This photograph in the collections of the New York Public Library shows mineworkers at Scranton, Pennsylvania sending a loaded car of anthracite coal to the surface. The image was made around 1905 and sold by the Keystone View Company.

The image is captioned:

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Here you are at the bottom of an anthracite or hard coal mine. This is the lower end of the large shaft which leads to the surface of the earth perhaps 1,500 feet above.

A carload of coal is on the elevator or cage ready to be lifted to the top of the dump into the breaker. The cage and the shaft are the center of a mine of this kind. To it lead the many switches from acres of underground rooms.

It is necessary that this shaft be constructed of strong materials. For not only must all the coal be brought to the surface through it, but it is the only exit of the hundreds of miners.

You can see for yourself that the shaft and cage here shown are strongly made. You will observe the large timbers, the heavy framework of the cage, and the big safety chain above. The weight on the cage you can figure for yourself…

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Read more about mining history in the Coal Region

“Crushed by the powerful machinery…” | A horrific mining accident in Schuylkill County, PA in 1859

Videos show mining and railroad operations in at the Buck Run Colliery | 1930s

A breaker boy’s memory of a childhood at work | Llewelyn Evans in 1943

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