Social History Commons^™

0819: Memphis Tennessee Garrison Papers, 1898-1981, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

This collection contains the personal, religious, educational, and political possessions of Memphis Tennessee Garrison. The collection includes correspondence, photographs, newspaper articles, programs, books, financial documents, publications, newsletters, plaques, certificates, a diary, and a jewelry box. The materials document Garrison’s various roles on the local and national levels of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People as well as her participation in other civil rights activities.

To view materials from this collection that are digitized and available online, search the Memphis Tennessee Garrison Papers, 1898-1981 here.

0816: First Presbyterian Church Of Huntington Records, 1890-2008, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

This collection contains the records of the First Presbyterian Church of Huntington from the 1890s to the early 2000s. Most of the collection falls between 1930 and 2002. Within the collection are administrative records such as minutes, registers, and accounting records; photographs of members, non-members, former members, church functions; scrapbooks of sanctuary renovations, church functions, and miscellaneous ephemera; newspaper clippings; an international collection; histories of the First Presbyterian Church; a large collection of lantern slides; and other various items.

To view materials from this collection that are digitized and available online, search the First Presbyterian Church of Huntington, 1890-2008 here.

0822: Lawrence H. "Bud" Rogers Papers, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

The collection consists primarily of newspaper articles, biographical sketches, and historical summaries of Mr. Roger's career in the television industry and the Federal Reserve Board. The bulk of the materials are related to his time as the General Manager of the WSAZ-TV station in Huntington, West Virginia and as the President of Taft Broadcasting Company in Cincinnati, Ohio. The collection contains some correspondence, both personal and business related. The collection is organized into two series; Series I, Personal Papers and, Series II, WSAZ-TV.

0820: Kenneth Hechler Papers, 1958-1976, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

This collection is composed of papers related to Ken Hechler's careers in teaching and writing as well as his personal life. Some political materials are represented as well as artifacts and other memorabilia.

0807: American Association Of University Women (Aauw), Wv Division, 1929-2011, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

This collection contains paper and multimedia materials related to the American Association of University Women- West Virginia Division from 1929-2011. The collection includes meeting minutes, agendas, and officer reports, publications, initiative plans, and correspondence. Branch yearbooks and statewide directories are also included, as well as workshop materials. The “kits” associated with the collection were produced by the AAUW on a national level, and distributed to chapters. Each kit is representative of AAUW workshops.

0812: Anderson-Newcomb Company And Family Collection, 1884-1980, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

The Anderson-Newcomb Collection contains material dealing with the company store such as financial reports, meeting logs, and silverware. It also includes material on the Anderson-Newcomb family and history on Huntington like the diary of Margaret Emily Cox Newcomb, William Newcomb's great-grandmother, newspaper articles, and magazines.

To view materials from this collection that are digitized and available online, search the Anderson-Newcomb Company and Family Collection, 1884-1980 here.

0802: Kay Wildman Collection, 1900-2006, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

The Kay Wildman Collection explores the history of music in Huntington, WV. This collection consists of oral histories, photographs, newspaper clippings, and research materials. In most of the oral histories you will find a copy of the interview on a CD and a typed outline of the interview. A diary by Robert Grant, a member of numerous musical groups in Huntington, can also be found in this collection. This diary covers the period of time Grant was a student at Marshall University with some additional entries that go beyond that period of time.

0854: Isaac H. Mitchell Biographical Sketch Collection, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

This collection consists of the research done by Scott Lemley and Rod Pell on Isaac Mitchell’s life and genealogy, including his descendants, in order for Mitchell to be memorialized by the Huntington Police Department in 2013. The bulk of the collection consists of printed copies of email correspondence between Lemley and Bob Mitchell and Michelle Shypkoski (both descendants of Isaac Mitchell), printed genealogies, and two copies of the memoirs of William Clare Mitchell, a descendant who moved to Idaho. Also included are the HPD Memorial Application, copied photographs of Isaac Mitchell’s grave and other family members, copied and transcribed newspaper …

0814: C. H. Freeman Collection, 1877-1977, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

Papers related to the C.H. Freeman estate. Zubah and C.H. Freeman had many investments such as the Yawkey and Freeman Coal Company and the Freeman Estates. This collection contains contract agreements for property purchases of the Estates, a contour map of what seems to be the Freeman’s country residence, and correspondences between Zubah and realtors. This collection also houses some of Zubah’s family documents including old letters, registers of visitors from Klingel-Carpenter Mortuary, and Paul and Ricky Ray’s basketball documents.

