Recognizing Mine and Labor History

Members of the Matewan community attend an event recognizing the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Blair Mountain in 2020. Image courtesy of the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum.

The West Virginia Mine Wars Museum was founded in 2015 by historians, archeologists, storytellers, artists, mine workers, and descendants of mine workers. Together, these founders aimed to provide a place to recognize Matewan, West Virginia’s significance to U.S. labor history and the region’s struggle to unionize the southern coalfields, telling the story of the Mine Wars from the perspective of miners and their families. Funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities has proven transformative for the grassroots organization, enabling it to hire staff, engage with local partners and stakeholders, and create events for the local community and southern West Virginia. Funding from the CARES and ARP Acts, through the NEH, stabilized the museum in difficult times while helping it reach a broader audience through online forums and educational programming.

Musicians perform at the kickoff event for the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Blair Mountain. Image courtesy of the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum.

A 2017 Creating Humanities Communities grant was the first significant grant the Mine Wars Museum received. The funding allowed the museum to hire a part time director to organize and coordinate an event series in West Virginia leading up to the centennial anniversary of the Battle of Blair Mountain and culminating over Labor Day Weekend in 2021, with dozens of partners across the Mountain State. The museum hosted a screening of the 1987 film Matewan, along with a discussion featuring the director, John Sayles, and the producer, Maggie Renzie. Another event, the 2018 Strike Supper, celebrated the diversity of the coal camps through foodways and showcased the histories of immigrants who came to West Virginia by way of Ellis Island and African Americans who came to the region looking for work during the Great Migration.

NEH funding allowed the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum to digitize its historical collection. Image courtesy of the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum.

The West Virginia Mine Wars Museum has leveraged its digital collections to create online exhibits that are viewable year round. Image courtesy of the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum.

The West Virginia Mine Wars Museum has been able to leverage its digital resources to create lesson plans for K-12 classrooms. Image courtesy of the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum.

More recent grants, including a 2020 NEH CARES grant and a 2021 SHARP grant, have helped the museum weather the pandemic while expanding its capacity and audience. Funding to digitize the museum’s archive has made it possible for researchers and the public to access this history even when the museum is closed—this has proven crucial not only due to pandemic-related closures but also because the rural museum is open seasonally. Support for online programming and to create digital exhibitions will similarly help the museum reach the public during the off season, while associated curricular materials will help teachers throughout the year.