One Hundred Years of Federal Mining Safety and Health Research

Appendix A: Joseph A. Holmes Biography
Joseph Austin Holmes, the first Director of the U.S. Bureau of Mines (USBM), was born at
Laurens, SC, on November 23, 1859. He graduated from Cornell University with the degree of
Bachelor of Agriculture in 1881. He was professor of geology and natural history at the
University of North Carolina during 1882-91. Holmes resigned the professorship in 1891 to
become the State Geologist with the North Carolina Geological Survey.
Geological themes were the topics of most of Holmes’s nearly eighty publications. In 1904, the
President appointed Dr. Holmes chief of the laboratories for testing fuel and structural materials
at the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Subsequently, he became chief of the
technological branch of the USGS. He was appointed by President Taft as the Director of the
USBM upon its formation in 1910. Under his management of the Bureau, new methods were
perfected for preventing mine accidents.
Dr. Holmes established the experimental mine for testing explosions at Bruceton, PA, and in
October 1911, organized the first national mine safety demonstration. He was responsible for the
establishment of federal and state rescue stations in the coal and metal mining regions and the
equipping of railroad cars as mobile safety and rescue stations. He was a fellow and charter
member of the Geological Society of America and a fellow of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science. He was a member of the Academies of Science in Washington, DC;
the American Forestry Association; the American Institute of Mining Engineers; the American
Society for Testing Materials; and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
When Dr. Holmes retired in 1915, his health had been declining. He died on July 12, 1915, at
the age of fifty-five from pulmonary tuberculosis in Denver, Colorado. He is buried in Rock
Creek Cemetery, Washington, DC [Kirk 1996].
The Joseph A. Holmes Safety Association (JAHSA) was founded in 1916, the year after the
death of Dr. Holmes. Twenty-four leading national organizations representing the mining,
metallurgical, and allied industries aimed to promote health and safety in the mining industry by
creating a safety awards program. Various individual awards such as the hero award and merit
award are issued by the Association, as well as company awards for time worked without
accidents or fatalities. The association is a nonprofit organization consisting of representatives
from federal and state governments, mining organizations, and labor.
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