0797: The Woman's Club Of Huntington, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

The Woman’s Club of Huntington Collection includes materials from the early 1900s to the 2020s that document the club’s civic, cultural, and social work. The collection contains meeting minutes, club officer reports, financial records, membership lists, and correspondence. It also includes materials related to the club’s departments, events, and projects, such as newsletters, programs, and scrapbooks.

Records from the General Federation of Women’s Clubs and the West Virginia Federation of Women’s Clubs are included, along with documents about the club’s property and the sale of its clubhouse. Photographs, plaques, awards, and memorabilia show the club’s long history of community involvement. …

West Virginian Dancers: The Creation And Development Of The West Virginia Ballet Festival/West Virginia Dance Festival Community, Lauren Angel

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This thesis examines the West Virginia Ballet Festival (WVBF), which began in 1968 and became the West Virginia Dance Festival (WVDF) in 1981. This work studies the four groups that made up the festival community, including the West Virginia performance dance teachers who founded the festival, the West Virginia performance dance students who attend the events, the out-of-state professional guest artists who taught and performed at the festivals, and the nonartistic professional administrators who organized the WVDF. The WVBF/WVDF was part of West Virginia regional culture and the national performance dance boom. I argue that performance dance must be incorporated …

0796: Shirley Foster Streeby Mathews Collection, 1939-2003, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

The bulk of the collection contains newspaper clippings that Mrs. Mathews collected over the years about her former students. There are also a few dozen photographs, along with wedding invitations, school pageants and programs, commencements, handwritten and typed correspondence, reunion correspondence, Greenline newsletters (a publication for Marshall University alumni), church programs, funeral/death announcements and holiday cards. Most of the photos are identified on the back.

0795: Dr. Robert P. Alexander Collection, 1880-2000, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

Dr. Robert P. Alexander graduated from Marshall University in 1959. After graduating, Dr. Alexander was hired by Marshall University and traveled to the eastern panhandle of West Virginia to recruit prospective students. It was here he became interested in the town of Cass, WV. In 1969, Dr. Alexander completed his doctorate and became a professor of management and marketing. Dr. Alexander was also the Dean of Marshall University’s College of Business and also served sixteen years on Huntington, WV’s city council. In 1975 Dr. Alexander returned to Cass and created a living history of both the town and timbering industry …

0793: Thomas J. Buffington Copy Of Savage Land Grant Survey, 1816, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

This collection consists of a handwritten manuscript copy by Thomas J. Buffington of the plots distributed by the Savage Land Grant as resurveyed by Tupper, including plot descriptions. The manuscript is sewn as a pamphlet binding and the end pages include sums and other miscellaneous notes.

The Devil Was The First Scab : Working-Class Spirituality And Union Organization In Marion County, West Virginia 1918-1927, Chelsie C. Fitzwater

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

A community-focused study of Marion County, West Virginia provides a unique opportunity to explore unionization efforts in central Appalachia. This thesis examines the interplay between working-class spirituality, unionism, and capitalism at the height of organized labor campaigns in the Fairmont Field between 1918 and 1927. The region reflects national and local trends in trade unionism as well as shifts in religious attitudes between conservative Fundamentalist evangelists and progressive Social Gospel ministers. Marion County differs from other Appalachian coalfields because local industrialists rather than absentee developers spearheaded the region’s economic development while labor leaders from outside of the state led unionization …

