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A great big Highlander welcome goes out to Aaron Spelbring, who has recently re-joined us here in McConnell Library as our new Head of Archives and Special Collections!
Aaron comes to us most recently from the College of Charleston (South Carolina) where he was the Manager of Archival Services at the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture, but has also worked as an archivist in the Museum of Northern Arizona, the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust, the Columbus Indiana Architectural Archives, and, last but not least, between 2004 and 2007 was Archivist/Reference Librarian right here at Radford University. Aaron comes to us with years of experience as an Archivist and a love for Appalachian culture and music.In addition to his archival knowledge, he is also a great musician and plays a variety of instruments including mandolin, dobro, fiddle and bass.
In his first two weeks with us, he has already done much to increase the accessibility of our digital collections and the accuracy of the finding aids, has been interviewed by the Roanoke Times about the Farmer Photograph Collection , and has made several appointments with to meet members of the university community.
Please come by the Archives Reading Room for an old fashioned “shake and howdy” to get to know Aaron or to perhaps speak with him about visiting your class. University and regional archive collections can be a big part of any lesson plan and Aaron is eager to talk to you about that. Come see us.
Pulaski at one time had two photographers with the last name of Farmer. Kenneth Rudolph Farmer, (June 21, 1920- February 2, 2014) and Theda Farmer (July 14, 1923 – April 27, 2007)- turns out they were married. It also turns out that they ran photography studios in Pulaski county for over 60 years and left behind thousands of negatives from their years of work. When their studios were shut down, all of their photo negatives were stored in boxes where they sat until one of the Farmer’s children contacted the Archives and Special Collections Department of McConnell Library and asked if we would be interested in taking possession of them. After an initial inspection of the collection and in-house discussion, the answer was “yes” and ever since, we have been sorting and processing this very large collection- The Farmer Photograph Collection.
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Most of the Farmer photographs are studio portraits, but the rest seem to be photos taken for human interest, insurance companies, newspapers, and other “for hire” places. In so rting through these, we were struck by how they painted an intimate portrait of Pulaski County. These photos range from around 1945 to sometime in the 2000s and as far as subject matter goes, they range from significant news-worthy events to general daily life to interesting looking old houses to new stone office buildings etc etc.
As is the case with old photographs, some of the places we see in these are no longer there. Some of the people are gone too, but what we are left with are moments in time frozen for posterity. I love seeing people casually glancing at the photographer, not posing at all, just going about their day with no thought that this moment is to be saved and pondered or cherished years later by people not even born yet and viewed in ways not even dreamed of at that time. I love seeing the buildings that are still around now but are being used differently than they were in these photos. There is a certain beauty in all of this for me. A moment in time captured. Photographs bewitch me sometimes.
Pulaski County was officially formed March 30, 1839 and is named for Count Casimir Pulaski (3/6/1745-10/11/1779), a Polish nobleman, soldier and military commander. His efforts toward protecting Poland from Russian domination in the 1700s were noticed by Benjamin Franklin, who encouraged Pulaski to move to America and help fight the Revolutionary War. He took Franklin’s advice and made a name for himself through acts of bravery and innovative thinking and among other things, became a general in the Continental Army, reformed the American calvary and even saved the life of George Washingon. He was wounded in the Battle of Savannah and died shortly after. He has been recognized and celebrated in the United States by various ways including, having a bust in the US Capitol, has an official day named for him (October 11), and has appeared on a United States Stamp (.02 stamp issued 1931) and is one of only seven people to ever be awarded an honorary United States Citizenship (signed into law November 6, 2009).
Pulaski County has been the home to many industries throughout the years, among them, Bertha Zinc Works, Pulaski Iron Co, Pulaski Mining Co,  Dora Furnace Co, NRV Airport, NRV Truck Assembly Plant, Pulaski Furniture, Virginia Maid Hosiery, a community college and various other farming, textile, furniture, and automobile companies.
Included in this posting are a few examples of the Farmer Photographs that I am particularly fond of (If you click on the photos you will see a bigger version of them). I hope they will pique your interest, as they did mine. If they do, please visit the collection online and please feel free to contact me with details or identification of things you see in this collection. If you know the people or place or situation, pass it on. These are photographs from a community and it is my hope that gathering information about them can be a community project too. This is a growing collection at this point, so check back often for updates, spend some time looking through them. I know I will be. (Copyright is held by Kenneth Rudolph Farmer II, and these photographs are reproduced here by permission of the copyright owner. The images are available for free personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that proper citation is used (e.g. Farmer Photograph Collection, Appalachian Collection, McConnell Library, Radford University, Radford, VA). Any commercial use or unauthorized reproduction of these photographs, without the written permission of the copyright owner, is strictly prohibited. Please refer to the McConnell Library Archives and Special Collections website for more information.)
FARMER PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION
In the summer of 2014, the Archives and Special Collections department of McConnell Library teamed up with the Glencoe Museum to work on a project they had accepted from the Radford Heritage Foundation. According to Glencoe Museum Director, Scott Gardner, the City of Radford approached the Radford Heritage Foundation about creating a project to record the histories of Radford Veterans. That conversation became the beginning of the Radford Veterans Living History Project. The idea of the project is to interview, film, and preserve the veterans’ stories and memories about life in Radford both before and after the war (whichever war they participated in), and their wartime experiences.
The project is under the direction of Scott Gardner (Glencoe Museum) with assistance from Ron Kolenbrander (retired RU professor) who does the actual interviewing, Gary Harris (Vietnam veteran) who schedules veterans to be interviewed, John Hildreth (CITL faculty) who is in charge of filming and Bud Bennett (McConnell Library Archives) who helps with filming and does the editing and production of the interviews.
