Appalachia: Photographs and Pictorial Works

The art-making traditions in Appalachia span approximately two centuries. This bibliography focuses on books and other resources that feature photographs or pictorial works with discussion. These works can be found in both the Fine Arts and General collections. Sections featuring periodocals and web sites are included, but not comprehensive.

Fine Arts Collection: 3rd floor

America 1935-1946.
Arts Micro 3rd Floor E169.A43 1980x. Index and fiche.
87,000 captioned photographs of the Farm Security Administration and the Office of War Information ... arranged by region and by subject.

Bound for Glory: America in Color 1939-43. Introduction by Paul Hedrickson, New York : H.N. Abrams ; Washington, D.C. : In Association with the Library of Congress, 2004.
Arts TR820.5 .B685 2004
From the FSA/OWI Collection, The Library of Congress.

Farm Security Administration : la fotografia sociale americana del New Deal : mostra itinerante / organized by the Center for Studies and Museum of Photography and by the History Institute of Art of the University of Parma with the sponsorship of the Emilia-Romagna Region; introduction of Arthur Carl Quintavalle. Parma : [STEP, 1975].
Arts TR820.5 .P37x
Sections on Appalachia are by Ben Shahn, Walker Evans, Mary Prescott Walker and others.

Our Town. 1992 by Aperture Foundation.
Arts TR654 .O968 1992x.
p.40-43, Photographs and essay by Shelby Lee Adams: Appalachia, The Other Side of the Mountain. Focus on an eastern Kentucky family funeral.

Adams, Shelby Lee. Appalachian Lives. Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, c2003.
Arts F217 .A65 A25 2003
A work about Appalachian social life and customs.

Adams, Shelby Lee. Appalachian Portraits. 1993.
Arts F217.A65 A23 1993
Made in the Appalachian Mountains of eastern Kentucky, part of a series begun in the summer of 1974. Contemporary portraits of individuals and families shot from 1970's through the early 1990's.

Barnwell, Tim. On Earth's Furrowed Brow: The Appalachian Farm in Photographs. Foreword by John Ehle. New York : W.W. Norton, 2007.
Arts F217.A65 B385 2007
Portraits taken over 25 years, from 1977, of people from North Carolina and Tennessee. Chapters on tobacco, business and handicrafts, food production, religion, etc

Barnwell, Tim. Face of Appalachia. Portraits of the mountain farm. Foreword by George Tice. New York : W.W. Norton, 2003.
Arts F217.A65 B38 2003
Chronicles North Carloina farm life for a period of about 25 years, from 1977 on. Includes oral histories and biographical information on the author.

Brannan, Beverly W. and Horvath, David, editors. Kentucky Album. Farm Security Photographs, 1935-1943. 1989.
Arts F456 K35 1986.
Rural life, religious customs, education, social gatherings, cities and town, transportation, coal mining and the homefront. Majority of the images taken by Marion Post Wolcott, Ben Shahn, Russell Lee and John Vachon also shot in Kentucky.

Buchanan, Paul. Picture Man. Photographs by Paul Buchanan. Foreword and introduction by Bruce Morton. Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, c1993.
Arts F255 B86 1993.
From the 1920s until 1951, Buchanan wandered four North Carolina mountain counties - Mitchell, Avery, Yancy, and McDowell - and "took a lot of pictures". These are portraits of people.

Clark, Joe. Tennessee Hill Folk. Photographs and captions by Joe Clark, with an essay by Jesse Stuart. Nashville, Vanderbilt University Press, 1972.
Arts F210 C53
A pictorial work of Appalachian social life and customs.

Dotter, Earl. The Quiet Sickness. A Photographic Chronicle of Hazardous Work in America. Fairfax, VA : American Industrial Hygiene Association, 1998.
Arts T55 .D72 1998
A photo exhibit at the American Industrial Hygiene Association annual conference, in the spring of 1996.

DuPuy, Edward L. Artisans of the Appalachians.
Arts HD2346.U52 A64
Photographs and orginal material by Edward L. Dupuy, text by Emma Weaver. 1973. Presents individual craftsmen and women, how they live and work. Photographs and tape-recorded interviews. Smokies of NC, TN, Blue Ridge foot-hils of north Georgia and SC.

