Coal Mining

Scope and Contents Question and answer session in Knoxville with anti-strip-mining activists from Campbell County. Activists meeting with a group from Knoxville to discuss a film on strip-mining screened the previous evening. Environmental and economic problems caused by strip-mining are discussed, including the need to reclaim strip-mined land and fight absentee landowners. Federal House Resolution 1000 (Strip Mining Abolition Act) and Tennessee state resolutions called the Mountain People's bill and a...

Scope and Contents

Blue Diamond Coal Company, Justice Mine, Stearns, Ky. Lexington Group Meeting, Knoxville, 2011. Commemorative medal “Lexington Group, 175th Anniversary, Knoxville Convention, 1836-2011.” Copes of mortgage maps for southern and L&N railroads.

Scope and Contents

Tape begins with footage of an unknown man singing and playing the banjo, which was recorded over footage of an interview with Mr. and Mrs. Hamlet, a retired deep miner and his wife. Interview footage includes discussion of medical services, schools, union organizing, and general life in the mining town of Pruden. The Hamlets also discuss harvesting and selling ginseng, mentioning that at the time of taping, ginseng root sold for $55 per pound.

Total time: 17 minutes

Scope and Contents The President of District 19 United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) sits behind a desk and talks about the history of coal mining and the UMWA.Marie Cirillo interviews a man about attempts to organize a union in the 1920s when he worked for Prudent Coal Company, then the successful organization of a union in 1936 or 1937.Interview with a man (his name is inaudible) born December 2, 1892. He talks about his history of working for the mines.Interview with...

Scope and Contents Louis and Lily Lowe respond to a tape of Bruce and Linda Hatfield shown to them by Marie Cirillo and Maureen O Connell. Louis and Lily comment on a current court case against the American Association of Strip-mining. They display vegetables from their garden to demonstrate how runoff from strip-mines has stunted the vegetables, and mention that they are concerned about their own health. Louis also mentions the dissolution of unions and that he and Lily fear their house could be burnt down by...

Scope and Contents Forty-six (46) open reel videos documenting residents of former coal mining communities in Campbell County and Claiborne County, Tennessee. The bulk of the videos are uneditied raw footage recording the creation of Appalachian folk art, crafts and music, as well as Marie Cirillo's engagement with the communities' efforts to establish health care clinics and local economic development.Following an oral history project conducted by Marie Cirillo and Maureen O'Connell in 1972, a...