Menu Expand Menu Close
Back to Top
Filter Search Expand Close Filter
Search Expand Search Close
["Frank George (October 6, 1928 November 15, 2017), a Bluefield native, was a banjo player, fiddler, and piper, who also played piano, organ, hammer and lap dulcimer, and was a walking compendium of West Virginia traditional music history and jokes. He was the recipient of the 1994 Vandalia Award, West Virginias highest folklife honor. Jane George (November 11, 1922 February 19, 2018) helped launch the craft revival in the Mountain State through extensive fieldwork with traditional artists, educational programming, and by co-founding the Mountain State Art & Craft Fair at Cedar Lakes. She also hosted Mountain Heritage weekends and Kanawha County Parks Mountaineer Day Camps to teach young mountaineers about their cultural heritage, founded two Scottish dance troupes, and served as a 4-H agent in multiple counties. She was the 1993 Vandalia Award recipient."]%

37. Home of Frank and Jane George (Jane reflected in mirror)

Identifier:
4224.GeorgeFrankGeorgeJane.Photo.014.4.19.16
Title:
Home of Frank and Jane George (Jane reflected in mirror)
Date:
2016-04-19
Creator:
Hilliard, Emily
Subject:
Folk music--West Virginia, Old-time music
Location:
Roane County (W. Va.)
["Frank George (October 6, 1928 November 15, 2017), a Bluefield native, was a banjo player, fiddler, and piper, who also played piano, organ, hammer and lap dulcimer, and was a walking compendium of West Virginia traditional music history and jokes. He was the recipient of the 1994 Vandalia Award, West Virginias highest folklife honor. Jane George (November 11, 1922 February 19, 2018) helped launch the craft revival in the Mountain State through extensive fieldwork with traditional artists, educational programming, and by co-founding the Mountain State Art & Craft Fair at Cedar Lakes. She also hosted Mountain Heritage weekends and Kanawha County Parks Mountaineer Day Camps to teach young mountaineers about their cultural heritage, founded two Scottish dance troupes, and served as a 4-H agent in multiple counties. She was the 1993 Vandalia Award recipient."]%

38. Photo of Frank George's family

Identifier:
4224.GeorgeFrankGeorgeJane.Photo.015.4.19.16
Title:
Photo of Frank George's family
Date:
2016-04-19
Creator:
Hilliard, Emily
Subject:
Old-time music, Folk music--West Virginia
Location:
Roane County (W. Va.)
["Frank George (October 6, 1928 November 15, 2017), a Bluefield native, was a banjo player, fiddler, and piper, who also played piano, organ, hammer and lap dulcimer, and was a walking compendium of West Virginia traditional music history and jokes. He was the recipient of the 1994 Vandalia Award, West Virginias highest folklife honor. Jane George (November 11, 1922 February 19, 2018) helped launch the craft revival in the Mountain State through extensive fieldwork with traditional artists, educational programming, and by co-founding the Mountain State Art & Craft Fair at Cedar Lakes. She also hosted Mountain Heritage weekends and Kanawha County Parks Mountaineer Day Camps to teach young mountaineers about their cultural heritage, founded two Scottish dance troupes, and served as a 4-H agent in multiple counties. She was the 1993 Vandalia Award recipient."]%

39. Old photos of Frank George's family

Identifier:
4224.GeorgeFrankGeorgeJane.Photo.016.4.19.16
Title:
Old photos of Frank George's family
Date:
2016-04-19
Creator:
Hilliard, Emily
Subject:
Folk music--West Virginia, Old-time music
Location:
Roane County (W. Va.)
["Frank George (October 6, 1928 November 15, 2017), a Bluefield native, was a banjo player, fiddler, and piper, who also played piano, organ, hammer and lap dulcimer, and was a walking compendium of West Virginia traditional music history and jokes. He was the recipient of the 1994 Vandalia Award, West Virginias highest folklife honor. Jane George (November 11, 1922 February 19, 2018) helped launch the craft revival in the Mountain State through extensive fieldwork with traditional artists, educational programming, and by co-founding the Mountain State Art & Craft Fair at Cedar Lakes. She also hosted Mountain Heritage weekends and Kanawha County Parks Mountaineer Day Camps to teach young mountaineers about their cultural heritage, founded two Scottish dance troupes, and served as a 4-H agent in multiple counties. She was the 1993 Vandalia Award recipient."]%

