West Virginia Mine Wars Museum
Source: https://wvminewars.org
Archived: 2026-04-23 15:40
West Virginia Mine Wars Museum
WELCOME TO THE WEST VIRGINIA MINE WARS MUSEUM
“This is the first time that our people are in charge of our own history.”
Visit the Museum
- Wilma Steele,
retired Mingo County public school teacher and founding museum board member
No results found
Planning to Visit the Museum?
Check out our new Events Calendar for
upcoming happenings in Matewan:
museum events
Apr 16, 2026
Making Connections to the West Virginia Mine Wars : An Educators' Experience with her Students at the Museum
Apr 16, 2026
Ripley High School teacher, and Museum Education Advisory Panel member, Adena Barnette-Miller recently travelled to the Museum with her West Virginia History students and chronicles her experience. She shares how her students came away with a new understanding of the Mine Wars’ importance not only in West Virginia's history but also in the national labor narrative. The students also created vlogs at the Museum and participated in Sassa Wilke’s “Solidarity” mural, check it out!
Apr 16, 2026
Apr 10, 2026
A Quieter Violence of Company Towns
Apr 10, 2026
As coal mining families in West Virginia lived under company control at the turn of the 20th century, residents dealt with low wages for back breaking and dangerous work, a scrip payment system that gave these wages right back to the company, and a violent mine guard system created to break efforts to improve quality of life. Another less discussed form of violence these families faced were the horribly negligent sanitary conditions in company towns.
Apr 10, 2026
Mar 26, 2026
Coalmining Women - Appalshop Film Feature
Mar 26, 2026
Over 40 years ago, 99.8 percent of coalminers were men. As that statistic began to change and women joined a workforce previously out of reach, director Elizabeth Barret navigates the complicated landscape of gender dynamics and more inside mines across the United States in
Coalmining Women
(1981).
Mar 26, 2026
“
At this political moment, this museum is essential as a critical voice for workers and their history.
”
— Barbara Ellen Smith, board member and author, Digging Our Own Graves
Entirely Preventable:
The Toxic Legacy of Silica Dust from Hawks Nest to Black Lung
Photographs by Earl Dotter, Raymond Thompson Jr, and Stacy Kranitz
in our
Solidarity Gallery
learn about the exhibit
Step Inside the Stories…
Find out everything you need to know about how to travel to the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum, and where to stay, eat, and visit while you’re here.
Visit the Museum
People’s History: Online!
Until you can plan your trip to Matewan, spend some time with the online exhibitions we’re curating from the entire catalog of the museum’s collection!
Online exhibitions
Support Our Work:
Shop for Books and Merch Online!
Grabbing merchandise from our online shop is an excellent way to support the work we do! We’ve got a new, expanded Mine Wars Bookshop, new t-shirts, hats, sweatshirts,
and more!
Shop now
No results found
Home
|
News
About
|
Visit
Contact
|
Shop
Support
#wvminewars
WELCOME TO THE WEST VIRGINIA MINE WARS MUSEUM
“This is the first time that our people are in charge of our own history.”
Visit the Museum
- Wilma Steele,
retired Mingo County public school teacher and founding museum board member
No results found
Planning to Visit the Museum?
Check out our new Events Calendar for
upcoming happenings in Matewan:
museum events
Apr 16, 2026
Making Connections to the West Virginia Mine Wars : An Educators' Experience with her Students at the Museum
Apr 16, 2026
Ripley High School teacher, and Museum Education Advisory Panel member, Adena Barnette-Miller recently travelled to the Museum with her West Virginia History students and chronicles her experience. She shares how her students came away with a new understanding of the Mine Wars’ importance not only in West Virginia's history but also in the national labor narrative. The students also created vlogs at the Museum and participated in Sassa Wilke’s “Solidarity” mural, check it out!
Apr 16, 2026
Apr 10, 2026
A Quieter Violence of Company Towns
Apr 10, 2026
As coal mining families in West Virginia lived under company control at the turn of the 20th century, residents dealt with low wages for back breaking and dangerous work, a scrip payment system that gave these wages right back to the company, and a violent mine guard system created to break efforts to improve quality of life. Another less discussed form of violence these families faced were the horribly negligent sanitary conditions in company towns.
Apr 10, 2026
Mar 26, 2026
Coalmining Women - Appalshop Film Feature
Mar 26, 2026
Over 40 years ago, 99.8 percent of coalminers were men. As that statistic began to change and women joined a workforce previously out of reach, director Elizabeth Barret navigates the complicated landscape of gender dynamics and more inside mines across the United States in
Coalmining Women
(1981).
Mar 26, 2026
“
At this political moment, this museum is essential as a critical voice for workers and their history.
”
— Barbara Ellen Smith, board member and author, Digging Our Own Graves
Entirely Preventable:
The Toxic Legacy of Silica Dust from Hawks Nest to Black Lung
Photographs by Earl Dotter, Raymond Thompson Jr, and Stacy Kranitz
in our
Solidarity Gallery
learn about the exhibit
Step Inside the Stories…
Find out everything you need to know about how to travel to the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum, and where to stay, eat, and visit while you’re here.
Visit the Museum
People’s History: Online!
Until you can plan your trip to Matewan, spend some time with the online exhibitions we’re curating from the entire catalog of the museum’s collection!
Online exhibitions
Support Our Work:
Shop for Books and Merch Online!
Grabbing merchandise from our online shop is an excellent way to support the work we do! We’ve got a new, expanded Mine Wars Bookshop, new t-shirts, hats, sweatshirts,
and more!
Shop now
No results found
Home
|
News
About
|
Visit
Contact
|
Shop
Support
#wvminewars