Rural Poverty

Miner at Dougherty’s Mine, Near Falls Creek, Pennsylvania

by Jack Delano

The Agricultural Department hired Jack Delano as a photographer for the Farm Securities Administration (FSA) and this photograph focuses on the working conditions of the coal miner. 

Between 1880 and 1930 the coal industry expanded as the production of steel required coal to fuel the furnaces.  In the 1930s mining sites could be found throughout the eastern United States and mechanization began to be implemented within coal mines but the conditions were still dirty and the risk of injury or death due to explosions or a shaft collapsing was still high. 

Workers were typically immigrants and were required to live in company-built, efficiency towns called “patches.”  What does this photograph tell you about the quality of life of a coal miner in the 1930s in the USA?