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Mine disaster reports, official hearing reports, and hearing and inquest transcripts (1938-1967). Most of the mine disaster reports were created by inspectors from the West Virginia Department of Mines, and some of them involved federal inspectors. Other reports were created by the United States Bureau of Mines and the West Virginia Department of Mines Coal Mine Safety Board of Review. Also includes volumes 3 through 8 of the Decisions of the Interior Board of Mine Operations Appeals (1974-1977). The mine disaster reports and associated materials pertain to the following mining companies, with counties where the disaster occurred in parentheses: American Rolling Mill Company (Boone County), Amigo Smokeless Coal Company (Wyoming County), Boone County Coal Corporation, Christopher Coal Company (Monongalia County), Davis Coal and Coke Company (Tucker County), Hatfield-Campbell Creek Coal Company (Kanawha County), Hitchman Coal and Coke Company (Marshall County), Island Creek Coal Company (McDowell County), Katherine Coal Company (Harrison County), Koppers Coal Company (McDowell County), MacAlpin Coal Company (Raleigh County), C.H. Meade Coal Company (Raleigh County), Meadows Coal Company (Raleigh County), New River and Pocahontas Consolidated Coal Company (McDowell County), Oglebay Norton Company (Nicholas County), Page Coal and Coke Company (McDowell County), Parsons Coal Company (Preston County), Pemberton Coal and Coke Company (Raleigh County), Pocahontas Fuel Company (a division of Consolidation Coal Company, McDowell County, near Tazewell County, Virginia), Pursglove Coal Mining Company (Monongalia County), Raleigh Coal and Coke Company (Raleigh County), and Red Jacket Coal Corporation (Wyoming County).

Photographic postcards documenting the C.H. Mead Coal Company, a mining company located in the Winding Gulf Coalfield in western Raleigh County and eastern Wyoming County, southern West Virginia. Includes 72 postcards issued by the Company in the 1930s in a numbered series to publicize their facilities and activities. Subjects of images include industrial infrastructure, equipment, offices, coal transport, housing, schools, stores, hospital, and portraits of managers. Some facilities are specifically identified for African-Americans. Of the numbered series of 77 postcards in this collection, numbers 1, 5, 13, 29, and 40 are missing. There are also seven photographs of similar subject matter, including one group portrait of an African-American family. These materials were collected by James Laing in connection with his 1933 dissertation "The Negro Miner in West Virginia" (available for check out in West Virginia University's Downtown Library).

This collection of panoramic photographs primarily documents the coal miners of Fayette and Raleigh counties. The photographer, Rufus "Red" Ribble, was born May 14, 1878, near Blacksburg, Virginia, and died December 27, 1967 in West Virginia. He came to West Virginia sometime before 1920 and lived out his life in Mount Hope. The collection contains 119 panoramic photographs, which were made with a large rotating camera called a Cirkut camera. These photos are contact prints; all but one are black and white. Images include group portraits, landscapes/views of towns, and a few views of store interiors. Subjects of the photographs include coal miners, mining towns, local businesses, and local social and church groups. The majority of the photos are group portraits of coal miners from Fayette and Raleigh counties.

The record of the appointment of postmasters in the following WV counties: Randolph, Ritchie, Roane, Summers, Taylor, Tucker, Tyler, Upshur, Wayne, Webster, Wetzel, Wirt, Wood and Wyoming. The record shows the dates of establishment and discontinuance of post offices, their changes of name, and the names of and the appointment dates of their postmasters. Beginning in 1870, it shows the names of post offices to which mail from discontinued offices was sent. The record also shows the dates of Presidential appointments of postmasters and the dates of their confirmation by the Senate, usually the dates that post offices were authorized to issue money orders, and occasionally the dates on which the locations of offices were changed.