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. Fieldworkers include the West Virginia state folklorist and other West Virginia Humanities Council staff, interns, and contracted professional folklorists and photographers.

This collection includes unique primary source material including audio recordings, transcriptions, photo and video documentation, ephemera, and some related material objects documenting the vernacular culture, beliefs, occupational skills, and expressive traditions of tradition bearers, traditional artists, and cultural communities across West Virginia. 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. The goal of this collection is to create a publicly accessible archive of past, current, and future West Virginia folklife, folk and traditional arts, and cultural heritage.