Born Digital and Digitized Content of the Edward Caldwell Cherry Mine Disaster Research Collection | Illinois History and Lincoln Collections
The born digital and digitized content of the Edward Caldwell Cherry Mine Disaster Research Collection consists of research and source materials collected by Edward Caldwell related to the 1909 mining disaster in Cherry, Illinois, its victims, and the aftermath of the incident. Materials date from 1903 to 2007 and include publications, letters and diaries, compilations of newspaper articles, reports, photographs, and indexes of victims' names.
Edward E. Caldwell (1930-2015) was an engineer with an interest in local history. He began collecting and organizing materials related to the Cherry Mine disaster in 1975 and continued gathering research for the next three decades. The Cherry Mine disaster, which resulted from a fire that started on November 13, 1909, in the Cherry, Illinois, coal mine, was the third most deadly coal mining tragedy in U.S. History, and 259 men and boys lost their lives.
The born digital and digitized content contains digital copies of a variety of sources on the Cherry Mine disaster, including transcribed newspaper articles primarily from 1909-1910, publications dating from 1909 to 2007, official reports on the disaster and the response, the coroner's inquest, legal documents for the mine, transcribed diaries and letters, photographs of the mine and miners, and indices of victims' names to various sources. Online access to some documents and the photographs is restricted due to copyright.
The born digital and digitized content comprises a portion of the Edward Caldwell Cherry Mine Disaster Research Collection (MS 515). The digitized items were created prior to the donation of the content by the donor. Both born digital and digitized items were migrated from DVDs in 2017. Items are available online at the University of Illinois Digital Library. A preservation copy of the items is available to IHLC and digital preservation staff at the Library Digital Repository: https://medusa.library.illinois.edu/collections/1135.