Photograph of a bootleg miner in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania | 1938

In 1938, Jack Delano photographed a man identified only as a “bootleg miner” in Pennsylvania’s anthracite fields. When regular mining jobs vanished during the Great Depression, men dug coal illegally to feed their families. Read the Full Story.

A massive abandoned colliery in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania during the Great Depression

In the late 1930s, Jack Delano photographed the silent ruins of the Shenandoah City Colliery, a once-massive operation left to decay as the Great Depression and industrial change gutted the anthracite industry. This is what collapse looked like in real time across Schuylkill County. Read the Full Story.

Oral history with photographer Jack Delano about his Coal Region project during Great Depression

In 1965, photographer Jack Delano looked back on the many months he spent living in Pennsylvania’s Coal Region during the Great Depression, documenting abandoned mines, bootleggers, and families hanging on by a thread. His words add new depth to the images many of us know so well. Read the Full Story.