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Nom de l'objet : Painting
Artiste ou artisan : Fraser, Doug
Catégorie de l'objet : Communication Artifacts
Sous-catégorie de l'objet : Art
Matériaux : Paint
Fibre, canvas
Technique de fabrication : Painted
Numéro d'accession : 1983-521
Date de fin de production : 19830000
Description : A streetscape painting of a road with rows of buildings on either side. A man driving a cart is heading down the road. Another man walking on the sidewalk on the right hand side.
Commentaires : The painting depicts a streetscape in Inverness. On the left side of the painting are the Red Rows which were a set of company houses built by the Inverness Railway and Coal Company. The eighty-four duplex houses were painted red and known as the Red Rows. They company also built twelve unattached houses for company officials called the Gray Houses. After the mines closed in 1953, the houses were put up for sale with preference given to currant occupants. The coal seams in Inverness County are part of the Sydney coal field which begins in Sydney Harbour and extends to the Strait of Canso and up towards Newfoundland for approximately twenty-five miles. Along the western coast of the island there are four deposits: Mabou, Port Hood, Inverness, and Chimney Corner-St. Rose. At Inverness, there were four commercially viable seams. The coal within was of a lower grade than that in the Sydney area seams; it was a volatile 'C' bituminous coal suitable for domestic consumption. Throughout the years, attempts were made to open all four seams in Inverness. Earlier attempts to mine coal commercially in Inverness all failed. In 1865, one square mile was leased to McCully and Blanchard who wished to open a seven foot seam. Their attempt to organize funding in London failed and although they raised fifty tons in 1867, they did not build a colliery to store the coal. In 1872, a second attempt was made by Alexander Wright and J. Harry Ladd but the company collapsed after a few erratic years. In 1888, William Penn Hussey established the Broad Cove Coal Company. He sought investment in the mine from wealthy Europeans, finally securing funds from Swiss investors. Hussey returned to Inverness to initiate operations at the Big River seam. As Harold Innis noted, natural resources are of little use unless there is sufficient demand and transportation infrastructure to supply that market at a reasonable price. To create a transportation system for his coal, Hussey dredged a channel between the coast and MacIsaac's pond. He also built a gage railway to carry coal to the harbour two miles away; in 1897, he brought the first steam engine to Inverness to pull his cars. In addition, Hussey built company houses for his miners. In 1899, Broad Cove Coal Company employed 300 men and produced 4000 tons of coal weekly. That year, however, Hussey decided to dissolve his company. Hussey's company was taken over by William MacKenzie and Donald Mann. The two were involved in railway development; they built a line from Broad Cove to Port Hastings in 1901 and later extended it to Point Tupper. That year they organized the Inverness Railway and Coal Company to open the No. 1 seam and two more were opened within two years, No. 2 and the Big River seam No. 3. The IR&CC built a series of company houses and management houses in the town and miners flocked to the area, including a number from Belgium. The Belgian miners had heard about the mine from Hussey's earlier European visit; they formed Belgian Town within the community of Inverness. Mining boomed until 1915; in 1904, the company employed 482 men but by 1917, that had increased to 725 although it had levelled off to 751 in 1923. The increase in people also led to an increase in business for the town. On April 6, 1904 the town incorporated with 3000 citizens. Following a series of poor financial decisions, however, the company entered receivership in 1917. In 1911, IR&CC had bought a new hoist which took two years to assemble and was expensive to operate. Further, by 1915, a plaster fault had cut off access to the No. 1 seam. Unable to relocate the seam, the company opted to convert to retreat mining instead of forward room and pillar mining. In room and pillar mining, pillars of coal are left to create stability and hold up the roof as mining continues forward. In retreat mining, the pillars are removed causing the roof to collapse and the shaft to shorten. Although room and pillar mining is more expensive, especially when the shaft moves under the ocean, retreat mining substantially shortens the life of a mine and is more dangerous as the incidents of collapse and falling rock increase. Eastern Trust took over the receivership of the company in 1917. By this time retreat mining was in operation and although one hundred additional miners were hired in 1918, at least one miner was killer annually between 1901 and 1947. The worst disaster occurred in 1924: four miners, Dan C. MacIsaac; Archie A. MacIsaac; Dan MacDougall; and Neil MacIsaac, were killed while removing a pillar. In addition, in 1923, a substantial portion of the business district was lost to fire. Although IR&CC regained control for two years beginning in 1919, the company again went into receivership. Eastern Trust was unable to garner a profit from the mine despite the sail of the railway, the non-renewal of equipment, and the provincial government's absorption of the deficit. In 1932, the Eastern Trust withdrew from receivership and the mine operated as a coop for a year after which the Department of Mines oversaw operation as the Imperial Coal Company. The Department was advised to close the mines as they continued to run an increasing deficit. The No. 1 mine was suffering from the decision to retreat mine; the increased pressure on the ceiling produced slack coal instead of nut coal which was less marketable. In addition, flooding was a problem in the lower levels so mining was restricted to the upper levels which were prone to rock falls and crumbling pillars. Increasingly concerned for the miners' safety, the government closed the No. 1 shaft in 1934 although some work did continue until 1939. The demand fell on the No. 4 mine which was far inferior. An additional night shift was added to accommodate the miners who had worked in the No. 1 shaft but the mine closed in August of 1942. In 1941, the No. 3 and 5 shafts were reopened but surveys three years later suggested the remaining coal was not workable. It had a high clay, ash, and sulphur content which made it expensive to mine, difficult to sell, and more prone to fire. It was not until 1953, however, that the mine was closed. It was estimated that between 1865 and 1951, 8 400 000 tons of coal was raised but between 1924 and 1951, the government absorbed a deficit of $3 244 944. For the subsequent twenty years, small, private operations continued to mine but they were minor organizations. Following the mine's closure, many of the businesses left the town as did the miners. Some went to work in the New Waterford mines while some of the younger men went to the hard rock mines in Elliott Lake, Ontario. The railway line reduced service from daily to weekly and eventually stopped it altogether. The 1950s and 60s saw the introduction of a number of government programs as well as a great deal of industrial investment in the Strait area. This painting was created by Doug Fraser. Fraser is a self-taught artist who was raised on Cape Breton Island. He now resides in Inverness. He paints his rural surroundings using oil on canvas. Fraser's art can be describes as realistic; he paints what he sees without an interpretation or embellishment. The realist movement arose in the late nineteenth century with the development of photography. It was paralleled with the intellectual positivist movement; the emphasis was on an objective understanding of nature. Realist painters depicted common, everyday scenes that often portrayed the working class. This particular painting was based on a photograph in the museum's collection.
Longueur : 94
Largeur : 70
Unité de mesure linéaire : cm
Nombre d'objets : 1
Nombre de parties composantes : 1
Étiquette ou poinçon : Painted in lower right corner: Doug Fraser/83
Établissement : Inverness Miners' Museum  Facebook-Inverness Miners' Museum 
Ville de l'établissement : Inverness
Province de l'établissement : Nova Scotia

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