War does not only affect those fighting, it also affects those back home and so in this project, we are also interviewing people who did not serve in wars but were living in Radford during the wars. Stories of rationing, of shortages, of attitudes and opinions and about daily life are being collected as well. At the moment we have only one such interview in that category, Bette Wright but more are coming.
The veterans participating in this project served in World War 2 and Vietnam. The roles they played varied from man to man but all came willing to speak about their service, their thoughts on the past and their hopes for the future. All were frank and open and each man gave us a glimpse into their experiences that most of us would not have otherwise seen. This is an important collection.
These interviews are filmed and archived in the Archives and Special Collections area of McConnell Library, and then posted on our Vimeo account for free and public viewing. These interviews are especially timely at this time because of an event called The Big Read. There are many details about this event found on the website, but in a nutshell, this is a grant-driven project in which runs from October 3, 2015 through November 21, 2015. Partners in the program are Radford University, Glencoe Museum, Radford Public Library, Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library, New River Community College, Pulaski County Library and Virginia Tech’s Center for the Study of Rhetoric in Society.
One event I would like to single out though is a symposium being held at Radford University- “The Things They Carried” Storytelling and The Art of Building Community. Several of the veterans in these interviews will be speaking at a roundtable discussion at the event. It will surely be worth seeing and hearing these men talk about their time serving in the war years.
Vietnam
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James Everhart- Mr. Everhart was a helicopter mechanic in Vietnam. In this interview he talks about daily life in his camp, how he became a helicopter mechanic, and life after Vietnam. He shares many of his personal photographs in this video as well.
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Gary Harris- Mr. Harris is the person who finds veterans for us to interview. He was an MP in Vietnam and in this interview he speaks frankly about his experiences there and how he has dealt with his memories since. He talks of life in Radford immediately after the war, specifically about watching the war protesters and wondering why they were protesting.
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Don Cunningham- Mr. Cunningham was a Hospital Corpsman in Vietnam and he tells many stories about his experiences there. He also speaks frankly about Agent Orange and the cancer that he had at the time of the interview. Sadly, Mr. Cunningham has passed away since doing this interview, so it is especially important to us that he spent his time with us for this project.
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Sam Lewis- Mr. Lewis was a security guard in Vietnam and he told us about some of his experiences with that and explained the reasons behind his current participation in various organizations concerned with veteran rights and care.
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Michael Ross- Mr. Ross was a dog handler in Vietnam and after, and he talks about his experiences guarding camps, going on patrols and his stateside life after the war. He also explains the reasons behind his 50% hearing loss due to his war time service.
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Michael Conklin- Mr. Conklin worked in electronics in the Vietnam war and after. During the war he worked on many aircraft including the U2 Spyplane.
World War 2
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Joel Weddle- Mr. Weddle was an amphibious tank driver in World War 2. His experiences there are still very vivid and fresh in his mind and he talks about several D-Day invasions he was a part of in this emotional interview.
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Bunk Austin- Mr. Austin spent a lot of time in Tinian Island during World War 2 and was there at the same time as the atomic bomb. In this interview, among other things, he talks about the bomb and the flight of the Enola Gay.
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Tommy Tate- Mr. Tate was a gunner on a B-29 during World War 2. He tells some fascinating stories including one about a time a string of active bombs got stuck in the bomb bay and did not release and how he had to pick them up and drop them by hand out the plane. He also tells about life in Radford before the war and in Blacksburg after the war.
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Robert Atkinson- Mr. Atkinson worked in a stateside POW camp for German prisoners and was also part of a railroad battalion in Iran that delivered supplies to US troops in Europe.
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Bette Wright- Ms. Wright was not involved in World War 2 in any sort of active duty, she was however a resident of Radford and provides a personal insight to life before, during, and after the war. Among other things, she talks of rationing and the sudden growth of Radford due to the Radford Arsenal.
More interviews coming soon-
Robert Nicholson- Mr. Nicholson was attached to Gen. George S. Patton’s unit in World War 2. He tells many stories about his time in Europe and about his returning to visit some of the places and people he knew there many years after the war was over.
Bud Jeffries- Mr. Jeffries talked about his involvement in the Tet Offensive and gave us many details and descriptions of a 28 day battle in which he was responsible for calling in air strikes, getting badly needed ammunition delivered to an active battlefield and in removing wounded soldiers.
The Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.
by Tyler Hall
Who is Arthur Goldberg? Many have probably never heard of the man. He was however, a very influential figure in Twentieth Century American politics.
Arthur Joseph Goldberg was born on August 8, 1908 in Chicago to Jewish Russian immigrants. When his father died, his elder siblings went to work, his mother ensured her youngest, Arthur, stayed in school. After he graduated high school, the Leopold and Loeb murder trial of 1923 prompted him to study law. In 1926 he attended the Northwestern University School of Law, where he got a Bachelor’s of Science at 19.
 Staff of Labor Desk, OSS/London, July 1944.
Arthur Goldberg is seated at far left;
Joseph Gould is standing, second from right. In 1930 he was awarded the Juris Scientiae Doctor degree from the Illinois Bar Association. In 1931 he married Dorothy Kurgons, an art major, at Northwestern University. Throughout the Great Depression Goldberg observed the plight of hard-working Americans. He opened up his own private practice in 1933, and often would represent the striking Chicago newspaper employees. During World War II, Goldberg served as an officer in the U.S. Army and was a member of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a prelude to the CIA. In 1948 Goldberg served as the general consul for the Congress of Industrial Organizations and the United Steelworkers of America, and was instrumental in the merging of these two unions.
