From March 16 to July 6, the National Archives will display a new exhibit entitled “Power & Light: Russell Lee’s Coal Survey.” It features more than 200 photographs taken by documentary photographer Russell Lee.
Coal mining has long served a place of importance in Appalachian history. But a new exhibit in Washington, D.C. will help the region’s industrial past reach a wider audience later this week.
From March 16 to July 6, the National Archives will display a new exhibit entitled “Power & Light: Russell Lee’s Coal Survey.” It features more than 200 photographs taken by documentary photographer Russell Lee.
In 1946, Lee conducted a survey across 13 U.S. states, documenting the inner workings of the coal industry and its impact on miners and their families.
Alongside his wife Jean, Lee captioned the collection of works slated for display. His survey followed a series of strikes from coal miners that had originally been met with national skepticism, according to the National Archives website.
The exhibit spans 3,000 square feet of the Lawrence F. O’Brien Gallery. It also features a handwritten note from President Harry Truman on the strikes, and several other primary sources.
The exhibit is free and open to members of the public.
Students studying Digital Humanities at Marshall University build archive for historical documents relating to forgotten writer, Tom Kromer.
Tom Kromer was a prolific writer best known for his semi-autobiographical 1935 novel, “Waiting for Nothing.” Kromer’s work is heavily inspired from his experience with homelessness during the Great Depression.
Now, students studying digital humanities at Marshall University have developed an online archive of the forgotten work.
Kromer was born in 1906 in Huntington, where he studied journalism at what was then Marshall College.
“You didn’t know that an author, that papers at the time compared to Hemingway, lived here,” said Stefan Schöberlein, director of digital humanities at Marshall University, “There’s no marker to Kromer at his birthplace, no statue or sign for him anywhere in town, and no street bearing his name.”
Students designed the Tom Kromer Digital Archive in an effort to restore his visibility. Students put four variations of Waiting for Nothing in the archive, including a German translation, an annotated edition, and an audiobook.
kromerarchive.org
Annotated Edition of, “Waiting for Nothing.”
Kristen Clark helped produce the Waiting for Nothing audiobook.
“The way the work is written it’s kind of like Kromer speaking to you about his experience,” she said. “Having somebody read it to you embodies that affect really well.“
The archive also features transcribed book reviews from the time the book was published, a student developed podcast, and virtual tour using the external history website, Clio.
Michael Martin said the Kromer Clio tour focuses on locations of personal significance to Kromer in New Mexico, Virginia, and West Virginia. Students chose locations like the Keith-Albee Theatre (now known as the Keith Albee Performing Arts Center) in Huntington, which relates to his time at Marshall. Martin said, “He had a small experiment for the journalism major that he wrote about, where he panhandled in that little area.”
kromerarchive.org
“Waiting For Nothing,” Newspaper Reviews
During the early 20th century, Kromer was part of a growing American socialist movement. He spent time writing for socialist newspapers in Appalachia and around the rest of the United States.
“It was a great piece of culture to read about to really give the other side of the sentiments at the time, because of course, when you’re learning about the Cold War, you learn about America as being super anti communist, when in reality there was a huge movement,” Krys Smith explained.
Students working on the archive interviewed one of Kromer’s nephews, Steve Barnhill. Although Barnhill was young when he knew his uncle, he recalls that his family suspected Kromer of being a Russian spy.
Stephen Schöberlein
/
Marshall University
Marshall University Students Interviewing Steve Barnhill Over Video Call
Although Kromer’s work has a wider scope than Appalachia, Michael Martin says the influence is present.
“Kromer very specifically writes from a proletariat perspective,” Martin said. “It’s something that you wouldn’t get in a lot of other places that didn’t have the specific economic conditions Huntington had and still has.”
Despite students archiving a great deal of documents, many of Kromer’s writings are lost forever as a consequence of the Red Scare.
As an example, Schöberlein said, “his literary agent was Maxim Lieber, who was then accused of being a Soviet spy, so he fled the country and burned most of his correspondence.”
Despite the loss of historical documents, students are still optimistic about what they can find, as many documents are left to be discovered in the physical archives of newspapers and libraries, and private storage; what scholars refer to as The Great Unread. The students are looking to expand the Tom Kromer Digital Archive with more podcasts and more documents.
“Living history through this single man and his writings throughout the country was probably my favorite part about this whole experience,” Smith said.
Kromer is buried in Springhill Cemetery in Huntington, West Virginia.
You can find the Tom Kromer Digital Archive at kromerarchive.org.
The exhibit titled, “Robert C. Byrd: Senator, Statesman, West Virginian,” is a two-year, traveling exhibit featuring the life and legacy of U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd.
“The exhibit runs all the way from his birth and his childhood in West Virginia’s coalfields, all the way up through his rise to both chambers of West Virginia’s state legislature into the House of Representatives and then into the U.S. Senate,” Brumage explained.
Senator Byrd holds the record as the longest-serving U.S. Senator in history.
Ray Smock, the Director of the Robert C. Byrd Center, explains how the exhibit is displayed on large, colorful panels.
“The exhibit itself is printed on a fabric,” Smock said, “and what it is, is it’s photographs and it’s documents from the Byrd Collection; some artifacts, photographs of artifacts and these [are] dramatically presented in a designed, graphic way.”
Smock says he hopes the exhibit starts a conversation among West Virginians – looking at the late senator’s accomplishments but also at the controversial aspects of his life.
Visitors will be able to read letters Byrd wrote, see artwork he did as a child, and other artifacts from his campaigns.
The exhibit will be open Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. beginning Monday, May 2, 2016 at the Robert C. Byrd Center at Shepherd University. It will be available at this location through May 20, 2016.
The exhibit will then travel throughout the state, eventually making its way to Charleston in November 2017 – in time for the celebration of Byrd’s 100th birthday.
The West Virginia Division of Culture and History is introducing a new online tool to search U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin’s gubernatorial papers.
Officials say Manchin is scheduled to attend an exhibition and demonstration Friday at the Culture Center in Charleston.
The collection includes a diverse selection of materials beginning with his inaugural speech in January 2005. The collection runs through November 2010, when he resigned his position to fill the U.S. Senate position made vacant by the death of longtime Sen. Robert C. Byrd. It includes speeches, proclamations, general correspondence, photographs and other materials.
An online search tool will allow people free, 24-hour access to the catalog listings. Archives patrons may then visit the library in Charleston to view the papers and request copies of materials in the collection.