“Facing East” From Iberian America: Postrevolutionary Spanish Policies In The Southwestern Backcountry, 1783-1792, Kevin T. Barksdale

History Faculty Research

Following the American Revolution, the new United States government and its citizenry greedily cast their eyes westward across the expansive trans-Appalachian frontier. The contest between the region’s native peoples, Anglo-American westerners, and Spanish colonists for the trans-Appalachian West began long before the first shots of the Revolution were fired at Lexington & Concord. From the near perpetual regional Indian warfare to the diplomatic maneuverings of Euroamerican backcountry leaders, the struggle to control the land the Indians called the “western waters” defined borderland relations for most of the 18th century. Historians have devoted a great deal of scholarly energy to chronicling …

0774: West Virginia State Society, National Society United States Daughters Of 1812 Records, 1982-2009, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

This collection contains the records for multiple chapters of the West Virginia State Society United Daughters of 1812. Chapters mentioned include the First West Virginia Chapter, Joshua Jones Chapter, Captain James Gibson Chapter, and the Lord Calvert Chapter. Records include yearly chapter reports to the West Virginia State Society, newsletters from the National Society, financial records, and assorted correspondence in record books regarding chapter activities. Louise Hickman materials in this collection include notes on chapter meetings, programs and papers presented at programs, and notes about early American music.

0770: Carrie Eldridge Collection, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

Carrie Eldridge is a genealogical researcher in Chesapeake, Ohio. This collection contains photocopies of many county record books of the Appalachian areas of West Virginia, Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky, ranging from the American Revolution until the end of the Civil War. The collection also contains high quality photographs of one room school houses of Cabell County, West Virginia, an audio cassette oral history, books, and pen nibs.

To view materials from this collection that are digitized and available online, search the Carrie Eldridge Collection here.

Appalachia’S Borderland Brokers: The Intersection Of Kinship, Diplomacy, And Trade On The Trans-Montane Backcountry, 1600-1800, Kevin T. Barksdale

History Faculty Research

This paper and accompanying historical argument builds upon the presentation I made at last year’s Ohio Valley History Conference held at Western Kentucky University. In that presentation, I argued that preindustrial Appalachia was a complex and dynamic borderland region in which disparate Amerindian groups and Euroamericans engaged in a wide-range of cultural, political, economic, and familial interactions. I challenged the Turnerian frontier model that characterized the North American backcountry as a steadily retreating “fall line” separating the savagery of Amerindian existence and the epidemic civility of Anglo-America. On the Turnerian frontier, Anglo-American culture washed over the Appalachian and Native American …

0763: Elizabeth Francis Agee Scrapbook, 1929-1934, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

This collection consists of one scrapbook entitled containing photographs, ephemera, and memorabilia collected by Elizabeth Francis (later Agee) during and after her time at Marshall. Materials in the scrapbook include an autograph and note section, dance cards, sorority correspondence and invitations, student government materials, a student directory, event programs, photographs of Francis at Marshall and, later, family photographs, a gradebook for an 8th grade course taught by Francis, and other mixed materials such as handkerchiefs and calling cards. Also included in the scrapbook are slips of paper identifying subjects or items written by Susan Riggs, Agee’s daughter.

0767:John R. Hendrickson Collection, 1969, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

This collection consists of two photographs, one group photo of John R. Hendrickson with Butch Leslie, Jack Brown, Elise Thacker, another of the 1969 group of Phi Kappa Tau members, and one Phi Kappa Tau sweater.

Oral History Interview: David Harris, David Harris

0064: Marshall University Oral History Collection

This interview is one of series conducted concerning the Oral History of Appalachia. Mr. Harris was the Director of Equity Programs and Associate Human Resource Director at Marshall University, as well as the president of the Black Alumni Inc. He discusses: his family and his childhood; his education; his service in the U.S. Army and his experiences in Vietnam; a business he started; coming to work at Marshall University; the McClain family (who were involved in the NAACP and other church and civic functions); civil rights; funerals and cemeteries; church; some history of Huntington (WV); and other topics.

