Established in 1974, the West Virginia Humanities Council is putting a stamp on its fiftieth anniversary in a big way. “We’ve created a special postcard series,” Executive Director Eric G. Waggoner notes, “illustrated by West Virginia artist Caroline Murphy, featuring people and places deeply connected to the council and our home state.”
Additionally, Waggoner says, “We are hosting five ‘roadshow’ receptions in West Virginia’s regional population centers. Each event showcases one of our council’s original direct programs and helps us share the word about our grant-making opportunities.”
Over the years, Waggoner explains, the council has aided independent scholars, historians, museums, and public institutions throughout the state who are trying to tell the story of West Virginia, whether that’s through history, literature, music, or folklore.
“We’ve been committed to telling the stories that make us, as West Virginians, who we are,” he says. “On top of that, we’ve worked to make the humanities accessible to as many people as possible, funding an expansive range of programs and projects, from exhibits and documentaries to books, workshops, and even archaeology digs.”
Waggoner, in his mid-fifties, took the reins at the council in 2018 after the retirement of Ken Sullivan, who had been the council’s executive director for 22 years. Waggoner is in it for the long haul, too.
He grew up in Malden, population 444, six miles outside the state capital, Charleston. His father was director of the West Virginia Library Commission and a volunteer firefighter. His mother was a stay-at-home mom and later worked for the state’s Archives and History Department.
He came to the council, Waggoner says, through a somewhat circuitous route. After earning a degree in English from West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon, near the Allegheny Mountains, he went on to Arizona State to do doctorate work in American literature. Back in West Virginia, the department chair at Marshall University in Huntington, about 55 miles west of Charleston, happened to see a copy of his resume. “They had a one-year position,” says Waggoner. “I had wanted to get closer to this part of the country, so I took that. Then I ran into a guy who had an American literature position open at Wesleyan, and I went there in 2002. I was chairman of the Wesleyan English Department when I took my job at the council.”
Waggoner says the biggest achievement of the council since his arrival has been developing virtual delivery options for all of their legacy programs when COVID hit in 2020. “We didn’t miss a day of programming throughout the pandemic,” says Waggoner. “Today, with in-person and virtual options for all direct programs, we’re reaching more audiences, in and out of West Virginia, than at any time in our council’s history.” “Born of Rebellion, West Virginia Statehood and the Civil War, our award-winning traveling exhibit on West Virginia’s unique path to statehood has been fully rewritten and redesigned,” Waggoner says. “The new edition is updated to reflect current historical research, and its modular design makes it perfect for custom installation. It’s currently on a statewide tour, including a month’s residency at the West Virginia State Capitol, coinciding with West Virginia’s 161st birthday.”
Waggoner notes the Born of Rebellion exhibition was made possible with generous funding from West Virginia Water and the NEH’s “A More Perfect Union” initiative.
“Our West Virginia Folklife Collection,” adds Waggoner, “was established at West Virginia University, holding around 2,500 items generated by our West Virginia State Folklife Program’s fieldwork and research. The collection contains field-recorded interviews, transcriptions, photo and video documentation, and even material objects documenting West Virginia’s living traditions. In 2022, the West Virginia Folklife Collection received the Brenda McCallum Prize, an annual award honoring ‘an exceptional work related to archival collections of folklife materials,’ sponsored by the Archives and Libraries Section of the American Folklore Society.”
Since 2000, the historical MacFarland-Hubbard House, an architectural landmark in Charleston, has been both a working office and a public event space for the council. Built in 1836, the house is one of a handful of surviving Kanawha Valley houses dating from before the Civil War. When it was bombarded by Confederate artillery, a cannon ball came through the roof and got wedged in the attic. Today, the ball is displayed at the house under a glass dome.
So what does the future hold for the council?
“Obviously, that’s impossible to predict,” Waggoner says, “but one thing is certain. We’ll still be telling West Virginia’s story.”
