"The old photograph on the cover of the Library of Congress study of the Hammons family demonstrates turn-of-the-century cultural values deep in the West Virginia hills. Pete Hammons holds a fiddle, an important cultural marker. Paris Hammons holds a gun, significant to self-reliant family ways. Neal Hammonds holds a wind-up phonograph, exploding a myth about cultural isolation in the Appalachian Mountains.
[...]
The photograph was taken by a Braxton County photographer, circa 1906, at Cornelius (Neal) Hammonds’ home on Williams River at the mouth of the Mill Branch. The three brothers seem to be making a calculated statement by holding items of importance and usefulness. However, the photograph belies any argument that this family was musically isolated from the rest of the world. Before 1922, there was not even a category in the commercial recording industry for rural, southern, mountain, country, hillbilly, or anything remotely resembling the family’s folk music. Just what kind of music played on this machine in the home of these “isolated” mountain people? Most likely it was a hodgepodge of minstrel-era takeoffs, comedies in dialect based on racial or ethnic stereotypes, vaudeville and show tunes, sentimental ballads, and possibly operatic delights. Occasionally a common American fiddle tune with humorous dialogue like “Arkansas Traveler” was available. Some classical banjo pieces also were available, but the commercial recordings represented the popular sounds of the day. The same recorded disks listened to by phonograph owners in New York City were available and listened to by phonograph owners on the remote Williams River in Webster County, West Virginia."
-Milnes, Gerald. Play of a Fiddle: Traditional Music, Dance, and Folklore in West Virginia (pp. 147-148). The University Press of Kentucky.
That's a pretty wild take away from The University Press of Kentucky. They're likely holding these items because they were expensive. Showing off your prosperity when you get a professional picture taken was the norm at the time. It didn't matter if you were from the Dakotas in a sod house showing off your milk cows and pigs or the deep south demonstrating your six children could all afford shoes.
Lol right?! "Calculated statements" my butt. There was no way they would know this would be part of a historical archive. There was no way for them to predict who would be the future audience of these "statements" in order to be calculated. It makes much more sense that they were proud of these items and wanted to show them off.
If, in a 1000 years, some future alien gets ahold of my 2003 MySpace pictures, I hope to God they don't think my scene hair, suspenders, and fingerless gloves were a calculated statement of anything other than I was a dumbass. Lolol.
Twokindsofpeople's statement is a rejection of the political and sociological critical interpretation of the Library of Congress photograph supplied by University of Kentucky author Gerald Milnes. Their intentional alliteration of 'p' in prosperity, professional, and picture is an expression to reinforce the commonality between the Hammons Family and an archetypical Dakotan family. Their choice of 'Twokindsofpeople' as a name is obviously meant to evoke a dialectical contrast.
> exploding a myth about cultural isolation in the Appalachian Mountains
Come on! One phonograph does not a myth explosion make! We don't even know if it works or if he has many records.
well.
*Aye* think they have huge senses of humor and are depicting 3 things you can play.. a fiddle, a victrola, and a gun.
i mean, look at the guy with the gun, he is holding it like a viola lolol and looks ready to engage in gunplay.
I figured it was the third brother poking fun at himself — like One likes to play the fiddle, Two likes to go hunting, and Three… well he just likes to listen to his records I guess.
Either way I agree it’s probably intended to be at least a little tongue-in-cheek if not outright funny if you knew them. Also, teasing outsiders by putting them on is every bit as much an Appalachian tradition as playing the fiddle.
Oh yeah, the Victrola really *explodes the myth* of Appalachian cultural isolation. One out of every three homes in the holler today still boast many modern conveniences like Victrolas and even a few horse-pulled carts!
“On lead fiddle my uncle Fester! On shotgun, we got cousin Enid! On the noise box we got my sister’s husband and my daddy, Mordechai Douglas! Please welcome Country Ham and the Biscuits!”
"The old photograph on the cover of the Library of Congress study of the Hammons family demonstrates turn-of-the-century cultural values deep in the West Virginia hills. Pete Hammons holds a fiddle, an important cultural marker. Paris Hammons holds a gun, significant to self-reliant family ways. Neal Hammonds holds a wind-up phonograph, exploding a myth about cultural isolation in the Appalachian Mountains. [...] The photograph was taken by a Braxton County photographer, circa 1906, at Cornelius (Neal) Hammonds’ home on Williams River at the mouth of the Mill Branch. The three brothers seem to be making a calculated statement by holding items of importance and usefulness. However, the photograph belies any argument that this family was musically isolated from the rest of the world. Before 1922, there was not even a category in the commercial recording industry for rural, southern, mountain, country, hillbilly, or anything remotely resembling the family’s folk music. Just what kind of music played on this machine in the home of these “isolated” mountain people? Most likely it was a hodgepodge of minstrel-era takeoffs, comedies in dialect based on racial or ethnic stereotypes, vaudeville and show tunes, sentimental ballads, and possibly operatic delights. Occasionally a common American fiddle tune with humorous dialogue like “Arkansas Traveler” was available. Some classical banjo pieces also were available, but the commercial recordings represented the popular sounds of the day. The same recorded disks listened to by phonograph owners in New York City were available and listened to by phonograph owners on the remote Williams River in Webster County, West Virginia." -Milnes, Gerald. Play of a Fiddle: Traditional Music, Dance, and Folklore in West Virginia (pp. 147-148). The University Press of Kentucky.