 President Kennedy (left) and Arthur Goldberg (right) For all of his ties to the labor unions, Goldberg became a prominent figure in the Democrat Party and became vocal in national politics. In 1961 President John F. Kennedy appointed Goldberg as the Secretary of Labor. In 1962, with the resignation of Justice Felix Frankfurter from the Supreme Court, President Kennedy nominated Goldberg to fill the seat. The more “noteworthy cases argued before the Court during” his time included: Gibson v. Florida Investigation Committee (1963), Escobedo v. Illinois (1964), and Zemel v. Rusk (1965).[1] In 1965 President Lyndon B. Johnson asked Justice Goldberg if he would serve as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, which he did until he resigned in 1969. This was a rare moment in Supreme Court history, usually justices’ serve on the Court for a lifetime. In 1970, he ran unsuccessfully for governor of New York against incumbent Nelson A. Rockefeller. From 1987-1989, Justice Goldberg was a visiting professor at Radford University, where he taught a judiciary course under the political science department. Continue reading Justice Goldberg at RU
by Tyler Hall
In 2000 the Goldberg family donated the personal book collection, as well as papers and pamphlets of Justice Arthur J. Goldberg to Radford University’s McConnell Library. The collection is over a thousand titles, and has a wide variety of topics, from world affairs to Dickens. The collection reveals something about who Justice Goldberg was.
 The subjects included in the collection reflect the times in which Justice Goldberg was in American government. Justice Goldberg had a deep respect for President John Kennedy, there are eight books on Kennedy alone; two on President Lyndon Johnson; no favorable titles will be found in the collection concerning President Richard Nixon. Justice Goldberg as a lawyer in private practice represented labor cases and was the Secretary of Labor for a brief period. Many of the titles reflect his passion for labor issues: Illinois Labor Law by Barnet Hodes, Labor’s Paradox: The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees AFL-CIO by Leo Kramer. In fact, Justice Goldberg had overseen the merging of the two Unions AFL and CIO; two copies of Justice Goldberg’s own AFL-CIO: Labor United, one of which is in the Russian language, can be found in Special Collections.
From 1962 to 1965 Justice Goldberg served as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court. Many titles deal with law and the Supreme Court. One book that saw a lot of use was, Supreme Court Practice Second Edition-1954 Rules by Robert L. Stern and Eugene Gressman. Between the pages one can find a sheet of paper with the letterhead from the United States Department of Labor Office of the Secretary. On it, it appears to say, “Oct. 3-12, property of the clerk.” What on earth could that possibly mean? Did Justice Goldberg write it? Quite possibly, the note however seems to of found good use as a bookmarker. In the collection one can find at least four books about Justice Goldberg’s former colleague on the Court, Hugo Black. Continue reading The Goldberg Collection
One of the McConnell Library’s Archives and Special Collections newest additions is the Virginia Deal Lawrence Scrapbook Collection. The collection is part of the Appalachian Collection, which seeks to document the history, culture, literature, music, and environment of the New River Valley, Southwest Virginia and Appalachia.
 Virginia Deal Lawrence. This photo was taken sometime in the 1940s. As a devoted historian and scrapbook collector Miss Lawrence compiled a large collection of newspaper clippings, photographs, and other materials during her lifetime. Donated to the university by the estate of Virginia Deal Lawrence, the collection consists of 123 scrapbooks, one photo album, a ledger book, loose newspaper clippings, miscellaneous documents, and a variety of other materials.
The Scrapbook collection is particularly valuable to researchers because it contains pre-1955 newspaper articles from the Southwest Virginia area. These newspaper clippings are difficult to find, since many searchable online newspaper archives do not contain materials from earlier than the mid 1950’s. Miss Lawrence’s collection helps fill this resource gap by providing newspaper clippings that date back to the early 1900’s. These articles hold information about local places, businesses, people, and events and are invaluable to anyone researching topics related to the New River Valley or the Appalachian region. The first 73 scrapbooks include mostly local stories about Southwest Virginia, while scrapbooks 74-109 cover national news stories. Scrapbooks 110-123 hold information about the Tri Sigma sorority, Auburn Schools, and the Auburn United Methodist Church.
A finding aid with more information about the collection is available here. A number of photographs and other items from the collections have been digitized and are available in RU Digital Collections.
Biography of Virginia Deal Lawrence
 Auburn School Children, from the Virginia Deal Lawrence Scrapbook Collection. Miss Virginia Deal Lawrence was born on February 28, 1909, in Riner, Virginia. She was the daughter of James Lewis Lawrence and Fannie Deal Smith Lawrence. She had one sibling, her sister, Mary Eileen Houston. Her father, James, operated C. Lawrence Store in Riner, a general merchandise store. After finishing secondary school Miss Lawrence attended Virginia Intermont College. She soon transferred to Radford College, where she received her degree on June 9, 1930. During her time at Radford College she became the first member of Sigma Sigma Sigma, the first sorority ever established at the school. One of her fondest memories was portraying the “Tri Sig Girl” at the 1931 Tri Sigma National Convention in Mackinac Island, MI and again in 1933, in Chicago. After graduation Miss Lawrence taught the fifth grade at Newport Elementary, located just outside of Blacksburg, for one year. From there she went on to teach at Riner Elementary for the next 42 years, teaching second graders. For 35 years she was the treasurer of the Alpha Lambda Chapter of the Delta Kappa Gamma Society, the International Honorary Society for Teachers in Giles and Montgomery Counties. In 1970 she appeared in the September edition of Outstanding Educators of America and received Montgomery County’s Outstanding Teacher Award.