40. Frank George demonstrates a corn husk fiddle

Identifier:
4224.GeorgeFrankGeorgeJane.Photo.017.4.19.16
Title:
Frank George demonstrates a corn husk fiddle
Date:
2016-04-19
Creator:
Hilliard, Emily
Subject:
Folk music--West Virginia, Old-time music, Fiddling
Location:
Roane County (W. Va.)
["Trevor Hammons is a 17-year old banjo player and fiddler from Pocahontas County, and a member of the legendary musical Hammons Family. He is the only member of the Hammons Family who still actively plays music in the familys old-time tradition."]%

41. Trevor Hammons plays fiddle at the Pocahontas County Library

Identifier:
4224.HammonsTrevor.Photo.001.4.19.18
Title:
Trevor Hammons plays fiddle at the Pocahontas County Library
Date:
2018-04-19
Creator:
Hilliard, Emily
Subject:
Old-time music, Banjo, Hammons (Family : W. Va.), Folk music--West Virginia, Fiddling, Fiddle tunes
Location:
Pocahontas County (W. Va.), Marlinton (W. Va.)
["Trevor Hammons is a 17-year old banjo player and fiddler from Pocahontas County, and a member of the legendary musical Hammons Family. He is the only member of the Hammons Family who still actively plays music in the familys old-time tradition."]%

42. Portrait of Trevor Hammons

Identifier:
4224.HammonsTrevor.Photo.002.4.19.18
Title:
Portrait of Trevor Hammons
Date:
2018-04-19
Creator:
Hilliard, Emily
Subject:
Fiddle tunes, Banjo, Old-time music, Hammons (Family : W. Va.), Fiddling, Folk music--West Virginia
Location:
Marlinton (W. Va.), Pocahontas County (W. Va.)
["Trevor Hammons is a 17-year old banjo player and fiddler from Pocahontas County, and a member of the legendary musical Hammons Family. He is the only member of the Hammons Family who still actively plays music in the familys old-time tradition."]%

43. Fiddler and banjo player Trevor Hammons at the Pocahontas County Library

Identifier:
4224.HammonsTrevor.Photo.003.4.19.18
Title:
Fiddler and banjo player Trevor Hammons at the Pocahontas County Library
Date:
2018-04-19
Creator:
Hilliard, Emily
Subject:
Old-time music, Hammons (Family : W. Va.), Folk music--West Virginia, Fiddling, Fiddle tunes
Location:
Pocahontas County (W. Va.), Marlinton (W. Va.)
["Every year on the Saturday before Ash Wednesday, the town of Helvetia in Randolph County, West Virginia, hosts its Fasnacht celebration, a pre-Lenten mountain Mardi Gras intended both to reinforce Swiss customs for locals and bring much-needed tourist dollars to the town in the sparse mid-winter months.Though the holiday was originally celebrated only by locals in the towns private homes, in the late 1960s, town matriarch Eleanor Mailloux restored the holiday as a public celebration. Today, Fasnacht attracts attendees from near and far. The event begins with an open music jam at the Helvetia Star Band Hall or a special sampler plate dinner from the Hutte Restaurant. Then everyone gathers in the Star Band Hall in their homemade papier-mache masks for a masked lampion parade to the Community Hall. At the second hall, there is a mask contest for kids, a square dance called by local callers and accompanied by the Helvetia Star Band, and a treat table of traditional doughnuts and Swiss rosettes and hozablatz made by Diane Betler, Eleanor Betler, and other local bakers. All of this takes place under an effigy of Old Man Winter, hanging over the dance floor. At midnight the Old Man is cut from the rafters and burned on the bonfire outside, as the crowd sings a rousing a capella rendition of Country Roads. Learn more in Emily Hilliard's Bitter Southerner piece on Helvetia's seasonal celebrations, including Fasnacht: https://bittersoutherner.com/my-year-in-helvetia-west-virginiaAnd her piece on Fasnachts foodways traditions on NPRs The Salt: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/02/17/386970143/swiss-village-west-virginia-mardi-gras-feast-fasnacht Also see the Helvetia Foodways Oral History Project conducted by the West Virginia Folklife Program in partnership with the Southern Foodways Alliance: https://www.southernfoodways.org/oral-history/helvetia-west-virginia/"]%

