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Papers of Rush Dew Holt, Sr. (1905-1955) relating to his personal and political activities. Types of material include publications, clippings, correspondence, photographs, and ephemera, among others. The collection is divided into six series: Personal and Political Papers (1840-2000 and undated), Artifacts (1939-1952 and undated), Legislative Records (1920-1955 and undated), Constituent Services (1923-1954 and undated), Press and Media Activity (1925-2003 and undated), and Administrative Files (1937-1940).

20 items relating to union organizing in District 6, UMWA (eastern Ohio). Includes court injunctions against UMWA, 1951; affidavits with complaints against UMWA organizers, 1951; list of loyal UMWA members; a letter, 20 February 1951, transmitting this material from George Waters to Steve Kubic; also two credentials for UMWA conventions, 1949 and 1952.

Preliminary inventory of the archives of the United Mine Workers of America conducted circa 1985. Inventory was conducted by the West Virginia Collection at the request of the UMWA, in order to help the labor organization prepare to send the materials to an archival repository. Collection contains a three-page explanation of the inventory process and the twenty-seven page inventory. Inventory notes types of materials (correspondence, subject files, financial reports, meeting minutes, circulars, legal files, etc.), date span for each series, linear feet for each series, and a brief description of the content of the materials. It appears that some material related to the UMWA Health and Retirement Funds was donated to the West Virginia Collection and is now part of A&M 2769, UMWA Health and Retirement Funds Archive. Other series from this collection appear to be located at the Pennsylvania State University Special Collections Library.

Minutes, correspondence, grievance case files, and union campaign material of union locals in the New River field. The correspondence concerns implementation of national bituminous coal mine contracts, local 6046's members' benefits, safety and working conditions in the Lochgelly mine, and state and federal legislation sought by the UMW. The minutes of Local 6046 meetings summarize all matters discussed and acted on, including reports from the local's mine and safety committees, expenses, contributions of money from employed members to sick or unemployed members, adjustment of disputes between miners and management and between the miners themselves. The grievance files reveal official relationships between the local, UMW District 29 and the national headquarters as well as relations with the supervisory personnel of the New River Coal Company.

Material and campaign literature from the campaign of Elijah Wolford for the presidency of the union, 1969. Includes a letter from a campaign committee, the campaign platform, reprint of remarks by Congressman Ken Hechler in the United States House of Representatives, and a report on "Conspiracy in Coal" by T.N. Bethell.

Certificate of membership in Local No. 90 of the United Mine Workers at Watson.

Charter issued to Local 3934 by the United Mine Workers of America, May 13, 1920. M.B. Johnson of Hoard, West Virginia is listed as President of the Local and Loyd Downey of Point Marion, Pennsylvania is listed as Secretary. John L. Lewis, national President, signed the charter.

UMWA international representative and organizer, member of the Steel Workers Organizing Committee, director of the CIO Organizing Committee, and vice-chairman of the CIO Political Action Committee Correspondence, legal papers, diaries, clippings, and other papers relate to Bittner's early career in the western Pennsylvania coal fields; his presidency of District 5, UMWA, 1911-1916; and his organizational activities in southeastern Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, northern West Virginia, Oklahoma, and Kansas, 1916-1928. Subjects include labor strife and strikes in West Virginia, 1912-1913, 1924-1928, Alabama, 1920-1921, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, 1911, and Oklahoma and Kansas, 1922; UMWA intra-union affairs; relief for striking miners; Kansas Industrial Court; Workers Communist Party; Red International of Labor Unions; American Association for Labor Legislation; National League of People's McAdoo Clubs; labor trouble in Montana, 1920; the railway assigned coal car problem; and Bittner's activities on various state and national labor boards and committees. There are photographs of mining towns, camps, and tent colonies, labor parades, conventions, demonstrations, and strikes; portraits of labor leaders; and pictures of the Irwin, Pennsylvania coalfield strike of 1911, the Ludlow Massacre of 1914, and the northern West Virginia strikes of 1924-1926. Frank Farrington, William Green, Frank J. Hayes, John L. Lewis, John Mitchell, Philip Murray, and John P. White are included among the correspondents. A detailed listing of the correspondence in boxes 1-7 is available upon request.

The collection consists of ledgers, journals, and cashbooks of the Goodwill Coal and Coke Co., Greenbrier Coal and Coke Co., Gulf Coal Co., Louisville Coal and Coke Co., Winding Gulf Coal and Coke Co., and the Winding Gulf Colliery Co., with some material on the operation of company stores. There is also correspondence (1911-1915) between the managers of mines at Winding Gulf and Davy, West Virginia, discussing production levels, availability of railroad cars and freight rates, New River and Pocahontas Operators Organization, operating difficulties, labor shortages and working conditions, the Mabscott mine strike and German "socialists" at Mabscott, the Bottom Creek explosion at Vivian, the UMWA and a 1915 agreement, and the good roads movement in Raleigh County in 1915.

Transcript of an interview with a retired coal miner of Lincoln County, WV. Mosley lived and worked in the coal fields of Logan County, WV and Pike County, KY most of his life. He started to work in 1929 when mining was still done by pick and shovel and retired in the early sixties when mining had become mechanized. He describes the changes in mining technology he experienced and the effect of unionization in the coal mining region of southern West Virginia.