Increasing and Sustaining Digital Access to Mine Wars History

FAIN: ZDH-283255-22

West Virginia Mine Wars Museum (Matewan, WV 25678-0764)
Mackenzie New Walker (Project Director: May 2021 to present)

Expanding digital access to the museum by curating four new online exhibits as an expansion of the museum’s 2020 digitization project and the hiring of a new social media manager to augment the museum’s online presence.

This project builds upon the Museum’s digitization project of their collections in 2020. It seeks to retain two jobs and create one new job who will develop and increase access to online humanities content. The Museum will reach new, online audiences through the publication of digital exhibits and an online interview series, “Mine Wars Forum.”

Associated Products

16 Tons: Coal Company Scrip & Tokens (Exhibition)
Title: 16 Tons: Coal Company Scrip & Tokens
Curator: Shaun Slifer
Abstract: For decades, many coal companies in Appalachia paid their miners primarily in a privately issued currency known as scrip. Typically minted in inexpensive metals, these specialized coins were only redeemable at stores owned by the company that issued them. Companies often claimed that the scrip system smoothed over the process of payment in isolated rural areas, but more often than not this also created a kind of debt bondage that kept coal miners and their families tied to their employer for almost everything they needed to survive. 16 Tons, our new online exhibit of company scrip and tokens, highlights the unique scrip coinage of the southern West Virginia coalfields.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: http://https://hub.catalogit.app/4046/folder/31171da0-1e44-11eb-9f4f-bf1de2f3133e
Primary URL Description: This URL will take you directly to the online exhibit hosted by CatalogIt.
Secondary URL: http://wvminewars.org/online-exhibits
Secondary URL Description: This URL will take you to the webpage for all online exhibitions produced by the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum.

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