This photograph from the United States Office of War Information was taken in 1942 in front of the Sullivan Trail Coal Company’s breaker in West Pittston, Pennsylvania.

It shows an unidentified smiling as he receives his paycheck and a brochure from the Federal government during World War II.

This image was part of a campaign to emphasize to anthracite mineworkers their central role in the Allied war effort to defeat fascism abroad after the United States entered the Second World War. This campaign by the Federal government sought to enlist the support of the miners in the war effort and to keep this crucial war industry fully operational.

In a region hit hard by the Great Depression and the early stages of deindustrialization, mineworkers and their union – the UMWA – tried to leverage the wartime booming economy to improve pay and benefits. This led to a strike in 1943 that saw 500,000 mineworkers walk off the job nationwide, including in the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania.

President Roosevelt signed an executive order in May 1943, later backed up by Congressional legislation, that put the Federal government in charge of coal mines across the United States and made it illegal to organize strikes.

After months of negotiating, arrests of alleged strike organizers in the anthracite region, and more strikes, a deal between the UMWA, the operators, and the Federal government was reached in November 1943 and the mines remained in operation through the rest of the Second World War.

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Read more about anthracite mining and World War II

War Department Film Highlights Coal Region’s Role in WWII | 1942

Coal mines operated on Thanksgiving Day as World War II raged | November 1943

Private Harvey L. Adams | Killed on D-Day, June 6, 1944

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