NEH Grant Restores and Preserves Three Photo Collections

We are so excited to share that the National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded our Archive $225,581 for the treatment and digitization of 5,850 images from three unique Appalachian photographic collections dating from 1935–1995.   

These collections, which were damaged in the July 2022 flood, include the following:

• The William R. “Pictureman” Mullins Collection features the work of a self-taught photographer who traveled by foot, bike, or hitchhiking to take individual or family portraits of residents in Dickenson and Wise counties in Virginia dating back to the 1930s.
  
• The Robert Gumpert—Harlan County Collection highlights photos from Los Angeles-based photographer Gumpert who visited Harlan County, Kentucky, in 1973 to photograph the Brookside Coal Strike.
• The Jeff Whetstone Collection features Appalshop-related people and events in the mid-1990s, such as the annual Seedtime on the Cumberland festival, various performances, documentation of Appalshop’s community radio station, and more. This collection also includes duplicate negatives of the “Pictureman” collection to ensure preservation.

Courtesy of the Northeast Document Conservation Center

Did you know that our Archive stewards the largest body of moving image documentation of Central Appalachia in the US? In fact, it contains over 18,000 primary source film, video, and audio items that document life in the region from the 1930s to the present day. 

Flood recovery is a long road, and we continue to make meaningful efforts, including safe storage and wider access to our community. As Chad Hunter, a founding archivist of the Appalshop Archive, notes, “A silver lining is that this support from the NEH will allow us to now share all 5,850 images digitally for the very first time.”

Through this NEH grant, the Northeast Document Conservation Center, located in Andover, Massachusetts, will treat and preserve Appalshop’s photonegative collections. The digitization of these materials will ensure these important photographic collections are available to the public online.

Terrance D’Ambrosio, Director of Imaging Services for the Northeast Document Conservation Center, says, “NEDCC is excited to work with the staff at Appalshop in their continuing efforts to recover their flood-damaged collections. Based on the conservation and digitization pilot project that we worked with them on last year, we’re expecting great results from the now-frozen negatives, which wasn’t a guarantee given their condition. The pilot yielded some fantastic images of early-20th century Appalachian life from the ‘Pictureman’ Mullins collection, and we’re looking forward to seeing everything else it and the Robert Gumpert and Jeff Whetstone collections have to offer.”

We look forward to keeping you updated with each step of our recovery process, and we can’t wait to share the outcomes with you—because this archive is for us all!

Appalshop in the News

Learn more about our AARP grant on WYMT: Appalshop bringing art, access to Letcher Co.

June Appal’s newest release (out TOMORROW!), No Options: Hip-Hop in Appalachia, was featured in Queen City Nerve: ‘No Options’ Captures Wide-Ranging Talent of Appalachian Hip-Hop