Knights In White Satin: Women Of The Ku Klux Klan, Kelli R. Kerbawy

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The Ku Klux Klan is often thought of as a male-dominated organization; however there is evidence that women contributed to Klan efforts and participated in their own group, Women of the KKK. This study analyzes women’s involvement within the KKK during the 1920s. Women’s participation in early progressive movements, including temperance and suffrage, served as a catalyst for women’s involvement with the KKK. This paper explores women’s roles in the Ku Klux Klan as leaders within the WKKK. From earlier social movements, women gained knowledge needed to promote and expand the WKKK and other white supremacist women’s organizations. This paper …

0756: Emmons' Photograph Collection, 1885, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

This collection consists of two photographs of the Emmons family home located in Huntington, West Virginia. The home is no longer extant; the Hospice of Huntington is located where it once stood.

0757: First Presbyterian Church [Huntington, Wv] Records, 1839-1990, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

The First Presbyterian Church of Huntington Archives contain material dating back to the early nineteenth century, with the bulk of the items dating from between the 1880s and the 1990s. The collection consists primarily of 'Minutes of Session,' which relate to official church business; 'Bulletins,' which give information about church sermons, calendars, and events; and 'Church Groups,' which provide information on the social structure and individuals within the Church. There are extensive financial records pertaining to the church, as well as membership rosters for many Church groups, and some marriage/baptism registers. Also included are a few "histories" written by Church …

0762: Sally Cyrus Collection, 1910-2005, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

The Sally Cyrus Collection is the donated papers of Sally Cyrus, Peggy Cyrus, and Judy Cyrus. This collection chronicles their material contributions to several prominent Huntington organizations. This collection provides an in-depth look at the lives of one of Huntington’s upper-class families beginning in the 1920s and extending through the 1960s, a period in which Huntington experienced an economic boom and a population increase. The women whose lives are showcased in this collection were educated, socially elite, and financially secure. It is an insight to the gender role of the educated woman in high society and the activities she chose …

0760: Camp Creek Church Of Christ Register And Record, 1920-1950, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

A church record book for the Camp Creek Church of Christ located in the vicinity of East Lynn, West Virginia. The record book contains membership rosters, birth, death, and marriage information as well as financial information related to the congregation. Additional loose (un-numbered) register pages and correspondence are also included.

Mr. Tabor has created two digital copies of the Register book that are included. He also wrote a brief history (annotated) of the Camp Creek Church of Christ and compiled an index of the Christian and surnames of the congregation members. The history is boxed with the register, and the …

0749: Nelson Slade Bond Collection, 1920-2006, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

Nelson Slade Bond had a varied writing career that spanned 70 years. Primarily known for science fiction short stories, Bond also wrote plays, radio and television scripts, newspaper and magazine articles, poetry, public relations material, and books. The collection reflects the author's professional and personal lives consisting of writings, correspondence, business papers and financial records from 1925 to 2005. The collection was donated in four installments during and after Bond’s life from April 2006 to September 2007. The order in which the materials were received is maintained with only minor modifications. Input from Nelson Bond and his family members was …

0745: Bokair Family Papers, 1916-1971, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

The collection consists of paper materials related to the Bokair family, especially Ellen Kathryn Bokair. Items include student newspapers, concert programs, and other memorabilia related to Huntington High School during the mid-1950s, as well as letters to Ellen Kathryn from Job’s Daughters and the American Business Women’s Association. Information on other members of the Bokair family is minimal and includes a wedding invitation, report cards, a ceremony pamphlet, letter, and a newspaper article. While the collection spans the years, 1916-1971, the bulk of items date from the 1950s and 1960s.

0754: John M. Mossman Photograph Collection, 1911-2004, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

Collection of photographs from the Mossman family. One CD rom disk with photos of Maurice Edwin Mossman entitled WW I and Paris 1918-1919. Other photos include the 1937 flood, the Mud River flood, site of the Huntington Mall, and the Huntington Band competition in 1948 and 1949.