MINING MEMORIES can be understood as adjective-noun or verb-noun. The intent of the word pairing is deliberate so as to be descriptive as well as deeply reflective on the part of the interviewer and the interviewee. As time (and poor health) take the lives of Illinois’ great miners it is important to record their life experiences so that their labor, spirit, and community not be forgotten and, rather, be available as lessons from the past that can inform the present and future.
CREDIT: Dave Tucker, Illinois Coal Museum at Gillespie
This MINING MEMORIES web page features Dr. Helaine Silverman’s ethnographic research and book project (Mines, Memory and Community in Illinois), which is an outgrowth of the Mythic Mississippi Project’s long-term public engagement in former coal mining communities in downstate Illinois and is a complement to her work conducted in coal towns in County Durham (with Dr. Andreas Pantazatos) and Nottinghamshire in England (with Dr. David Amos). As a discrete web page, it features oral histories collected among former miners. It also is an exploration of the efforts of local groups in some of the Illinois coal towns to create, script and maintain their own mining and labor history through museums and events. And it considers how and why communities (actually, organized members of them) sponsor and/or participate in public events that fully or partially feature mining heritage. The research, web page with its many links, article on central Illinois museums (with Joann Condellone, submitted), and book-in-progress express a strong commitment to collaborative/participatory research between scholars and local heritage practitioners as Mining Memories explores the accomplishments of and challenges faced by Illinois coal towns today, none of which has an economy currently based on mining.
John Alexander: CLICK
John discusses the “Battle of Virden” – the great labor struggle between unionized miners and their employer, the Chicago-Virden Coal Company. Also listen to his talk:
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Joann Condellone: CLICK
In this audio recording, Joann speaks about her family of Italian immigrant coal miners in Collinsville. Also listen to Joann’s discussion of the labor heritage of the Battle of Virden (CLICK)
and her analysis of the remarkable Italian immigrant, Katie De Rorre, who was a leading figure in the Women’s Auxiliary of the Progressive Miners of America (CLICK ).
Nelson Grman: CLICK
Although Nelson was not a miner, he was a union man and deeply involved in the Mother Jones Museum in Mt. Olive and the Union Miners Cemetery.
Dale Hawkins: CLICK
In this interview, Dale speaks about the great labor leader, “General” Alexander Bradley of Mt. Olive, at the end of the nineteenth century.
Mother Jones
In these clips the extraordinary actress, Loretta Williams (CLICK), channels Mother Jones (Mary Harris Jones) known as the “most dangerous woman in America” in the early twentieth century because of her labor activism, particularly among the coal miners.
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Charles Martin: CLICK and CLICK and CLICK
Chuck is the director, curator and creator of the Christian County Coal Museum in Taylorville. The presentation of the “coal war” between members of the United Mine Workers of America and the Progressive Miners of America is especially interesting because of the dramatic events that took place in Taylorville itself.
Sarah Quilter: CLICK
Sarah’s maternal family has deep ties to Gillespie as a coal mining town and notably the administrative role of women in the Superior Coal Mine office.
Cecil E. Roberts: CLICK
The renowned Mr. Roberts was the long-serving International President of the United Mine Workers of America until retiring in October 2025. Also see:
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Dave Tucker: CLICK
Dave is the director and curator of the Illinois Coal Museum in Gillespie. The museum was his brainchild, enabled by the knowledge and collections of his collaborator, James Alderson.