 Auburn Baseball Team, from the Virginia Deal Lawrence Scrapbook Collection. Throughout her life Miss Lawrence was a devoted member of the Auburn United Methodist Church, in Riner. She taught the Kindergarten Sunday school class, served as the Church Historian, the Communion Steward, and the Treasurer of the Lord’s Acre. She was also a member of the Auburn United Methodist Women and served as the group’s treasurer for many years. Miss Lawrence wrote and published a booklet about the 100-year history of her church entitled, Auburn United Methodist Church, Riner, VA, 1885-1985 and also created a calendar for the church’s centennial celebration. During her lifetime she stayed active in her church and a number of other organizations listed above. She considered herself a local historian and kept scrapbooks as her primary hobby. By donating her life’s work to her alma mater, Miss Lawrence provided the archives with another treasured collection available for research. Virginia Deal Lawrence passed away on July 9, 2012, at the age of 103.
-Article by David Atkins, a 2012 Radford University graduate currently working on his graduate degree in Library Science from Florida State University. He worked as an Archival Intern in the Radford Archives during the Spring 2013 semester and processed the Virginia Deal Lawrence Scrapbook Collection as part of his internship.
 Cover of Alfreda Peel’s “Witch in the Mill,” with paper-cut illustrations by the author. Music and folklore have been intertwined in Appalachia for centuries. Ballads and folk tunes traveled with the first settlers across the Atlantic and found root in the hills and hollows of the Appalachian Mountains. These musical traditions passed from generation to generation, serving as both a form of entertainment and a living history of the people and culture. In an effort to preserve their heritage, a dedicated group of men and women of various professions and backgrounds began collecting and recording Appalachian ballads and folk songs.
As ballad collecting became increasingly popular in the first half of the twentieth century, students and faculty at universities around Virginia became active in the search for Appalachian balladeers. The dedication to the collection of Appalachian music earned one Radford College graduate the acclimation of historians and enthusiasts alike. Radford alumnus Alfreda Marion Peel’s tireless efforts made possible the collection of ballads never before heard in the United States. Her dedication to the Virginia Folk-Lore Society and the art of ballad collecting would earn her the respect of not only her teachers and colleagues but also music collectors and historians from around the globe.
The Virginia Folk-Lore Society was founded by University of Virginia professor C. Alphonso Smith in 1913 with the goal of collecting the surviving English and Scottish ballads in the state of Virginia. While Smith and members of the Virginia Folk-Lore Society were not the first to collect ballads in Virginia, they were far more successful in their attempts to record the elusive ballads than previous collectors had been. The Virginia Folk-Lore Society tirelessly advocated for Appalachian music, and its strong core of dedicated collectors made possible the collections of thousands of ballads throughout the state. Throughout the 1920’s and 1930’s the Society worked closely with public school teachers to collect ballads that had never before been recorded on phonograph records. The founding of “ballad clubs” at state normal schools or teaching colleges, such as Radford, was particularly effective at encouraging participation in ballad collecting. [1]
Alfreda Peel’s interest in collecting Appalachian ballads and folklore began long before her time Radford State Teachers College. Raised in southwest Virginia, with a keen curiosity regarding her British ancestry, Peel began collecting folk music and ballads in 1911. What began as a hobby expanded after she joined the Virginia Folk-Lore Society; soon after she began traveling to places in Virginia that had previously been “considered inaccessible by the average traveler.”[2] Her travels were often adventurous and she encountered a number of colorful locals along the way; these locals provided her with traditional songs and folklore, both of which influenced her later publications. Peel collected an estimated 2500 ballads and pieces of folk literature during her more than 25 years of research.[3] Many of these ballads were unique finds in Virginia and the larger United States and confirmed ties between old English and Scottish ballads and the immigrants who settled in the Mountains.
Perhaps most famous of the ballads uncovered by Peel was a variation of a fifteenth century British ballad titled “Riddles Wisely Expounded.” Multiple versions of “Riddles Wisely Expounded” were found in the United States, but the version found by Peel in southwest Virginia was unique. Recorded in a remote section of Giles County in 1922, the ballad “The Devil’s Nine Questions” had unique wording and phrases but maintained a clear tie to the medieval ballad documented in England. The recording of this song for the first time in the United States created a “demonstrable link between Virginia and medieval Europe,” all thanks to Alfreda Peel’s “labor of love.”[4]
Peel’s love of ballads and folklore had a strong influence on many of her colleagues as well as on the vocation of ballad collecting as a whole. “The Devil’s Nine Questions” among many of Peel’s other ballad recordings were included in Dr. Arthur Davis’s Traditional Ballads of Virginia and More Traditional Ballads of Virginia. The collaborative work of Peel and Dr. Davis was published through many outlets, including the August 25, 1932 edition of the Grapurchat, Radford State Teachers College’s student newspaper.[5] In addition to publication in her Alma Mater’s newspaper, Peel was recognized for her work in a number of magazines and newspapers from around Virginia and the greater United States. She maintained contact with many of her colleagues throughout her career and was a frequent participant in local programs focusing in Appalachian music and heritage.
In her later years, Peel focused a great deal on the folklore she had acquired during her career. Decades of collecting ballads and folklore led to the publication of Witch in the Mill (1947), a collection of short folk stories.[6] Shortly after Witch in the Mill was published it caught the eye of Carl Sandburg. Sandburg, an American poet and folklorist, was invited by the College as a Lyceum guest speaker and traveled to Radford in March of 1947.[7] Sandburg shared Peel’s interest in folklore and ballad collecting and the two became acquainted during his visit. Several years later, Sandburg published a collection of folksongs in his book New American Songbag, which drew on folklore from around the nation including Appalachia.[8] It has been said that Sandburg proclaimed to Alfreda Peel: “It is the work of people like yourself that made possible the publication of my book…”[9] Whether or not this statement is true, Alfreda Peel’s influence on the field of folklore and ballad collecting cannot be underestimated.
