Full PDF for FEBT PH&MC Grant Press Release
Dozens of recorded interviews and films about the history of the East Broad Top Railroad and the coal mines it served will be transcribed and digitized thanks to a $15,000 grant announced this month by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. The grant was awarded to the Friends of the East Broad Top, partnering with the EBT Foundation and the Broad Top Area Coal Miners Historical Society. All three organizations are nonprofits.
The Friends of the East Broad Top conducted an oral history program from 1992 to 1998, and the Broad Top Area Coal Miners Historical Society from 1992 to 2006. These rare analog recordings, currently at risk of physical deterioration, are a top priority for digitization and transcription. Once digitized, they will be accessible to the public for the first time through the PAPowerLibrary’s state digital collections portal, PA Photos and Documents. The unique oral histories and short documentary films capture experiences of mine workers and local railroaders, life in the EBT company towns, and EBT railfan excursions. “This three-way collaboration facilitates a true 360-degree view of our industrial heritage,” said EBT Historian and Curator Dr. R. Lee Rainey. “In the material that this project will preserve, we hear firsthand the authentic voices of the miners who dug the coal that filled the EBT railroad freight cars, of the trainmen who took the coal to market, and of the families who waited in the online towns and countryside each day for their workers’ safe return.”
Ron Morgan, president of the Robertsdale-based Coal Miners Museum, said, “The Broad Top Area Coal Miners Historical Society is pleased to partner with the FEBT and the EBT
Foundation in the digitization of oral interviews with coal miners from the Broad Top area and to be a part of the ongoing East Broad Top Railroad restoration project. We are equally honored to remember and pay tribute to the people who mined the coal and operated the railroads. The story of King Coal on Broad Top is truly an exciting one.”
The project is the first foray into digital preservation for the three partners, each of which has extensive archival holdings. The decisions made now will support expanding public access to their other archival materials in the future. The project will be directed by Scarlett Wirt, Friends of the East Broad Top Collections Custodian, and managed by Julie Rockwell, Archivist of the East Broad Top Railroad Archives and Special Collections, with assistance from Sammy Bellin, Archives Technician.
Funding includes hiring a 2025 summer intern from Juniata College, in nearby Huntingdon, Pa.; digital preservation and transcription services; and conserving and rehousing the analog materials. Volunteers from the Friends of the East Broad Top and the Broad Top Area Coal Miners Historical Society who have expertise in mining, railroading, and local place names will check the accuracy of the transcriptions.
The grant was made under the state commission’s Historical and Archival Records Care
program. The program’s grants are awarded competitively and are intended to help preserve historically significant records held by local governments, historical records repositories, and academic institutions.
Among other programs, the 2,100-member Friends of the EBT operates a museum in
Robertsdale, Pa., where the Broad Top Area Coal Miners Museum is also located. The EBT
Foundation operates the National Historic Landmark East Broad Top Railroad, Headquartered in Rockhill Furnace, Pa.
Media Contact:
Julie Rockwell, Archivist
East Broad Top Railroad Archives and Special Collections
archivist@eastbroadtop.com
814-619-5414
Image:
FEBT.2024.4.3. Miners at Portal of Rockhill Iron and Coal Company, No.
5 Mine. Unknown Date. Edward’s Studio, Huntingdon, Pa.