Appendix D: Research Methods for Appalachian History

This appendix provides a practical guide to the research methods most commonly used in Appalachian historical scholarship. It is designed for students undertaking the Community History Portfolio (the textbook's progressive project) and for anyone interested in conducting original research on Appalachian topics.

1. Archival Research

What Archives Hold

Archives preserve the raw materials of history: letters, diaries, business records, government documents, photographs, maps, newspapers, and organizational records. For Appalachian history, key archival collections include:

  • University archives: West Virginia University (West Virginia and Regional History Center), University of Kentucky (Special Collections and Appalachian Center), Appalachian State University (W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection), East Tennessee State University (Archives of Appalachia), University of Virginia (Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections), Virginia Tech (Special Collections).
  • State archives: West Virginia Division of Culture and History, Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives, Virginia Museum of History and Culture, North Carolina State Archives, Tennessee State Library and Archives.
  • Federal archives: National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) holds records of the Bureau of Mines, TVA, ARC, Freedmen's Bureau, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and other agencies central to Appalachian history.
  • Specialized collections: Reuther Library at Wayne State University (UMWA records), Southern Appalachian Archives at Mars Hill University, Foxfire Archives in Mountain City, Georgia.

How to Conduct Archival Research

  1. Identify your question before visiting the archive. Archives contain millions of documents; you need a focus.
  2. Use finding aids. Most archives have online guides describing their collections. Search these before visiting to identify relevant record groups.
  3. Contact the archivist. Archivists are experts in their collections. Email or call ahead, describe your project, and ask for guidance. This is the single most valuable step you can take.
  4. Follow the rules. Archives have specific protocols for handling materials (pencils only, no food/drink, gloves for photographs, etc.). Respect these -- they preserve the materials for future researchers.
  5. Take careful notes. Record the full citation for every document you examine: collection name, box number, folder number, document title, date, and page numbers. Losing track of sources is the most common archival research mistake.
  6. Photograph when permitted. Most archives now allow photography of documents for personal research use. A smartphone camera can capture thousands of pages in a single visit.

2. Oral History

Oral history is uniquely important in Appalachian studies because much of the region's history -- especially the experiences of working-class people, women, racial minorities, and Indigenous communities -- was not documented in written records. See Appendix F for a detailed guide to conducting oral history interviews.

Key Oral History Collections

  • Appalachian Oral History Project: University of Kentucky and Alice Lloyd College. Hundreds of interviews conducted since the 1970s.
  • Marshall University Oral History of Appalachia: Extensive collection from West Virginia.
  • Archives of Appalachia (ETSU): Interviews focused on east Tennessee.
  • Southern Oral History Program (UNC-Chapel Hill): Includes Appalachian interviews within broader southern history.
  • Foxfire Archives: Interviews with elders about traditional skills and knowledge.
  • StoryCorps Appalachian collections: More recent community-gathered narratives.

Using Existing Oral Histories

When using oral histories collected by others, consider: Who conducted the interview? When? What questions were asked (and not asked)? What was the relationship between interviewer and interviewee? How was the interview transcribed, and were the narrator's dialect and speech patterns preserved or "corrected"?

3. Census and Demographic Data

Federal Census Records

The U.S. Census, conducted every ten years since 1790, is foundational for Appalachian demographic research. Census data reveal population, household composition, occupation, property ownership, literacy, place of birth, and (from 1850 forward) individual-level data.

  • 1790-1840 censuses: List heads of household only, with tick marks for household members by age and sex.
  • 1850-1870 censuses: Individual names, ages, occupations, property values, birthplaces. The 1860 Slave Schedule lists enslaved people by age, sex, and color (but not name).
  • 1880-1940 censuses: Increasingly detailed individual data, including relationship to household head, parents' birthplaces, and (in 1940) education level.
  • Access: Census records through 1950 are available free at FamilySearch.org and through paid subscriptions at Ancestry.com. The National Archives provides microfilm and digital access.

Other Demographic Sources

  • ARC data: The Appalachian Regional Commission publishes county-level data on poverty, education, healthcare, and economic indicators at arc.gov.
  • County Business Patterns: Bureau of Census data on employment by industry at the county level.
  • Vital statistics: Birth, death, and marriage records maintained by state vital records offices.
  • American Community Survey: Annual demographic estimates between decennial censuses, useful for contemporary research.

4. GIS and Mapping

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have become increasingly important in Appalachian studies for visualizing spatial patterns -- coal production by county, mountaintop removal extent, health disparity distributions, migration patterns, and historical change over time.

Approaches

  • Historical map overlays: Compare historical maps (available from the Library of Congress Geography and Map Division, David Rumsey Map Collection, and USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection) with modern GIS layers to trace landscape change.
  • Coal production data: Map coal production and employment data by county over time to visualize the industry's rise and decline.
  • Environmental mapping: Use USGS and EPA datasets to map stream burial from valley fills, deforestation, and water quality.
  • Demographic mapping: Visualize population change, poverty rates, health outcomes, and other indicators at the county level over time.

Tools

  • QGIS: Free, open-source GIS software suitable for student research.
  • ArcGIS: Professional GIS software, often available through university site licenses.
  • Google Earth Pro: Free software useful for visualizing terrain and overlaying historical maps.
  • Social Explorer: Online platform for mapping historical census data (available through many university libraries).

5. Newspaper Archives

Newspapers are invaluable for understanding how events were understood at the time they occurred, what mattered to communities, and how the region was represented to outsiders.

