Depression-era Photographs of Miners from the Library of Congress

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Miner waiting for ride home.  Each miner pays twenty-five cents a week to owner of car. Capels, West Virginia.

I doubt that it was this truck that was going to make the commuter run, but it might well be.  There's a tool chest in the truck bed, along with what looks like an upholstered truck bench next to it--it certainly wasn't abandoned because the truck still has its wheels.

In the detail of the picture it seems as though someone made repairs to the truck bed's wooden racks with wire or rope rather than with nails (jsut to the left of the miner's right shoulder). Picture source: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs, ca. 1938.)

 

Group of Coal Miners, WIlliamson, West Virginia.

Coal Miners going to the pit, Jenkins, West Virginia.

"National Child Labor Committee. No. 191. Frank, a Miner Boy, going home. About 14 years old: has worked in the mine helping father pick and load for three years: was in hospital one year, when leg had been crushed by coal car."

"National Child Labor Committee. No. 92. Main entrance Gary W. Va. Mine. Miners going into mine 7 A.M. Boy beginning career as "picker." Will be in mine over 10 hours consecutively. 7 A.M. to 5:30 P.M. Location: Gary, West Virginia."

"Holding the door open while a trip[?] goes through. Willie Bryden, a nipper, 164 Center St. A lonely job. Waiting all alone in the dark for a trip to come through. It was so damp that Willie said he had to be doctoring all the time for his cough. A short distance from here, the gas was pouring into the mine so rapidly that it made a great torch when the foreman lit it. Willie had been working here for four months, 500 feet down the shaft, and a quarter of a mile underground from there. (Shaft #6 Pennsylvania Coal Co.) Walls have been whitewashed to make it lighter. January 16th, I found Willie at home sick, His mother admitted that he is only 13 yrs old; will be 14 next July. Said that 4 mos. ago the mine boss told the father to take Willie to work, and that they obtained the certificate from Squire Barrett. (The only thing the Squire could do was to make Willie out to be 16 yrs old.) Willie's father and brother are miners and the home is that of a frugal German family. Location: Pittston, Pennsylvania."

Dinner 2-1/2 miles underground--miners with safety lamp, in a soft coal mine, Illinois

 

Miner's sons bringing home salvaged coal during May 1939 coal strike. Kempton, West Virginia

Miner using telephone at 500-foot level at gold mine. Mogollon, New Mexico

Coal miner waiting for lift home. Caples, West Virginia

Miner (Russian), Caples, West Virginia