In November 1940, a letter from a telephone operator in London found its way into the pages of the Shamokin News-Dispatch. Alice Watts described incendiary bombs lighting every garden in her neighborhood on fire, whole streets reduced to rubble - and sleeping in her top-floor bed anyway, because a bomb either had your name on it or it didn't. Read the story from the London Blitz.
“The frenzy and what came of it.” After the fires burned out and the strikes were crushed, this 1877 illustration captured what remained. A worker sits in the wreckage, a reminder of the violence and destruction following America’s first great labor uprising. Read the Full Story.
In this video interview, I talk with historian Mitch Troutman about The Bootleg Coal Rebellion - the story of Pennsylvania miners who refused to starve when the industry collapsed. We explore survival, dignity, and resistance in the Coal Region, and why this history still matters today. Watch the Video.
The 1913 Cameron Colliery bathhouse in Shamokin, PA. Featured in The Colliery Engineer magazine, this 1912-built facility provided heated tubs and steam heat, modern conveniences like electric lighting, and lockers for 224 miners, with multilingual rule notices—an early example of worker welfare in the anthracite fields. Read the full story
Newspaper headlines across Northeastern Pennsylvania carried news of war and destruction in Hawaii in December 1941. Read the full story and the headlines.
In December 1922, Donald Tarr tragically lost his life in a mining accident at the Burnside Colliery near Shamokin, Pennsylvania. As one of the small number African American miners in the region, Tarr and his family had deep roots in the local coal industry. Discover the story of this skilled miner and the legacy of his family in the anthracite fields. Read the full story.
In Tracy Campbell's 2020 book, the author uses the examples from the anthracite coal fields to show how our national myths about World War II often miss the mark.
We recently acquired this colorized postcard of the Glen Burn Colliery near Shamokin
We recently acquired a new image of this Coal Region community in Northumberland County.
James Fuller Queen sketched Shamokin at a key moment in the history of the Northumberland County community.