Alfreda Peel collected ballads and folklore for more than thirty years, stopping only with her death in 1953. She had remained active with Radford long after her graduation from the school, frequently participating in programs and conferences dedicated to Appalachian culture. Friends and colleagues mourned her loss, not only as a friend but also as a trusted authority in Appalachian music and folklore. Ultimately, her dedication to the collection of Appalachian ballads and folklore made her a “lady of legends” among Virginia historians and music collectors.[10] Half a century later her work continues to be published and analyzed. Stephen Wade’s newly published book The Beautiful Music All Around Us discusses Peel’s contributions to the study of Appalachian music.[11] The archives of the Virginia Folklore Society, housed at the University of Virginia, contain several pieces of Peel’s original sheet music as well as correspondence between Peel and Dr. Arthur Davis. Radford University is home to a small number of articles and books relating to Peel and her dedicated work; these materials are available online and in the collection at McConnell Library. Alfreda Peel’s dedication to Appalachian music has made her a legend to many music collectors, and Radford University’s Archives and Special Collections is proud to pay homage to such an interesting and important graduate.
by Amanda Meadows Phillips
Monographics Specialist, McConnell Library
[1]Arthur Kyle Davis, Jr., Traditional Ballads of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 1957), 28.
[2] The use of the 1936 Sunday Morning Section magazine article entitled “Alfreda Peel, the Lady of Legends” was made possible by the permission of the University of Virginia and the Archive of the Virginia Folklore Society. Please see their website for more information on the collection: http://faculty.virginia.edu/vafolk/archive.htm
[4] John Long, “The Devil, The Weaver’s Bonny, and Alfreda Peel: Exploring the Roots of an Ancient Virginia Folk Ballad,” Smithfield Review IX (2005): 27-42.
[6] See: Alfreda Peel, Witch in the Mill (Richmond, VA: Dietz Press, Incorporated, 1947).
[8] See: Carl Sandburg, New American Songbag (New York, NY: Broadcast Music, 1950).
[9] See: “Alfreda Peel, the Lady of Legends,” Sunday Magazine Section
[11] See: Stephen Wade, The Beautiful Music All Around Us: Field Recordings and the American Experience (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2012).
Over the years, many visitors at McConnell Library have taken notice of the small room located off the right side of the Reading Room. This room, filled with numerous statues of porcelain birds, has come to be known by all as the “Bird Room.” While these statues are both valuable and beautiful, visitors to the library may be surprised to learn that they have also played a major role in the seemingly distant worlds of art and politics. The porcelain figurines, created by Edward Marshall Boehm, Inc. (now known as Boehm, Porcelain), have found homes in museums and art galleries around the world. The porcelain figurines have also served as tokens of goodwill and have been presented to a number of world leaders including Mao Tse-Tung, Pope Paul VI, and Queen Elizabeth II. This ability of Boehm porcelain to transcend the traditional boundaries between politics and culture make them an invaluable American icon, and Radford University’s collection is a fitting tribute to their importance.
 Black Capped Chickadee The history behind Boehm porcelain figurines began with the founding of the company in Trenton, New Jersey by Edward Marshall Boehm. E. M. Boehm’s porcelain, remarkable for its high quality, took several years to gain appreciation by consumers. Fame and fortune were not easily found in the first years of the studio; it was only after his wife Helen successfully sold two porcelain figurines to the Metropolitan Museum of Art that the artist’s work became highly desirable. Soon after the porcelain figurines began to be purchased by a number of art galleries both stateside and abroad. Private collectors and art galleries alike were drawn to E. M. Boehm’s delicate representations of nature. His death in 1969 did not slow down the production of these fine figurines – artists in Boehm’s Trenton, New Jersey studio and later the studio in Malvern, England continued to produce works under the watchful eye of Helen Boehm.
It was Helen Boehm, after all, whose skills in business had launched her husband’s porcelain from unknown to world famous in a matter of years. While art studios and private collectors alike coveted the porcelain, Helen Boehm saw the opportunity to transform E. M. Boehm, Inc. from a simple porcelain manufacturer to a key player in world diplomacy. This transformation first begin with President Eisenhower presenting a Boehm porcelain artwork to her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip, whose likeness was recreated in a porcelain figurine. Thus started a tradition of Boehm artwork being presented to foreign dignitaries during diplomatic meetings around the world. President Richard Nixon selected the famous “Birds of Peace” sculpture, comprised of a pair of life-size porcelain mute swans, to present during his official state visit to China in 1972. These swans were given to Chairman Mao Tse-Tung as a gesture of goodwill during the Cold War. In 1987, as the Cold War came to an end, President Ronald Reagan presented Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the USSR, with the Boehm porcelain “Global Peace” sculpture. This sculpture, which represented a globe surrounded by white doves of peace, cemented the connection between Boehm porcelain and peace diplomacy.
 Global Peace Statue, presented to USSR leader Mikhail Gorbachev by US President Ronald Reagan in 1987 In addition to the diplomatic ventures of American politicians, Helen Boehm actively participated in American diplomacy herself by presenting Boehm porcelain figurines to a number of world leaders and policy makers. Boehm traveled the globe in the years following her husband’s death, promoting American values and goodwill in countries such as China, the USSR, Great Britain, Egypt, and the Vatican. The daughter of Italian immigrants, Boehm sought out connections with the papacy and forged cultural diplomacy by presenting Boehm figurines to two popes, including Pope Paul VI who she entertained during his visit to the United States. In 1976, an anonymous donor purchased a pair of mute swans and donated them to the Vatican; Helen Boehm’s connection to the papacy no doubt influenced the Vatican’s decision to house the porcelain statue in their permanent collection. The placement of Boehm porcelain in the Vatican was followed by Boehm’s presentation of an American Bald Eagle figurine to the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg. At home in the United States, Boehm continued her tradition of diplomacy until her later years; her death in 2009 was certainly met with great sadness by those dedicated collectors and diplomats who had come to know and respect this great business woman. Presently, Boehm, Porcelain continues the traditions set forth by Edward and Helen Boehm, and the admiration of these physically delicate but emotionally powerful porcelain figurines is unlikely to wane in the near future.
