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Digital Collections & Exhibits

Postcard of Clarysville Civil War Hospital

Clarysville Civil War Hospital

The Clarysville Hospital Digital Collection features scanned images of hundreds of hospital bed cards from the U.S. General Hospital located at Clarysville, Maryland during the American Civil War. 

Photograph of George and Kay Evans with their little white dog named Holly in 1980.

George Bird Evans

The George Bird Evans Digital Collection contains sixty-five years of detailed hand written hunting journals, which document George and Kay’s pursuit of both woodcock and grouse behind their personally created line of Old Hemlock setters.

Photograph of Jerry West shooting a basketball with four other players near him.

Jerry West

The Jerry West Digital Collection includes photographs of Jerry West throughout his life and career. The collection contains photographs and brief clips from interviews with Jerry’s teammates, friends, and family.

Black-and-white photograph of a man, woman, and two children on a porch swing.

West Virginia History Onview

West Virginia History Onview contains the most comprehensive collection of historic photographs pertaining to West Virginia, dated 1850 to the present. New photographs are added every month. 

Political cartoon about Rush Holt featuring the U.S. Congress in the background and members running from the building

Rush Dew Holt Political Cartoons

Holt served as a West Virginia state legislator and U.S. Senator.  At 29, he was the youngest person popularly elected to the U.S. Senate. During his brief career in politics, he was the subject of hundreds of cartoons. 

Black-and-white photograph of Arch Moore with Shelley Moore and a girl sitting next to a sign that says "Vote Tuesday"

Arch Moore Jr. & Shelley Moore Archives

Arch Moore Jr. and Shelley Riley Moore served the people of West Virginia for more than 30 years. The archives document Arch Moore’s career as a congressman and West Virginia’s only three-term governor.

Photograph of Congressman Rahall shaking hands with President Jimmy Carter

Congressman Nick Joe Rahall II

U.S. Congressman Nick Joe Rahall II served the people of West Virginia for nearly forty years. He began his political service in the early 1970s. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1976  and was re-elected for nineteen terms, serving from January 3, 1977-January 2, 2015.

Photograph of Senator Jay Rockefeller gesturing with his hand during a Senate committee hearing

Senator John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV

Senator John Davison (Jay) Rockefeller IV served West Virginia for more than 50 years. He came to West Virginia in 1964 as a VISTA volunteer. He served in the West Virginia House of Delegates, as Secretary of State, President of West Virginia Wesleyan College, and Governor. In 1984 he was elected to the United States Senate and was reelected four times.

A criminal Bertillon card

International Association for Identification

Founded in 1915, the International Association for Identification is the world's oldest and largest criminal identification organization. In 2005, the IAI selected the WVU Libraries to house its priceless research library due in part to WVU's pioneering program in the field of Forensic and Investigative Sciences education.

A Western Union telegram

Francis H. Pierpont Civil War Telegram Series

Francis H. Pierpont (1814–1899) was elected governor of the “Loyal” or “Restored” Government of Virginia, which was formed in Wheeling shortly after the state’s Richmond government left the Union to join the Confederacy in May 1861.


Photograph of three Storer College students holding a Storer pennant

Storer College Digital Photographs

The Storer College Digital Photographs Collection includes over 600 images that document the school from its creation just after the end of the Civil War to its dissolution in 1955. They provide a glimpse of buildings, class projects, sporting events and student life in general on the campus.

Photograph of USS West Virginia being attacked at Pearl Harbor

USS West Virginia Photographs

The USS West Virginia Digital Photograph Collection includes over 100 images that document the life of the battleship. Initially launched in 1921, the battleship was sunk during the attack on Pearl Harbor, raised and repaired, and fought in the Pacific theater until the end of World War II.

Charles Frederick Tucker Brooke

WVU's First Rhodes Scholar: Charles Frederick Tucker Brooke

In October 1904, West Virginia University’s first Rhodes Scholar, Charles Frederick Tucker Brooke, or “Tucker Brooke,” as he was known, set off for England to study literature at St. John’s College, Oxford University.

Congressman Nick Rahall speaks to constituents on the steps of the U.S. Capitol

The People's Branch: Exploring the U.S. Congress in the Archives

This exhibit explores the basic functions of Congress and the importance of the institution in American democracy.

President Lyndon Johnson signing the 1964 Civil Rights Act

For the Dignity of Man and the Destiny of Democracy: The Voting Rights Act of 1965

This exhibit looks at the events that led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the its passage in Congress.

Patteson for governor campaign button

Vote for Me: West Virginia Political Memorabilia

This exhibit uncovers the histories behind the artifacts that became the symbols of West Virginia campaigns, parties, and politicians.

Portraits of women superimposed beside each other

Women's Suffrage in West Virginia

This exhibit documents the efforts to get women the vote in the Mountain State in the early 1900s.

Senator Rockefeller

Intelligence & Oversight After 9/11

Using select materials from the archives of Senator Jay Rockefeller, this exhibit explores how the intelligence community and Senate Select Committee on Intelligence responded to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

hands crafting straw broom

WV Folklife Collection

The West Virginia Folklife Program Collection is an ongoing archival collection consisting of materials generated by folklife fieldwork and programs conducted by the West Virginia Folklife Program at the West Virginia Humanities Council, beginning November 2015. 

Men playing folk music

Folk Songs of the Coalfields

This collection features over a hundred historic field recordings of West Virginia folk music from the Louis Watson Chappell Archive. Music from the Coalfields focuses on a 1940 collecting trip Chappell made to Logan, Lincoln, and Mingo Counties.

bufalo creek

The Buffalo Creek Disaster

On the 50th anniversary of the disaster, this exhibit explores the history of the Buffalo Creek disaster and implications for the present. 

Three soldiers who appear to be marching through forest

David Hunter Strother Collection

David Hunter Strother was among the most well-known illustrators in America during the mid-19th century. His greatest talent as an illustrator rested in capturing the everyday life and ways of the average people.

Cream colored yearbook cover with WVU written in gold vertically on the right and the univeristy seal on the left

WVU Publications

A selection of digitized WVU publications, such as yearbooks (The Monticola and The Pylon), course catalogues, and student handbooks.