Description

The Archives & Special Collections Department in the Ohio University Libraries was established in the 1960s. A particular focus of the department's collecting efforts is on an 18-county area in southeastern Ohio stretching from Wheeling, West Virginia over and down to Portsmouth, Ohio. A significant part of this focus concerns the history of coal mining in the Hocking Valley coal fields, which flourished in the decades of rapid industrial expansion following the Civil War to the demise of these fields after the conclusion of World War I.

We propose a 3,600 image project that will draw upon a variety of resources spread across the department's collections--numerous items from our rare book collections, manuscript collections, and local government records from the region on deposit. Primary resources will be our manuscript collections for the Columbus & Hocking Coal & Iron Company and the Frank Buhla Photographic Collection, but the project flows from the totality of the department's holdings which serve to document the social fabric of life in the Hocking Valley coal fields. Consequently, the project will also utilize records from the United Mine Workers of America District 6 Collection, particular series of local government records which provide revealing information on life and death in the coal-mining region, and book (and pamphlet) publications that provide technical information on mineral resources and the economics of mining operations in this major coal-producing area from 1870 to 1920.

A project review board of skilled subject specialists, in conjunction with project staff and under the direction of the Project Specialist Dr. Nancy R. Bain, will carefully select a representative cross section of materials from within the collections. Review board members include: Dr. Geoffrey Buckley and Dr. Timothy Anderson, Assistant Professors, Ohio University Geography Department; Dr. Phyllis Field, Associate Professor, History Department; and from outside Ohio University: Dr. Ivan M. Tribe, Professor of History, University of Rio Grande. The preliminary selections were conducted by the Project Specialist, Project Director, and Project Manager.