Big Annie Exhibit on View at Coppertown

Portrait of Big Annie. (Photo courtesy of the Michigan Tech Archives, Keweenaw Digital Archives.  Click here for more information.)

Anna “Big Annie” Clemenc is the spotlight of a new exhibit at the Coppertown USA Mining Museum.  Located on Red Jacket Road in Calumet, the museum wanted to unveil the exhibit to coincide with the centennial of the 1913 copper strike.  Big Annie, who was a prominent labor leader during the 1913-1914 copper strike, was a dedicated activist and strike supporter.  She was jailed several times for her vocal efforts to support the labor movement in the copper district and she was also a key member of the Western Federation of Miners Women’s Auxiliary.  As a member of the WFM Women’s Auxiliary she helped organize the 1913 Christmas Eve party at the Italian Hall building in Calumet, which resulted in over seventy people, mostly children, losing their lives in a stairwell stampede.  The exhibit tells the story of Big Annie’s legacy as well as features numerous artifacts and narratives related to the Italian Hall disaster on that tragic Christmas Eve.  For more information about the exhibit please see this article in the Daily Mining Gazette or feel free to contact Coppertown USA.