After graduating from high school in 1936, C. William "Doc" Horrell received a $12 camera from his mother. Horrell was immediately bitten by the photography bug, and created a dark room in his mother's walk-in-closet. He attended Southern Illinois Normal University (now the Southern Illinois University Carbondale), and after his time in the armed services, he opened up his own photography studio in Anna, Illinois. In the 1960s, Doc began wandering around southern Illinois to document the region's coal mining industry. Over the next few years, he took thousands of photographs, some of which formed the heart of his 1973 book, "The Land Between the Rivers". The good folks at SIU Carbondale have created this online exhibit to introduce users to Horrell's work. Visitors can make their way through the exhibit, and they may find themselves gravitating to the complete online collection, which contains over 750 items. It's a tremendous find, and it includes images of abandoned coal mining facilities, men at work, and coal trains.
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