Wheeling Spoken History Project
In April, 1994, Carrie and Michael Nobel Kline were awarded a contract to conduct Wheeling's Ethnographic Survey. Over the course of the next year and a half, the Klines conducted more than 150 interviews, launching "The Wheeling Spoken History Project."
➤ Read more about the origins of the Wheeling Spoken History Project
Wheeling Spoken History Project Online Through Berea College
In 2019-2020, Berea College Special Collections and Archives conducted a Recordings at Risk digitization project to preserve and provide online access to more than 700 audio and video recordings created by folklorists Michael and Carrie Nobel Kline. Series 21 of this collection includes the Wheeling, West Virginia Spoken History Project Audio Recordings. Audio recordings, transcripts, video recordings, and radio programs are available on the Berea College Special Collections and Archives website.
➤ View the Berea Collection by series folder
➤ View the finding aid for Series 21: Wheeling, West Virginia National Heritage Area Spoken History Project Audio Recordings
➤ View information about the entire digitization project at Berea for the Michael and Carrie Nobel Kline Collection
➤ View a list of the Wheeling Spoken History Project cassette tapes held in the OCPL Archives
WHEELING ROOM:
Two reports on the Wheeling Spoken History Project was prepared for the Wheeling National Heritage Area Corporation, the National Park Service, and the people of Wheeling by Michael & Carrie Nobel Kline. It is available to view in the Library's Wheeling Room (non-circulating material). To view the reports, ask for access to the Wheeling Room at the Reference Desk.
➤ As They Say in Wheeling, West Virginia: a conversational trip into the city's cultural, industrial and underworld past. Call #: Wheeling 975.415 As1 1994Wheeling 975.415 W57 1994
➤ Wheeling's spoken history: an interim report on the Wheeling cultural heritage survey prepared for the Wheeling National Heritage Area Corporation and the National Park Service Call #: Wheeling 975.415 W57 1994
➤ Learn more about Michael and Carrie Kline on their website: http://www.folktalk.org/
▼ Spoken Histories Transcripts Available On Our Website
(The following are 22 of over 150 interviews conducted by Dr. Michael and Carrie Kline - the interviews were transcribed in the late 1990s by volunteers and may contain spelling errors on last names.)
| Interviewee | Title | ||
| 94-001 | 06/07/94 | Chip West | An Early Love of History |
| 96-002 | 06/01/94 | Ann Norton | Wheeling in the 1920’s - 30’s |
| 94-003 | 11/17/94 | Bonnie Ellis | West Virginia Northern Community College |
| 96-004 | 06/23/95 | Elvira Corvino | Italian Family Life in Benwood, WV |
| 96-005 | 06/03/94 | Frances Cerrone | Growing up Italian in Fulton |
| 96-006 | 06/23/94 | John "Jack" Fahey | 40 years on the B&O |
| 96-007 | 07/05/94 | Bill Hogan | Wheeling's Wide-Open Days |
| 96-008 | 10/11/94 | John B. Hunter II | Marine Memories |
| 96-009 | 06/19/95 | Michael Sinicropi | Executive Speaks on Italian Immigrant History |
| 96-010 | 05/05/95 | Allen "Butch" Walker | Job Retraining, and the Clean Air Act |
| 96-011 | 07/31/95 | A.E. "Doc" Hennen | The Boys of Biak |
| 96-012 | 06/27/94 | David Javersak | An Historical Perspective |
| 96-013 | 05/30/95 | Robert Victor Marchlenski | Job Retraining Through The Clean Air Act |
| 96-014 | 07/05/94 | Mary Lou Henderson | Germans in Center Wheeling |
| 96-015 | 06/21/94 | Michael A Nau | The Price of Progress |
| 96-016 | 07/15/95 | Alphonse Ruggieri | Italian Culture and the "Neapolitan Serenade" |
| 96-017 | 05/16/94 | Darlene Stradwick | 13 Kids: Entrenched Values |
| 96-018 | 06/28/94 | George H. Thomas | From 21st and Main on South |
| 96-019 | 05/05/95 | Mark Uraco | Interview With Mark Uraco |
| 96-021 | 10/31/94 | Various Local Voices | Pierogi Making at St. Lad's |
| 96-022 | 09/27/94 | Rosalind "Buddy" Rybeck | Rosalind "Buddy" Rybeck |
