We’ve been spotlighting photographs taken by Sheldon Dick on a 1938 visit to the Coal Region as part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. Among our favorites are these that he took while visiting Mount Carmel. He made a stop at a mining operation in what appears to be the outskirts of Atlas, Pennsylvania, just northwest of Mount Carmel. 

The images show a tumble-down mining operation – the kind that became very common during the Great Depression as the anthracite industry collapsed and many of the larger companies fell into bankruptcy and collieries were shuttered. Dick captured the bleakness of the era and the landscape in his photographs. All of the photographs are held in the collection of the Library of Congress and have been made available online. 

Featured Image: Sheldon Dick photograph of a coal yard and Mount Carmel, PA

See more photographs taken by Sheldon Dick on his 1938 visit to the Coal Region

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