Relationships to American Memory

The Hocking Valley materials will complement currently available American Memory collections in many ways by offering in-depth material and analysis to accompany current and planned LC digital collections. The periods covered include the tail end of "Civil War and Reconstruction" and the complete "Development of the Industrial U.S." American Memory collections containing coal mining images are: Touring Turn-of-the-Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company, 1880-1920, Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record, Taking the Long View: Panoramic Photographs, 1851-1991, and the later date Washington as It Was: Photographs by Theodor Horydczak, 1923-1959 and America from the Great Depression to World War II: Photographs from the FSA-OWI, 1935-1945. Also some few textual materials from Pioneering the Upper Midwest: Books from Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, ca. 1820-1910 and American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940 mention mining. Maps of the entire state of Ohio and certain towns may be found in Map Collections: 1597-1988, but none are of the Hocking Valley area towns or counties. By focusing on one region's cultural and physical landscape, there are similarities to "Prairie Settlement: A Story of Determination."

On the Web in general, sites having to do with coal mining fall into two general categories: those of a development type, such as the State of Kentucky's site, and those passionately "con" such as those of environmental groups. Little beyond a small history and/or education section on coal and power companies' sites exist, and nothing comprehensive and in-depth. None of the materials selected for our project are currently available in electronic format.

The project proposed will address issues related to two of the frontiers identified for this round of competition. The first is the frontier of boom and bust economic development in the rural periphery of the bituminous coal fields of the Appalachian plateau and concomitant social adjustments necessitated by the waves of emigration and the development of labor unions. The second is the frontier of industrial and technological processes for efficiency and saving labor, and the new structures required for the large-scale capitalization of mining operations and the rail transportation systems needed to move coal from the mines to the markets in the rapidly-growing northern urban centers.

Preparation and Preservation of the Collection
Condition of the material varies. In general: Bound volumes and pamphlets will be scanned on a Minolta overhead scanner so as not to force open the bindings or further damage brittle paper while other items will be scanned on a flatbed. Maps: Most of the paper-based maps are very brittle, and once images are available for study, the maps will be spared from further handling. The very large maps on chartex are not accessible in their present condition as they are too fragile and too large to be handled without much difficulty. Scanning will allow far superior access, and the amount of handling scanning will incur will be far outweighed by the gain of limiting further handling of the physical object. Print materials: Most of the print materials are brittle and will be carefully scanned on the overhead scanner, some are on film and will be scanned from the surrogate. Pictorial items: Photographs will be carefully handled with gloves during the scanning process. Their life, as with the other materials will be prolonged by the less frequent handling after scanning, and no further photocopying. Manuscript materials: As above, with the addition of items on microform being scanned directly from that surrogate so no damage will occur.

All material digitized will be returned to the shelf, but flagged in such a way as to indicate a digital surrogate is available and should be used in place of the original whenever possible. Use copies of photographic intermediates will be filed with the collection and patrons will be encouraged to use them before reaching for the original if online access will not work for them.

Ownership, Privacy, and Copyright Issues
All material chosen for the project is either in the public domain, or this institution owns the rights, or permission has been secured. No copyright issues are anticipated.