A 1990s epic becomes a doorway into an 18th-century world. This Public History podcast episode revisits Last of the Mohicans to unpack the real history of the French and Indian War - Fort William Henry, a young George Washington, and the myths that still shape how Americans imagine the frontier. Listen to the episode.
In February 1832, an Irish newcomer named Patt Gildea sat down in Pottsville, Pennsylvania and tried to explain this strange new country to his brother back in County Mayo. Fresh from Quebec, Montreal, New York, and finally the booming Coal Region, he laid out wages, work, land prices, and daily life in blunt, practical detail — good prospects for single young men, hard choices for families. His letter, later published in an Irish newspaper, offers one of the earliest on-the-ground views of Pottsville’s “Coal Rush” from the eyes of an immigrant still figuring out if he’d made the right move. Read the full story.
This episode of the Public History podcast looks beyond the Irish Brigade to the everyday lives of Irish-born Union soldiers. We dig into letters, pension files, class, money, and memory with historian Damien Shiels and why Irish Civil War service has long been misunderstood on both sides of the Atlantic. Listen to the episode.
In October 1902, as the Coal Strike came to an end, crowds gathered outside a coal yard in New York City’s Lower East Side, eager to secure fuel before winter. This photograph from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly captures the urgency as anthracite coal shipments from Pennsylvania resumed, bringing relief to the city’s residents. Read the full story.
Meet Joseph Puma, a young Sicilian immigrant caught in the harsh world of Pennsylvania coal mining in 1911. Captured by Lewis Hine’s lens, his story spans from the dark tunnels of Pittston to serving overseas during World War I. Read the full story.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. vividly depicts restless minds, repeated headlines, and the shock of war in a powerful essay from the dawn of the Civil War. Discover his profound insights into life’s upheaval when a nation stands on the brink. Read the full story.
This is part of our “Letters from War” series documenting the World War II letters of Irvin Schwartz of Pine Grove, PA. The letters were all published in the West Schuylkill Press-Herald between 1943 and 1945. Read the previous letter here After a brief furlough at home with family in Pine Grove, PA, PFC. Irvin … Continue reading Letters from War – At a “Northern Camp” in November 1943
In the spring of 1863, a journalist documented the chaotic and changing situation in the Coal Region as the Civil War raged on.