LIBRARIES

Enjoy this short video highlighting some of the historical photos of West Virginians available in West Virginia History OnView.

The Art Collection of West Virginia University contains several pieces by artist Beth Van Hoesen. Van Hoesen, who was born in 1926 in Boise, Idaho, is known for her arresting and amusing animal portraits.

In 1955, the Hanna Coal Company of Cleveland, Ohio, commissioned what was then the world’s largest steam shovel. Christened The Mountaineer, the shovel could move 60 cubic yards of material in its giant scoop, for a total of 7,500 tons of material an hour.

In this photo we can see that the scoop was large enough to fit two cars side by side:

More pictures of the Mountaineer can be found in West Virginia History OnView, a collection of photographs from the West Virginia and Regional History Collections of the WVU Libraries.

And if you’re a fan of LEGO bricks, be sure to check out this amazing scale recreation of the Mountaineer built by a young man in Switzerland!

Welcome to WVU Libraries’ Digital Item of the Week.  Each week we’ll be highlighting a different piece of our digital collections. If you’re curious about West Virginia history, art, or any of the other surprises we have in store, please subscribe to our RSS feed or check back from time to time to see what’s new in the Digital Collections of the WVU Libraries.