Eaton, Allen H. Handicrafts of the Southern Highlands. New York, Russell Sage Foundation, 1937.
Arts NK814 E2
With an account of the rural handicraft movement in the United States and suggestions for the wider use of handicrafts in adult education and recreation. 1937.

Ewald, Wendy. Secret Games. Collaborative Works with Children 1969-1999.  Zurich : Scalo ; London : Thames & Hudson, 2000.
Arts TR647 E935 A4 2000x.
Pages 34-73 are from Letcher County, Kentucky 1975-1982, where Ewald taught. Photographs are by Ewald and her young students.

Haskell Spear, Jean. Appalachian photographs of Earl Palmer. Jean Haskell Speer. 1990. Arts F217.A65 S72 1990
Photographs of people at their crafts and daily activities, mostly Virginia, also West Virginia and Kentucky.

Hurley, F. Jack. Russell Lee Photographer. Introduction by Robert Coles. Morgan & Morgan: Dobbs Ferry, NY, 1978.
Arts TR820.5.L42 (2 copies)
A lengthy discussion and pictorial work on 1930's America, as seen through the lens of FSA photographer Lee.

Hyde, Arnout A Portrait of West Virginia . A photographic Narrative. Charleston, W. Va. : Quarrier Press, 1997, c1995.
Arts TR647.H94 P678 1997x
A pictorial work/photo documentary, beautifully done.

Hyde, Arnout West Virginia . A photographic Narrative. Charleston, WV : Hyde, c1980.
Arts TR647.H94 W37 1980x
A pictorial work, includes: West Virginia map. -- The Greenbrier. -- Mother's Day shrine. -- State parks. -- National Radio Astronomy Observatory. -- Oglebay. -- Dolly Sods. -- Point Pleasant. -- Cass. -- New River and Gorge bridge. -- Fort New Salem. -- Harpers Ferry. -- Blennerhassett Island. Smoke Hole. -- Pearl Buck's birthplace. -- Twin Falls Pioneer farm. -- Wheeling first capitol. -- Capitol complex. -- Monongahela National Forest. -- Seneca Rocks. -- Covered bridges.

Kennedy, Rory. American Hollow. Photographs by Steve Lehman, interviews by Mark Bailey. Boston : Bulfinch Press, c1999.
Arts TR820.5 K46 1999x.
Words and pictures that tell of a particular way of living, still in late twentieth-century America: the Bowling family of eastern Kentucky. A celebration of of family and community, the book asks what is lost and what is gained when tradition dies out.

Lampell, Ramona, Lampell, Millard and Larkin, David. O, Appalachia : artists of the southern mountains. Photographed by Michael Freeman and Paul Rocheleau. New York : Stewart, Tabori & Chang : Distributed in the U.S. by Workman Pub., 1989.
Arts NK811 .L36 1989
Some Appalachian locations included.

Lentz, Ralph E. II. W. R. Trivett, Appalachian Pictureman. Photographs of a bygone time. Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland, c2001. Arts TR140.T75 L46 2001
The life and photographs of Trivett present an opportunity to examine and evaluate the work of the Appalachian picturemen. Trivett lived and photographed western North Carolina, Watauga and Avery counties, from 1907 through the late 1940s. Detailed bibliography and index.

Library of Congress. Prints and Photographs Division. Walker Evans Photographs for the Farm Security Administration, 1935-1938. 1973. Arts HN57 .U555 1973x
Includes West Virginia, 1935, Pennsylvania, 1935, New Orleans and vicinity, 1935-1936, Towns and Farms in Mississippi, [1935]-1936, Vicksburg, Mississippi, 1936, Georgia, 1936, South Carolina, 1936, Alabama, [1935]-1936, Southeastern U.S. [1936], Arkansas, 1937, Tennessee, 1937, New York City, 1938.

Light, Ken. Coal Hollow : Photographs and Oral Histories. California : University of California Press, 2006. Arts (In Processing).
This remarkable book presents arresting black and white photographs and powerful oral histories that chronicle the legacy of coalmining in southern West Virginia. Go to the photographers website.

