I'd imagine, gradually become more and more diverse. Really interesting stuff.

Well, here at HS we're always interested in other blogs anyway - it is sort of an obsession for a few of us (when we're not distracted by our "jobs" or our "spouses" or our "responsibilities"). So we feel pretty darned qualified to nominate a few outstanding sites. And stuff. I dug through our links and found some doozies who 1) aren't contributors here at Hillbilly Savants (yet) and 2) absolutely deserve some national attention (Let me just say that I narrowed it down from our extensive link list to almost 30 sites from which I winnowed further - - - what does that mean? Our peer Appalachian sites are so good its like trying to choose a valedictorian from the Children of the Corn. Keep it up everyone. ). Consider:

1) The Bluegrass Blog: A great blog for anyone interested in virtually any topic or sub-topic having to do with Bluegrass. Listenlicious.

2) Lincoln Walks At Midnight: West Virginia politics and government covered in a clear, straightforward, easy to digest way. Politicalrific.

3) North Carolina Mountain Dreams: A tremendous read - the North Carolina Appalachian Mountains as seen by a Texan. Immigrationdacious.

4) The War in Appalachia: A blog obsessed with the politics and economics of coal mining and use - the sort of blog that makes you remember to turn off the light. Environmentalismo.

5) The West Virginia Hot Dog Blog: A blog about an incredibly narrow subject - hot dog culture in the Mountain State. How? Why? No one knows. And yet you will read. You will read.

For you guys nominated by us humble hillfolk, well, let me quote you the rules from the thinking blog that started this whole mess - ahem:

The participation rules are simple:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn't fit your blog).

That was that! Please, remember to tag blogs with real merits, i.e. relative content, and above all - blogs that really get you thinking! It is the first time I am starting something with my blog so I hope it doesn't come back to haunt me.

Awesome. And Ilker Yoldas, thanks for putting this whole crazy mess together in the first place.

Arundinaria appalachiana

Hill Cane in Polk County, Tennessee
(Image from BambooWeb)

We've been scooped by the folks over at Cryptomundo. Alas and bemoan.

Quote:

Surprise, surprise! Two known species of North American bamboo discovered 200 years ago have been joined by a brand new one just found in the last year. The “hill cane” was discovered in the Appalachian Mountains. This new species of bamboo (Arundinaria appalachiana) grows only to about 6 feet, compared with the other North American species - river cane and switch cane - which each can grow much taller and thicker. It is the only species of the three that drops its leaves. Locals knew about it but had not recognized it as anything so new or special.

Hmm. Intriguing, eh? Okay. Read the rest of the article. Go on. We'll wait.

Done? Pretty awesome, eh? I'm not sure I've ever seen this plant before - I can say it reminds me of Palm Sunday palms that I've seen used all over the region, but I can't say that such an impression is anything more than, well, an impression. Awesome jonx, regardless.

Additional random point - Arundinaria literally means "cane" and appalachiana literally means, well, "Appalachian" - thus the scientific name isn't hill cane - its Appalachian cane. Just a clarification.

Now, I could end it there, but you know me - - - so I got on the old inter-hooey, went clickity-clack, and bam, prepped some more info for you hungry, Appalachianista botanists. Enjoy.

"Botanists identify new species of North American bamboo"
Physorg.com

"Iowa State University botanists identify new species of North American bamboo"
Iowa State University

"Hill Cane"
University of Tennessee Herbarium

"Arundinaria appalachiana"
Bamboo Flora & Fauna From Around the World

Down A Country Lane

A few years ago, my brother and his wife moved to Atlanta. Visiting the big city was fun, but the drive down I-75 was tedious at best. I could have gone down through Asheville and Greenville, SC and take I-85 to Hotlanta, but I wanted to avoid interstates and city driving for as long as possible before I hit my destination. I plotted out a route that would take me east of Asheville on NC209 through Hot Springs and down to Highway 23 which eventually runs to Atlanta (see the Google map). I didn't know what to expect when I set out, but I pleasantly surprised.

For about 45 miles, NC209 goes over mountains and twists through valleys. Following a winding road, I saw sights that seem almost lost to the world.

Portyghee/Melungeon Site Round-Up

The Ruins of the Vardy School
(Image from the Melungeon Heritage Association)

Having written earlier today on the Portyghee people, I decide that it was time to put the nose to the grindstone and put together a collection of valid, valuable sources of information on their politics, economics, sociology, and history. I don't want to pretend this list is exhaustive, but it is the product of several searches and link explorations. Also, FYI, I'm going to set up a permanent sidebar link list on the subject of Portyghee/Melungeon culture over on the right here - - - look for that to expand on this list from time to time.

