The WVU Libraries’ online database of historical photographs has recently grown beyond 10,000 digital images.

The milestone comes only five months after launching West Virginia History OnView. The database made its debut during Mountaineer Week in November 2005 with about 5,000 images.

“We created the database with the ambitious goal of cataloging 25,000 photographs from our West Virginia and Regional History Collection (WVRHC), and I’m pleased that we are making brisk progress,” WVU Libraries Dean Frances O’Brien said. “We are also all delighted that the site already draws thousands of users every month. People have found WV History OnView to be a valuable research tool.”

Since November 2005, the WVU Libraries have counted 20,000 individual visits to the site a month, according to Dennis Newborn, head of systems for the libraries. High usage actually caused the site to crash shortly after going online five months ago.

“Its popularity is pretty obvious,” said Newborn said.

Newborn is quick to give credit for the success to long hours WVU Libraries’ staff have dedicated to the project.

“It’s been amazing the number of photographs we’ve been able to add to the site,” Newborn said. “It’s a lot of hard work on the part of many people in the library.”

The database provides users with immediate access via the Internet to some of the best images from an archive of more than 150,000 photographs owned by the WVRHC.

The physical collection, located in Wise Library, has been used regularly by students and faculty at WVU and other institutions, researchers, historians, and members of the media. Many of the pictures often end up in term papers, classroom presentations, newspaper and magazine articles, and documentaries.

The WV History OnView site can be reached by going to the WVU Libraries homepage at http://www.libraries.wvu.edu/ and clicking on the WV History OnView link at the bottom right of the page.

During the Great Depression, the town of Wheeling gained international notoriety for weekly broadcasts of amateur musicians. Millions of Americans gathered around their radios Sunday afternoons to hear an announcer proclaim “It’s Wheeling Steel.”

At 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 20, an audience will crowd into Capitol Music Hall to enjoy a re-creation of the popular show by the Wheeling Symphony.

“It’s Wheeling Steel” originally aired on WWVA radio and was heard nationwide on the Mutual Network stations and the NBC Blue Network from 1933 to 1944.

John Cuthbert, curator of the West Virginia and Regional History Collection (WVRHC) at West Virginia University , is playing a key role in introducing new generations to the phenomenon and rekindling memories of those who got to experience the show the first time around.

“It’s an amazing story how a little radio program broadcast from Wheeling, basically for a local audience, had such a charming nature to it that other radio stations found out about it and wanted to run it. And it took off and became the fifth most popular radio program in the country,” Cuthbert said. “That’s pretty amazing.”

Last year, Wheeling Symphony Executive Director Susan Hogan contacted Cuthbert about developing an event to recognize the broadcast. Rather than simply featuring music from the show and talking about it, organizers decided to re-create the program.

Charged by Hogan with writing a script for the tribute, Cuthbert turned to the WVRHC archives and shifted through scripts from original shows to draw some inspiration. His script contains many quotes from the original shows but also contains new material written in the manner of the original programming.

The lines will guide the action for the Wheeling Symphony, a group of local actors, and the singing ensemble Five by Design.

“It’s going to be extremely entertaining because the radio program was extremely entertaining,” Cuthbert said. “It’s got comedy – many funny lines and colorful characters. It has the charm that we identify with amateur hour and family entertainment programs of the Ted Mack Amateur Hour and Lawrence Welk.”

Cuthbert is quick to point out that this homegrown musical variety show was a trend setter in its field. One of its unique traits was it featured Wheeling Steel employees and their families providing the musical entertainment.

The concept sprang from the mind of John Grimes, marketing chief for Wheeling Steel. He saw the idea as simply a tool for improving relations between employees and management.

More than enhancing Wheeling Steel’s image in the community, “It’s Wheeling Steel” gained the attention of the nation. Life magazine spotlighted the program in March 1938, and soldiers on the warfront listened to broadcasts during World War II.

The performance begins at 7:30 p.m. April 20 at the Capitol Music Hall in Wheeling . For tickets call 1-800-395-9241.

By Heather Bonecutter
Staff Writer

In a clearing next to Martin Hall stands a tree with ribbons on its limbs gently blowing in the breeze. This tree symbolizes peace – a peace that emanates throughout the generations of the Iroquois Confederacy to the countless generations to come.

West Virginia University librarian Anna Schien has been working to commemorate the spirit and history behind this tree in a book titled, “White Pine Spirit of Peace: the WVU Peace Tree,” which documents the life of this tradition.

“It’s a documentary transcript of the actual ceremonies so that people can know what happened,” Schein said.

The book follows the history of the WVU Peace Tree, from its initial planting in 1992 to the destruction of the original tree and its replanting in 1996.

This book features a preface by Provost Gerald E. Lang and an introduction by Schein.

“As in the time of the Peacemaker, peace today begins with you and me, here and now,” wrote Lang. “We need to strive for peace so that future generations can live in a world of harmony, not mistrust and conflict.”

“I thought it was important to get this history down before the records get scattered, and people are still here from the planting of the 1992 Peace Tree,” Schein said.

In the beginning of the book, a quote is featured from Chief Oren Lyons, Onond aga Nation Haudenosaunee Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy.

“And when you come back here with your grandchildren some day, you will say, ‘This is where I went to a university. We had leaders who came here and planted this tree.’ You will see how it will grow,” Lyons said.

The book is filled with the spirit that consumes the Peace Tree and the symbolism that it provides to students.

“The tree of peace is not just for Iroquois people. It is for all people who choose to take shelter under its boughs and to obey the laws that say we need to resolve our differences in peaceful ways. It serves to remind us that peace will not just happen by accident,” said Tuscarora Jane, Mt. Pleasant.

