Real photo postcard showing a long row of small cottages identified by caption as “Dead Row” in Cherry, Illinois, tied to the Cherry Mine disaster. Real photo process on postcard stock. The front inscription includes the disaster date and a survival statistic.



The November 13, 1909, Cherry Mine disaster at Cherry, Illinois, one of the worst coal‑mine fires in U.S. history. The fire in the St. Paul Coal Company’s Mine No. 2 in the town of Cherry started when a coal car loaded with hay for the underground mules caught fire from an open kerosene torch; burning hay ignited wooden timbers and spread through the shafts. 259 men and boys (and about three dozen mules) died making it the third‑deadliest coal‑mining disaster in U.S. history. These images are from a series of real photo postcards produced by Dunham Photo of Princeton, Ill. to document the aftermath of the disaster.



The front bears the printed text: “Dead Row … This Row of 30 Cottages only 4 Men Survived the Disaster of Nov 13, 1909 … Cherry, Ill.”. The reverse reads: “POST CARD” with “AZO” stamp box. Handwritten inscriptions read: pencil notations including “6/21/09” and a code-like word; no message written.