Alabama Mining Institute photograph albums
Scope and Contents
The two albums contain 153 black and white photographs that depict the company-owned houses and other buildings provided by twelve member companies of the Alabama Mining Institute in 1922 and 1923. The photographs show houses, schools, churches, boarding houses, commissaries, and other buildings in Alabama coal mining towns. Each set of photographs depicts the separate houses, schools, and other facilities that each company provided for its white workers and for its African American workers. The photographs were apparently created at the behest of the United States Coal Commission, a federal agency charged by Congress in 1922 and 1923 to investigate the coal industry and its labor problems.
Dates
- Creation: 1922-1923
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research. Materials stored onsite. Please contact specialcollectionsref@hbs.edu for more information.
Extent
1 linear feet (2 volumes)Biographical / Historical
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, many coal industry companies provided employee housing and services near the mines. These company towns allowed ownership a certain amount of control over its labor. The Alabama company towns owned by the members of the Alabama Mining Institute, an organization of coal mining companies, were carefully segregated by race. These segregated towns had separate houses, schools, churches, and other facilities for white and black workers and their families. The emergence of the affordable automobile and a reliable highway system led to the decline of the company town system by the 1930s.
Physical Location
MANU
Processing Information
Processed: July 2018 By: Baker Library Special Collections Staff
- Title
- Alabama Mining Institute. Alabama Mining Institute Photograph Albums, 1922-1923 (inclusive): A Finding Aid
- Author
- Baker Library
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- bak00547
Repository Details
Part of the Baker Library Special Collections and Archives, Harvard Business School Repository
Baker Library Special Collections and Archives holds unique resources that focus on the evolution of business and industry, as well as the records of the Harvard Business School, documenting the institution's development over the last century. These rich and varied collections support research in a diverse range of fields such as business, economic, social and cultural history as well as the history of science and technology.
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