“Peace is achieved because of people’s deliberate and conscious actions. It is something we have to work for. It takes great commitment and personal sacrifice, and a great love for one another.”

In this book, the stories told by the chiefs of the Iroquois nation are documented as transcribed from recordings of the actual speeches.

“The message of when the chiefs came is very inspiring,” Schein said.

In 1996, the original Peace Tree was cut down by vandals and the chiefs of the Iroquois nation returned to plant another tree in its place.

“The spirit of peace in the tree never dies, but people need a physical reminder, so we planted another tree,” Schein said.

This book is the most recent in Schein’s series of publications focusing on intercultural communication with indigenous people regarding peace studies, and is dedicated to the Haudenosaunee and to Carolyn M. Reyer, the founder of WVU’s Native American Studies Program.

“One thing that was so important to me what that anyone who is interested in the Peace Tree would be able to have a copy free of charge and it would be important to have it in libraries so it would be permanently catalogued,” Schein said.

Copies of the “White Pine Spirit of Peace: the WVU Peace Tree” can be obtained by contacting Anna M. Schein, WVU Libraries at 293-4040, ext. 4065, or Betty Matlick, WVU Bookstores at 293-7464.

A new West Virginia University limited-edition publication documents the history and significance of the campus “peace tree” that has taken root next to Woodburn Circle.

Edited by University Librarian Anna Schein, “White Pine Spirit of Peace: the WVU Peace Tree,” includes the speech made by Chief Leon Shenandoah, Tadodaho of the Haudenosaunee, the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, when the white pine was first planted on the WVU campus in 1992.

The white pine symbolizes the Great Tree of Peace, whose four White Roots of Truth go in the four cardinal directions of the earth. According to Haudenosaunee oral tradition, Schein noted, the Creator sent a Peacemaker to unite the warring Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida and Mohawk nations by planting the original Tree of Peace at Onondaga about 1,000 years ago.

“The Tree of Peace is not just for Iroquois people,” explained Tuscarora Jane Mt. Pleasant at a 10-year anniversary ceremony honoring WVU’s tree. “It is for all people who choose to take shelter under its boughs and to obey the laws that say we need to resolve our differences in peaceful ways.”

Ironically, vandals in 1996 cut down the original tree – but later that year, Chief Jake Swamp , Mohawk Nation, Haudenosaunee Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy, came to campus to plant another. Speeches and photos associated with this planting are also included in Schein’s book.

Having recorded, photographed and archived information about WVU Peace Tree ceremonies since 1992, Schein recently discovered that her audio recordings and photographs were in many cases the only primary source materials still in existence.

“It has always been important to me to provide information to anyone – a WVU student, a member of the local community, or a visitor to campus – who is interested in learning about the history and meaning of our Peace Tree,” Schein said. “Through the generous support of this project by the Office of the Provost, the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, the University Libraries and the Native American Studies program, I will be able to share this information with a broad audience.”

Provost Gerald Lang, who wrote the book’s preface, believes that the Peace Tree’s message’s deserves such an audience.

“As in the time of the Peacemaker, peace today begins with you and me, here and now,” he wrote. “We need to strive for peace so that future generations can live in a world of harmony, not mistrust and conflict.”

The book is dedicated to the Haudenosaunee and to Carolyn M. Reyer, the founder of WVU’s Native American Studies Program.

The book is the latest manifestation of Schein’s interest in intercultural communication with indigenous peoples regarding peace studies.

Schein’s photographs of contemporary Haudenosaunee Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy events have been exhibited in the U.S. and the Confederacy and archived in the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. She is co-editor with G. Peter Jemison, Seneca Nation, of “Treaty of Canandaigua: 200 Years of Treaty Relations Between the Iroquois & the U.S.”

She was a member of the international media documentation team for the Tombouctou 2000 millennium event in Mali, West Africa , and more than 300 of her photos of this event are in the Mali National Archives.

She is currently a project consultant and English language editor for “Rediscovering Ancient Pathways to Peace,” an international electronic open-access indigenous peace studies series.

Angela Caudill, director of WVU Creative Services, designed the 82-page book. The Office of the Provost, the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, the University Libraries and the Native American Studies Program were the sponsoring units for the project.
Schein will distribute copies to all West Virginia academic and public libraries. The Library of Congress, the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian library, all Haudenosaunee Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy libraries and the WVU Libraries Rare Book Room will also receive copies.

Copies have also been set aside for free distribution to the general public while supplies last. To obtain a free copy of the book, contact Anna M. Schein, WVU Libraries, 304-293-4040 ext. 4065, or Betty Matlick, WVU Bookstores, 304-293-7464.

We are providing you with an opportunity to review the selection of journals subscribed to by the WVU Libraries. This is not a cut! We want the journals we purchase to be the ones most appropriate and the best use of our existing library budget. Our collection has changed and the decision making process has become more complicated in recent years due to the increase in electronic journal subscriptions, package deals, and full text databases.

Participate! What you can do…
Please help us review our journal subscriptions

We Want Your Recommendations

* are there journals that are outdated? Let’s drop them and add new titles relevant to your current teaching and research

* we must work with the existing budget, so new subscriptions must be traded for old ones

* make sure we are receiving journals essential for current teaching and research

* identify new titles needed to accommodate curriculum, research, or technological changes

* department chairs have a list of the journals currently received in your area

* to make changes in subscriptions for next year, we must have your input by the end of April 2006

* all titles suggested for cancellation will be posted on the library web pages to be given a chance for further review