My name is Ruth June, I go by Ruta or RJ.

I'm a student of history and archeology and have participated in archeological digs following early man into North America and have excavated Civil War sites.

I write historical fiction focusing on human interactions.

My debut book will be published later in 2023 with the title OF BLOOD AND SPURS it follows the life of a confederate cavalry scout with General Morgan's Raiders in Kentucky.

Sara Elizabeth (Moore) Hall - Circa 1880's - Weston, WV My great-great-grandmother. Married to John Watson Hall. Crop of a scan I made of the original small tintype photo. Spent a couple days retouching all the bad scratches and grunge off the image. The pink cheeks are a retouch done to the original photo by the photographer. I'm impressed by how neatly and subtly he was able to do that retouch on such a tiny photo! I think it was only 1/8 plate size at the most; only a couple inches on the longest side. This was a common retouch done at the time.

She died in 1892 from consumption at age 42. Her husband John would live to age 68, dying 1908, and her daughter Edna May would live until 1984, just a few months shy of 99 years old. I remember going to Edna's funeral when I was 6, almost 7, years old. That is the first funeral I remember going to, and I think she was the oldest person I have met - meaning, I think she's the only person I've ever met that was actually born in the 1880's. I knew nothing about her parent's Sara and John until very recently. It's been a fun research project digging up the lesser known history of my family.

cr. Alain Le Garsmeur. Bluefield, West Virginia, 1979

How People in Appalachia Heated Their Homes in the 1800's

How People in Appalachia Heated Their Homes in the 1800’s

The frigid temperatures and long, treacherous winters of Appalachia are notorious. How did people heat their homes in the 1800s? It wasn’t easy, but they managed to find ways to stay warm. Many Appalachian settlers lived in unheated log cabins with dirt floors and no windows until the early 1900s, so they had to get creative when it came to staying warm. Let’s take a look at some of the ingenious…

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Persian ewer with human and animal figures and calligraphy inscriptions, dating back to the 17th century CE. Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV.

Photo by Babylon Chronicle

this is actually my roman empire

I'm forever drawn to places where the Earth's geologic past has been thrust up from the mantle and opened like a crusty, craggy history book for all to read. The act of simply touching a rock formation that is hundreds of millions of years in the making and simultaneously connecting with the continent's primeval origins is both sacred and profound. Every layer of rock tells a story of its own. Against these accumulated histories, our mayfly existences barely register. Rock City at Coopers Rock State Forest is one of those very special places where the Earth has revealed her deepest secrets. The Pottsville Formation that underlies this part of Central Appalachia is estimated to be 300 hundred million years old. The massive slabs in the photos above are Connoquenessing sandstone, an erosion-resistant sedimentary rock that evokes the incredible drama of Earth's formation wherever it breaks through the crust.

so no one was going to tell me THIS WAS VIRGINIA WOOLF’S GIRLFRIEND?

USS WEST VIRGINIA (BB-48) en route to the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Washington, for permanent repairs and reconstruction.

Date: April 30, 1943

National Archives via Battleship North Carolina Archives: P2016.026

CR 19324, Wierton, WV

9-2-1977

Devotion: The Two Girlfriends (Henri de Toulouse-Latrec, 1884)

I am reduced to a thing that wants Virginia. I composed a beautiful letter to you in the sleepless nightmare hours of the night, and it has all gone: I just miss you, in a quite simple desperate human way.

(Vita Sackville-West. Letter to Virginia Woolf. January 21st, 1926)

I love the different ways states got their names

Texas - a native word for friendship

Florida - Spanish word for flower full

Georgia - named after king Georgia

New York - some fucking place

Oregon - no clue. We have theories though

Idaho - just make up a fucking word and pretend it’s Native American

Virginia/west Virginia - the queen don’t fuck

California - A mythical paradise Island filled with gold run by black Amazonian warrior women who ride men eating griffin  from a Spanish novel 

A Lewis Hine photo of a child from Scott's Run, West Virginia, in December 1936. The boy was searching for coal amidst the mine refuse along the road. He was barefoot, a quarter-mile from home.

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Panoramic View of Harpers Ferry WV 1908

Panoramic View of Harpers Ferry WV 1908

The town of Harpers Ferry is situated in the lower Shenandoah Valley of Jefferson County, West Virginia. It is a historic community with a population of 285 as of the 2020 census. It is the most eastern community in West Virginia and the northernmost point of Confederate-controlled territory during the Civil War. It is located at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, where the…

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Persian panel of glazed tiles from the 17th century EC. Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV.

Photo by Babylon Chronicle

Vita Sackville-West in a letter to Virginia Woolf (1926)