Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum News


	For Immediate Release: August 16, 2007	Contact: David Blanchette (217) 558-0516
	1909 coal mine disaster subject of donation to Presidential Library Source materials provide Library with excellent reference for Bureau County's Cherry Mine Disaster Springfield, IL — Workers tried frantically to rescue men who were trapped following an accident in an underground coal mine. This all-too-familiar story was played out in 1909 in Bureau County, Illinois, and a recent donation to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library will make a wealth of information about the incident available to researchers. Edward Caldwell of Princeton, Illinois has donated a digitized collection of original and new source material about the Cherry Mine Disaster to the Presidential Library. The collection is the result of years of research into the tragedy and its aftermath, and includes digitized newspaper articles, diaries, coroner's inquest notes, legal documents, mine commission reports, books, and more than 500 photographs. Caldwell also donated a copy of the DVD collection to the University of Illinois Library at Urbana-Champaign and the Princeton Public Library. "Illinois' rich mining history is full of stories about ordinary men and women doing extraordinary things," said Rick Beard, executive director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. "This collection about the 1909 Cherry Mine Disaster greatly enhances what we can offer researchers looking into one of U.S. history's worst mine disasters. I am pleased to announce that we are in the early stages of planning an exhibit on this topic which will open in 2009, the 100th anniversary of the disaster." The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library currently has a large collection of material relating to the Cherry Mine Disaster, including: Newspaper accounts, including updated casualty lists as the days progressed; more than 150 photographs; several oral histories; proceedings of a joint session of the Illinois Mining Investigation Commission and the Illinois Inspectors of Mines at Cherry, Illinois in conjunction with the coroner's inquest on the bodies of the victims; an independent report on the incident by the United Mine Workers of Illinois; a report issued by the State Board of Commissioners of Labor; published books about the Cherry Mine Disaster; and personal papers from individuals involved in the disaster, recovery and investigation. The St. Paul Coal Company Mine in Cherry, a mining town in Bureau County, began operation in 1905 and supplied the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad with 300,000 tons of coal annually for its locomotives. The mine featured the latest equipment and operated smoothly until November 13, 1909, when a torch caught a load of hay on fire about 500 feet below the surface. Of the 490 men and boys in the mine at the time, a total of 259 died from the fire itself or the poisonous gases it produced. Heroic rescue efforts, including one in which 12 rescuers themselves died, filled newspaper accounts of the disaster. The one incredible survival story involved the "eight-day" men, a group of 21 trapped miners who sealed themselves off from the fire and were rescued eight days later by a team that had been sent below to retrieve bodies. As a result of the Cherry Mine Disaster, safety regulations were implemented throughout the mining industry, and a liability act, which became the basis of the Illinois Workmen's Compensation Act, was enacted. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library is the state's chief historical and genealogical research facility, with collections pertaining to all eras of Illinois history. Its holdings include more than 183,000 published materials, 10.8 million manuscripts, 462,000 photographs and other audio-visual materials, and 5,000 newspaper titles on 100,000 rolls of microfilm. For more information on the Presidential Library and its programs and collections, visit www.alplm.org. ###