The History Project

Huntington's favorite son first made his name as a star at Douglass High School, and then went just a few blocks away to Marshall University. Being the first Black player at any West Virginia college, he shattered ceilings as well as records. First drafted into the NBA by the Syracuse Nationals, he made his name legendary when the team transferred to Philadelphia and became the Seventy-Sixers, whe...

In the 19th century, the National Road reached from Cumberland, Maryland to Wheeling but was hindered by the wide Ohio River. That problem languished for over three decades before leaders took the situation into hand. They invited the nation's two leading engineers to compete for the task of designing a landmark bridge, but fate managed to make them both a part of its final design. The Wheeling Su...

Amusement parks started in Europe, evolving from pleasure gardens and fairs, but in the United States, they were created as waterside attractions or by local trolley companies to encourage more ridership on weekends. Created around the turn of the 20th century and called "trolley parks," there were hundreds of them throughout the country and West Virginia was no exception. With seven trolley parks...

Joseph McCarthy was a little-known Senator from Wisconsin when he came to Wheeling in February 1950 to address the Ohio County Republican Women's Club. But after giving an incendiary speech in which he claimed to have a list of communist traitors throughout the federal government, McCarthy's name was on the lips of all Americans. With the bitter seeds he planted in Wheeling, he grew the vociferous...

Education is a basic foundation for any individual whose goal is to change the way the world sees things, and Carter G. Woodson built one of the strongest foundations of anyone, much less the son of former slaves. Woodson collected advanced degrees the way some people collect coins and stamps, but with a greater purpose, which was to educate the world, especially about the contributions of Black p...

When history is told, it is often shaped by those who've benefitted most in the telling of its story.  Sometimes it takes someone to rouse us from our complacency and remind us that history is shared by everyone and before Carter G. Woodson did that for us, a coal miner from Fayette County, West Virginia named Oliver Jones did it for him, setting in motion one of America's most significant educati...

American history is full of famous names, but only a few are fully recognized by most everyone and Booker T. Washington is one of those names. The author of "Up From Slavery" used his own story to help bring about racial reform.  From enslavement to the halls of academe, Washington became the right man for his times.  

Christopher Payne—known as C.H. to his friends—lived more lives than a collection of most people. Born into enslavement, his mother insisted upon getting him an education.  After the Civil War, he was able to become a teacher and a pastor before publishing newspapers in which he addressed the stories of African Americans. He moved through the world of politics to garner the respect of President Te...

Sometimes the path to greatness goes through some unsavory territory. Before Stephen Benton Elkins rose to prominence, his rise included business dealings that remain a dark part of our nation's history.  He came to West Virginia from the American Southwest when he married into a U.S. Senator's family, whose support would eventually make him a Senator, too.

Americans love a good rags-to-riches story and few could rival that of Henry Gassaway Davis. Born into a meager merchant's family, Davis worked his way up through the railroad and developed investments to build an empire, and joining the elite of Capitol Hill in Washington, founding many West Virginia towns and one of its beloved colleges. 

Robert Graetz, Jr. saw wrong and worked to correct it when he became friends with Rosa Parks in Montgomery, Alabama after she refused to give up her seat on a city bus. The only white reverend in the city to support and aid the bus boycott, the former Charlestonian also became friends with Dr. Martin Luther King, as he joined in the fight for equality, armed with the spirit of faith and humanity. 

It's an old joke that well-behaved women seldom make history and while that may not be true, Mother Jones put the maxim to the test. Having lost her entire family to a yellow fever epidemic, Jones dedicated her life to helping American laborers get their fair share. A firebrand whose voice still rings through the hills of West Virginia, she left her mark on the state and our nation. YouTube: https...

Heroes often rise from the place where they were born, and Frank Keeney is just such an example. Born in Cabin Creek, he grew up in the epicenter of the labor struggle of West Virginia's southern coalfields. He did not wait for things to get fixed but decided to fix them himself, getting elected to the UMWA and leading the miners to the first major strike in the state. YouTube:  https://www.youtub...

When a young Mary Lou Retton of Fairmont saw Nadia Comaneci compete in the 1976 Olympics, she decided that gymnastics was for her. After local coaching and training from Comaneci's coach, she ascended to the same heights as her heroine and became a role model for later American gymnastic Olympians like Kerri Strug and Simone Biles.

Every West Virginian knows that "Mountaineers Are Always Free" but what many may not know is that our state motto was a quick addition to our state seal by its designer. A Frenchman came to the mountains and blended the imagery of his old and new homes to give West Virginia its symbolism. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lps8fSbGJUc  

Many legends blaze trails loudly with a roar, but others, like Katherine Johnson, lead direction with a gentle whisper. After the release of the book and th film "Hidden Figures," the world learned about Johnson and her colleagues, the women who played a key role at NASA in America's space race. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgcQTUQQDIw

In the company of Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, and the Mighty Casey, John Henry is a legend whom people see as a proper metaphor for the American spirit. Created from the ideals of African American laborers on the Big Bend Tunnel in the 1870s in Talcott, West Virginia, John Henry is the embodiment of the hero hardworking people needed then and now, and this is more than his story: It is our story. You...

While George Washington is famous for his grand estate, Mt. Vernon, in Virginia, few may know he owned thousands of acres in what would become West Virginia. As an surveyor and a veteran of the French & Indian and Revolutionary wars, Washington collected large parcels in the river valleys of the colonial West and they became a part of the Kanawha Tracts. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc...

No other state was ever torn from another as was West Virginia. With the Civil War looming on the horizon, The Richmond Convention gave Virginia the opportunity to secede from the United States and The Wheeling Convention restored the rights of the state's western citizens to remain with the U.S. by seceding from Virginia. YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvQCHyQMRq4

Frustrated with the decline of Reconstruction, author and intellectual W.E.B. DuBois organized the greatest African American minds of the early 20th Century to form the Niagara Movement. After its first conference held in Canada, the movement's first meeting in the United States was a symbolic and landmark event at Harpers Ferry, and it would resonate to this very day. YouTube:  https://www.youtub...

As Americans celebrate Memorial Day, we are reminded of the sacrifices made by our veterans who kept the United States and most of the world free. What better time to examine the fascinating life of Charles Town hero Frank Buckles, who lived to be the last surviving American veteran of World War I. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JpMhp8jYRw

Standing as a monument to America's prison system of the 19th and 20th centuries, the West Virginia Penitentiary in Moundsville is a relic of the penal systems dark past. YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajbZrm0lMv0  

Willow Island is a small community along the Ohio River between Parkersburg and St. Marys and its name suggests a tranquil place, but on April 27, 1978, any tranquility was destroyed by a construction accident that would forever change the communities of the region.  YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDx4j-chnkg

We live in a world of invention but sometimes stories fail to explain that inventors work from ideas that were already in place. Robert Fulton gets credit for inventing the steamboat, but James Rumsey and others created the foundation on which he worked. YouTube Link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agw-dveZ-O8

Manhattan, Beverly Hills and…Bramwell?  When one thinks of the wealthiest places in America, a small West Virginia town developed by a railroad to serve coal interests may not come to mind, but Bramwell once held the title as the wealthiest town in the U.S. per capita.  YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpEPoweulvQ