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The items in the Digital Collections of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Library contain materials which represent or depict sensitive topics or were written from perspectives using outdated or biased language. The Library condemns discrimination and hatred on any grounds. As a research library that supports the mission and values of this land grant institution, it is incumbent upon the University Library to preserve, describe, and provide access to materials to accurately document our past, support learning about it, and effect change in the present. In accordance with the American Library Association’s Freedom to Read statement, we do not censor our materials or prevent patrons from accessing them.

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Edward Caldwell Cherry Mine Disaster Research Collection (Born Digital and Digitized Content)

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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 compiled by Caldwell. The sources include 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 Illinois History and Lincoln Collections unit at the University of Illinois Library manages the physical items of the Edward Caldwell Cherry Mine Disaster Research Collection (MS 515). Both born digital and digitized items were migrated from DVDs in 2017. For more information, contact an archivist at ihlc@library.illinois.edu.

This collection is managed by the Illinois History and Lincoln Collections and does not feature precise descriptive information for each item. Discover its contents by browsing the folders and files. For more information, contact an archivist at ihlc@library.illinois.edu.
Cherry Chronology — Cherry Chronology: A Cover Page