Gerald “Gerry” Milnes (born August 21, 1946, in Germantown, Pennsylvania) is a folklorist, author, filmmaker, musician, and educator known for his lifelong documentation of traditional West Virginia culture. Based in Elkins, he was named a National Heritage Fellow in 2026 by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA),  the nation’s highest honor in folk and traditional arts. He was the seventh West Virginian to receive the recognition, following Nimrod Workman (1986), Melvin Wine (1992), Ellie Mannette (1999), Dorothy Thompson (2000), Hazel Dickens (2001), and John Morris (2020). In addition, the NEA bestowed upon Milnes the 2026 Bess Lomax Hawes National Heritage Fellowship, in honor of one person nationally who has made significant contributions to the excellence, vitality, and public appreciation of the folk and traditional arts.

Milnes grew up in a musically diverse household and gravitated early toward country and western music—especially the “Hanks,” including Hank Williams, Hank Snow, and Hank Thompson—as well as bluegrass performers such as Reno & Smiley and Flatt & Scruggs. He began playing guitar at age nine and learned three-finger banjo at 12. As a teenager in the Philadelphia area, he attended coffeehouse performances by musicians associated with the folk revival, including Mississippi John Hurt, Reverend Gary Davis, and Doc Watson.

A formative experience came when Milnes attended a bluegrass festival in Maryland and heard old-time fiddler Red Hartnett. Inspired by Hartnett’s playing, he purchased his first fiddle and began pursuing traditional Appalachian music. In 1969, he attended the inaugural Morris Family Old-Time Music Festival in Clay County, marking the beginning of his sustained engagement with West Virginia’s musical traditions.

In 1975, Milnes and his wife, Mary Alice, moved to Randolph County as part of the Back-to-the-Land Movement. They established their homeplace near Birch River in Webster County, where Milnes began wider documentation of traditional musicians, craftspeople, and folk artists, including members of Currence Hammonds’s family, Woody Simmons, and William “Blackie” Cool. Largely self-trained as a folklorist, Milnes built an extensive personal library of folklore scholarship and conducted fieldwork throughout central West Virginia.

In 1988, he joined the Augusta Heritage Center as Folk Art Coordinator, a position he held for 25 years. During his tenure, he developed a major archive of traditional culture, producing more than 2,000 hours of audio and video recordings and approximately 20,000 photographs. His documentation encompasses music, dance, crafts, architecture, seasonal customs, folk medicine, foodways, agricultural practices, and other aspects of regional folklife.

Milnes has researched a wide range of West Virginia traditions, from gravestone carving to dulcimer making. While at Augusta, he also produced 25 albums featuring traditional musicians, including fiddlers Melvin Wine, Ernie Carpenter, and Wilson Douglas. Two of these recordings were selected in the early 1990s for the American Folklife Center’s Selected List of American Folk Music Recordings.

Milnes has also contributed to film and media projects. He served as local music consultant for the film Matewan, directed by John Sayles, assisting with production and location scouting. He played fiddle on the soundtrack and on screen during a key scene in the movie. He later contributed to the PBS documentary series The Appalachians (2005). Over the course of his career, he has produced 15 documentary films and made hundreds of recordings publicly accessible. In 2006, he was named West Virginia Filmmaker of the Year.

As an author, Milnes has written extensively about Appalachian folklore and traditions. His books include Granny Will Your Dog Bite and Other Mountain Rhymes (1990), Passing It On: An Introduction to the Folk Art and Folk Life of West Virginia (1994), and Play of a Fiddle: Traditional Music, Dance, and Folklore in West Virginia (1999). In Signs, Cures, and Witchery: German Appalachian Folklore (2007), he explored German influences on Appalachian belief systems and healing practices, challenging the perception of the region as primarily Scots-Irish in heritage. His latest book, The American Log Cabin: Folk Architecture and Lore on the Old Frontier of West Virginia (2026), re-examines early Appalachian building traditions. Milnes has also contributed dozens of articles to regional publications, including Goldenseal and the West Virginia Encyclopedia (e-WV).

Beyond scholarship, Milnes has remained active as a mentor and performer, winning numerous fiddle and banjo competitions. At Augusta he co-founded an apprenticeship program that paired master artists with younger learners, and he successfully nominated two West Virginians—Melvin Wine and Dorothy Thompson—to be National Heritage Fellows. He later helped establish the West Virginia Folklife Program and its apprenticeship program at the West Virginia Humanities Council, which nominated him for the 2026 recognition.

His honors include the Vandalia Award (2013) —West Virginia’s highest folklife recognition—an honorary doctorate from Davis & Elkins College, the Governor’s Arts Award, the Footbridge Award, and the Legend of Old-Time Music Award. He also has been awarded research fellowships from the West Virginia Humanities Council and Berea College.

Through more than five decades of fieldwork, performance, writing, and mentorship, Gerald Milnes has played a central role in documenting, preserving, and interpreting the traditional culture of West Virginia.