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Vandalia Gathering

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The popular Vandalia Gathering takes place at the state capitol every Memorial Day weekend.

Events for May 2018

• Dedication of Library Building Addition

  May 05, 2018 — Wellsburg, Brooke

  The Brooke County Public Library invites you to the opening of the building addition which houses the National American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Museum, Education and Research Center.

  Death march reenactment, parade military units, equipment and reenactors will be on display with a military helicopter flyover. Lunch provided by Elks Lodge 1555.

  May 5 beginning at 10:15 A.M.
• Harpers Ferry Civil War Round Table

  May 09, 2018 — Harpers Ferry, Jefferson

  Join the Harpers Ferry Civil War Round Table this year for its series of stimulating lectures and dinners. Dinners will be at 6:30 pm, with programs following at 7:30 pm on the second Wednesday of each month, at Camp Hill-Wesley United Methodist Church, 645 W. Washington St., Harpers Ferry. Programs are free and open to all, but dinners are by reservation only. Contact Chris Craig at ccraig@laurellodge.com to be added to the monthly announcement list.

  Schedule of 2017-18 programs:

  • Sept. 13 – Dennis Frye, Chief Historian, HFNHP: “Did McClellan outthink Lee during the First Invasion?”
  • Oct. 11 – Gary Gimble, Author and President, Falling Waters Battlefield Association: “Is That Stonewall?”
  • Nov. 8 – John Chapman, Longtime area relic hunter: “Three Decades Chasing Early and Sheridan through Jefferson County with my Metal Detector”
  • Dec. 13 – Joe Mieczkowski, Author and Battlefield Guide, Gettysburg National Military Park: “Gettysburg in Sight and Sound.”
  • Jan. 10 – Bob O’ Connor, Author and local historian: “Southern Oasis at Gettysburg”
  • Feb. 14 – Dr. John Splaine, Author and former C-Span consultant: “The Lincoln-Douglas Debates”
  • March 14 – William Miller, Noted Civil War author: “The Battle of Tom’s Brook”
  • April 11 – Ted Alexander, Former Park Historian, Antietam National Battlefield: “The Burning of Chambersburg”
  • May 9 – Mike Cannane, Historian and volunteer guide, Kernstown Battlefield Association: “The Battle of Second Kernstown”
  • June 13 – TBA Concert
• Craft Spring Fling

  May 11, 2018 to May 13, 2018 — Cedar Lakes Conference Center, Jackson

  Six craft workshops are offered. Basketry, beading, painting, wood turning, penny rugs and playing the ukulele are available. Call 304-372-7860 for details.
• 1968: Fifty Years Ago in West Virginia

  May 17, 2018 — Charleston, Kanawha

  On Thursday, May 17, 2018, Jack Canfield, press spokesman for three governors, will present “1968: Fifty Years Ago in West Virginia” in the Archives and History Library at the Culture Center, State Capitol Complex in Charleston. The program will begin at 6 p.m. and is free and open to the public.

  In his informal remarks, Canfield will cover how West Virginia dealt with Vietnam, race relations, strip mining, Chicago riots, Lyndon B. Johnson, strikes, the Silver Bridge disaster, politics, mine explosions, gun control, and other topics on a month-by-month basis. His perspective is that of the youngest press secretary in the nation: Serving as Governor Hulett C. Smith’s press secretary at the time, Canfield was only age 24.

  Canfield is an entertaining speaker who is popular in West Virginia political science classes at West Virginia and Marshall universities. An amateur gubernatorial and presidential historian who has helped catalog records of West Virginia governors, he was a press spokesman for Governors Smith, Jay Rockefeller and Bob Wise. He was a member of the House of Delegates, Commissioner of Employment Security, vice-president of Charleston Area Medical Center, and a public relations and advertising executive in Charleston until his retirement in 2015. A member of the West Virginia Broadcasting Hall of Fame, Canfield is a native of Mineral County, a graduate of Potomac State College and WVU, a contributor to the West Virginia Encyclopedia, a civic leader in Charleston, and a volunteer for the gubernatorial archive collection at Archives and History.

  Participants may park behind the Culture Center after 5:00 p.m. on May 17 and enter the building at the back loading dock area. There also is limited handicapped parking available in the new bus turnaround.