E. M. Boehm, Inc. produced works of art that to this day are housed in such famous art galleries as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian, the Hermitage, Buckingham Palace, and the Vatican. Radford University came upon such a fine collection of Boehm porcelain after a generous donation to the University’s Foundation. The estate of Radford alumni Marjorie Carlton Pearson Glenn, who graduated from the Radford State Teacher’s College in 1932, donated a collection of Boehm porcelain figurines to the University in 1995. Radford University’s Foundation received over fifty Boehm figurines from the estate of Mrs. Glenn; after their donation these items made their way into the now aptly named “Bird Room” in McConnell Library. Mrs. Glenn had been an avid collector of Boehm porcelain as was evident by her impressive collection of figurines and documents relating to the company’s history. The Boehm porcelain figurines are on display during the library’s operating hours, and all visitors are welcome to view the collection. These pieces of art represent the beauty and power of American artwork and are an important addition to the history housed within the walls of McConnell Library, itself a living piece of history.
Amanda Meadows, 09/25/12
Much of the information in this essay came from the Boehm Collection Documents and Materials collection, part of McConnell Library’s Special Collections.
 Portrait of Edward Marshall Boehm (1913-1969)
John Preston McConnell and the Anti-Saloon League
A talk by Gene Hyde and Adrian Whicker, McConnell Day, February 22, 2012
Thank you for joining us in celebrating the birthday of John Preston McConnell, the first president of what we now call Radford University. McConnell was a man with many interests and passions. He was a tireless advocate of women’s education, and saw education as a way to bring a better standard of life to people in his native Appalachian region. He had many professional and personal interests, and his collected papers in our Archives reveal much about his life as a dedicated public servant. Today, however, Adrian Whicker and I will be discussing one of McConnell’s lifelong passions, the abolition and prohibition of alcohol.
 John Preston McConnell in 1920. But first, a few basic facts about John Preston McConnell: he was born on February 22, 1866, in Scott County, Virginia. He was educated at the National Normal School in Lebanon, Ohio, where he learned the joys of pedagogy. He completed his education at Milligan College in Tennessee and the University of Virginia, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1904, writing his dissertation on “The Treatment of Negroes in Virginia during the Reconstruction Period.” After serving as Dean at Emory & Henry College, in 1911 he was invited to become the President of the new State Normal and Industrial School for Women in East Radford, which opened its doors in 1913. McConnell served as Radford’s president until declining health led to his retirement in 1937. Dr. McConnell passed away in 1941.
McConnell’s early life in Scott County shaped his prohibitionist feelings. John Preston’s father, Hiram K. McConnell, served as a school administrator and magistrate, and was known as “Squire McConnell.” Squire McConnell was an ardent Prohibitionist, and both Squire McConnell and his son John voted for the prohibition ticket in the 1888 national election, casting their ballots for Prohibition candidate Clinton B. Fisk (Republican Benjamin Harrison won the election, defeating Fisk, the democrat candidate Grover Cleveland, and candidates from several other small parties). While John Preston McConnell voted the “dry” ticket in 1888, as we shall see, that would not always be the case. As he wrote later in is his life, “I can say in the sight of God and man that from my boyhood days….I have had an incurable and ineradicable aversion to the whole (alcohol) business, its use, and its sale.”
By 1919, the national efforts of the Prohibition Party, the Anti-Saloon League, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, and other groups resulted in passage of the 18th Amendment, which banned “the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors” in the US when it went into effect in 1920. While the country was officially “dry” under Prohibition, many parties clamored to repeal the 18th, and groups such as the Anti-Saloon League felt it necessary to continue educating the public about the evils of alcohol.
 Dr. McConnell represented the Anti-Saloon League of Virginia at an international temperance convention in Toronto in 1922 John Preston McConnell joined the Virginia Anti-Saloon League, and by 1922 was President of the Virginia chapter. Through pressure on state officials and legislatures, the VASL secured many victories at the state level, including passage of the Layman Act of 1924, which was considered one of the strictest state prohibition laws in the country.
The Presidential election of 1928 proved to be a trying time for the Virginia Anti Saloon League and Virginia Democrats. The US Presidential election pitted Republican candidate Herbert Hoover against Democratic candidate Al Smith of New York, with William Varner running on the Prohibition Party ticket. John Preston McConnell identified himself as a loyal Virginia Democrat, a considered himself a faithful party member. However, Al Smith had clearly aligned himself with the “wets,” and favored the repeal of the 18th Amendment. Many in the “dry” camp were casting their support to Hoover.
Given this political landscape, as a loyal Virginia Democrat, and as president of the state Anti-Saloon League, John Preston McConnell was in a quandary. Who would he support? In an exclusive statement to the Radford News Journal on September 27, 1928, McConnell called himself “a Democrat by conviction,” and publicly threw his support to Al Smith. His decision, he said, was a personal one. Essentially, for McConnell, when he removed the dry/wet issue, he largely supported Smith’s policies and “deplored” Hoover’s. He planned to vote “the whole Democratic ticket, state and national.” McConnell had known that this stance would result in bad press for the Anti-Saloon League, and had actually submitted his resignation as President of the Virginia Anti-Saloon League two months prior to making the announcement, but it was not accepted. Soon after his announcement, however, other prominent “dry” Virginia Democrats, such as the University of Virginia’s president Edwin A. Alderman, also threw their support behind Smith.
