Support Tim Barnwell in Preserving Appalachian Heritage

Preserving Appalachian Heritage | Support The Face of Appalachia through GoFundMe

Today, through our YouTube channel, The Face of Appalachia, we are bringing you authentic Appalachian storytelling, oral histories, and stunning visuals of mountain life in a new way. However, creating these high-quality documentary-style videos requires significant resources, including professional cameras, drones, audio gear, and editing software. Most importantly, we need to cover the cost of the time-intensive process of editing. A single half-hour video takes weeks to complete, and we’ve produced more than 30 episodes over the past two years.

Join me, Tim Barnwell, as I continue my lifelong mission to document Appalachian culture, history, and traditions. For over 50 years, I have photographed and recorded the unique people, stories, and landscapes of Appalachia, producing three books: The Face of Appalachia, On Earth’s Furrowed Brow, and Hands in Harmony.

We believe our YouTube channel is the ideal way to share these stories, but the revenue generated there only covers about 20% of our production cost. The rest? I’ve personally funded. That’s not sustainable, so to keep this going, we need your help. We have many new stories we want to share, and based on our experience, it will take $25,000 over the next year to create the new episodes we hope to make. That is why we’re asking for your support in preserving Appalachian history by contributing to our GoFundMe.

I also have hundreds of hours of rare oral history interviews on old cassette tapes, recorded for my book projects since the 1980s. Hearing people’s stories in their own words is invaluable, but many of the tapes are deteriorating, and I need to send them out to be digitized before they’re lost forever. There are companies that offer this service at a cost of about $5,000, and a portion of the funds raised will cover this important process.

With your support, we can continue preserving this fading way of life. Every donation makes a difference and yours will help sustain our mission to keep Appalachian heritage alive for future generations. If you love Appalachian culture, American history, or rural storytelling, please donate today!

Thank you!

Tim Barnwell