Title : West Virginia History, Volume 60
Author : N/A
Binding : Paperback
Publisher : WV Division of Culture of History
Date Published : 2006
Description: Volume 60 of West Virginia History presents an eclectic look at the state's history that highlights events of the twentieth century. Thomas C. Townsend is the focus of the journal's lead article. A West Virginia lawyer, Townsend worked for the United Mine Workers of America and defended participants in the Battle of Blair Mountain against murder and treason charges in the Mine Wars trials of the early 1920s. Townsend also served as state tax commissioner and was the Republican Party's gubernatorial candidate in 1932, running on a pro-labor and pro-tax reform platform.
The little-known Federal Music Project, a New Deal program of the Works Progress Administration, is the subject of an article that looks at the project's Huntington orchestra. Established in 1936, the Huntington Federal Music Project Orchestra provided jobs for unemployed area musicians during the Great Depression and led to formation of the Huntington Symphony Orchestra.
West Virginia Archives and History, which was created in 1905 and celebrated its centennial in 2005, spanned much of the twentieth century. Volume 60 looks at the 100-year history of the state's official document repository, a major research facility for individuals and organizations seeking information on the state and its people. Archives and History also launched West Virginia History in 1939.
This issue of West Virginia History also features letters of Hardy County's Union Militia during the Civil War. Archives and History houses a large collection of West Virginia Adjutant General's Papers, many acquired during the tenure of first state historian and archivist Virgil Lewis. More clearly than some other parts of the state, Union and Confederate sympathies divided wartime Hardy County, and this eastern panhandle area was in turmoil throughout much of the war.<.p>
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