Series 6. Writers Project, Boxes 103-108

Includes records related to publication of "West Virginia, A Guide to the Mountain State". Includes correspondence, narratives, research reports, and forms collected and prepared by the Writers' Program staff. Correspondence is between federal and state offices of the Writers Program, government officials, local chambers of commerce, national and state publications and newspapers, prominent historian Dr. Roy Bird Cook (located in box 104, folder 6), and West Virginia University professors such as Louis Chappell and Maurice Brooks, among others (located in box 104, folders 1-5). Several of the narratives are in a traveling tour format, recording directions, locations, and information pertaining to points of interest throughout the state. There are also drafts, final manuscripts, and galleys for "A Guide to the Mountain State". Also includes magazine articles, newspaper clippings, statistics, chemical analyses, photographs, manuscripts, and illustrations related to publication of the "West Virginia, A Guide to the Mountain State".

Additional administrative records for the Writers' Program in West Virginia can be found in A&M 527, West Virginia University, WPA Writers Project, Records, at this repository.

Notable items in the Writers' Project series include:

information pertaining to mineral springs such as White Sulphur Springs, Salt Springs, Capon Springs, and Old Sweet Springs, among others (located in box 103, folder 4);

historical narratives regarding the first telephone service in West Virginia, and the introduction of the first night-train travel service by Henry G. Davis (both items located in box 103, folder 9);

transcripts of correspondence (1747-1754) between The Board of Trade and Plantations and the Royal Governors of the Colony Of Virginia regarding French encroachment and Indian attacks in the English colony's territory, including a 1754 letter from Governor Dinwiddie reporting "Mr. Washington's" observations during his recent expedition to the western Virginia territory (located in box 104, folder 9);

transcripts of excerpts from the 1743-1748 journals of Moravian missionaries Leonard Schnell, Robert Hussey, Matthias Gottschalk, Joseph Spangenberg, and Matthew Reutz during their travels through northwestern Virginia (Patterson Creek and South Branch) down the Shenandoah Valley to Georgia, recording their observations of the wilderness and reactions to their ministries (located in box 104, folder 11);

transcript of a proclamation from Virginia's Royal Lt. Governor Gooch, warning settlers that "... Itinerant Preachers have...crept into this Colony...those corrupters of our Faith and true religion to propagate their shocking doctrines..." (located in box 104, folder 11).