Gerry Milnes

Folklorist & Documentarian

2026 NEA National Heritage Fellow
Elkins, West Virginia

Bio

Gerald “Gerry” Milnes, recipient of the 2026 Bess Lomax Hawes National Heritage Fellowship, is a folklorist, musician, filmmaker, and author whose work over five decades has played a central role in documenting, preserving, and sharing the folk traditions of Appalachia. Through field recordings, films, books, and public programs, Milnes has helped bring national attention to the everyday artists, musicians, and communities that carry the region’s cultural traditions forward.

Milnes was born in 1946 in Germantown, Pennsylvania, and grew up immersed in country and bluegrass music, learning guitar, banjo, and fiddle by ear. A chance encounter with an old-time fiddler at a bluegrass festival in the 1960s reshaped his musical path and sparked a lifelong commitment to traditional Appalachian music. In 1975, Milnes and his wife, Mary Alice, moved to rural West Virginia, adopting a back-to-the-land lifestyle that became the foundation for his deep, community-centered folklife work.

Beginning in the 1970s, Milnes traveled throughout North Carolina, Virginia, and mainly West Virginia, recording and interviewing elder musicians and tradition bearers—many of whom had never been documented before. His fieldwork captured unknown artists such as Currence and Mint Hammonds, and he documented and nominated two National Heritage Fellows fiddler Melvin Wine (1991), and weaver Dorothy Thompson (2000). His approach was built on trust, long-term relationships, and respect for the communities he worked with, ensuring that traditions were presented in their full cultural context.

From 1988 to 2013, Milnes served as Folk Art Coordinator at the Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins, West Virginia, where he developed workshops, performances, and apprenticeship programs that connected elder artists with younger generations. He played a key role in revitalizing interest in traditional music, dance, and crafts in the region, often helping rural artists navigate their first performances outside their home communities.

Milnes is the creator of an extensive body of work that includes more than 25 audio recordings, 15 documentary films, and five books. His publications include Play of a Fiddle: Traditional Music, Dance, and Folklore in West Virginia (2009); Granny Will Your Dog Bite and Other Mountain Rhymes (1989); Signs, Cures, and Witchery: German Appalachian Folklore (2007); and The American Log Cabin: Folk Architecture and Lore on the Old Frontier of West Virginia (2026). His archival holdings at the Augusta Heritage Center contain more than 2,000 hours of field recordings and 20,000 photographs, now used by scholars, musicians, and cultural organizations to study and share Appalachian traditions.

In addition to his documentation work, Milnes helped establish the West Virginia Folklife Program at the West Virginia Humanities Council and its folklife apprenticeship program, and co-created the Mountain Dance Trail, which preserves and promotes West Virginia square dancing customs from the Virginia line to the Ohio border.

Milnes’s contributions have been recognized with numerous honors, including West Virginia Filmmaker of the Year, an honorary doctorate from Davis & Elkins College, and the Vandalia Award, the state’s highest folklife honor.