As a whole, the extant issues of the Quarterly Magazine of the Southern Industrial Educational Association comprise primary source material for a comprehensive regional report and systematic analysis of social change in Appalachia during the first quarter of the twentieth century.
On June 30, 1926, the Southern Industrial Educational Association’s board of trustees voted to disband, decreeing that their mission to bring national awareness to the plight of Southern mountaineers had been accomplished and that educational and social concerns still needing to be addressed could be met by other organizations currently working in the region. The SIEA was a far-flung volunteer group of individuals united in a single cause for two decades. After it was dissolved, the geographical location of trustees and auxiliary members was too widespread and fluid for the organization to remain a cohesive entity.
At the turn of the 20th century, it was evident to a national audience that Appalachian children were not getting proper nutrition. The coal industry was buying up huge parcels of land, displacing families that had lived in the communities for generations.
While politicians discussed programs to move people out of Appalachia, agriculturalists, scientists, and naturalists were in favor of improving farming practices as a way to keep families in the mountains. The magazines contain a number of articles written by preeminent scholars about land management. These men are not usually associated with issues in Appalachia and offer new insight for the social consciousness at the time.
Articles on Agriculture
Health is not a major topic in the archive but it is worthy of mention. In 1909, Hindman Settlement School reported an outbreak of Typhoid fever, and in 1911 Dr. Stucky came from Lexington, Kentucky to hold a weeklong clinic. Other illnesses mentioned are Hookworm, Tuberculosis, and Trachoma. Poverty, crowded living conditions, and poor sanitation helped spread the very contagious diseases. The severe flu epidemic of 1918-19 caused many deaths in the mountains. In some cases, patients traded food and crafts for treatment.
Articles on Health
The magazines contain a number of stories, written anonymously in what is intended to be local mountain dialect. Mary White, SIEA recording secretary for twenty-one years, frequently wrote for the magazine under her own name. She and her husband, C. David White, a geologist at the Smithsonian Institution and SIEA Trustee, lived in Washington, D. C. but spent summers in the mountains for his research. Mary likely wrote the stories to raise compassion for the association’s mission.
Articles on Local Dialect