Special Collections Research Center

In 1973, representatives from Appalachian State University collected interviews from local citizen to create a wealth of data for those interested in researching the Appalachian Region. The project was known as the “Appalachian Oral History Project” (AOHP), and became a consortium with Alice Lloyd College and Lees Junior College (now Hazard County Community College) both in Kentucky, Emory and Henry College in Virginia, and ASU. This digital collection contains selections from the approximately 600 audiocassette recordings. 

This digital collection consists primarily of videos about Appalachian musicians and festivals including segments featuring Bill Monroe, Doc Watson, and Ralph Stanley. Chuck Hemrick produced this popular weekly news feature focused on local cultural traditions, which were part of the Friday evening news, from February 1990 to September 1993.  Although many videos are music-oriented, others focus on molasses, the Appalachian Trail, hiking, cheese making, pottery, gee haw whimmy diddles, grist mills, and art, among other topics.

This collection includes reel-to-reel and audio cassette recordings of Haney's bluegrass festivals.

This digital collection contains the recordings, which Jack Guy personally collected of northwestern North Carolina performers.

The 11 items in this digital collection are from the Johnny Rhymer Music and Papers (AC-825), Series 2 and contains original audiocassettes and phonograph records of 1940s country and bluegrass singers and pickers.

Mountain Home Music, Inc. is a non-profit corporation strives to educate and build community through the arts. Many local Appalachian people and groups have performed for Mountain Home Music throughout the years. The contents of the collection are dated primarily in 1994-1995 and generally include broadcasts and recordings. This digital collection is only a portion of the Mountain Home Music materials in the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection.

William Amos “Doc” Abrams (1905-1991) was chairman of the English Department at Appalachian State Teacher’s College (ASTC) from 1932 to 1946. In the 1930s, Dr. Abrams built a reputation as an enthusiastic collector, scholar and promoter of North Carolina folklore. The W. Amos Abrams Folksong Collection, presented here as part of the Documenting Appalachia digital initiative, consists of approximately 1,100 document pages that comprise some 400 individual song titles, most of which have multiple variants, as well as field recordings from 1938 to 1946.

Students of the American Military History Course at Appalachian State University conduct interviews with military veterans and record their military experiences in order to create an archive of oral history interviews that are publicly accessible to researchers.

Renowned racing publisher, publicist, and broadcaster Hank Schoolfield (1930-2008) donated original recordings of NASCAR races to the Stock Car Racing Collection. The collection of open-reel tapes are radio race broadcasts from the Universal Racing Network, which Schoolfield owned. URN was the first independent radio network to broadcast races.