Humanities Librarian
Primary Sources
"Answer at Once": Letters of Mountain Families in Shenandoah National Park, 1934-1938 by Call Number: Ebook and print access"Prompted by the condemnation of their land, the residents began writing letters to National Park and other government officials to negotiate their rights and to request various services, property, and harvests. Typically represented in the popular media as lawless, illiterate, and incompetent, these mountaineers prove themselves otherwise in this poignant collection of letters. The history told by the residents themselves both adds to and counters the story that is generally accepted about them."
- Shenandoah National Park Oral History Collection"Consists of 135 interviews of people who were living in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia prior to the creation of the Shenandoah National Park." From the Special Collections at JMU Libraries.
- Shenandoah National Park: CollectionsCollections of images related to the history of the park. Photo galleries include Civilian Conservation Corps, Early Log Structures, Early Park, Early Park Souvenirs, Early Trail Construction, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) for Skyline Drive, Former Mountain Residents, Pre-Park Resort Life, Segregated Facilities 1939-1950, Skyline Drive Construction, Hoovers and Rapidan Camp, and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
- Rothstein FSA photographsFrom the Library of Congress. Photographs of former residents from 1935 by Arthur Rothstein for the FSA (Farm Security Administration). Refer below to the film Rothstein's First Assignment: A Story About Documentary Truth for critical context.
- Histories along the Blue Ridge: CollectionsCourt records related to the park. "A collaborative project between James Madison University and the Rockingham County Circuit Courthouse that is making rare documents from Rockingham County’s storied past accessible to the public." Look for "SNP" collections.
- National Park Service History Electronic Library & Archive: Shenandoah National ParkDigital access to numerous brochures, bulletins, documents, and other materials related to the park. Click on the double arrows to display more content on the page.
- The Shenandoah National ParkA film from 1936 by the Department of the Interior through the National Park Service and Bureau of Mines.
- NewspaperArchive - Virginia This link opens in a new windowFull text pdfs for select historical newspapers from the state of Virginia, includes publications from Danville, Harrisonburg, and Petersburg.
- Washington Post: Historical This link opens in a new windowFull page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue to about 15 years ago.
Secondary Sources
- America: History & Life This link opens in a new windowIndex with abstracts to history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present.
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new windowMultidisciplinary index and full text source for scholarly journals and magazines.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowFull online text and images for back issues of selected scholarly journals and monographs in history, economics, political science, anthropology, sociology, literature, etc.
*Temporary expanded access beyond JMU subscriptions is available until Jun 30, 2022. Use this link for a list of resources: https://about.jstor.org/covid19/expanded-access-to-collections/. - Project Muse This link opens in a new windowAn index of journals in the humanities, social sciences, and mathematics.
Catalog
- JMU Library Catalog This link opens in a new windowFind journals, books, ebooks, films, sound recordings, and government documents available to JMU users.
- JMU Library Catalog: Shenandoah National Park (Va.)Materials from the catalog on the subject "Shenandoah National Park (Va.)"
- Rothstein's First Assignment: A Story About Documentary TruthA documentary film by Richard Robinson that investigates and critiques Arthur Rothstein's photographs of former residents for the FSA.