Appalachian History

We post a new episode of Appalachian History weekly podcast every Sunday. You can start listening right away by clicking the podcast icon over on the right side of your screen. If you’d rather grab the show off itunes for later listening, click here: We open today’s show with author George A. Mosel’s appreciation of [...]

Hearings before the Select Committee Investigating National Defense Migration, House of Representatives, Seventy-seventh Congress, first session, pursuant to House Resolution 113, a resolution to inquire further into the interstate migration of citizens, emphasizing the present and potential consequences of the migration caused by the national defense program. MAY 7 AND 8, 1942 Huntsville AL Concerning [...]

On May 18, 1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Tennessee Valley Authority Act, creating the TVA. The aim was to provide river navigation, flood control, electric power, employment and improved living conditions in the seven states cradling the Tennessee Valley region. Much of the public welcomed the TVA as one of the most visionary [...]

Perry and Emma Gatewood’s oldest daughter Helen was already 20 years old in 1928, and the other children weren’t far behind. So Emma Gatewood became “Grandma Gatewood” to her immediate family long before the rest of the world knew her by that title. Throughout the 30s, 40s and 50s she continued raising her 11 children [...]

Edsel Martin (1927-1999) liked to refer to himself as the ‘mountain misfit of North Carolina.’ That understates the case just a tad. He was in fact a widely celebrated instrument maker, musician and artist whose work can be found in the Smithsonian Institution and the North Carolina Museum of History. Martin, a member of the [...]