In the tumultuous year of 1877, a magazine correspondent visited Mauch Chunk to document life in the Coal Region.
“Among the Coal Mines” – A trip into the Coal Region in 1877

In the tumultuous year of 1877, a magazine correspondent visited Mauch Chunk to document life in the Coal Region.
And a German immigrant with a (now) famous last name raced to Schuylkill County to quench the city's thirst for suds.
On December 1, 1871, the Kalmia Colliery breaker burned to the ground, nearly killing a night crew of workers trapped inside by the fumes.
Rev. John Hensyl spoke to a packed crowd in Shenandoah's Presbyterian Church about poverty on Thanksgiving Day 1902.
A filmmaker recorded silent moving images of a strip mine in operation in Schuylkill County in December 1917.
This journal documents a year of work at two anthracite collieries in Schuylkill County.
Irvin Schwartz looked forward to 1944 as being the year that he hoped would see the end of World War II.
In 1834 and 1835, a scientist named Constantine Samuel Rafinesque traveled widely through Pennsylvania in order to document the geology and biology of the Keystone State. In the spring of 1835, the Turkish-born polymath traveled north from Harrisburg aboard canal boats alongside the Susquehanna River to Millersburg. In his book, A Life of Travels, Rafinesque details … Continue reading An 1835 visit to the mines at Wiconisco Township
Pottsville photograph A.M. Allen made a trip to northern Schuylkill County to capture an image of the Shenandoah City Colliery.
This is a piece continued from last week. You can read Part 1 of our brief series on the remembrances of Robert Weir from 1914 HERE. After describing his arrival in the Coal Region in 1852, Robert Weir turned to discussing his work in Schuylkill County as a hoisting engineer in various collieries in the … Continue reading A Scottish immigrant’s remarkable working history in 1850s Schuylkill County (Part 2)