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JAMES S. STEEL:

An Inventory of His Oliver Iron Mining Company Research Files at the Minnesota Historical Society


OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION

Creator: Steel, James S.
Title:Oliver Iron Mining Company research files.
Date:1860-1972.
Abstract:Correspondence, reports, interview transcripts, statistical information extracted from published and manuscript sources, photographs, and related materials documenting the operations of the Oliver Iron Mining Company on the Mesabi Iron Range, and also including some materials on the Vermilion Iron Range.
Quantity:2.75 cu. ft. (3 boxes).
Location:See Detailed Description for shelf locations.

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SCOPE AND CONTENTS OF THE PAPERS

The papers were compiled in 1963 by James S. Steel, then employed by the Oliver Iron Mining Company, for a possible publication that never materialized.

The collection contains correspondence, photographs, interviews, and other materials documenting many facets of life on Minnesota's iron ranges, including community development, Americanization and educational programs, labor issues, ethnic groups, taxation, health matters, mining methods, and sports and recreation.

A photograph album, compiled in 1936 by G. J. Barrett, contains well identified photostatic (cyanotype) views of many aspects of the mining industry on the Iron Range.

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INDEX TERMS

This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics should search the catalog using these headings.
Topics:
Ethnic groups -- Minnesota -- Mesabi Range.
Iron mines and mining -- Minnesota.
Labor movement -- Minnesota -- Mesabi Range.
Mines and mineral resources -- Minnesota -- Mesabi Range.
Mining corporations -- Minnesota.
Mining districts -- Minnesota.
Ore deposits -- Minnesota -- Mesabi Range.
Railroads -- Minnesota -- Mesabi Range.
Strip mining -- Minnesota -- Mesabi Range.
Ore deposits -- Minnesota -- Vermilion Range.
Emigration and immigration -- Minnesota -- Mesabi Range.
Persons:
Mitchell, Pentecost, 1861-1933.
Olcott, William James, 1862-1935.
Pardee, John S, 1863-1930.
Pengilly, John, 1852-.
Tower, Charlemagne, 1848-1923.
Trezona, Richard, 1863-.
Organizations:
Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway.
Duluth and Northern Railroad.
Oliver Iron Mining Company (Duluth, Minn.).
Places:
Duluth (Minn.) -- Industries.
Mesabi Range (Minn.).
Vermilion Range (Minn.).
Document Types:
Interviews.
Photographs.
Occupations:
Miners.

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ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Preferred Citation:
[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. James S. Steel Oliver Iron Mining Company Research Materials. Minnesota Historical Society.
See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples
Accession Information:
Accession number: 13,122; 13,286; 15,034
Processing Information:
Processed by: Kathryn M. Johnson, March 1994
Catalog ID number: 09-00038383

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DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

Note to Researchers: To request materials, please note both the location and box numbers shown below.

Location Box
148.H.17.6F1
Subject Files:
Americanization, naturalization, and adult education, ca. 1916-1963.
Biwabik: History of Early Days, by Fred Seeley, 1961.
Community development, [ca.1880]-1934. 3 folders.
Duluth and Iron Range Railroad: Miscellaneous notes, undated.
Education and schools: Juvenile, 1900-1940. 2 folders.
Foreigners, 1892-1915.
Health and Sanitation:
Notes by Philip Jordan, 1903-1916.
Health, welfare, and sanitation, 1884-1920.
Immigration and population, 1885-1939.
Interviews (notes and transcripts), 1962.
Typed extracts of tape recorded interviews between Steel and pioneer Iron Range residents contain a wealth of information on nationality groups; vignettes of mine officials, including William J. Olcott, Richard Trezona, and John Greenway; and data on social life and activities, boarding houses, saloons, schools, and work in the mines.
Labor:
Distribution and classification, 1907-1918. 2 folders.
Organizations and disputes, 1892-1919. 2 folders.
Safety and accounting, 1892-1940. 3 folders.
Logging, 1911-1914.
Maps: Eastern Europe and Pioneer and Sibley mines, undated, 1923.
Mine development before and after 1910, 1887-1921. 2 folders.
Mining methods and equipment, 1892-1957.
Missabe Mountain Mine, 1939-1945.
Nationalities: Information and statistics, 1890-1919. 3 folders.
Newspapers, 1885-1909.
Production statistics, 1884-1952.
Saloons, 1892-1958.
Sports and recreation, 1884-1963.
Location Box
148.H.17.7B2
Taxation, 1915-1961.
Tower and Soudan, 1863-1962.
Vermilion Gold Rush, 1865-1926. 2 folders.
Correspondence and miscellaneous papers, 1884-1965. 2 folders.
Includes three John S. Pardee manuscripts on the Iron Range: "Of the Womb of Steel," "At the Foot of the Rainbow," and "An Appanage of Steel."
Extracts from letterpress books (correspondence):
Canisteo Mine, 1905-1918.
John Pengilly (manager of Soudan Mine), 1898-1905.
Miscellaneous correspondence, 1899-1914.
Discarded draft materials (for book), undated.
Scrapbook sheets containing newspaper clippings relating to ron mining in Minnesota and other states, [ca.1881]-1885. 2 folders.
Notebook: Oliver Iron Mining Company, [ca.1907]-1927.
Contains information on appropriations, shipments, freight rates, wages, ore resources, employment, and exploration for the years 1907-1927.
Printed materials, 1903-1972. 2 folders.
Pen and ink sketches of Hibbing in 1893, and miners by nationality by an unknown artist, undated, 1893. 7 sketches.
Photographs:
An extensive collection of 487 photographs (undated and 1860-1944), some in albums and others in folders, contain views of mines, towns, equipment, railroads, miners, underground mines, and related topics. Most are well identified, except for those in the chronological file dated 1917-1927, and in part of the oversize album. Of particular interest is the album of photostatic views printed from photographs taken by Robert Y. Richie, New York City, in 1936 for the Oliver Iron Mining Company, which contains views and detailed information on all aspects of open pit and underground mining including equipment, locomotives, trains, crushing plants, laboratories, miners' clothing and equipment, and views of underground operations.
Photographs on pages 1-122 of the album are accompanied by detailed information sheets and are indexed. The remaining photographs (pages 123-260) are unidentified. The following areas are included: Burt-Day-Sellers open pit, Hibbing; Duluth, Missabe & Northern Railway Company's Duluth ore docks; Hibbing-Chisholm district laboratories; Godfrey Underground Mine, Chisholm; Hull-Rust open pit, Hibbing; Hull-Rust-Sellers, Hibbing; Missabe Mountain open pit, Hibbing; Morris open pit, Virginia; Pioneer "A" underground mine, Ely; Sault Ste. Marie locks; Soudan; Virginia-Eveleth District; Virginia ore crushing plant.
Godfrey Mine, 1926-1927. 2 folders, containing 120 photographs pasted on sheets.
Oliver Iron Mining Company. Engineering Department: photograph album sheets, 1904-1908. 44 photographs.
Screening-Crushing Plant, Hibbing District, 1924-1925. 20 photographs.
Photographs arranged alphabetically: Biwabik-Virginia, undated and 1890-1944. 4 folders, containing 53 photographs.
Photographs of mines outside Minnesota, undated and 1860, 1899. 4 photographs.
Unidentified photographs, undated and 1917-1927. 2 folders, containing 40 photographs.
Unidentified negatives, undated.
Location Box
142.G.2.7B-23
Views of Oliver Iron Mining properties and related scenes, photographed by Robert Yarnall Richie, New York City (1936), and compiled by G. J. Barrett [?], 1937. 1 photograph album. 260 pp.

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