Vansau MacCauley, Deborah and Porter, Laura E. Mountain Holiness. A photographic Narrative. Knoxville : University of Tennessee Press, c2003.
Arts BR1644.5.U6 M38 2003
A pictorial work that focuses on what is generally regarded as Appalachia's single largest religious tradition: the Holiness Church. Through vivid images and perceptive words, this book documents two centuries of practice in a largely undocumented faith.

Moore, Lloyd E. Face to Face. The photography of Lloyd E. Moore. Athens, Ohio : Erlewine Design, 2004.
Arts TR655 .M667 2004x
Moore was a lawyer in Lawrence County, Ohio who started photographing his clients and others from 1976. The website has a preview of the book.

Plowden, David. A Handful of Dust : Photographs of Missing America. New York, London : W.W Norton & Company, 2006.
TR654.P57 2006
This pictorial work includes images of Appalachia, as well as many other regions of the United States, in a state of decay or disuse.

Richards, Eugene. Below the Line, Living poor in America. Photographs and interviews by Eugene Richards. 1987.
Arts HC110.P6 R52 1987.
Pages 40-60, Still House Hollow, Tennessee. Photographs of families and individuals at home and working.

Schwartz, Scott W. Faith, serpents, and fire : images of Kentucky Holiness believers. 1999.
Arts BX 7990 .H6 S38 1999.
Photographs and text re "ritual handling of serpents and fire by Christian believers." Also published electronically, see ALICE for link to electronic book.

Shahn, Ben. Ben Shahn, Photographer. An album from the Thirties. Edited, with an introduction, by Margaret R. Weiss. New York, Da Capo Press, 1973.
Arts TR653 S5 1973
Another great pictorial work from the FSA project.

Smith, Mike. You're Not from Around Here. Photographs of East Tennessee. Introduction by Robert Sobieszek. Columbia College Chicago, c2004.
Arts TR820.5 S427 2004x
A pictorial work.

Stryker, Roy Emerson and Wood, Nancy. In This Proud Land. America 1935-1943 as seen in the FSA photographs. New York : Galahad Books, c1973.
Arts TR 820.5 S87
Photographs of people in various types of activity. Appalachian states included with many others, from New England to the west coast.

Ulmann, Doris. Appalachian photographs of Doris Ulmann. Remembrance by John Jacob Niles. Preface by Jonathan Williams. 1971.
Arts F106 .U4 1971x
A pictorial work.

Wolcott, Marion Post. Marion Post Wolcott, FSA Photographs. Introduction by Sally Stein. [Carmel, Calif.] : Friends of Photography, c1983.
Arts TR 820.5 W65 1983
Includes parts of Appalachia.

General Collections: 6th & 7th floors

Warren, Harold F. A Right Good People. Boone, N.C. : Appalachian Consortium Press, c1974.
Alden 6th Floor F210 .W28x
Photographs by Warren Brunner, Joe Clark, Kenneth Murray, and Doris Ulmann.

Snider, Wayne L. All in the same spaceship : portions of American Negro history illustrated in Highland County, Ohio, U.S.A. New York : Vantage Press, c1974.
Alden 6th Floor F497.H6 S64
Photographs by Warren Brunner, Joe Clark, Kenneth Murray, and Doris Ulmann.

Whisnant, David E. All That Is Native and Fine. The politics of culture in an American Region.Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, c1983
Alden 6th Floor F217 .A65 1983.
Small and full-page photo-illustrations of individuals and groups, at school and involved with work, music, and craft.

Roberts, Peter Anthracite Coal Communities. New York, Arno Press, 1970 [c1904].
Alden 6th Floor HD8039 M62 U65 1970.
The focus is on the Appalachian coal-producing counties of Pennsylvania. Small photographic illustrations of miners, mining operations, miners' families and homes.

Ross, Malcolm. Machine Age in the Hills. New York, Macmillan, 1933.
Alden 6th Floor HD8039 M62 U657.
A pictorial work, the photo illustrations are portraits and candid shots of coal miners of the Blue Ridge mountains.