Appalachian Newspapers

  • Chronicling America (Library of Congress): Free access to digitized historical newspapers. Searchable by state, date, and keyword. Extensive coverage of Appalachian papers.
  • Newspapers.com and NewspaperArchive.com: Commercial databases with broader coverage. Available through many libraries.
  • State-specific digital collections: The West Virginia Newspaper Project, Virginia Chronicle, and North Carolina Newspapers are freely accessible online.
  • Local historical societies: Often hold complete runs of small-town weeklies not available in digital databases.

Using Newspaper Sources Critically

Newspapers are primary sources, not objective records. Consider: Who owned the paper? (In company towns, the company often controlled the local paper.) Who was the intended audience? What perspectives are absent? How does the language used reveal the writer's assumptions and biases?

Court records are essential for understanding property transactions, labor disputes, civil rights cases, and criminal justice in Appalachian communities.

Types of Court Records

  • Deed books: Record property transfers, including the broad form deeds central to coal country history. Available at county courthouses and increasingly digitized.
  • Will books and estate inventories: Reveal wealth, property (including enslaved people in the antebellum period), family relationships, and economic life.
  • Circuit court records: Civil and criminal cases, including labor dispute injunctions, mine safety violations, and environmental litigation.
  • Federal court records: Available through PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) for modern cases and through NARA for historical federal court records.
  • Appalachian Citizens' Law Center (Whitesburg, KY): Legal archives related to coal mining, environmental, and community issues.
  • Mountain Justice (various): Records of environmental and social justice litigation.

7. Photographs and Visual Sources

Visual sources -- photographs, postcards, illustrations, maps, and film -- provide evidence that written sources cannot: what places actually looked like, how people dressed and lived, the physical reality of mining operations, company towns, and environmental devastation.

Key Photographic Collections

  • Farm Security Administration / Office of War Information (FSA/OWI) Collection: The Library of Congress holds over 175,000 photographs from this Depression-era program, including extensive documentation of Appalachian poverty, labor, and daily life. Photographers included Marion Post Wolcott, Russell Lee, and Ben Shahn.
  • National Archives Still Pictures Branch: Mine disaster photographs, TVA construction documentation, CCC camp photographs, and Bureau of Mines inspection images.
  • Appalachian Photographic Archives (Appalachian State University): Photographs of the North Carolina mountains from the late nineteenth century forward.
  • Eastern Kentucky University Special Collections: Coal camp photographs, company town documentation, and eastern Kentucky community images.
  • The Coalfield Progress Collection: The newspaper's photographic archive documents coalfield life in southwest Virginia across decades.

Using Photographs Critically

Every photograph was taken by someone, for a purpose. Consider: Who took this photograph? For what audience? What is included in the frame -- and what is excluded? Photographs taken by outside journalists, FSA photographers, or settlement school workers may emphasize poverty and backwardness to serve institutional narratives. Family photographs and community-generated images often tell a different story. Both kinds of evidence are valuable, but they must be read differently.

8. Digital Humanities Approaches

Digital humanities methods are expanding the tools available for Appalachian research.

Text Analysis

Digital tools can analyze large bodies of text -- newspaper archives, legislative records, literary collections -- for patterns invisible to individual readers. Topic modeling, sentiment analysis, and word frequency analysis can reveal shifts in how Appalachia was discussed in national media over time. For example, tracking the frequency of words like "hillbilly," "poverty," and "coal" in national newspapers across decades can reveal how media framing of the region has changed.

Digital Archives and Exhibits

Numerous Appalachian digital projects make primary sources accessible online:

  • Appalachian Teaching Project: arc.gov teaching resources.
  • West Virginia History OnView: Online exhibits from the West Virginia Division of Culture and History.
  • Digital Library of Appalachia: Hosted by the Appalachian College Association, includes photographs, oral histories, and documents from member colleges across the region.
  • Foxfire online archives: Selected materials from the Foxfire collection.
  • Kentucky Digital Library (kdl.kyvl.org): Digitized books, photographs, maps, and oral histories from Kentucky institutions.
  • Virginia Memory (virginiamemory.com): The Library of Virginia's digital collections, including land records, photographs, and government documents.

Community-Based Digital Projects

Students conducting the Community History Portfolio may consider creating digital exhibits, interactive maps, or online oral history collections that can be shared with the communities they research. Tools such as Omeka (for digital exhibits), StoryMap (for narrative mapping), and Oral History Metadata Synchronizer (OHMS) make these projects accessible without advanced technical skills. The goal should be to create something that serves the community, not just the researcher.

8. Ethical Considerations in Appalachian Research

Research in and about Appalachia raises specific ethical questions that every researcher should consider:

  • Who benefits? Research about Appalachia has historically served outsiders' interests (academic careers, policy agendas, media narratives) more than it has served the communities studied. Consider how your research can benefit the people and communities it examines.
  • Representation. Appalachian people have been extensively studied, photographed, and written about, often without their consent or participation. Ensure that your research represents people with dignity and includes their perspectives.
  • Community sensitivity. Topics such as poverty, substance abuse, and family dysfunction are real parts of Appalachian life, but they are also the subjects of exploitative media coverage. Present these topics with context and humanity.
  • Reciprocity. If a community grants you access to its stories and records, consider what you can give back -- copies of your research, presentations to local groups, donations to local archives.
  • Informed consent. For oral history and any research involving living people, obtain informed consent and respect individuals' wishes about anonymity and use of their stories.

For detailed guidance on oral history methods, see Appendix F. For a step-by-step guide to researching a specific county, see Appendix G.