Ellen Apperson Brown runs a business called Community Archives of SWVA that focuses on collecting, researching, writing, and publishing local history. She has done many projects over the years including oral histories, scanning records, writing articles and books, and teaching workshops. She hopes to partner with local museums and historical societies to expand her work and make historical information more accessible online.

1. Community History Projects… a Sample of What I Like to Do
By Ellen Apperson Brown

2. Community History Projects… One Woman's Perspective… By Ellen Apperson Brown

3. For many years, while honing my skills as historian and writer, I have been
developing a business (Community Archives of SWVA, LLC) - designed to encourage
history education, through collecting, research, writing, and publishing. I keep
hoping to be taken under the wing, so to speak, of a museum or historical society,
and be incorporated into the offerings there…with the help of grant funding.
Perhaps this may eventually attract the attention of larger, more regional entities,
and they might arrange to secure my services. Together we could start developing
historical content that could be shared over the internet, and help them attract a
broad membership base.
From Lost Communities of Virginia,
by Terri Fisher and Kirsten
Sparenborg

4. A few years ago, I taught a workshop in Bedford for museum staff and
volunteers, helping them to better understand historic methodology, and
encouraging them to develop a project to better market and manage the
content of their archival materials…so that they could better answer questions
of visitors, and be better prepared to explain about Bedford's history. Similar
workshops could be offered in other museums, such as this one, in Salem, by
contracting with me to do the teaching and training.

5. To give you an idea of my
interests and knowledge, here
is a brief description of some of
the history projects I have
worked on in recent years.
From Jamestown to Blacksburg:
The Path to the College of
Natural Resources at Virginia
Tech, 2007.

6. 90th Anniversary History of the Roanoke Kiwanis Club – 2010…

7. Coordinator of Oral
History Project at
the Virginia Museum
of Transportation –
with three college
interns, collected
interviews from a
dozen WWII pilots,
in preparation for a
new exhibit, and
created a large
digital data base…
Summer of 2011…

8. Archivist – scanned the records of the Lutheran Orphanage (in Salem);
making slide shows for the Facebook page (Lutheran Family Services),
etc. Created a digital data base…Ten months work, 2012…

9. Scanning – Records for St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Fincastle…scanned scrap
books and vestry minutes from about 1920-2000 and created a digital
archive; contributed articles for the church's newsletter.

10. Recordings - made video
recordings of parish
events and posted them
to the website, including
talks (Bobby Waid – the
Mayor of Fincastle, talking
about growing up in the
church), picnics, and
several "history talks" for
the youth on their
pilgrimage, in the summer
of 2013.

11. Publishing – a set of
newsletters originally
published in 1998-2000, by
the Eagle Rock Improvement
Association. We scanned the
newsletters and had them
printed in book form, selling
over 225 copies and raising
about $4,000 for the
renovation of the Community
Center in Eagle Rock. Nadine
Rankin (90), the author and
editor of these newsletters, is
delighted to see her book in
print, as are the members of
the Eagle Rock Ruritan Club,
who appreciate the money
and the favorable attention!

12. Research and writing – about the Virginia
Frontier…I have published two articles in
the Smithfield Review (vol. 7 & 8) about
Mary Draper Ingles, my 6X great
grandmother, and am currently working
on a biography of William Ingles, Mary's
husband. He was accused of being a
Loyalist, and I have recently discovered
evidence that his father, Thomas Ingles
(or Inglis) was a Loyalist merchant in
Charleston, SC (1782) and died in Jamaica
in 1788. This is a rich topic, and may be
of considerable interest to others seeking
to better understand what their ancestors
were doing in this part of Virginia,
especially during the eighteenth century.

13. Newsletters – Telling Institutional Stories…

14. Research and writing – about my great uncle, John
S. Apperson, Jr., who was born in Chilhowie,
Virginia, but moved to Schenectady, New York in
1900, becoming an engineer at the General
Electric Company, and a leader in the effort to
protect the Adirondack Forest Preserve. I have a
book nearly finished, a biography, and hope to
find the right publisher soon! I have also had
several articles published about him in some of
the Adirondack blogs and online journals, and
have created a website, a sort of digital archive,
giving a preview of the fascinating letters from his
collection of personal papers. Another book
under way…is one that tells more about the
Apperson family, including Dr. John S. Apperson (a
medic during the Civil War), and Harvey Black
Apperson (son of the doctor, and half-brother of
the engineer) who became Attorney General for
Virginia, in the 1940s. He built the house on
Apperson Drive, in Salem.

15. One of my latest topics of interest - is
an idea to write a book called "GE
Comes to the Roanoke Valley," and
collect stories from scores of local
people, documenting the impact that
G.E. had on this region. Several
people have helped me so far, and
shared their stories. There might be a
number of people here at the Salem
Museum who might like to be
interviewed… There is no doubt that
G.E. families stirred up plenty of
changes – in the arts, education, and
so forth.
1954 General Electric
announced plans
for a multi-million-
dollar plant at
Salem's eastern
limits. The arrival
was assessed as
being "the
greatest single
industrial
development in
the Roanoke
Valley" since 1914.

16. I have a book that I would like to publish soon,
called Missing Ingredients: A Thoughtful Look at
Elder Care Institutions, which I completed about
15 years ago, when I was a student at UNC-
Asheville. I tell of my experiences visiting my
mother, who had become confused and
disoriented, and of the lessons I learned. I
developed a strategy for reaching out to
residents of retirement communities and nursing
homes, to be called Pelican Projects…and have
yet to get it started anywhere, but I keep hoping.
At the heart of this approach is something I call
"history therapy" – similar to music therapy…as a
way to help people share their stories…

17. I have offered classes at Virginia Western, for teacher recertification, called
Imagining the Virginia Frontier, and a workshop at the Virginia Writer's
Conference called Writing History. I am pretty good at helping people find
answers to their questions about genealogy, using Ancestry.com, taking
advantage of my extensive collection of history books (about 600) and thus
helping people to understand the context of history. I would love to figure out
how to set up a business with a blog and members, publishing information
about families and individuals, and allowing members to post their research,
too. To see more examples of my work, please have a look at my website:
www.vahistoryexchange.com.

18. I have several older friends who have an attic full of "stuff" and no idea what
to do with it. Their children are too busy, and they probably won't have time
to sift through all these old photos and letters…so what to do? I'm not sure
what might work at the Salem Museum, but it seems possible that a few
individuals could be recruited who would enjoy visiting with the elderly
person, listening to their stories, looking through their materials… and
offering to help in some way. As an ongoing project, this might be a way to
reach out to the community and show that history is not just about honoring
"important people" - but that everyone has interesting stories to tell. It
would be good to establish friendly relationships, maybe intergenerational
ones, too, and there is a good chance that this could produce material
suitable for an exhibit, or a book!

19. I feel strongly that museums should be placing more emphasis (and more
time and financial resources) to the process of organizing the archives
(including papers, books, and artifacts), and training volunteers to take the
lead in the entire process. Most museums do not have adequate resources
to hire an archivist or pay a professional to scan documents and create a
complicated digital filing system. I have been experimenting, based on my
own research and writing, and learning how best to scan documents, set up
a filing system, and publish some of my findings on the internet. I think
that volunteers could easily be trained to do what I have learned to do. I
would love to be invited to offer a workshop, and see if there are
individuals interested in launching a project or two… Even if the museum is
not quite ready to invite people to start emptying their attics, someone
could be designated to organize a specific project or two, and start
collecting… I firmly believe that there are other "60 something" seniors out
there who would enjoy embarking on a history project, and learning more
about all these fabulous new technological tools that are available. That is
my dream…
My dream…