Vigo County Historical Society

Coal has great historical value to Wabash Valley

In the basement of the Vigo County Historical Museum among antiquated kitchen, farming and industrial implements, one can view a delicate yet elaborate black necklace. Although it seems out of place among the rust and wear of its neighbors, when one reads the placard describing it as a necklace made of polished coal, the "Aha!" light comes on. This beautiful piece of jewelry stands as an example of one of the more exotic uses of coal, a commodity that has been of great historical importance to the development of the Wabash Valley.

Jet, also called polished coal, is a dark brown to black variety of lignite, a low-grade coal. The formation of jet was the long-term result of the compression of masses of wood in the mud on the ocean floor. Shale was formed, within which thin layers of jet were built up through chemical action. Although it occurs worldwide, the highest quality jet is found in black bituminous shale in Whitby, England. Being a hard, compact material, it lends itself to be shaped and polished by a skilled jeweler’s tools.

The ornamental use of jet has a long history. Buttons, beads, amulets and other ornaments dating from prehistoric times have been found in England.

The Romans imported jet jewelry from occupied Britannia, and pre-Columbian Mayas, Aztecs, Pueblos and native Alaskans used it to decorate their bodies and surroundings. During the 14th and 15th centuries, Spanish artisans carved and fashioned it into talismans.

Jet was often the stone of choice for rosaries, crosses, carvings and jewelry in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Queen Victoria raised jet to its pinnacle of popularity when she chose it as her mourning jewelry. She wore it exclusively for 40 years following the death of her husband, Prince Albert, in 1961. For years she insisted that all ladies presented at court wear only adornments of jet in reverence of her mourning.

Early in the 20th century, fashion trends changed; jet jewelry became passé and the industry built around jet as an ornamentation all but vanished.

However when the world’s fashion gurus decide that black is in vogue, baubles made of shiny jet appear on runways, in advertisements, stores and catalogs, and circling the necks and wrists of the fashionably dressed.

Legend and lore have bestowed jet with mystical powers. Sailors have sought its protection from sea monsters. Spaniards sculpted jet into hand-shaped charms to ward off the evil eye.

Enumerating prayers on a rosary made of jet beads is believed to keep the devil at bay. During the black plague, jet was burned as incense to fumigate the homes of victims in the hopes of exterminating the cause.

The jet necklace at the Vigo County Historical Museum is an example of the beauty that can be hidden inside the common and the unattractive; in this case, a lump of black, sooty coal.

The Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley, 1411 S. Sixth St., is open from 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Previous articles may be found on the society’s Web site at web.indstate.edu/community/vchs.