Mapping Miners at Home and Work: Digitizing, Mapping, and Sharing Employee Records
The Keweenaw Time Traveler team is honored to have received funding from the Council on Library and Information Resources to create and map a major new data set. Through partnerships between the Michigan Technological University Archives, Michigan Tech Social Sciences Department, and the Historical Environments Spatial Analytics Lab, this project will digitize and map an archival collection of 40,000 employee cards from the Calumet & Hecla Mining Company. These cards provide insights into the lives of mine company workers and their families unavailable in other public records, including details like the types of jobs they worked, wages, previous employers, as well as injury and death records. Watch the video below to see initial news coverage of this project.
The Employee Records
HESAL research associates will be working to link these employee records through space and time by integrating them into the Keweenaw Time Traveler. These employee records contain addresses and family information that will help the student team to connect them at the household level with census and city directory records already in the Keweenaw Time Traveler. Once completed, users will be able to learn even more about how where miners lived and worked effected their life experiences.
Digital images of the fully scanned employee cards will also be shared in the new Copper Mining Employee Card database on the MTU Archives' Preservica-based platform much like the Copper Country Historical Images. We anticipate these new resources to be available to the public in 2022. More information about the employee cards used in this project can be found in the Michigan Tech Archives blog in a two-part series (Part 1 and Part 2).
HESAL research associates will be working to link these employee records through space and time by integrating them into the Keweenaw Time Traveler. These employee records contain addresses and family information that will help the student team to connect them at the household level with census and city directory records already in the Keweenaw Time Traveler. Once completed, users will be able to learn even more about how where miners lived and worked effected their life experiences.
Digital images of the fully scanned employee cards will also be shared in the new Copper Mining Employee Card database on the MTU Archives' Preservica-based platform much like the Copper Country Historical Images. We anticipate these new resources to be available to the public in 2022. More information about the employee cards used in this project can be found in the Michigan Tech Archives blog in a two-part series (Part 1 and Part 2).
The Research Team
This project will expand the project team for two years, allowing us to hire students as new research associates from across majors at Michigan Tech as well as a graduate student in our Industrial Heritage and Archaeology program. This grant also supports a new digitization specialist position in the Michigan Tech Archives who will process the data and ensure accuracy of the transcriptions. |
Digitizing and Mapping the Employee Records
The Keweenaw Time Traveler Team will be working to make these employee records accessible in 4 phases.
First, both sides of each card will be scanned using a digital camera set up in an archival work area. Digital files will be archived for safe keeping and duplicate files will be created for team members to work with.
Second, these scans will be transcribed into a standardized PDF form and checked for accuracy. A team of undergraduate research associates are becoming experts in the abbreviations, short-hand, and conventions of the Calumet & Hecla Mining Company. All their entered data and related metadata will constitute a large data set facilitating new research into worker experiences.
Third, the data will be geocoded to historical maps using addresses and family information. This work will be done by grad students and professionals in the Geospatial Research Facility using the historical spatial data infrastructure that powers the Keweenaw Time Traveler. Once mapped, researchers and the public alike will be able to access these employee records in conjunction with city and business directory data, and school records also being prepared for inclusion.
Lastly, high-resolution images of the cards will be searchable by name on the new Copper Mining Employment Card website administered by the Michigan Tech Archives and the Van Pelt and Opie Library. This way, anyone interested in a particular employee will be able to see every notation on the card.
It is important to note that our project is following the 72-Year-Rule. Any card that contains information more recent than 72 years ago will be embargoed from public view. In other words, any card with information dated 1948 or later will not be released until the information is 72 years old. This approach, used by the U.S. Census Bureau and most other archival facilities, will safeguard the privacy of individuals and families.
The Keweenaw Time Traveler Team will be working to make these employee records accessible in 4 phases.
First, both sides of each card will be scanned using a digital camera set up in an archival work area. Digital files will be archived for safe keeping and duplicate files will be created for team members to work with.
Second, these scans will be transcribed into a standardized PDF form and checked for accuracy. A team of undergraduate research associates are becoming experts in the abbreviations, short-hand, and conventions of the Calumet & Hecla Mining Company. All their entered data and related metadata will constitute a large data set facilitating new research into worker experiences.
Third, the data will be geocoded to historical maps using addresses and family information. This work will be done by grad students and professionals in the Geospatial Research Facility using the historical spatial data infrastructure that powers the Keweenaw Time Traveler. Once mapped, researchers and the public alike will be able to access these employee records in conjunction with city and business directory data, and school records also being prepared for inclusion.
Lastly, high-resolution images of the cards will be searchable by name on the new Copper Mining Employment Card website administered by the Michigan Tech Archives and the Van Pelt and Opie Library. This way, anyone interested in a particular employee will be able to see every notation on the card.
It is important to note that our project is following the 72-Year-Rule. Any card that contains information more recent than 72 years ago will be embargoed from public view. In other words, any card with information dated 1948 or later will not be released until the information is 72 years old. This approach, used by the U.S. Census Bureau and most other archival facilities, will safeguard the privacy of individuals and families.
Funding
The Keweenaw Time Traveler was awarded a Digitizing Hidden Collections grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) in January 2020. Principle investigators for this $240,014 grant are Sarah Fayen Scarlett (Social Sciences), Don Lafreniere (Social Sciences), and Lindsay Hiltunen (University Archivist). The CLIR grant program and its awards are made possible by funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. CLIR is an independent, nonprofit organization that forges strategies to enhance research, teaching, and learning environments in collaboration with libraries, cultural institutions, and communities of higher learning. To learn more, visit www.clir.org and follow them on Facebook and Twitter. |