Homestake Public Affairs and Publications collection

This is an artificial collection consisting of documents and media created or collected by the Homestake Mining Company’s Public Affairs Department (a division of Employee Relations) and other promotional, outreach, and publication materials created and collected by Homestake between 1879 and 2001. The bulk of the records date from 1939 to 2001. The collection includes scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, publications, advertisements, and newsletters.

While most of the records in this collection were created or collected by the Public Affairs Department, some materials were or may have been created and used by other departments. For instance, The Miner newsletter was edited by Joy Swenson of the Mining Department. Homestake publications and advertisements without a clear department of origin and publications about Homestake are compiled here for ease of access. The collection is arranged in three series: Scrapbooks, Newspaper Clippings, and Publications and Promotional Materials.

The Scrapbook series consists of scrapbooks compiled by the Homestake Public Affairs Department and its predecessor departments from 1879 to 1992. Before the establishment of the Public Affairs Department in 1962, these scrapbooks were most likely maintained by Kenneth Kellar of the Chief Counsel’s Office. The majority of the scrapbooks document Homestake’s press coverage and advertising campaigns within a single year, but a minority document the company’s lobbying goals. During processing, early scrapbooks and those in poor condition were disassembled or reproduced for preservation purposes. One scrapbook originally stored with the books in this series was added to the Homestake Veteran’s Association collection during initial processing. The scrapbooks contain newspaper clippings, magazine articles, advertisements, programs, brochures, and minimal correspondence.

The Newspaper Clippings series consists of newspaper clippings collected by the Homestake Public Affairs Department from 1968 to 2001. Clippings relate to Homestake operations, gold mining, and the Lead area. Most are drawn from local publications, especially the Lead Daily Call and Lawrence County Centennial. Regional newspapers represented include the Rapid City Journal, Minneapolis Tribune, and Sioux Falls Argus Leader. The majority of the clippings are arranged by date of publication, while a minority are organized by subject.

The Publications and Promotional Materials series contains publications, advertising materials, journal and magazine articles, speeches, and other promotional materials created or compiled by the Homestake Mining Company. Many of these materials were produced by the Homestake Public Affairs Department, but the series also includes writings and speeches by Homestake executives and articles from outside publishers written about Homestake. Of special note are a variety of newsletters produced by Homestake for its employees and the larger community. These newsletters include Sharp Bits, The Miner (published by the Mining Department), Homestake Happenings (published by the Gold Mining Division), Update (salaried employee newsletter), and On the Level (published by the Public Affairs Department).

Materials in this collection were compiled from three groups, preliminarily processed as (i) Scrapbook/Newspaper Collection, (ii) three boxes of newspaper clippings within the Homestake Unidentified Archives Part IV inventory, and (iii) two boxes within the Homestake X Boxes inventory.