Welcome to my collection of mining artifacts. My name is Hal Post and I’ve been collecting mineral specimens, mining books and mining artifacts for over 20 years. I’ve added descriptive text and a little history to each of my artifacts so I hope you enjoy the pics and perhaps find them educational as well. I love old mining supply catalogues so I will continue to add scans of mining items from these catalogues as they become available. If you have comments or questions, like the site or don't like the site, or have some suggestions to make it better, please let me know with an email. Thanks and Enjoy!
Check out some of my favorite early photos of Colorado and Utah mining history. These photos are from the USGS photo library coming from the early (1880s to 1920s) USGS studies conducted by such icons as Emmons, Spurr, Cross, Lindgren and Ransome. Some of these photos found their way into early USGS professional papers, monographs and bulletins but most did not.
ADDITIONS UPDATE! The newest additions to the site are two candlesticks, one a rare Colorado patent stick and the other a handsome presentation stick. The Colorado stick was patented by Charles P. Kaba and Harry D. Pelham, both of Colorado Springs, on Aug. 5, 1913. The Kaba and Pelham folding candlestick is another in a group of desirable Colorado patented candlesticks. A total of 24 patents were awarded for Colorado miner’s candlesticks, the highest number by far of any state in the US, representing 28% of all patented miner’s candlesticks. Of those Colorado patents, at least one example is known for 16 of the patents. Date wise, the last Colorado patented stick is the Kaba and Pelham. The presentation stick is polished steel with fancy file work on the shaft and an unusual small cylinder inside the handle. Other recent additions include a brass Clanny style safety lamp made by the Everhart Brass Works of Scranton, PA; a fancy highgrader handle candlestick that's thought to be a presentation stick; a gold and silver mold marked J. Caire for the Justinian Caire Company of San Francisco who was a major supplier of mining equipment during the California Gold Rush era and into the early twentieth century; and a hard-to-find oilwick lamp marked Quinn and Murray Makers Scranton, PA. Quinn and Murray were one of 8 different manufacturers of the Rollins patent wick lamp over a period of 40 years and arguably the most difficult to obtain. They were in business less than a year before splitting up and going their separate ways only to continue manufacturing the same patent lamp under different stampings. Other additions include two rarely seen artifacts: a patented miners’ brass and copper oil wick lamp on a stick from Victor, Colorado and the patented B. F. Kelly miners’ candlestick. The Victor wick stick is covered by two patents by Frank Smith, one issued in 1906 and the other in 1907. The Kelly candlestick is unique in that it is the only production made candlestick to include two unique features: a reflector and an adjustable crab. I hope you enjoy the site and find it as interesting as I do in putting it together.
BOOKS UPDATE! I collect mining books so I thought I'd share selected image scans of some of my favorite obscure out-of-copyright titles covering mines, miners and their history. The newest addition is an interesting early 20th century Western American trade union ephemera that I found in a bookstore - the Colorado miners and mine owners dispute was one of the most violent and disturbing events in American labor history. Here is an application for work dated Jul. 8, 1904, at the height of the Colorado Labor Wars between the Western Federation of Miners and the Cripple Creek District Mine Owners Association; one of the application questions very specifically asking "Are you a member of the Western Federation of Miners?" among other queries; in this case, the application is for a young unmarried French national, Isidor De Wilde (age 20) who had never been employed in the U.S. before; evidently the questions are an attempt to discern union sympathies by the hire; De Wilde had most probably been hired as one of the non-union workers during the CCDMOA's attempts to break the union.
CATALOGS UPDATE! I just added two original catalogs of the Brilliant Search Light Mfg. Co., one from 1918 with price list while the company was still in Duluth, MN and the other after it had moved to Chicago. The Brilliant Search Light was the first belt generator lamp used underground with ads as early as 1903. Check out the poem written by the lamp inventor Rudolph C. Kruschke on the last page of the Duluth catalog. It's the first poem I've seen written about a mining lamp. I also recently acquired the 1918 annual issue of the Mining Catalog and like other Keystone publications, it is 877 pages of neat ads for all types of mining equipment and supplies. I've included selected scans of explosives manufacturers and carbide lamp suppliers including my favorites for the King Powder Company and the Harker Manufacturing Company. I also acquired Catalogue #52 (1919) of Denver's The Mine and Smelter Supply Company and have added selected scans of mining equipment and supplies. There are now six editions of the Mine and Smelter Company catalogues on my site covering the years of 1902, 1912, 1919, 1926, 1929, and 1937. Have fun checking them out.
SHOWS UPDATE! I'm often asked about how to get in contact with other collectors and information on upcoming mining artifact shows. Check out this link to Eureka Magazine to participate in a collectors' forum and information on upcoming events. Also check out happenings of the Eastern Mining Collectors Association at Eastern Mining Collectors Association . The next mining shows are scheduled for:
June 29, 2013 in Ouray, Colorado
September 7, 2013 at Nevada City, California and
October 19, 2013 at Washington, Pennsylvania
PHOTOS UPDATE! Here are photos from past mining shows. Check out photos from the recent 2013 Tucson Show.
2008 Sutter Creek Show
2008 Tucson Show
2009 Tucson Show
2009 Ouray Pre-Show
2009 Ouray Show
2009 Johnstown Show
2009 Socorro Symposium Room Crawl
2010 Tucson Mineral Show
2010 Tucson Mining Show
Empire and North Star Mines
2010 DR Open House
2010 Nevada City Show
2010 MN Open House
2010 Bodie Ghost Town Tour
2010 Socorro Symposium Room Crawl
2011 Ouray Show
Ouray Museum Tour
Pics In and Around Ouray
2011 Socorro Symposium Room Crawl
2012 Tucson Show
2012 Carter Caves Show
2012 Carter Caves Sites
Watts Museum Tour
2012 Nevada City Show
RB Open House
Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park
Herb Dick Mineral and Mining Museum
2013 Tucson Show
All content on this site copyright Hal Post 2007-2013