On to the gist:

1. Melungeons.com - Quote:

melungeon.com is dedicated to bringing you information about the Melungeon Movement. Which began in 1997 at the First Union in Wise, Virginia when about one thousand people showed up at the College of Wise campus to reclaim their lost heritage. The "Melungeon Movement" is about racial and ethnic harmony. It took its name IN HONOR of the original Melungeons who were ethnically diverse but came together as ONE people to survive and live in peace and harmony. The Movement HONORS these early pioneers and they serve as a model for ethnic and racial relations.

2. The Melungeons blog - Blog of the folks over at Melungeons.com.

3. Melungeon Heritage Association - Quote:

Our mission is to document and preserve the heritage and cultural legacy of mixed-ancestry peoples in or associated with the southern Appalachians. While our focus will be on those of Melungeon heritage, we will not restrict ourselves to honoring only this group. We firmly believe in the dignity of all such mixed ancestry groups of southern Appalachia and commit to preserving this rich heritage of racial harmony and diversity.

4. Melungeon Health Education and Support Network - Quote:

This Melungeon Health Site is dedicated to the health of ALL Melungeons descendants. If there are illnesses that seem to run throughout your family, you MAY find help here.

5. The Melungeon Resource Page - Quote:

Since you ended up on this page, it probably means you are interested in Melungeons...maybe you are a Melungeon descendant or researcher or just heard the term and are trying to figure out "What the heck is a Melungeon anyway?" No matter which we are glad you found us and hope that these pages help answer some of your questions about Melungeons as well as raise new questions for further research and discussion.

6. Documenting the Melungeons One Page at a Time -Quote:

In our examination of the many articles, books, and websites on "Who are the Melungeons, etc" we have discovered most of these are opinions with little or no historical records to back them up. We believe a growing number of people have been misled concerning the historical Melungeons. These pages are brought to you by a group of researchers determined to show factual information concerning the historical Melungeons. ~History cannot be changed by opinions.~

7. Melungeon DNA Project - Quote:

Amateur and professional genealogists and historians have been researching records, newspapers articles, Bibles, church records and more, plus listening to family stories for years to try and document the Melungeon people.
The Melungeon Project is a study of males and females who have proven known Melungeon ancestors, according to old records, and agreed on by some of the top serious Melungeon researchers. The participants must descend in a genealogical useful line; i.e., father to son to son, etc. for the Y chromosome testing and Mother to daughter to daughter, etc. for the mtDNA testing. The DNA results, combined with extensive genealogy research, hopefully will open some new windows for research on the Melungeon people.
DNA information is to be used in conjunction with historical and traditional research. DNA results do not often “prove” a relationship, but can be quite helpful in guiding research. If a profile does not match, obviously a hypothesized relationship may be incorrect. At other times it may point to an unknown adoption in the family, or some other so-called non-paternity event.

8. Jack Goins Research - Quote:

Welcome to my website. It will always be changing, so visit back often. Follow the links on the left side, or click on the pictures to explore my site. Click on the "JG" and it will bring you back to this home page. My ancestors have been in Appalachia for many years, and in tracing them I have found a lot of interesting and sometimes unusual situations. One of these situations is when a lady at Stony Creek Church described a group of people as “melungin.” Through the years I have learned much about the Melungeons from the descendants of the families who were classified Melungeon, including my own Goins and Minor family. What I have enjoyed most of all is backtracking these pioneer families from the Clinch River at Blackwater, Tennessee to the many places they lived during their incredible migration journey, so I have named this web site as the place to share “my incredible research journey.” As the Hawkins County Tennessee Archivist, I want to share the progress of our volunteer organization "Friends Of The Hawkins County Archive Project" as we work the old Circuit, Chancery and County Court loose records 1795-1930, an ongoing work in progress. Our goal is to form a county Archive and Research Center. My research is a search for the truth and sometimes the truth is sad and unpleasant, but wherever this journey leads me, I’ll share it, so come and go with me on this journey.

9. Vardy Community Historical Society - Quote:

The mission Of the Vardy Community Historical Society, Inc. is to record and report on the lives, times, and culture of families living in the Vardy Valley on Blackwater Creek in East Tennessee; to document the Presbyterian missionaries' contributions to the health, education and religious needs of resident families from 1862 through 1974; to restore and maintain certain local properties of historical interest built during the late 19th and early 20th centuries; and to participate with individuals, groups, and educational institutions with like interest in the origins, migration, and lives of people living in Vardy and elsewhere known as Melungeons.

