Two stuffed figures swayed above a street in Wilkes-Barre, PA street in the summer of 1902. The message to every "scab" in Luzerne County was unmistakable. A photograph from the Coal Strike captures how close the tension was to boiling over. Read the story.
Rumors were flying back home about hungry, mistreated soldiers at Camp Slifer. Michael McCarty — a County Longford man turned Luzerne County coal miner — had heard enough. He shared a letter from his friend Corporal Devenney at the front to set the record straight. Devenney had gained four pounds since enlisting in the US Army. Read the full letter.
“In a democracy we are not all of the same mind, but we are all of the same purpose.” In 1939, as authoritarian regimes reshaped education across Europe, a rabbi in Pennsylvania’s Coal Region offered a different vision rooted in independent thought and cooperation. His words reveal how Americans understood democracy on the eve of World War II. Read the Full Story.
“He goes warmed by a spirit of true patriotism.” In April 1861, a 19-year-old printer from Pittston put down his tools and marched off to war. His letters from Camp Curtin in Harrisburg capture the excitement, uncertainty, and raw emotion of the Civil War’s opening days. Read the full story and the start of a new "Letters from War" series.
On the eve of the 1936 election, Franklin D. Roosevelt came to Wilkes-Barre, PA and delivered one of the sharpest labor speeches of his presidency—rooted in Coal Region history and aimed squarely at corporate coercion. John Mitchell Day gave FDR the setting, and coal miners gave him the audience. Read the full story.
“It seemed as if the scenes and characters of the Bible were living again now, before our eyes.” Before he became the Coal Region’s most important folklorist, George Korson served in the Middle East during World War I. His letters and reflections capture a world in transition and a remarkable journey from Pennsylvania to Palestine. Read the Full Story.
In August 1905, mineworkers in Wilkes-Barre took to the streets under the banner of the United Mine Workers of America as union leader John Mitchell came to town. This photograph captures their parade through the city’s east end, marching down Maxwell Street toward the Jersey Central tracks, a show of strength just a few years after the hard-fought 1902 Coal Strike. Read the full story.
In the winter of 1926, a Hazleton, PA reporter went looking for dry Coal Region towns - and found the opposite. Bootleg liquor flowed freely across Carbon, Luzerne, and Schuylkill counties, especially at Christmas. Prohibition barely touched coal country. This new video brings that story to life. Watch the latest video.
Before the Civil War, slavery didn’t just haunt the South - it sent shockwaves into small Northern towns, too. In this episode, I sit down with public historian EJ Murphy of the Destination Freedom Project to talk about Waverly, Pennsylvania and the secret routes that helped people escape bondage—linking communities across Northeastern Pennsylvania. We get into what the Fugitive Slave Act changed on the ground, how you tell this story when sources are thin, and why visitors keep saying the same thing on these tours: I grew up here…and I had no idea. Listen to this episode of Public History.
In December 1935, Rebecca Wylie’s death closed a chapter of Coal Region memory. She was the last widow of the Avondale Mine Disaster, where 110 men and boys perished in 1869. Her first husband, Andrew Frothingham, died that day - his eyes “staring wide open.” She carried the loss for life. Read the full story.