Freda Balli walking along the road with dairy cows during the Helvetia Video Project. Photograph by Gerry Milnes, Sept 1991, Hacker Valley near Helvetia, WV. The video project culminated in a documentary film entitled Helvetia: The Swiss of West Virginia that features descendants of 19th century Swiss immigrants sharing and discussing their music, dance, yodeling, foodways, crafts, customs, and celebrations. archive reference GM S2607. Project description: The Milnes Collection contains audio-visual recordings made and collected by the Augusta Heritage Center’s former Folk Arts Coordinator, Gerald Milnes. Throughout his career with Augusta, Milnes conducted field work to amass a large collection of oral histories, music, and event recordings. He recorded the bulk of the collection from the early 1970s to 2013, but the collection also includes tapes with earlier dates that others sent to him.