Jim Callahan's Lest We Forget: The Melungeon Colony of Newman's Ridge

The Portyghee people, better known as the Melungeons, have a history that is almost mythical. They came from somewhere, or many somewheres, to form a single people. They fled west, out of the coastal plains and up into the Appalachian Mountains. They lived intentionally isolated lives for decades, perhaps centuries in the mountains, occasionally trading with and/or fighting native Americans of the region, until gradually men of European descent began colonizing what had become the Portyghee heartland: the valleys of eastern Kentucky and Tennessee and western Virginia and North Carolina. Gradually, through coercion and discrimination most of the Portyghee people were pushed up, literally up the mountains and onto the ridges that towered over the fertile valleys. Here, in their hillbilly Masadas, they continued to live, though now, given the the limits of their access to good agricultural territory, many began specializing in an activity both brought by the invaders and legally forbidden by them - moonshining. Gradually, however, as development came to the ridge-towns, a diaspora has begun, and the Portyghee have begun moving again into the valley-towns, or even further afield, particularly into the Midwest, often abandoning their identities along the road. And today, though many Portyghee/Melungeons still live in the towns of the Cumberland Mountains and the Clinch and Holstein River Valley, it probably isn't surprising that most Portyghee folk either have no idea that are, well, Portyghee or still hide it, fearing the sort of discrimination that plagued their ancestors in the not-so-distant past.
The book I'm reviewing today is about just such a man. Pardon, let me rephrase. It is the product of just such a man, a man of Portyghee descent, who had no idea he was Portyghee, trying to uncover just what it means to be Portyghee. Specifically, it is a book that he wrote based on his research into 1) the hypothetical origins of the Portyghee people and 2) the definite trials and tribulations of those same people, and more particularly the people of Newman's Ridge, his heretofore unknown ancestral home.
Now, Lest We Forget isn't a scholarly book - it wasn't written by a professor of Southern history or sociology at some big-name university or institute, though it is well written (Callahan is a former Director of Agriculture in Mexico for Del Monte Foods). This is evident in some of the language and turns of phrase used - though this doesn't take away from it. And the book isn't strictly historical - it constantly delves into economics, politics, and most notably physical anthropology. And sometimes it does jump around just a bit. That said, the points where the writing becomes more informal generally tend to strengthen this work, rather than detract from it, making it approachable. And Callahan is unaffected by the dominant scholarly opinions as to origins of the Portyghee - that isn't to say he doesn't weigh them in, nor that he doesn't draw deeply from them, quite the contrary. But it is to say that he throws out every conceivable theory and hypothesis and discusses them in great detail, drawing on both the scholarly and the traditional for evidence, bringing up archaeological evidence that is often too quickly dismissed or simply ignored by professional scholars.
Combine all this with some excellent photographs and maps, a ton of information on particular cultural practices of the Portyghee/Melungeons and a trove of historical vignettes and you get a book that anyone interested in this dimension of Appalachian society, and at a decent price, which frankly just cries out to be read. Thanks for your labor, Mr. Callahan.

Okay, onto the meaty meat - first, you're gonna' want the publisher - head over to see the folks at Overmountain Press for that. Secondly, just to whet your appetite, I want to quote one of the most interesting sociological points that Callahan brings up. Ahem.

". . .[William Allen Dromgoole] stated that people descended from a particular person were named individual given names and their surnames were those of the father or mother of their tribe (for example Benjamin Collins' offspring would be Andrew Ben, Zeke Ben, etc.) to differentiate between the many Collinses. For example, if Jordan Ben (son of Benjamin Collins) were to marry Abby Sol (daughter of Solomon Collins), they would have a son called Callaway Abbey after his mother. Before marriage, the daughter took her father's given name; after marriage, she took that of her husband. For example, Calloway's wife was Ann Calloway. Over time, the Collins prospered, and their increased numbers necessitated the formation of clans, which retained the names of key leaders (Ben clan, Sol clan)." (p.146-147)

Now, that's just flat out interesting.