McConnell’s stance was widely reprinted in papers across the region and nation, including in Al Smith’s home state of New York. The Anti Saloon League’s national newspaper The American Issue ran a banner headline stating ”Virginia Political Leaders Fail to Keep Faith” on September 29, while also running an article about McConnell’s attempt to resign in July.
McConnell received dozens of letters about his support of Smith. Many were supportive. One Pulaski merchant wrote that “I do not know of anything that has pleased me more than…your letter in support of Governor Smith….I sincerely believe that this letter will do worlds of good throughout Virginia for the Democratic Party, and I want to commend you for the stand which you have taken.”
 Anti-Saloon League flyer from the Anti-Saloon League Collection, McConnell Library Many more letters, however, took a different approach. Some were morally outraged. A minister from Wytheville wrote “On reading the morning paper my heart has been all but completely crushed. If there was ever a man in whose moral leadership I had the utmost confidence and in whom I personally idolized it was you. Now to have this confidence crushed and my idol demolished is tragic. Dr! Dr! Dr!! How could you deal such a blow to your old pupils?….for four or five hours I have been depressed. But that I do believe in God. I would say that religion is a mockery and scripture a lie. Soon that do to any soul what you have done to mine I would suffer martyrdom.” Another minister from West Virginia wrote “I am surprised, shocked, and almost horrified…may the Lord have mercy on you old party bound Virginia democrats.” McConnell’s files are full such letters, and also his responses. In one response he said that “We have a perplexing situation before us in the coming election. I want to say to you that I do not feel that I am infallible about these matters. All that I think I can claim to say is that I want to do the right thing.” Overall, McConnell’s responses to his attackers and supporters echoed a consistent theme: he was not a single-issue voter, he had many reasons for his decision, and he believed that the Democratic Party would do the most good for the Commonwealth.
This backlash was very difficult for McConnell. “In all of my life time of public service in connection with public affairs, either business, political, economic, or social,” McConnell wrote in 1933, “I don’t think I was half as much abused in all of those years as I was in 1928. That did not shake me from my purpose to do what was right and I did what I thought was right.”
 A temperance song sung by Anthony Kaseoru at McConnell Day. From the book Battle Cry: A New Collection of Temperance and Prohibition Songs (1887), from the Anti-Saloon League Collection Following Dr. McConnell’s attempted resignation from the Virginia Anti-Saloon League and the acrimony surrounding his endorsement of Al Smith, there was a relatively quick warming of relations with Anti-liquor foes nationally and in Virginia. McConnell actively sought out books on Prohibition for the Library here at Radford and offered his help to several women throughout the state in preparation for school assignments and debates related to the liquor controversy. He also fostered working relationships with church and civic leaders throughout the Commonwealth and with administrators and faculty at Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, Hollins, Emory & Henry, Averett, and Roanoke Colleges in an attempt to bring anti-liquor speakers to those campuses and their surrounding communities. He also fought successfully against the granting of a license to Radford Drug Company to be allowed to dispense alcohol by prescription.
Despite resigning as President of the Virginia Anti-Saloon League, the resignation was not accepted and, much to his chagrin, he was told by Superintendent David Hepburn that he would remain President until a successor was chosen. Eventually, Hepburn relented but McConnell, not altogether by choice, remained a part of the Executive Committee of the Anti-Saloon League until finally stepping down after he and the League were named in a wrongful termination suit by a former field agent for the League. The suit was settled out of court and McConnell was not held liable for any damages. McConnell’s relationship with Hepburn and the Virginia Anti-Saloon League definitely suffered after the events of 1928 and would not be fully repaired until after the passing of Hepburn in April 1931 and the naming of his successor, Ed. J. Richardson of the Anti-Saloon League of America. McConnell had lobbied for Richardson to be the replacement and the two had an excellent working relationship. And as the nation went into a deep Depression and the 18th Amendment was repealed, McConnell continued to fight, probably with more zeal than before, against what he perceived as the evils of alcohol. McConnell unceasingly sent solicited and unsolicited donations to the Virginia Anti-Saloon League and other Prohibition concerns throughout the nation and worked harder than ever at bringing speakers to Radford and the surrounding communities. Thanks to Dr. McConnell’s efforts, Radford was one of the few independent cities in the Commonwealth to vote against the repeal of Prohibition within Virginia. And while he would not admit it publicly, in private conversation he admitted to Leigh Colvin of the Prohibition National Convention that “this College is whole heartedly pushing the campaign [against alcohol].”
 William Eugene “Pussyfoot” Johnson, noted temperance speaker Around this same time, Dr. McConnell was able to secure one of the more famous speakers to have visited Radford to that point. William E. Johnson was a world famous Prohibition figure and law enforcement officer. Johnson was such a stealthy and effective pursuer that he was nicknamed “Pussyfoot.” I’m not sure the name holds the same meaning now, but needless to say, he was an effective enforcement agent, securing over 4,000 convictions in less than six years. One supporter was quoted as saying, “Naturally, one of the first things that struck us was his delightful nickname. It sounded like dirty work at the crossroads on a dark night…. He seemed dreadfully able to provoke drought wherever he went.” Johnson was from upstate New York and graduated from the University of Nebraska. Following college, Johnson worked at the Lincoln Daily News and then was the manager of the Nebraska News Bureau. As a journalist, Johnson wrote articles in favor of Prohibition and even infiltrated brewers and saloons to engage in espionage and sabotage and published information about them. In 1906 Johnson was appointed special agent of the Department of the Interior to enforce laws in the Indian Territory and Oklahoma. Johnson was so effective in gaining convictions that saloon keepers and other interested alcohol proponents offered a reward for his death. Johnson responded by employing nighttime raids and destroying most of the saloons in the territory. Johnson later bragged “I have told enough lies for the cause to make Ananias ashamed of himself. Did I ever drink? Yes, gallons of it.” Pussyfoot resigned his federal post and moved to Kansas in 1912 to work with the Anti-Saloon League and served as managing editor of 35 Anti-Saloon League Publications. Johnson toured the world in support of Prohibition, visiting Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and the Pacific Islands. In 1919, while promoting Prohibition in England, he was captured by students in London and lost his right eye in the fracas. Johnson was not bitter about it and turned public opinion in Britain to his side by saying “the friendships that I made through that incident are worth a bushel of eyes.” Johnson became so popular in Britain that he was named director of the London office of the World League Against Alcoholism.
