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Special Collections and University Archives Resources for APS1704: General Appalachian History & Culture

Resources for APS1704 at Virginia Tech Special Collections and online through Virginia Tech and other institutions.

Note

Please note: the list below does not generally include materials about the history of specific counties or states within Southern Appalachia, as these are only some suggested resources. Special Collections does include many books and manuscripts on different geographical regions with Appalachia. We recommend you search the catalog or the finding aid database or contact Special Collections for help in locating these materials. You can also browse/search a list of more than 500 manuscripts which relation to local history and the Appalachian South. 

About Special Collections and University Archives

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Monday-Friday 9am-5pm & By Appointment

Contact us:
Email: specref@vt.edu
Telephone: 540-231-6308
X: @VT_SCUA
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Books & Journals

  • Appalachia: Twenty Years of Progress, 1985. Call Number: HC 107 A127 A67 1985 Spec Large
  • Archives of Appalachia Newsletter, 1979-1991 (some issues missing). Call Number: F 217 A65 E26a Spec Large
  • Best, Irmgard, comp. Appalachians Speak Up, 1973. Call Number: HN 79 A13 A8 1973 Spec Large
  • Crowell, Suzanne. Appalachian People's History Book, c1971. Call Number: F 106 C85 1971 Spec Large
  • The Curator: The Newsletter of Appalachian Regional Collections (Spring 1997 issue only). Call Number: CD 3052 C87 Spec Large
  • Daugneaux, Christine B. Appalachia: A Separate Place, A Unique People, 1981. Call Number: F 217 A65 D38 Spec Large & Newman 3rd floor
  • Encyclopedia of Appalachia, 2006. Call Number: F 106 E53 2006 Spec Large
  • Galer, Eilleen Gardner. Appalachian Folks, c.1997. Call Number: F 217 A65 G35 1997 Spec Large
  • Miles, Emma Bell. The Spirit of the Mountains, 1905. Call Number: F 2017 A65 M54 1905 Spec Small
  • The Mountain Empire, 1931-1937 (v.1-3). Call Number: F 221 M6 Spec Large
  • Thomas, Roy Edwin, comp. Southern Appalachia, 1885-1915: Oral Histories from Residents of the State Corner Area of North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, c.1991. Call Number: F 217 A65 S69 1991 Spec Large
  • West, Don. People's Cultural Heritage in Appalachia, 197-. Call Number: F 210 W47 c.2 Spec Large
  • ---. Romantic Appalachia; or, Poverty Pays If You Ain't Poor, 1972? Call Number: HC 107 A13 W47 Spec Large

Manuscript Collections

  • Appalachian Oral History Project 1986-1991 (Ms1993-025). Finding aid available. Unrestricted interviews are available in digital form--contact Special Collections for more information.
  • Appalachian Student Organizing Committee Collection, 1964-1975 (RG31/14/10). Finding aid available online. 
  • Blue Ridge Parkway Folklore Project Records, 1978-1979 (Ms1986-009). Finding aid available online. Some interviews may be available in digital form--contact Special Collections for more information.
  • Dorothy McCombs Collection, 1970-1989 (Ms1995-006). Finding aid available online. 
  • Earl Palmer Appalachian Photograph and Artifact Collection 1880-1989 (Ms1989-025). Finding aid available online. Many photographs from the collection have been digitized and are available online.
  • Jean Haskell-Speer Papers, 1782-1995 (Ms2011-109). Finding aid available online. 
  • Patrick County [Virginia] Oral History Project Records, 1980 (Ms1983-007). Finding aid available online. Unrestricted interviews are available in digital form--contact Special Collections for more information. See also the Patrick County Oral History Project: A Guide by Thomas Perry, 2009. Call Number: F 232 P3 P4745 2009b Spec Large

Databases

  • Document Bank of Virginia
    The Library of Virginia’s initiative to get documents into classrooms. Using primary sources, teachers can make history relevant to students while helping them learn and understand state standards. DBVa will teach students to be critical thinkers as they analyze the original documents and draw their own conclusions about Virginia’s past.
  • Mountain People: Life and Culture in Appalachia 
    This collection consists of the diaries, journals, and narratives of explorers, emigrants, military men, Native Americans, and travelers. There are accounts on farming and mining communities, family histories, and folklore, providing a view of the region between Lexington, Kentucky and Winchester, Virginia, and from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Birmingham, Alabama, and the social, political, economic, scientific, religious, and agricultural characteristics of the region. 1700-1950.
  • Virginia Heritage
    Virginia Heritage is a consolidated database of more than 12,000 finding aids which provide information about the vast array of manuscripts and archival materials housed in historical societies, libraries, museums, colleges and universities across the Commonwealth. The continuous addition of new and updated finding aids makes this a great tool for discovering primary source materials documenting the history, culture, and people of Virginia.