Ewald, Wendy, ed. Appalachia: A Self-Portrait. Photographs by Lyn Adams, Shelby Adams, Robert Cooper, Earl Dotter, Wll Endres, Wendy Ewald, Linda Mansberger. Text by Loyal Jones. Frankfort, Ky. : Gnomon Press for Appalshop, 1979.
Alden 6th Floor F210 A66x
Contemporary photographs of people in West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky. Includes a few images of coal miners, and one portrait of women coal miners.

Toone, Betty L. Appalachia. The mountains, the place, and the people. New York, F. Watts, 1972.
Childrens Collection F106 T57.
Photos of landscapes, houses, and some people accompany text.

Lewis, Ronald L. Black Coal Miners in America. Reace, class, and community conflict 1780-1980. Lexington, Ky. : University Press of Kentucky, c1987.
6th floor HD8039 .M62 U6443 1987
Eight pages of photographs of individual miners, in groups, and at work, NC and WV.

Day, John F. Bloody Ground. Garden City, N. Y., Doubleday, Doran and Company, Inc., 1941.
6th floor F210 D3.
Photograph illustrations of people engaging in various activities accompany text - Kentucky.

Jolley, Harley E. Blue Ridge Parkway. Knoxville, University of Tennessee Press, 1969.
6th floor F217 B6 J6
Photos of people and places along the parkway through the states of Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

Hanson, Todd.Campbell's Creek, a portrait of a coal mining community. Charleston, W. Va. : Pictorial Histories Pub. Co., c1989.
6th floor F247.K2 H35 1989.
Photographs of community, miners, mining operations and railroad.

Condee, William Faricy. Coal and culture : opera houses in Appalachia. Athens : Ohio University Press, c2005.
7th floor PN2273.A66 C66 2005.
Photographs are of interiors and exteriors of opera houses: Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Trotter, Joe William Jr. Coal, Class, and Color: Blacks in Southern West Virginia, 1915-32. Urbana : Univ. of Illinois Press, c1990.
6th floor HD8039 .M62 U66943
Eight pages of photographs, N.C. and W.V. buildings, mines, some people.

Shifflett, Crandall A. Coal Towns. Life, work, and culture in company towns of southern Appalachia, 1880-1960. Knoxville : University of Tennessee Press, c1991.
6th floor F217 A65 S54 1991.
This book focuses on white working-class culture in coal towns: mostly in Virginia, with West Virginia and Kentucky; from the Univ. of Virginia archives.

Buckley, Geoffrey L. Extracting Appalachia: Images of the Consolidation Coal Company, 1910-1945 . Athens : Ohio University Press, c2004.
7th floor TN805 Z6 B83 2004.
Text accompanied by photographs selected from the Consolidation Coal Company archives, Smithsonian Institution. Photos are of mining, equipment, workers in and out of mines, landscapes, and a few of women picketers during stikes.

Foxfire 5. Ironmaking, blacksmithing, flintlock rifles, bear hunting and other affairs of plain living. Edited by Eliot Wigginton. Garden City, N.Y. : Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1979.
6th floor F217 A65 F69
Photos of people at their craft, tools used, and their products.

Foxfire 6. Shoemaking, gourd banjos and songbows, one hundred toys and games, wooden locks, a water-powered sawmill, and other affairs of just plain living. Edited by Eliot Wigginton. Garden City, N.Y. : Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1980.
6th floor F291.2 F624
Photos of people at their craft, tools used, and their products.

Toops, Connie. Great Smoky Mountains. Stillwater, MN : Voyageur Press, c1992.
6th floor F443.G7 T66 1992.
Color photographs of wildlife, landscapes and people.

Cohen, Stan. Historic Sites of West Virginia, a Pictorial Guide. Charleston, W. Va. : Pictorial Histories Pub. Co., 1979.
6th floor F242 C63.
Photographs of all manner of houses, covered bridges, tunnels, inns, mills, brick tar furnaces, and government buildings.

