Collections

Various subjects discussed include Indian attacks, turnpikes and taverns, the first telegraph system, natural gas illumination, Civil War manufacture of saltpeter, schools and economy in post-Civil War Charleston, salt and chemical industries, carrier pigeons, steamboats on the Kanawha River, and the coming of the railroad to Charleston. Persons mentioned include M.F. Maury, Jr., J.P. Hale, and J.Q. Dickinson.

Five scrapbooks of photographs of the Carbide and Carbon Chemicals Corporation, South Charleston, West Virginia.

Correspondence, account books, and tax reports of the Liverpool Salt and Coal Company, American Calcium Chloride Works, Liverpool Salt Company, Jackson Coal and Mining Company, and Jackson Valley Bell Farm of Hartford in Mason County, West Virginia. In addition, there are account books for the G.Y. Roots and Company of Cincinnati, Ohio.

Negatives and other material from the Gravely and Moore Studio of Charleston, West Virginia. The majority of items within the collection are cellulose acetate negatives; the collection also includes glass plate negatives, prints, two photograph albums, and other material, as well as a card catalog documenting business transactions with customers. The collection is organized into customer project files as established by the Studio; the contents of these files are stored in envelopes usually containing one or two negatives, but they can contain up to a dozen or more. There are approximately 3,500 customer project files containing an estimated 11,000 items, most of which are negatives. The majority of photographs within the collection are portraits of individual adults. Other subjects include portraits of children; group photographs; businesses and advertising; members of the military; civil servants; civic organizations; missionaries; and aerial photographs, among others.

Correspondence, newspaper clippings, and other papers of the International Association of Machinists, Local 598, concerning working conditions in Union Carbide plants. The papers concern working conditions in Union Carbide Corporation chemical plants, vinyl chloride health hazards for chemical plant employees in South Charleston, and the history of Local 598.