Ferrum College senior Abigail McGovern sits at a desk at the Blue Ridge Institute.
Carefully and meticulously, she handles an 80-year old document.
Yellowed corners and faded ink sometimes make the fragile manuscripts difficult to read, but McGovern painstakingly works with the papers in order to catalogue and archive them.
“The ultimate goal of this project is to digitize all of the Appalachian folktales and stories collected by the folklorist James Taylor Adams in the 1940s and eventually save them all in the digital archives,” McGovern says. “(It’s also to) put them all on (English Professor) Dr. (Tina) Hanlon’s AppLit website.”
Hanlon’s website site, AppLit: Resources for Readers and Teachers of Literature for Children and Young Adults, has been up and running for 20 years and has won the Appalachian Studies Association’s e-Appalachia award in the past.
“My responsibilities for this project primarily include working the archive at the BRI,” McGovern says. “All of the tales, except for the ones I’ve already scanned, are still on paper. So mostly, I read them and scan them into the computer system. And slowly, I’ve been working my way through transcribing them, because a lot of the originals are somewhat unstable and really hard to read.”
McGovern says she has been enjoying diving into the aging stories and bringing the project along, which is being funded via an Appalachian Colleges Association Summer Research Grant.
“My favorite part of the project is transcribing the folktales,” McGovern says. “Everything is so fascinating and interesting, and I like being able to get a deeper look into Appalachian culture and history. I also really like working on the AppLit pages, because I also really enjoy reading those tales, and I get sucked down fairytale rabbit holes when I do that.”
She says the number of tales awaiting archiving number in the hundreds.
“Some of them are pieces of advice or old wives’ tales or legends from direct sources and things like that,” she says.
McGovern, an English major who also aspires to be a writer, says the project has fanned the flames of her educational fire.
“This project has made me extremely interested in Appalachian culture and literature,” she says. “I learn more every time I work with the files. I’m already really interested in folklore and mythology and history, so I’m really loving being a part of this project.”
Commonalities across localities and geographic areas have also piqued McGovern’s curiosity.
“It’s really interesting to see what unique tales Appalachia has, as well as how the stories from this region connect to stories from other regions of the world that may or may not be similar,” she says.
One plan is to report on the project at the Council of Independent Colleges’ final workshop in Baltimore in late April and then for McGovern to continue work within the summer ACA fellowship.
Hanlon says she has been excited for McGovern to be in on the project.
“When Abigail took my Appalachian Literature course in 2020 and chose to write about folktales for her research project, I jumped at the chance to recruit her for our granted-funded Humanities Research for the Public Good project, ‘Preserving and Sharing Old and New Stories from the James Taylor Adams Collection and the Public’,” Hanlon said.
Beyond the project, McGovern wears many hats on campus. She is editor of Chrysalis and is co-president of Help Save the Next Girl.
“Abigail is one of the most reliable, dedicated, and mature students I have ever taught,” says Katherine Grimes, English Professor and faculty adviser to Chrysalis. “She has a positive attitude and a quiet leadership quality that, combined with her work ethic and time management skills, make her quite successful as editor of Chrysalis.”
Grimes likewise praises McGovern’s pen. “She is also a talented writer, having won both poetry and prose contests almost every semester, always with different judges,” Grimes says.
English Professor Lana Whited, who works with McGovern in several capacities, including Help Save the Next Girl and the Boone Honors Program, also gives McGovern high praise.
“Because Abigail tends to focus on the work, not on racking up achievements to list on her resume or hogging the stage (so to speak), many of our faculty colleagues are surprised to learn the extent of her leadership roles on the campus,” Whited says. “In her co-curricular involvement, as a peer tutor, and just in the day-to-day classroom setting, she plays an important mentoring and supportive role with younger, less experienced students, as she is ‘the tide that floats all boats.’ Her quiet nature belies her considerable impact on this community.”
Upon graduation this spring, McGovern plans to enter an MFA program for creative writing.
Hanlon’s site can be accessed here.
Article written and contributed by Assistant Professor of English & Journalism David B. Campbell.
