Paper Title
Location
Fisher 138
Start Date
12-4-2014 10:10 AM
End Date
12-4-2014 10:30 AM
Description
Michigan copper mining companies owned and rented more than 3,000 houses along the Keweenaw Peninsula at the time of the 1913-14 copper strike. The provision of company-constructed housing in mining districts has drawn a wide range of inquiry. Mining historians, community planners, architectural historians, and academics interested in the immigrant experience have identified miners' housing as intriguing examples of corporate paternalism, social planning, vernacular adaptation and ethnic segregation. Michigan's Copper Country retains many examples of such housing and recent research has shown that the Michigan copper mining companies championed the use of housing as a non-wage employment benefit.
This paper will investigate the increasingly important role of occupancy and control of company housing during the strike. Illustrated with images collected during the strike by the fledgling U.S. Department of Labor, the presentation explores the history of company housing in the Copper Country, its part in a larger system of corporate welfare, and how the threat of evictions may have turned the tide of strike.
Presenter Bio
Erik Nordberg is a symposium travel grant recipient, funded by The Friends of the Van Pelt Library.
Nordberg is Executive Director of the Michigan Humanities Council, a nonprofit cultural agency based in Lansing, Michigan. The Council conducts statewide public humanities programs and provides grants in support of other nonprofits to carry out reading programs, historical exhibits, speakers’ series, and other cultural programs around Michigan.
Before joining the Michigan Humanities Council, Nordberg worked as a professional archivist in Indiana and Michigan, including 18 years with the Michigan Technological University Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections in Houghton, Michigan. While at Michigan Tech, he was responsible for a comprehensive program for collecting, preserving and sharing the cultural history of Michigan’s historic copper mining district. He was also involved in a variety of public history programming such as lectures series, tour programs, development of web content and publication programs. He is recipient of the Charles Follow Award from the Historical Society of Michigan for outstanding contributions to the preservation and promotion of Upper Peninsula history. The Mining History Association has also recognized Nordberg with the Rodman Paul Award for outstanding contributions to mining history, as well as its John Townley Award for the best article in their annual Mining History Journal.
Nordberg received his Bachelor of Arts in Combined Humanities from the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland. He went on to earn his Master of Philosophy degree at the University of Dublin – Trinity College in the Republic of Ireland and a Master of Science – Library Science degree and Graduate Certificate of Archival Administration from Wayne State University. He is currently working toward his doctorate in Industrial Heritage and Archaeology at Michigan Tech.
Company Houses Along the Picket Line
Fisher 138
Michigan copper mining companies owned and rented more than 3,000 houses along the Keweenaw Peninsula at the time of the 1913-14 copper strike. The provision of company-constructed housing in mining districts has drawn a wide range of inquiry. Mining historians, community planners, architectural historians, and academics interested in the immigrant experience have identified miners' housing as intriguing examples of corporate paternalism, social planning, vernacular adaptation and ethnic segregation. Michigan's Copper Country retains many examples of such housing and recent research has shown that the Michigan copper mining companies championed the use of housing as a non-wage employment benefit.
This paper will investigate the increasingly important role of occupancy and control of company housing during the strike. Illustrated with images collected during the strike by the fledgling U.S. Department of Labor, the presentation explores the history of company housing in the Copper Country, its part in a larger system of corporate welfare, and how the threat of evictions may have turned the tide of strike.