  For additional information, contact the Archives and History Library at (304) 558-0230.
• World War I: Honoring and Remembering Soldiers Who Gave All in the Great War

  May 24, 2018 — Charleston, Kanawha

  On Thursday, May 24, 2018, Benjamin Woodard and Pat McClure will present “World War I: Honoring and Remembering Soldiers Who Gave All in the Great War” in the Archives and History Library at the Culture Center, State Capitol Complex in Charleston. The program will begin at 6 p.m. and is free and open to the public.

  Woodard and McClure will speak about the general history of World War I and sources for period research available at the West Virginia State Archives. Woodard will present his efforts to honor the 88 soldiers from Cabell County who gave the ultimate sacrifice during the war. He also will share the stories of individual soldiers, including African American service, the influenza/pneumonia epidemic, and a soldier’s letter home.

  Benjamin Woodard, an Eagle Scout and Buckskin Council Eagle Scout of the Year, was named a West Virginia History Hero in 2018. He is a recipient of the Huntington, West Virginia, Exceptional Citizen Award, given by the mayor for exceptional service to the community. He also is the recipient of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution Founders Medal Award, the Mary Desha Medal for Youth, which is given for displaying exemplary service to his community. He is an avid amateur historian and genealogist and is currently a 9th-grade homeschool student.

  Pat McClure is a graduate of Baldwin-Wallace College and has a master’s degree from Ohio University. After teaching for two decades at West Virginia State University, she has spent retirement writing about historical subjects, primarily about the individuals included on the West Virginia Veterans Memorial on the Capitol Complex.

  Participants may park behind the Culture Center after 5:00 p.m. on May 24 and enter the building at the back loading dock area. There also is limited handicapped parking available in the new bus turnaround.

  For additional information, contact the Archives and History Library at (304) 558-0230.
• 2018 Vandalia Gathering

  May 25, 2018 to May 27, 2018 — Charleston, Kanawha

  Annual celebration of the traditional arts, music, dance, stories, crafts and food of West Virginia. Every Memorial Day weekend, Friday through Sunday, at the State Capitol in Charleston. May 25-27, 2018/

  http://www.wvculture.org/vandalia/
• African American Life: A Personal Perspective

  May 31, 2018 — Charleston, Kanawha

  On Thursday, May 31, 2018, Anna Evans Gilmer will kick off the 2018 Block Speaker Series of “African American Life: A Personal Perspective” programs in the Archives and History Library in the Culture Center in Charleston. The program will begin at 6:00 p.m. and is free and open to the public.

  Charleston native Anna Elizabeth Evans Gilmer was the fourth of eight children born to the late William H. and Ollie Brown Evans. After attending Boyd Grade and Junior High schools, she attended Garnet High School, where she was editor of the school newspaper The Eye. Garnet valedictorian in mid-year 1942, she went on to graduate from Bluefield State College in 1946 and complete post graduate work at West Virginia State College and the College of Graduate Studies for certification and enrichment. Gilmer taught English for six years at Sissonville High, substituted for ten years, and taught English at Carver Career Center for three years. She and her late husband of 58 years, the Reverend Paul Gilmer Sr. (Garnet class of 1942), are the parents of five children: Paul Jr, Rodney, Vikki Gilmer-Bayes, the Reverend Charles, and Janet Gilmer-Rowser. She also has 21 grandchildren, 21 great grandchildren, and 2 great greatgrandchildren.

  With James Randall, Gilmer co-authored Black Past, a record of area businesses, schools, churches and organizations in the Kanawha Valley. She was a member of the special committee for the West Virginia Women’s Commission and researched and wrote some of the entries in the commission’s book, A Sampling of West Virginia’s African American Women of Distinction. In addition, she was charter member of the Henry Highland Garnet Foundation and an advisor in preserving the African Zion Baptist Church and reconstructing Booker T. Washington’s boyhood cabin in Malden. A West Virginia History Hero, Gilmer also is the recipient of the Martin Luther King Jr. State Holiday Commission’s Living the Dream Award, the West Virginia Women’s Commission’s “Unsung Hero” Award, and the West Virginia Black Schools Sports/Academic “Hall of Fame” Historian and Legend Award.

  Participants may park behind the Culture Center after 5:00 p.m. on May 31 and enter the building at the back loading dock area. There also is limited handicapped parking available in the new bus turnaround.

  For additional information, contact the Archives and History Library at (304) 558-0230.