West Virginia Folklife Program Collection

Collection

Collection Number: A&M 4224

Staff Only

West Virginia Folklife Digital Collection

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Scope and Contents

Digital photographs, video recordings, oral history recordings and transcripts, folk music recordings and more collected as part of the West Virginia Folklife Program at the West Virginia Humanities Council. These recordings and files were generated by folklore fieldwork and programs conducted by the West Virginia Folklife Program state folklorist and other West Virginia Humanities Council staff, interns, and contracted professional folklorists and photographers.

This field research focuses on the traditional and vernacular music, dance, crafts, foodways, and material culture of the people of West Virginia, from long settled to new immigrant communities, as well as the traditional culture, beliefs, occupational skills, and expressive traditions of tradition bearers and cultural communities across West Virginia.

Dates

Creation: 1965-2021 and undated
Publication: 2016-2021 and undated

Conditions Governing Access

Researchers may remotely access digitized materials by visiting https://wvfolklife.lib.wvu.edu/

Conditions Governing Use

The West Virginia Folklife Program will retain full ownership and all copyrights it currently controls in the collection but grants WVU Libraries the right to authorize all uses of these materials for non-commercial research, scholarly, or other educational purposes.

Biographical / Historical

The West Virginia Folklife Program, a project of the West Virginia Humanities Council, works to document, sustain, present, and support West Virginia’s vibrant cultural heritage and living traditions. West Virginia Folklife is supported by a partnership with the West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture & History, Mid Atlantic Arts’ Central Appalachia Living Traditions, and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Folk & Traditional Arts Program.

The West Virginia Humanities Council employed West Virginia’s first state folklorist, Emily Hilliard. who established the West Virginia Folklife Program and directed the program from 2015 to 2021. In 2022, ethnomusicologist and folklorist Jennie Williams joined the council staff and serves as the current state folklorist, as of 2025.