Have you ever wondered what it was like to run at a coal mine? This 1897 journal will give you a firsthand view of what coal mining was like at the end of the nineteenth century. Kept by an unnamed clerk or manager, the journal's entries provide a daily record of the events in and around two Pennsylvania anthracite collieries, the Buck Mountain Colliery (operational from about 1884 to 1930) and the Vulcan Colliery (operational from about 1883 to 1913). (A "colliery" refers to a coal mine and all of the equipment and facilities that surround it).
Have you ever wondered what it was like to run at a coal mine? This 1897 journal will give you a firsthand view of what coal mining was like at the end of the nineteenth century. Kept by an unnamed clerk or manager, the journal's entries provide a daily record of the events in and around two Pennsylvania anthracite collieries, the Buck Mountain Colliery (operational from about 1884 to 1930) and the Vulcan Colliery (operational from about 1883 to 1913). (A "colliery" refers to a coal mine and all of the equipment and facilities that surround it).
Each day, the author notes the weather, production activity, and anything else of significance. Fortunately for researchers and enthusiasts, 1897 was a particularly eventful year in the history of mining in the United States. Pennsylvania's coal fields were shaken by waves of protests and strikes throughout the summer of 1897, many of them spearheaded by a then-young union, the United Mine Workers of America. The journal also contains information about the "Lattimer massacre," one of the bloodiest days in U.S. labor history, when nineteen protesting miners were killed by a Pennsylvania sheriff and a posse of armed supporters. Beyond these momentous events, the journal also captures the everyday rhythms of work in a mining company: informal interactions between office employees, the breakdown and repair of equipment, and the flow of people, animals, and materials in and out of the mines.
The journal is part of the collections of the Division of Work and Industry in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
You can learn even more about the journal's background and the stories it tells on the museum's blog. O Say Can You See.