An 1875 coffin for Little Joe, the canary who saved a mine crew

Image: Depositphotos.com

This little wooden coffin was built for a dead canary by the coal miners whose lives the bird helped save. The bird was a piece of safety equipment to its employer, but somebody on the crew clearly thought of it as a friend — folk art from an unexpected place.

Before electronic gas detectors, coal mines relied on canaries. The bir…