Historic Photos of West Virginia
West Virginia is a state of overwhelming beauty. Shared traditions, shared tragedies, and shared histories bind its people to the land and each other with a strong sense of place, family, and home.
In striking black-and-white photos culled from state and national archives, accompanied by text from an award-winning writer, Historic Photos of West Virginia captures the history of this remarkable state. Even readers unfamiliar with its history will find a compelling drama in its tumultuous birth in the Civil War, its growth as a center for extraction industries and manufacturing, its role as a new homeland for immigrants, and its history as the birthplace of Mother’s Day and of heroes like Charles “Chuck” Yeager. The triumphs of natives like Nobel Prize–winning author Pearl S. Buck and tragedies like the Monongah mine disaster—all are depicted here as part of the complex, compelling story of the Mountain State and its people.
We earn a commission for purchases made through the following links.
Book details
- Author
- Gerald Swick
- Imprint
- Turner Publishing Company
- Published
- Formats
- Hardcover
- Subjects
- History › United States › State & Local › South (AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, VA, WV)
Photography › Subjects & Themes - Topics
- West Virginia history · black-and-white photography · pictorial history · local history · Civil War era · immigration history · coal mining industry
- ISBN-13
- 9781684421084
About the author
GERALD D. SWICK is a historian, editor, and graduate of Fairmont State College whose work has appeared in The West Virginia Encyclopedia and The Encyclopedia of World War II. He is the author of the West Virginia Histories book series.
Swick has received a West Virginia Humanities Council Literary Fellowship in Nonfiction and an Associated Press Lifestyles excellence in journalism award. He served as senior online editor for ArmchairGeneral.com and HistoryNet.com, and as web editor for the Weider History Group.
When not writing, Swick has worked as a museum attendant at Stonewall Jackson’s Boyhood Homesite and as Fairmont’s Main Street director. That grounding in regional history and public service runs throughout his work.
Gerald was born in Clarksburg, West Virginia, and maintains a blog at geralddswick.com.