No special access restriction applies.
Researchers may access born-digital and digitized materials by visiting the link attached to each item or by requesting to view the materials in person by appointment or remotely by contacting the West Virginia & Regional History Center reference department at https://westvirginia.libanswers.com/wvrhc.
Gift of Wilkerson, Jessica, 2025 June 04.
The Women Miners Oral History Project aims to collect and preserve the life histories of women in the Appalachian region who entered the mines as protected workers in the late 1970s after decades of exclusion.
This project is the outgrowth of a conversation between Jessica Wilkerson and former miners Kipp Dawson, Marat Moore and Libby Lindsay, all of whom were involved in the United Mine Workers of America and the Coal Employment Project (CEP), a non-profit organization that advocated for women's entrance into industrial mines, fought discrimination that working women encountered and organized around working-class women's issues.
Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Dawson, Moore and Lindsay began organizing lists of women miners and considering ways to preserve their history, compelled by the loss of some sisters and the illness of others.
From "Women, Work, and Activism in the Coal Mines: The Women Miners Oral History Projects." (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYjfJTWak0U)
[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], Women Miners Oral History Project Records and Recordings, A&M 4690, West Virginia and Regional History Center, West Virginia University Libraries, Morgantown, West Virginia.
This collection contains materials created for the Women Miners Oral History Project, moslty oral history recordings and transcripts. Oral history interviewees include Bonnie Boyer, Tammy Brock, Lisa Parnell Christiansen, Kipp Dawson, Brenda Ellis, Betty Jean Hall, Jody Hogge, Shirley Hyche, Carol Jones, Goldie Kiser, Libby Lindsay Dingess, Doris Magan, Ella Thomas, and Barbara Ward.
Also included are photographs from a trip to England, research notes, and drafts and photographs for a Storymap.
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