In early December museum staff and a dedicated crew of volunteers undertook the monumental task of organizing an extensive collection of papers, books, and objects generously donated to the museum by Sandra S. Barkey.

A prominent figure in the world of West Virginia history, Dr. Fred Barkey devoted his career to the history of working-class and Immigrant families in Appalachia earning both an undergraduate degree and master’s degree from Marshall College and a doctoral degree from the University of Pittsburgh. After graduating, Dr. Barkey returned to WV where he shared his passion for labor history with his students as a Professor at the University of Charleston, the Institute for Labor Studies at WVU, and as a Professor Emeritus at the West Virginia Graduate College.

Dr. Barkey’s dissertation research, published in 2012 as Working Class Radicals: The Socialist Party in West Virginia, 1898-1920, is a seminal work in the new labor history of Appalachia. Dr. Barley also served in a variety of roles with the National Coal Heritage Authority, as the Chair of the Coal Heritage Highway, and as President of the West Virginia Labor History Association. In 1988 he was knighted by King Leopold II of Belgium for his work shedding light on the history of Belgian immigrant workers in West Virginia’s glass industry, and in 2021 the museum was honored to present Dr. Barkey with the Carter G. Woodson Truthteller Award as part of the annual Red Bandana Awards.

Following Dr. Barkey’s passing in 2022, a substantial portion of his collections, comprising objects, teaching materials, oral histories, original research, and personal papers, were donated to the museum. Currently, our staff are hard at work cataloging and digitizing all of the material objects from Dr. Barkey’s collection. It’s an incredible privilege to be part of stewarding this piece of Dr. Barley’s life work and to experience -through handling the documents and artifacts- his meticulous process of interpreting and preserving a people’s history. The materials in this collection, from Dr. Barley’s own course materials to his students’ term papers on understudied topics in our regional labor history, attest to his influence on training another generation of oral historians, activists, and union workers. 

Beyond honoring Dr. Barkey’s legacy, this project serves as an important step for the museum, building the capacity for the archive to handle collections of this magnitude ensures that we can continue to be stewards of labor history, welcoming similar collections in the years to come. Looking ahead, the museum aspires to be able to hire an archivist to categorize each element of Dr. Barkey’s collection with the goal of making this wealth of materials available for public research for people who, like us, are inspired by Dr. Barkey’s life and work. 

Already, some of Dr. Barkey’s materials have found a digital presence in our online collections, and we anticipate adding more in the coming months!