Jeanne M. Rasmussen Collection, 1889-1986 | Archives of Appalachia

Title: Jeanne M. Rasmussen Collection, 1889-1986

Predomianant Dates: 1889, 1922-1933, 1947, 1967-1986

ID: 500/AppMs 352

Created by: Rasmussen, Jeanne M. (1934-1992)

Jeanne M. Rasmussen was born in Lubbock, Texas on April 4, 1934 to Carl and Pearl Hudspeth. She attended Baylor University, Waco, Texas, where she majored in English and received a B.A. degree in the spring of 1953. In August of that year she married George McGranahan, a cardiologist. They subsequently had three children: Jay, Georgia, and Gavin.

In the early 1960s Jeanne met and married Donald Rasmussen a pulmonary specialist who devoted much of his practice to black lung disease. From Salt Lake City, Utah, she moved in the early sixties to Beckley, West Virginia, where Donald practiced medicine. Jeanne's introduction to black lung disease and other pulmonary diseases which afflicted miners came through her husband's work. She also developed an interest in other aspects of miners' lives and began to photograph miners and their families, coal camps, and mining disasters.

In West Virginia, Jeanne worked for the Raleigh Register and WOAY-TV as a journalist. Through her husband, she became acquainted with Joseph A. "Jock" Yablonski, a United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) activist, who in 1969 asked her to be the treasurer for his presidential campaign to unseat incumbent UMWA president Tony Boyle. Jeanne accepted that offer and also became the West Virginia press representative for Yablonski's campaign. She actively campaigned for him in West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky. Although Yablonski lost the election, he was preparing to contest the election results when he, his wife and daughter were murdered on December 31, 1969 by assassins acting under Boyle's instructions. After the murders, the Rasmussens, themselves the subjects of rumors, were told of dangers to their lives. Coal miners guarded them and their home. Both Jeanne and Donald testified at the 1974 murder trial of Tony Boyle.

As Jeanne's interest in and knowledge of coal mining and mines developed and expanded, she devoted her writing and photography skills to publicizing miner's health and safety issues, shoddy treatment by coal operators, and corruption in the UMWA. Her essays on mining and miners appeared in such publications as Mountain Life and Work, Miner's Voice, and the Charleston Gazette, while her photographs appeared in regional newspapers and in such national publications as Harper's, Newsweek, the Washington Post and Mountain Life and Work.

Rasmussen also photographed other aspects of Appalachian life. Portraits of the men, women, and children of Appalachia, and photographs of Appalachian landscapes were subjects for Rasmussen's photography. These photographs were both published and exhibited regionally and nationally. Fifteen of Jeanne Rasmussen's photographs were included in the traveling exhibition, "Workers and Allies: Female Participation in the American Labor Movement, 1824-1976," created by the Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition Service. This exhibit opened in the National Portrait Gallery and toured the United States from 1975-1977.

In 1974 Rasmussen moved to Reston, Virginia, where she resided until her death on January 30, 1992.

Arrangement: The collection is divided into five series as follows: Series 1, Personal Papers, 1967-1982; Series 2, Writings by Jeanne M. Rasmussen, 1968-1971; Series 3, Scrapbook Materials and Loose Clippings, 1968-1986; Series 4, Other Printed Materials, 1889, 1922-1933, 1969-1986; and Series 5, Photographs, 1967-1977.

Extent: 3.5 Linear feet

Finding Aid/Inventory
Series 1: Personal Papers, 1967-1982
Series 2: Writings and Interviews by Jeanne M. Rasmussen, 1947, 1960-1978
Series 3: Scrapbook Materials and Loose Clippings, 1968-1986
Series 4: Other Printed Materials, 1889, 1922-1933, 1969-1986
Series 5: Photographs, 1967-1977

Other Note: Click on the URL below for Index to collection.

Other URL: http://www.etsu.edu/cass/Archives/Collections/afindaid/a352.html

Show Subjects (links to similar collections)

Show Forms of Material (links to similar genres)

Show Languages of Materials

Show Administrative Information

Scope and Contents: The Jeanne M. Rasmussen Collection contains both manuscript and photographic materials. Manuscript materials include personal correspondence and financial records; drafts of chapters from Rasmussen's unpublished manuscript on coal mining; essays written by Rasmussen on coal mining and other topics relating to Appalachia; and clippings and scrapbook materials on coal mining, the UMWA, and Rasmussen's writing and photography. The photographic prints depict Appalachian men, women, and children; coal mining disasters, the Buffalo Creek, West Virginia flood of 1972; and strip mining.

Index to collection available.