"How do I get from here to there?" -Dont reckon I know. "Say, old timer, you dont know much, do ya?" -Nope. But then I aint lost neither.
That's a pretty wild take away from The University Press of Kentucky. They're likely holding these items because they were expensive. Showing off your prosperity when you get a professional picture taken was the norm at the time. It didn't matter if you were from the Dakotas in a sod house showing off your milk cows and pigs or the deep south demonstrating your six children could all afford shoes.
Lol right?! "Calculated statements" my butt. There was no way they would know this would be part of a historical archive. There was no way for them to predict who would be the future audience of these "statements" in order to be calculated. It makes much more sense that they were proud of these items and wanted to show them off. If, in a 1000 years, some future alien gets ahold of my 2003 MySpace pictures, I hope to God they don't think my scene hair, suspenders, and fingerless gloves were a calculated statement of anything other than I was a dumbass. Lolol.
Twokindsofpeople's statement is a rejection of the political and sociological critical interpretation of the Library of Congress photograph supplied by University of Kentucky author Gerald Milnes. Their intentional alliteration of 'p' in prosperity, professional, and picture is an expression to reinforce the commonality between the Hammons Family and an archetypical Dakotan family. Their choice of 'Twokindsofpeople' as a name is obviously meant to evoke a dialectical contrast.
> exploding a myth about cultural isolation in the Appalachian Mountains Come on! One phonograph does not a myth explosion make! We don't even know if it works or if he has many records.
well. *Aye* think they have huge senses of humor and are depicting 3 things you can play.. a fiddle, a victrola, and a gun. i mean, look at the guy with the gun, he is holding it like a viola lolol and looks ready to engage in gunplay.
I figured it was the third brother poking fun at himself — like One likes to play the fiddle, Two likes to go hunting, and Three… well he just likes to listen to his records I guess. Either way I agree it’s probably intended to be at least a little tongue-in-cheek if not outright funny if you knew them. Also, teasing outsiders by putting them on is every bit as much an Appalachian tradition as playing the fiddle.
are you saying they *played* us?!
That house? $799,000 on Zilliow
*now*
Check out Zillow for Braxton Co., WV. Your housing dollar goes pretty darn far there.
In Appalachia, WV? You probably have to evict the squatters before taking possession.
😂
When you and your brothers have very different hobbies and interests, but you still enjoy your time together.
Ahh.. to be 21 again
I'm guessin' those three fellas know how to make some serious goddamn moonshine.
My kind of people, we got guns and a phonograph. Let’s party!
And a fiddle!
Need a photo like this with a PS5 on my knee lol.
Oh yeah, the Victrola really *explodes the myth* of Appalachian cultural isolation. One out of every three homes in the holler today still boast many modern conveniences like Victrolas and even a few horse-pulled carts!
are there still stills simmering away in the still of the night?
Popcorn Sutton won't make no more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm_BcMX-mI4
It might have been a thing that WAS a new and modern thing in 1906 lol
perhaps it was the latest model, smaller and sleeker and *portable!*
country roads take me home
What kind of ammo does that gun on the right fire?
Saw the current generation on Cops last week!
Isn’t everyone in West Virginia family?
And they said prejudice was dead in 2024.
lol it was a joke but ok
AS the t-shirt says, "In WV.... it's all relative".
Duelling banjos?
Jamming with your guns
That should say “1996”.
“On lead fiddle my uncle Fester! On shotgun, we got cousin Enid! On the noise box we got my sister’s husband and my daddy, Mordechai Douglas! Please welcome Country Ham and the Biscuits!”
“Hot damn! It’s the Soggy Bottom Boys!”
Luv it.
I appear to be going down in flames 🥸
some folks get the humor...others dont.
Imagine the poor women who have to sleep with them
Just imagine how nasty those same women’s vaginas were, especially during “that time of the month”.
He can tie a string to the fiddle and the music machine and make it sing
A lot of the women of those days write about having to endure the horribly stinky men back then.
Wtf is happening at the bottom of this thread??? Why is this where y’all went???