Macleish, Archibald. Land of the Free. New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company [c1938].
6th Floor E169 .M16
Book of photographs illustrating a poem. Photos from FSA, National Child Labor Conservation Service, TVA, etc. Covering the entire country, Appalachian areas are few: Great Smokies, Arkansas, Alabama, WV mining town.

Agee, James. Let Us Now Praise Famous Men . Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1941.
6th floor F326.A17 1941x

Agee, James and Evans, Walker. Let us now praise famous men; three tenant families.
6th floor F326.A17 1960 and 6th floor HN79.A4 A535 1988x
("Featuring striking photographs newly reproduced from archival negatives")

Hannum, Alberta Peirson. Look Back with Love, a recollection of the Blue Ridge. 1969.
6th floor F210 H23 1969.
Twelve photographs by U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Jean Martin, and Crate Carpenter of landscapes and people.

Moore, Warren. Mountain Voices, a Legacy of the Blue Ridge and Geat Smokies. Foreword by Sam Ervin. Chester, Conn. : Globe Pequot Press, c1988.
6th floor F217 A65 M66 1988
Contemporary black and white and some color photos of people, places, and landscapes.

Caudill, Rebecca. My Appalachia. A reminiscence. Photographs by Edward Wallowitch. New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston [1966].
6th floor F457.H3 C3
Full-page photographs of people and places; eastern Kentucky.

Burton, Thomas. Serpent-Handling Believers. Knoxville : University of Tennessee Press, c1993.
6th floor BX7990 H6 B87 1993.
Set in Tennessee, photographs are from 1945-1980's; of people with and without snakes, at religious ceremonies, etc.

Fetterman, John. Stinking Creek. New York, Dutton, 1970.
6th flolor F457.K6 F4 1970x
Contemporary photographs of people in daily activities, Knox county, Kentucky.

Campbell, John C. Southern Highlander and his Homeland. New York, Russell Sage foundation, 1921.
6th floor F210 .C2.
Photographs of people in their homes and at work. At the time, the "southern highland" states were: AL, GA, KY, MD, NC, SC, TN, VA, and WV, in the Blue Ridge Belt, Greater Appalachian Valley, and Allegheny-Cumberland Belt.

Witt, Matt. In Our Blood. Four Coal Mining Families. Photographs by Earl Dotter. 1st Edition. Washington : Highlander Research and Education Center, c1979.
7th floor TN805.A5 W67
The section that focuses on Appalachia was shot in Pennsylvania. The other families covered are African American, Navajo, and one dealing with black lung. The photographs are of working miners, their homes, families and diverse social and political activities.

Reference Works

Additional sources focused on the Appalachian region.

Abramson, Rudy and Haskell, Jean, editors. Encyclopedia of Appalachia. 1st Edition. Knoxville : University of Tennessee Press, c2006.
2nd floor Reference F106 .E53 2006

Web Gateways

Not comprehensive, this section will continue to grow as resources are vetted.

Appalachian Gallery of Community Photos
Website from Appalachian Studies Association.
A moderated photograph gallery, where one can view and post photographs about the environment, geography, scholastic landscape, and ASA conferences. Presently gallery includes portraits in black and white, a series on Appalachian churches, and many shots of mountain landscapes and beauty.

Appalachian Treasures Gateway.
Developed by Ohio University-Zanesville, Zanesville Campus Library web team. 2004. Use the site's GO function, type in 'photographs' AND any other keyword - or no keyword.

ARTSTOR.
Database of art images. Photographers Doris Ulmann, Marion Post Wolcott and Walker Evans all have images housed here. User can also search by state [WV, TN, NC, KY, etc.] and photo*.

Periodicals

Not comprehensive, this section will continue to grow as resources are vetted.

Appalachia: Journal of the Appalachian Regional Commission. Published by the Appalachian Regional Commission, Washington, D.C. 1967- present. Gov.Docs. Y 3.AP4/2:9-2/
Also electronic. Focuses on community and regional development issues, and has many compelling photo illustrations to accompany articles.

Nantahala: a Review of Writing and Photography in Appalachia. Published by Appalachian College Association, Berea, KY.
Electronic resource. From ALICE, click on link to publication. Holdings start 2001-