44. Music jam in the Helvetia Star Band Hall

Identifier:
4224.HelvetiaFasnacht.Photo.008.2.6.16
Title:
Music jam in the Helvetia Star Band Hall
Date:
Creator:
Hilliard, Emily
Subject:
Helvetia (W. Va.), Fiddling, Fiddle tunes, Winter festivals, Carnival, Dance halls, Festivals, Folk music--West Virginia, Old-time music
Location:
Helvetia (W. Va.)
["Every year on the Saturday before Ash Wednesday, the town of Helvetia in Randolph County, West Virginia, hosts its Fasnacht celebration, a pre-Lenten mountain Mardi Gras intended both to reinforce Swiss customs for locals and bring much-needed tourist dollars to the town in the sparse mid-winter months.Though the holiday was originally celebrated only by locals in the towns private homes, in the late 1960s, town matriarch Eleanor Mailloux restored the holiday as a public celebration. Today, Fasnacht attracts attendees from near and far. The event begins with an open music jam at the Helvetia Star Band Hall or a special sampler plate dinner from the Hutte Restaurant. Then everyone gathers in the Star Band Hall in their homemade papier-mache masks for a masked lampion parade to the Community Hall. At the second hall, there is a mask contest for kids, a square dance called by local callers and accompanied by the Helvetia Star Band, and a treat table of traditional doughnuts and Swiss rosettes and hozablatz made by Diane Betler, Eleanor Betler, and other local bakers. All of this takes place under an effigy of Old Man Winter, hanging over the dance floor. At midnight the Old Man is cut from the rafters and burned on the bonfire outside, as the crowd sings a rousing a capella rendition of Country Roads. Learn more in Emily Hilliard's Bitter Southerner piece on Helvetia's seasonal celebrations, including Fasnacht: https://bittersoutherner.com/my-year-in-helvetia-west-virginiaAnd her piece on Fasnachts foodways traditions on NPRs The Salt: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/02/17/386970143/swiss-village-west-virginia-mardi-gras-feast-fasnacht Also see the Helvetia Foodways Oral History Project conducted by the West Virginia Folklife Program in partnership with the Southern Foodways Alliance: https://www.southernfoodways.org/oral-history/helvetia-west-virginia/"]%

45. Overhead view of the music jam in the Helvetia Star Band Hall

Identifier:
4224.HelvetiaFasnacht.Photo.009.2.6.16
Title:
Overhead view of the music jam in the Helvetia Star Band Hall
Date:
2016-02-06
Creator:
Hilliard, Emily
Subject:
Fiddle tunes, Old-time music, Fiddling, Folk music--West Virginia, Helvetia (W. Va.), Festivals, Winter festivals, Carnival
Location:
Helvetia (W. Va.)
["Every year on the Saturday before Ash Wednesday, the town of Helvetia in Randolph County, West Virginia, hosts its Fasnacht celebration, a pre-Lenten mountain Mardi Gras intended both to reinforce Swiss customs for locals and bring much-needed tourist dollars to the town in the sparse mid-winter months.Though the holiday was originally celebrated only by locals in the towns private homes, in the late 1960s, town matriarch Eleanor Mailloux restored the holiday as a public celebration. Today, Fasnacht attracts attendees from near and far. The event begins with an open music jam at the Helvetia Star Band Hall or a special sampler plate dinner from the Hutte Restaurant. Then everyone gathers in the Star Band Hall in their homemade papier-mache masks for a masked lampion parade to the Community Hall. At the second hall, there is a mask contest for kids, a square dance called by local callers and accompanied by the Helvetia Star Band, and a treat table of traditional doughnuts and Swiss rosettes and hozablatz made by Diane Betler, Eleanor Betler, and other local bakers. All of this takes place under an effigy of Old Man Winter, hanging over the dance floor. At midnight the Old Man is cut from the rafters and burned on the bonfire outside, as the crowd sings a rousing a capella rendition of Country Roads. Learn more in Emily Hilliard's Bitter Southerner piece on Helvetia's seasonal celebrations, including Fasnacht: https://bittersoutherner.com/my-year-in-helvetia-west-virginiaAnd her piece on Fasnachts foodways traditions on NPRs The Salt: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/02/17/386970143/swiss-village-west-virginia-mardi-gras-feast-fasnacht Also see the Helvetia Foodways Oral History Project conducted by the West Virginia Folklife Program in partnership with the Southern Foodways Alliance: https://www.southernfoodways.org/oral-history/helvetia-west-virginia/"]%

