This photograph comes from the September 22, 1900 edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. It was published during the Coal Strike of 1900 as the anthracite coal fields of Northeastern Pennsylvania fell silent:
Breaker Boy Out on Strike
The breaker boys are absolutely necessary to the operation of a big plant. In other years, when they have gone out on strike they have tied up big operations, and their parents have often been asked to take a hand in making negotiations with them.
They are now hand-in-hand with older strikes, and are the most enthusiastic workers in helping to make the stoppage of all operations complete.
Read more about the 1900 Coal Strike
Deadly riots in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania | 1900
A Coal Region editorial from 1900 speaks to income inequality a century later
Subscribe to the latest from Jake Wynn – Public Historian
Enter your email below to receive the newest stories.
Those thin parallel lines applied to various parts of the first photograph: Are those a really early form of half-tone, (to give the appearance of using different shades of gray)?