Appalachia and the Federal Art Project

Image of WPA sponsored mural Mining (1942) in
Mount Hope, West Virginia by Michael Lensen
(From Melissa May Dobbins' excellent
page on the New Deal in West Virginia)

Despite producing something that is intrinsically meaningful, whether it be music, drama, literature, sculpture, or two-dimensional images, art essentially remains a luxury, something to be consumed either by elites or by the masses with their sponsorship. . . just one of those facts of life. The implication of this is that the lifestyle of artists has always been a hand-to-mouth sort of existence, even in the best of times - they flourish (or fail to do so) utterly at the whim of societies economic, political (especially the guv'ment), or social elite (especially religious institutions). Of course, when the times are flush, artists of all genre tend to do alright (extra capital means capital available for adornment and enrichment), but when they are bust, well, artists are among the first to have to abandon their entire way of life or risk, well, being thrown out on the street or starving to death.

Well, once upon a time Appalachia in particular and the Union in general suffered under an economic decline of catastrophic proportions. The causes of this decline are complex, varied, transnational, and ultimately not particularly relevant to this conversation, but let's just say it was bad enough that economists tell stories of it around campfires that end with, "and that's when the stock market raised its hand - - - and it was a claw!"

Chilling, eh? Well, this period of American (and global) history is generally known as the "Great" Depression. It was bad and it was long. A lot of governments around the world succumbed to very, very bad leaders who promised their people that they'd fix everything if only their people would give them, well, absolute power - we call them fascists. Our government responded not by developing a full-scale command economy, but by applying the logic of automechanics to our economy - if the engine won't start, try giving it a jump. Both reactions, however, were founded on a simple economic principle - if unemployment has dropped so low that consumption has collapsed, feeding a cycle of economic deprivation, the fastest way out (according to its supporters) is for the largest economic entity to engage in a set of works across a very wide set of economic activities that 1) employ as many people as possible in 2) creating infrastructure around which new economic activities can accumulate, rather than just provide services whose effect is short-term (pump it into services exclusively, rather than providing them as a support net, and when state debt grows too high, the economy just tanks again - e.g. Venezuela as soon as the oil runs out if current policies hold).

Most of us are familiar with several of the more large-scale products of this "new deal" - interstates, dams, a tremendous number of new public buildings and parks, and so forth. What you may not know is that during the Depression the Federal government often engaged in supporting more modest works. Specifically, I'm talking about the Federal Art Project, managed by the Works Progress Administration. In essence the FAP was an effort by the Federal government to employ full-time 5,000 artists - mainly painters and sculptors - in the creation of artwork for the people. The product of the FAP was far from modest - almost a quarter of a million artworks were created literally in every conceivable venue in our nation - if you have a post office, federal building, courthouse, jailhouse, school, or post office in your home town that hails from the 1930s, the odds are more than excellent that the mural or sculpture you walk past in the hallway is a product of that effort. Kind of makes you want to stop and take another look-see, doesn't it?

Okay, all that said, I've decided to survey the net for sites that make account of FAP products (surviving or otherwise) in Appalachia. It should be said there are tons of sites, all worth a gander, on the FAP in other regions as well and if you're bored one night but don't want to just fry your brain on mediocre sitcoms, well, they're worth a few Google searches. Also, if you know of an FAP piece in your hometown and you want it posted up, well hell, go take a pic and shoot it to your friends here at HS - we'll try to get it posted for you. In the meantime, enjoy.

"New Deal Art During the Great Depression" from the National New Deal Preservation Association - Midwest Chapter: Okay, overall this is a great site, lots of pictures, some information, and a decent link set. . . . what you need to see, however, is the is comprehensive list of post office murals you can check out on a state-by-state basis. On the quick, though: check out sub-sites of Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.

"Legacies of the New Deal" from the Library of Virginia: Provides an overview of WPA works, including but not limited to the FAP in the Commonwealth. Not a ton of information or images, but what is available is well done.

"New Deal Art Mural" from New River WV: Specifically? This site gives us very high quality images of Mount Hope's own FAP murals. . . worth a look to see what a patient photographer can provide us with.

"Mysteries of the West Virginia Building: The Structure at Historic Jackson's Mill Holds Many Secrets" from West Virginia University Alumni Magazine: A wonderful article with excellent images, it details the works of William Grauer.

"The Story of the Murals" from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville's American Studies Program: Self-explanatory.

"New Deal Murals in Kentucky Post Offices" from the Janice Mason Art Museum: Photos of, well, those wacky murals.

"The WPA Guide to the Old Dominion" from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville's American Studies Program: A tremendous collection of essays and imagery on Virginia's diverse WPA experiences. . . a definite must see.

Weekend Several: Shades of Brown