Skip to Main Content

Reading: Primary Sources

Jeannette Walls

Author Jeannette Walls on The Glass Castle (video): CBS News Sunday Morning segment with Walls about her upbrinVideo still image of woman on stage clasping her hands speakingging in Welch, W. Va., which was anything but conventional. Her bestselling memoir, The Glass Castle, is now a film. CBS, 2017. 

Jeannette Walls: The Glass Castle (video): An IPFW Omnibus Lecture Series video presentation of Walls speaking about how writing her novel transformed her feelings of shame.  Purdue University, Fort Wayne, Helmke Library, 2014.

                                                     

Resilience in Children

Film still image of boy leaning on the back of a pony staring at the camera and smiling.Portraits and Dreams (video): Portraits and Dreams revisits the photographs created by Kentucky school children in the 1970s.The film is about the students, their work as visionary photographers, the lives they have made since then and the passage of time. Public Broadcasting Service Distribution, 2020. From PSCC Films on Demand.

A Hidden America: Children of the Plains (video):  ABC News program that visits the Pine Ridge Reservation to report on the reservation’s problems with poverty and alcoholism and to meet with some remarkable children who are striving to break through its culture of despair. American Broadcasting Corporation, 2011. From PSCC Films on Demand.

Views of Welch, West Virginia

Postcard image of a mountainside on a river with a town full of houses and businesses on it and a railroad running parallel to the river. Wintertime in Welch, McDowell County, West Virginia  West Virginia and Regional History Center, WVU Libraries, Morgantown West Virginia. 

'Blowed Out', McDowell County, W. Va. ca. 1930   West Virginia and Regional History Center, WVU Libraries, Morgantown West Virginia. 

Caretta Hollow, McDowell County, W.V. ca. 1948  West Virginia and Regional History Center, WVU Libraries, Morgantown West Virginia. 

East End Residence Section: Welch, W.V.  West Virginia and Regional History Center, WVU Libraries, Morgantown West Virginia. 

Welch, West Virginia1974 David Plowden, Museum of Contemporary PhotPhotograph of young boy standing on a mound of coal holding on to a rope pulley.ography, Columbia College, Chicago.  

"Welch, West Virginia" Library of Congress Photographs, audio, and other materials from the Library of Congress online collections.

Connected: The County that Built the Country (video): Once one of the wealthiest counties in America and home to the first billion dollar company, McDowell has been called the county that built the country. But with most coal mines closed, it is now among the poorest places, and suffers the shortest life expectancy and highest death rate from opioids of all 3,142 counties in the USA. Public Broadcasting Service, 2021.

Alcoholism

Adult Children of Alcoholics: A Family Secret (video): Famous adult children of alcoholics speak about the difficulties of coping with the damage inflicted by an alcohol-centered childhood. WBZ-TV, 1990. From PSCC Films on Demand.

Circle of Recovery: Healing the Wounds of Drugs and Alcohol (video): Program that provides candid portrait of seven African-American men all recovering from drug and alcohol addiction and their efforts to heal through a voluntary recovery group they formed. Doctoroff Media Group, 1991. From PSCC Films on Demand.

Pledge card, Total Abstinence Association, location unknown, 1870s: Total Abstinence Association Pledge Card, from Ephemera Collection at Historic New England. Print shows debt collectors, on the left, removing the possessions of a destitute family; the wife/mother and the children are on the right with the husband/father who is sitting before the fireplace, drinking and smoking.

[A family losing their possessions after the husband turns to drink]  Print shows debt collectors, on the left, removing the possessions of a destitute family; the wife/mother and the children are on the right with the husband/father who is sitting before the fireplace, drinking and smoking. Library of Congress, between1830-1860.

Child Sexual Abuse

Warning: These materials may be disturbing for viewers.   

Boys and Men Healing From Child Sexual Abuse (video): Powerful documentary which reveals the epidemic of sexual abuse of boys and its impact on both the individuals and their families through first-hand accounts from adult men survivors. Big Voice Pictures, 2011. From Alexander Street VideosStill film image of a child sitting at a table in front of a birthday cake being kissed on the cheek by a woman. Other people are gathered around the table for the birthday party.

Boyhood Shadows: "I Swore I'd Never Tell" (video):  Film which explores the issue of sexual abuse through the voices of grown men who speak out about their experiences. Landmark Media Inc., 2010.  From Alexander Street Videos. 

 

Mental Illness

Film still image of dark forest with the word Bedlam.Bedlam: Through intimate stories of patients, families, and medical providers, BEDLAM immerses us in America’s national crisis surrounding care of the severely mentally ill. Ro*Co Films, 2019. From Alexander Street Videos. 

Animated Minds: Multi-award-winning collection of eight 3- to 6-minute micro-documentaries attempts to communicate the subjective experience of abnormal psychological states by blending animation with narration by people who live each day with debilitating mental conditions. Digital Rights Group Limited, 2011. From PSCC Films on Demand.

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

CDC-Kaiser ACE Study: The CDC-Kaiser Permanente adverse childhood experiences (ACE) study is one of the largest investigations of childhood abuse and neglect and household challenges and later-life health and well-being. This website contains the study questionnaires, data, and statistics.  

Take the ACE Quiz - And Learn What it Does and Doesn't Mean: Article with link to ACE Quiz. National Public Radio, 2015.