Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2022, History

This project explores the labor history of the Appalachian region and the presence of American labor history in the museum space and in public memory. The first section is a proposal for a Museum of Appalachian Labor Action, detailing the administrative and exhibitionary organization of a museum dedicated to the labor history of the Central, North Central, and Northern Appalachia, situated in Wheeling, West Virginia. The second section, a museum exhibition design titled “The Mine Wars Experience,” attempts to tell the history of the early 20th-century labor conflict, the West Virginia Mine Wars. The final section is an essay titled “Labor in the Museum,” an overall exploration of the place American labor history occupies in the museum space and in public memory more generally.

Committee: David Steigerwald (Committee Member); David Staley (Advisor) Subjects: History; Museums