July 2026: Statler Circuit Department Digest and Awards

Royce J. and Caroline B. Watts Museum

Watts Museum curator and WVU history alumna Danielle Petrak, served as a witness during the U.S. Senate Small Business Committee's "America 250: Industrialization and the Rise of Small Manufacturers" hearing. Petrak provided the committee with a historical framework of the industrialization of West Virginia, contextualizing the committee's conversations about contemporary re-industrialization efforts. Through her experience as a historian of Appalachia and curator of the Watts Museum, her testimony highlighted West Virginia’s antebellum industrial history, with particular attention to the state’s glass, pottery, nail manufacturing, and cigar industries.

“The industrialization of West Virginia is nearly always associated with coal, in particular the start of large-scale, commercial coal mining in the late nineteenth century," Petrak stated. "But as we commemorate America250, it is important to note that this region had a strong, diverse industrial economy well before the birth of its commercial coal industry.” 

“Marsh Wheeling Cigars, LaBelle Cut Nails, Fostoria Glass … These businesses were not small per se, but they also were not comparable in scale to the energy corporations often associated with heavy industry in West Virginia. Importantly, these companies were founded by West Virginia natives and residents; they employed skilled, union workers; and they created products using their state’s natural resources to inject wealth and add value into the local economy.”

The U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship is a standing committee of the United States Senate. It has jurisdiction over the Small Business Administration and is also charged with researching and investigating problems of American small business enterprises.

Housed in the WVU Statler College, the Watts Museum preserves the history of West Virginia’s mineral resources and related industries through exhibits and programs. The museum explores the significance of technology and industrialization on the region’s communities and landscape, and interprets the state’s industrial heritage in creative and thought-provoking ways.

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