Descriptive Summary

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

An appointment for research is required. No Inter-Library Loan. Audio tape #133 for Reverend George Gentry is restricted.

Color photographs and slides are housed separately within a cold storage unit and advanced notice is required to view. Use of audiovisual materials may require the creation of a user copy before being available for research. Boxes 1-17 in Series A, Subseries I, are original cassettes and not available for use. User copies have been made in both audiocassette and CD formats for interviews #2-355. See boxes 17 to 35 for user copies. User copies of interviews 356-500b will be made on an as-needed basis and will require advanced notice before available. Researchers should confirm that a user copy exists before research appointment.

Copyright Notice

The collection is protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. C.). Reproductions are made only for use as personal study or research. It is the user's responsibility to verify copyright ownership and to obtain all necessary permissions prior to the reproduction, publication, or other use of any portion of these materials. The Appalachian Oral History Project reserves copyright of the collection; interviews without release forms are the property of the interviewer and interviewee. Written permission is required for publication. Patrons may quote only from interviews with written permission of the Appalachian Oral History Project. For more information, contact Special Collections.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Collection 111: Appalachian Oral History Project Records, W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina, 28608.

Provenance

The donors and the donation date are unknown. In March 2001, a brochure about the Appalachian Oral History Project was transferred from the Appalachian Regional Brochure Collection to the Appalachian Oral History Project Records. In February 2003, the University Archives transferred signed legal agreements to the Appalachian Oral History Project Records. In January 2006, Nik Hay recovered one box of Oral History Project slides, photographs, and audio cassettes from the recently vacated Whitener Hall and gave them to the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection.

Processing Information

Processed in 2001. This collection was opened to the public in 2001.

Biographical/Historical Note

The Appalachian Oral History Project (AOHP) was an oral history project was conducted by four regional universities in the southeast United States, which focused on collecting stories of folklore and cultural history of the Central Appalachian mountain region. It was funded by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Rockerfeller Foundation, and the Johnson Foundation, and started by Alice Lloyd College and Lees Junior College in Kentucky in 1970. It later included Appalachian State University in North Carolina and Emory and Henry College in Virginia. The Project created more than three thousand interview recordings, one-fourth of which have been transcribed, and an edition of the transcriptions have been published in microfilm. A selection of interviews have been published in the book Our Appalachia, and a union catalog of the Project interviews was published in 1977.

The Appalachian State University branch of the Oral History Project was conducted in Watauga County, North Carolina, between 1973 and 1980, and consisted of approximately five hundred interviews.

Scope and Content Note

This collection consists of approximately 600 audiocassette tape recordings, interview files and transcriptions, administrative files, photographs, and video. Interviewees include Alfred Adams, Patricia Beaver, Wade Brown, Richard Chase, James Council, Robert Guy, Stanley Harris, Buna Hicks, Stanley Hicks, Mrs. Grover Robins, Willard Watson, and Cratis Williams. Student workers served primarily as interviewers and transcribers. Over 500 individuals were interviewed for the project, which focused on historical and cultural activities, including family life, farming, and marriage in Appalachia. The collection includes a card index to the interviews and photographs. Release forms are included in administrative files when available. Some audio recordings are of poor quality and there are several gaps in the collection. Approximately 60 identified original audio tapes are missing.

Collection Arrangement

Series Description

Series A, Interviews, consists of approximately 500 interviews and is divided into recordings and interview files. Interviews began in 1973. Subseries I, Original Recordings, contains audio cassettes of the interviews. They are arranged according to the assigned interview number, which was assigned chronologically when the interview took place. Most interview recordings have a corresponding interview file with an identifical number. Fifty-four identified interview recordings are missing. Original recordings are not open to patons and user copies are required before a recording can be used. Subseries II, User Copies, contains the existing duplicate copies available for reseracher use. Interviews 2-341 have audio cassette duplicates, and interviews 2-355 have compact disc copies. Both types have gaps within their individual ranges. Researchers should obtain confirmation that a user copy exists before using the collection. User copies for the remaining interviews will be made on an as-needed basis.

Series A, Subseries III, Interview Files, contains documentation for the individual interviews. Contents vary, but can contain handwritten and typed interview transcriptions, release forms, and/or interview forms. Several files are empty.

Series B, Administrative Files, contains administrative files, working papers and ephemera from the Appalachian oral history project, 1965-1989. This includes grant applications, receipts, monthly budget records, partial transcriptions, and background information. Also included is information about the Appalachian Quilt Exhibition in 1978-79. In 2003, an addition of signed legal agreements, primarily photograph release forms, was added to the collection.

Series C, Notecard Index, contains a card index to interviews and photographs. The interview index consists of participants' names and their vital statistics, including primarily the subject's address and the contents of the corresponding interview file [Series A, Subseries III]. Cards record whether the file includes the data sheet, legal agreements, outlines, and transcripts, and in a few cases extra cards are provided to outline subjects covered in the interview and contextual information. The photograph index is largely defunct, containing an arbitrary title for each photograph, available data including dates, names, and locations, and includes a numerical reference [note: most photographs in the collection are not numbered].

Series D, Audiovisual Material, contains nontexual material, primarily photographs, videos, and slides. Photographs and slides are primarily of Appalachian people and landscapes from the 1850s to the 1980s. Most photographs are unidentified and all are reproductions. A large number of photographs have been removed from the Interview Files subseries (A-III) and are photographs of interviewees. Other photographs include families from the Appalachian region, including the Norwoods, Arnettes, and Townsend families, photographs of Boone, NC, in the 1920s, and other regional photographs of the area in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Some photographs are from the Eastern Kentucky Appalachian Oral History Project at Alice Lloyd College.

Other separated photographs include pictures identified as Mr. and Mrs. Sam Jones, Lelia Harrison, Walter Cook, Mr. and Mrs. E.R. Duvall, Alfred Adams, H.R. Smith, Laura Miller, Ron Davis, Ruth B. Mast, Grace Bingham, Anne Sherwood, Lizzie Keller, Herbert McClellan, Fannie Hampton, Nellie Cook, Winifred Hampton, Molly Ward, Josie Critcher, Hazel Hartley, Mary Hodges, Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Hartley, Ren Hodges, Mrs. Byrd Alderidge, Dora Johnson, Florence Byrd, Charles Bolick, Willie Taylor, Mr. and Mrs. Forrest Townsend, and J.O. Shell. Negatives include reproductions of old family photographs, farming scenes, and interviewees. Not all negatives include a printed copy. Oversize photographs include 20 contact sheets and 6 oversize reproductions of unidentified Appalachian families, houses, and rural farm scenes.

There are approximately 1,350 color slides, including images of Boone, NC, US Highway 321, unidentified students camping in the woods, a circus, miscellaneous slides of people and landscapes, and a slideshow entitled, "Tourism in Appalachia: A Point of View." Most date from the 1970s. Also included are three UMATIC video cassette recordings, entitled "New River Mixed Media, 1978," and "Rural Women Consultation." There is one reel-to-reel audio recording, entitled, "North Carolina Women." Color slides and photographs are stored in cold storage and require advanced notice to access.

Series E, Oversize Materials, contains computer spreadsheet printouts removed from the Administrative Files, Series B.

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