46. Young fiddler plays in the jam at the Helvetia Star Band Hall, 1 of 2

Identifier:
4224.HelvetiaFasnacht.Photo.010.2.6.16
Title:
Young fiddler plays in the jam at the Helvetia Star Band Hall, 1 of 2
Date:
2016-02-06
Creator:
Hilliard, Emily
Subject:
Winter festivals, Helvetia (W. Va.), Fiddling, Folk music--West Virginia, Old-time music, Fiddle tunes, Carnival
Location:
Helvetia (W. Va.)
["Every year on the Saturday before Ash Wednesday, the town of Helvetia in Randolph County, West Virginia, hosts its Fasnacht celebration, a pre-Lenten mountain Mardi Gras intended both to reinforce Swiss customs for locals and bring much-needed tourist dollars to the town in the sparse mid-winter months.Though the holiday was originally celebrated only by locals in the towns private homes, in the late 1960s, town matriarch Eleanor Mailloux restored the holiday as a public celebration. Today, Fasnacht attracts attendees from near and far. The event begins with an open music jam at the Helvetia Star Band Hall or a special sampler plate dinner from the Hutte Restaurant. Then everyone gathers in the Star Band Hall in their homemade papier-mache masks for a masked lampion parade to the Community Hall. At the second hall, there is a mask contest for kids, a square dance called by local callers and accompanied by the Helvetia Star Band, and a treat table of traditional doughnuts and Swiss rosettes and hozablatz made by Diane Betler, Eleanor Betler, and other local bakers. All of this takes place under an effigy of Old Man Winter, hanging over the dance floor. At midnight the Old Man is cut from the rafters and burned on the bonfire outside, as the crowd sings a rousing a capella rendition of Country Roads. Learn more in Emily Hilliard's Bitter Southerner piece on Helvetia's seasonal celebrations, including Fasnacht: https://bittersoutherner.com/my-year-in-helvetia-west-virginiaAnd her piece on Fasnachts foodways traditions on NPRs The Salt: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/02/17/386970143/swiss-village-west-virginia-mardi-gras-feast-fasnacht Also see the Helvetia Foodways Oral History Project conducted by the West Virginia Folklife Program in partnership with the Southern Foodways Alliance: https://www.southernfoodways.org/oral-history/helvetia-west-virginia/"]%

47. Young fiddler plays in the jam at the Helvetia Star Band Hall, 2 of 2

Identifier:
4224.HelvetiaFasnacht.Photo.011.2.6.16
Title:
Young fiddler plays in the jam at the Helvetia Star Band Hall, 2 of 2
Date:
2016-02-06
Creator:
Hilliard, Emily
Subject:
Carnival, Helvetia (W. Va.), Folk music--West Virginia, Fiddle tunes, Old-time music, Winter festivals, Fiddling
Location:
Helvetia (W. Va.)
["Every year on the Saturday before Ash Wednesday, the town of Helvetia in Randolph County, West Virginia, hosts its Fasnacht celebration, a pre-Lenten mountain Mardi Gras intended both to reinforce Swiss customs for locals and bring much-needed tourist dollars to the town in the sparse mid-winter months.Though the holiday was originally celebrated only by locals in the towns private homes, in the late 1960s, town matriarch Eleanor Mailloux restored the holiday as a public celebration. Today, Fasnacht attracts attendees from near and far. The event begins with an open music jam at the Helvetia Star Band Hall or a special sampler plate dinner from the Hutte Restaurant. Then everyone gathers in the Star Band Hall in their homemade papier-mache masks for a masked lampion parade to the Community Hall. At the second hall, there is a mask contest for kids, a square dance called by local callers and accompanied by the Helvetia Star Band, and a treat table of traditional doughnuts and Swiss rosettes and hozablatz made by Diane Betler, Eleanor Betler, and other local bakers. All of this takes place under an effigy of Old Man Winter, hanging over the dance floor. At midnight the Old Man is cut from the rafters and burned on the bonfire outside, as the crowd sings a rousing a capella rendition of Country Roads. Learn more in Emily Hilliard's Bitter Southerner piece on Helvetia's seasonal celebrations, including Fasnacht: https://bittersoutherner.com/my-year-in-helvetia-west-virginiaAnd her piece on Fasnachts foodways traditions on NPRs The Salt: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/02/17/386970143/swiss-village-west-virginia-mardi-gras-feast-fasnacht Also see the Helvetia Foodways Oral History Project conducted by the West Virginia Folklife Program in partnership with the Southern Foodways Alliance: https://www.southernfoodways.org/oral-history/helvetia-west-virginia/"]%

48. Fiddler Jesse Milnes plays in the music jam at the Helvetia Star Band Hall

Identifier:
4224.HelvetiaFasnacht.Photo.012.2.6.16
Title:
Fiddler Jesse Milnes plays in the music jam at the Helvetia Star Band Hall
Date:
2016-02-06
Creator:
Hilliard, Emily
Subject:
Old-time music, Festivals, Tourism and the arts, Fiddle tunes, Carnival, Fiddling, Winter festivals, Helvetia (W. Va.), Folk music--West Virginia
Location:
Helvetia (W. Va.), Randolph County (W. Va.)