Four distinct anthracite coal fields encompass an area of 1,700
square miles in the northeastern portion of Pennsylvania. Early Coal
Mining in the Anthracite Region is a journey into a world that was once
very familiar.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries, underground coal mining was at its zenith and the work of
miners was more grueling and dangerous than it is today. Faces blackened
by coal and helmet lamps lit by fire are no longer parts of the
everyday lives of miners in the region. These vintage photographs of
collieries, breakers, miners, drivers, and breaker boys illuminate the
dark of the anthracite mines. The pictures of miners, roof falls, mules,
and equipment deep underground tell the story of the hard lives lived
around the hard coal. Above ground, breaker boys toiled in unbearable
conditions inside the noisy, vibrating, soot-filled monsters known as
coal breakers.
