Caption:
Courtesy of the Department of Environmental Protection, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Caption: "Oh yes, [some would go for weeks without seeing daylight] that was a long time ago; the wives would take the buckets, not myself, but I heard my mother-in-law and even my mother speak. They would take the man's bucket to the mine and hand them to the lamp man, and he would give them the old bucket, and they'd give [them] the food. Oh yes, many a day my Baba [grandmother] did that." Adapted from an oral history of Mary Margaret Coll Malesky
National Archives
Caption: Lattimer Massacre
Workers install beams in a coal mine
Courtesy of The Pennsylvania Anthracite Heritage Museum and
Iron Furnaces, PHMC
Caption: Lattimer Massacre
Injured miner being treated at the mine hospital
Courtesy of The Pennsylvania Anthracite Heritage Museum, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
Caption: After the end of a no-strike pledge agreed to by unions during World War II, the nation witnessed the greatest wave strikes in American history. On April 1, 1946, 400,000 bituminous coal miners–more than 75,000 of them in Pennsylvania–went out on strike for better wages, health benefits, and safety regulations. When United Mine Workers leader John L. Lewis refused to end the strike in May, President Harry S. Truman seized the mines and ordered the strikers back to work. Defying the president, most stayed out until December, when the coal companies agreed to the bulk of Lewis's demands.
Image Donated by Corbis-Bettmann
Caption:
Courtesy of the Pennsylvania State Archives
Caption: A tough union organizer who once defended himself with deadly force, Pat Fagan worked closely with United Mine Workers" president Philip Murray, who had boarded with Fagan's family in his teens, in organizing drives for the UMW, Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), and the United Steelworkers of America (USWA). In 1968 Fagan shared his life story in an oral history interview, now part of the Oral History Collection at the Penn State Labor Archives.
Archives and Labor Collection, Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh
Caption: A miner and his mules at a Coal Mine Entrance.
Image Donated by Corbis-Bettmann
Caption: Still attempting to recover from the Great Depression, Pennsylvania workers staged a series of strikes in 1941, including a walk out by soft coal miners working for the H.C. Frick Coal and Coke Corporation. After 12 strike pickets were ambushed and shot in a gully near the Edenborn Mine outside Brownsville, Governor Arthur H. James, on November 21, ordered state troopers there to restore order. Pennsylvania witnessed fewer strikes after American entry into the war and the surge in industrial production. Pennsylvania coal miners, however, would go out on strike again in 1943.
Image Donated by Corbis-Bettmann
Caption: "Valentine Dolenc, 65-year-old miner, indicates his opinion of the court ruling on the case of John L. Lewis and the United Mine Workers Union. The union was fined $1,400,000 and Lewis was fined $20,000 for criminal contempt in the coal miners" dispute."
Image Donated by Corbis - Bettmann
Caption: Miners Eating Lunch
Courtesy of the Pennsylvania State Archives
Caption: Miners usually had two checks with the same number on them. One, frequently made of aluminium, would be left with the banksman so that he knew how many men were underground and who they were. The second check which was usually made from brass would be kept by the miner and taken underground. When the miner came out of the mine after his shift he would give the brass check to the banksman who would match it back up with the aluminium check. Both checks would be returned to the lamp room ready for collection the next day. There are systems which involved three or more checks but the two check system was the most common. Checks were replaced in later times by a plastic swipe card system.
Courtesy of the Pennsylvania State Archives
Caption: Longwall Equipment in Operation
Courtesy of the Department of Environmental Protection
Caption: A coal car known as a "wagon" was used to haul raw coal from the mines to the coal breaker. Some cars were equipped with side hand brakes. Each car held approximately 5 tons of coal. All trips throughout the mine were controlled by an automatic signal system.
Courtesy of the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania
Caption: Coal miners test the air quality in the mine.
Courtesy of the Coal and Coke Heritage Center, Penn State Fayette
Caption:
Courtesy of the Department of Environmental Protection, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania