The Augusta Collection

Field recordings of West Virginia folk culture and music, and documentation of more than 30 years of Augusta’s activities, are housed in the Augusta Collection of Folk Culture in the Davis & Elkins College’s Booth Library. Augusta’s numerous recordings and publications, based on materials in the Augusta Collection, are produced in-house and are available for purchase in the Augusta online store.
 
The Augusta Collection is composed mainly of field recordings, oral histories, photographs, and historical concert tapes. All of the documentation generated through the Apprenticeship Program and the Augusta Workshops is part of the Collection. New materials are continually being produced and contributions of significant field recordings are received frequently. Since 2003, we have been organizing the materials in the collections. We have preserved the most significant and most endangered recordings in the collection and have prepared some of the recordings for public access.

Among the most significant materials in the Augusta Collection are the Morris Collection ( including the only known recordings of the Ivydale Festivals of the 1960s); the Diller Collection (field recordings of the Hammons family); the Kline Collection (field recordings generated by Michael Kline from 1976 to 1988); and field recordings and materials donated by dedicated musicians, researchers, and crafters. The collection also includes hundreds of still photographs of West Virginia folklife – buildings, gravestones, fences, folk art, and more – by Augusta’s Folk Arts Coordinator Gerry Milnes – many of which may be seen here on this website. The collection is being developed with assistance from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Appalachian College Association, and private and corporate contributors.