West Virginia Posters, Prints, Maps, Photographs & Calendars
for educators and home schoolers; themed decor in studio or office.

West Virginians protest chiches that label their state nothing but coal mines and hillbillies. Yet at the same time they lure visitors with such items as sight-seeing trips into coal mines, buildings made of blocks of coal, coal jewelry, scenic backcountry parks, outdoor dramas about hill-folk ways.

Still, West Virginians have a point. Far more than is covered by the chiches attracts travelers to what has been called “the most southern of the northern, the most northern of the southern ... the most western of the eastern, and the most eastern of the western States.”

Two major geographical sections mark this teapot-shaped region that well deserves it “Mountain State” nickname. Along the eastern third lie the washboard ridges of the Appalachian Mountain system. Hills and hollows of the Appalachian Plateau spread a maze over the western two-thirds.

This plateau section slopes toward the Ohio River – and in early days forged links with the Ohio and the Mississippi and the West. Eyes still turn that way. Here, too, a quirk of statecraft left a tie to the North. William Penn's grant called for a boundary extending five degrees west of the Delaware River. This stopped just short of the Ohio, creating West Virginia's narrow panhandle that stabs past Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and to within 90 miles of Cleveland, Ohio. The strip echoes the industrial aura of the two metropolises – and of the pre-Columbian culture that built a great burial knoll at Moundsville.

Another boundary-line oddity gave West Virginia an eastern panhandle, squeezed at one spot to an eight-mile neck of land. In this region Harpers Ferry of John Brown fame played its strategic role in the Civil War.

At Harpers Ferry the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers join in a gorge Thomas Jefferson described as “one of the most stupendous scenes in nature.” But nature excels elsewhere, too; on a drive from Harpers Ferry to the state capital at Charleston you pass within 20 miles of no less tahn 14 state parks, each with its own brand of beauty. Two wilderness spots, Cranberry Blades and Dolly Sods – the latter named for a pioneer family, the Dahles, who once farmed its meadows, or “sods” – offer out-of-place touches of arctic tundra.

Major highways nosing across West Virginia ease its former isolation. But plentiful byways still make a shunpiker's dream. They lead into deep valleys where weathered houses spawn rusting jalopies beside porches – and TV antennas from rooftops. They wander wooded hills – nearly three-fourths of the state is covered with forests. They skirt coal towns and strip mines – four out of five counties are underlain with minable seams. And they unfold a prodigious array of other attractions. (*review the labor and environmental cost of coal and the practice of fracking.)

At Cass you can ride an old steam train on a 22-mile run – magnificent when automn paints the trees. At Green Bank you can listen to radio signals from the sun gathered by huge dishpan antennas of the national Radio Astonomy Observatory. Bluefield touts its mild summer climated by promising free lemonade any day the temperature hits 90ºF. Along the Tug Fork you can visit the valley the Hatfields and McCoys made famous with their feud.

Diversity? Yes, but a mere sampling of the state that calls itself “wild, wonderful West Virginia.”

(poster text about West Virginia)

• more flag posters

Greetings from West Virginia, Art Prints

Greetings from West Virginia ~

Beckley, Berkeley Springs, Charleston,
Elkton, Fairmont, Grafton, Huntington, Keyser, Parkersburg, Point Pleasant, Princeton, Wheeling.

Rhododendron, State Flower of WV, Art Print

The Rhododendron maximum, or “big laurel,” has been the state flower of West Virginia since 1903. The West Virginia Rhododendron is a shrub with large, dark evergreen leaves and delicate pale pink or white bloom, with either red or yellow flecks.

There is a wide variety of Rhododendron, both evergreen and deciduous, spread around the world. The Rhododendron is also the national flower of Nepal.

The word Rhododendron is from the Greek rodo = rose + dendro = tree.

Cardinals, the State Bird of West Virginia, are passerine birds (perching songbirds) native to both North and South America. Cardinals have red plummage and are seed eaters.

Cardinals are also the state bird of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, and Virginia.

Monarch Butterfly (Danaus Plexippus), Photographic Print

Monarch Butterfly
West Virginia State Butterfly

Monarch butterflies feature an orange and black pattern on their wings, and are known for their lengthy and multigenerational migrations. Journey North is a global study of wildlife migration and seasonal change that engages students in field observations and connecting with classrooms across North America. The Monarch is also the state butterfly of Minnesota and the state insect of Alabama, Idaho, Illinois, and Texas.

• insect posters

Honey Bee, Apis Mellifera, Photographic Print

The honey bee is important as a principal pollinator of crops and for producing pleasant-tasting and healthful honey. A social insect, the honey bee lives in highly organized colonies.

The Honey Bee is also the Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, and Wisconsin State Insect

• food posters

The West Virginia State Animal, the Black Bear, Ursus americanus, is found primarily is in the eastern mountain region of the state.

FYI, the Black Bear is actually deeply tinted with brown.

• more mammals posters

Brook Trout Art Print

The West Virgina State Fish, the Brook Trout, thrives in small, cold, spring-fed streams. The brook trout is olive with lighter sides and a reddish belly (in males) and is easily identified by the light-colored edges of the lower fins.

• more fresh water fish posters

Sugar Maple Leaves Giclee Print

The Sugar Maple, the State Tree of West Virginia, is one of the most important trees and beautiful trees. Along with the Black Maple, it is the major source of sap for making maple syrup, and its wood is desired in furniture and flooring. While the Sugar Maple is easy to transplant, and fairly fast growing, it doesn't like its roots compacted and is not tolerant of pollution. It is also the state tree of New York, Vermont, and Wisconsin.

• food posters

Golden Delicious Art Print

The Golden Delicious Apple, discovered by Anderson Mullins in Clay County in 1905, was designated as the official state fruit by the West Virginia Legislature on February 20, 1995.

• The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World - learn about apples.

Miners on Strike Lick Creek, WV, Giclee Print

The fossil fuel coal is a combustible rock formed by compressed layers of annual plant remains primarily during the Carboniferous period (359.2 ± 2.5 Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the Permian period, about 299.0 ± 0.8 Ma, is abundant in West Virginia.

FYI - Carboniferous means “coal-bearing”, based on the Latin word for coal, carbo.

Matewan, Movie Poster

Matewan, West Virginia was the site of a shootout on May 19, 1920 between local miners and a private detective agency. The 1987 movie Matewan is about the conflict.

• History of Labor posters

From a West Virginia Historical Marker - “Construction of nearby tunnel, diverting waters of New River through Gauley Mt for hydroelectric power, resulted in state's worst industrial disaster. Silica rock dust caused 109 admitted deaths in the mostly black, migrant underground work force of 3,000. Congressional hearing placed toll at 476 for 1930-35. The tragedy brought recognition of acute silicosis as occupational lung disease and compensation legislation to protect workers.”

Muriel Rukeyser also wrote about the Hawks Nest tragedy.

Harper's Ferry is at the confluence of the Potomac and the Shenandoah Rivers. 
• more mountain posters
• more rivers posters
• more perspective posters
• more Harper's Ferry flood posters

• more weather posters

Native American Cultures - Northeast Poster

Northeast Native American Cultures -
The northeastern part of the U.S. and Canada includes coastal lands, rivers, the Great Lakes, valleys and mountains. before the arrival of European settlers, this region was mostly one vast forest. In these woodlands teeming with deer, bear, rabbit, and other animals, most of the Indians were hunters and gatherers. They also fished in the lakes and rivers. In wet marshy areas Indians gathered wild rice. And in the summer, some tribes planted crops of corn, squash, and beans. ...

• more Native American Cultures posters