In December 1931, Pussyfoot was the keynote speaker at the Virginia Anti-Saloon League Conference in Richmond. He then went on a statewide speaking tour and Dr. McConnell worked hard throughout the New River Valley to secure speaking engagements and large audiences for Johnson. On December 18, Pussyfoot Johnson spoke to a large crowd at the auditorium of the Grove Avenue Methodist Church in Radford with the faculty and students of the College in attendance.
For the remainder of his term as President of the College, McConnell continued to tirelessly work for the cause of Prohibition and to work with faculty and students in integrating an anti-alcohol sentiment throughout the curriculum and the atmosphere at the College. Mrs. Clara McConnell, Dr. McConnell’s wife was also very active in the fight for Prohibition, serving as the President of the Southwest Virginia Chapter of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. Perhaps McConnell’s views on Prohibition and its role at the College can best be viewed by something he wrote to Prohibition leader Harry S. Warner: “We are very careful not to harass our students and those who are about our institution in such a way as to annoy them or nauseate them with the idea, but we see to it that Prohibition ideas have a very large place in the thinking on the campus.”
To demonstrate the softer side of Dr. McConnell and to summarize the quality of the man, one only has to look at his treatment of David Hepburn’s widow. Mrs. Hepburn, as had many Americans, had fallen on very hard times by the mid 1930s. With no husband, several unemployed adult children at home and one with severe disabilities, Mrs. Hepburn was unable to provide for her family. One Christmas, deep into the Depression, McConnell, after hearing of the plight of the widow, and despite the tensions that sprang up between him and Rev. Hepburn in the years following the 1928 election wrote Widow Hepburn a gracious letter and sent her a check to use as she saw fit.
A note on sources used for this talk: Much of the material came from papers in the Anti-Saloon League Collection at McConnell Library. Additional material on McConnell’s life came from A History of the State Teachers College – Radford, Virginia, by M’Ledge Moffett. Additional material on W.E. “Pussyfoot” Johnson came from online editions of the Times of London and the New York Times, available through McConnell Library’s databases. The photo of William Eugene “Pussyfoot” Johnson is in the public domain, and was obtained from the Library of Congress.
The Anti-Saloon League Collection is available for research. Please contact Gene Hyde, Archivist, to make an appointment.
Fans of the popular BBC television series Downton Abbey have no doubt noted the mansion’s extensive library. Robert, the Earl of Grantham, enjoys his library, and many scenes are filmed in the estate’s book-laden room. The show is set in England in the tumultuous time before, during, and after the First World War. Downton Abbey’s library is filled with the current literature of the time, and several of the volumes mentioned on the show can be found in McConnell Library’s Rare Book Collection.
Books are much more than props in this BBC series – reading is valued at Downton Abbey, and books frequently show up in the script. The Earl gladly loans books to Branson, his Irish chauffeur, despite Branson’s Irish Revolutionary sentiments. The actors are often seen reading or browsing in the library.
In one scene, Lady Edith Crawley, the middle daughter (played by Laura Carmichael) offers several book choices to a convalescing British officer. Deliberating between giving the officer the recently published (as of 1913) England Since Waterloo by J.A.R. Marriott and something else, she tells the officer “I know we’ve got lots of G. A. Henty.” The officer, pleased with being offered a book by Henty, responds “Thank you very much.”
Like the Downton Abbey library, our Rare Book Collection also contains “lots of G.A. Henty.” More than 80 volumes, to be precise. G. A. Henty (1832-1902) was a prolific British author who wrote novels targeted at British boys during the Victorian age of British Imperialism. Packed with adventure and set in such exotic locales as India, Russia, Spain, Canada, and Virginia, Henty’s novels glorified British Imperialism and sported such titles as Among Malay Pirates, Under Wellington’s Command, On the Spanish Main, Gallant Deeds, Redskins and Colonists, and With Lee In Virginia.
Henty’s novels were very popular and had a huge impact on spreading Victorian morals. Contemporary Authors Online states that “The Victorian morals promoted in (Henty’s) historical stories–like bravery, curiosity, imperialism, and religious tolerance–would come to characterize many of his readers when they reached adulthood. Nicholas Ranson, writing in Dictionary of Literary Biography, stated: “Perhaps more than any other writer of his time, Henty was instrumental in the creation, promotion, and upholding of the age’s values and beliefs.”
Radford’s collection of G.A. Henty novels was originally a gift from Radford College alumna Margaret Phlegar. An exhibit of Henty’s novels is on display on the fifth floor of McConnell Library beside the Archivist’s office. The books can be checked out for use in the library. Please see the Archivist if you’d like to read one of these books. To find out more about G. A. Henty, check out this article from Contemporary Authors Online.
Source: G(eorge) A(lfred) Henty. (2003). In Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CH1000044711&v=2.1&u=viva_radford&it=r&p=LitRG&sw=w
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