Postcards
Postcards tend to give a beautiful and idealized image of the information given. This particular postcard provides an illustration of the anthracite coal mines in Pennsylvania in 1900. The image shown here provides surface information about the coal industry in Pennsylvania at the time. Without any other information about coal mining, what impression do you get about the work that coal miners accomplish on a day-to-day basis?
This postcard, depicting the anthracite coal mines, also provides an overview of how coal mining works. However, it seems as though there is more industrialization shown in this image than in the previous image.
This postcard depicts the image of a coal processing plant, also known as a coal breaker.
Pennsylvania's Anthracite Coal Region has become one of the most iconic images of coal mining in Pennsylvania. The last several postcards shown above depict some part of the Anthracite Coal Region. They visually show that anthracite coal is a type of coal that is typically found in mountainous regions or deep valleys.
This is a postcard depicting the Glen Alden Colliery. A colliery is simply another name for a coal mine. The image here gives the impression that the Glen Alden Colliery was one of the major coal mines in the area, especially in the early 1900s when this postcard was produced.
This is another postcard depicting the anthracite coal mines in Pennsylvania.
This is a postcard that shows the day-to-day life of the coal miner. This is an entrance to a coal mine with four coal miners and a mule.
This postcard depicts two miners testing the roof of an anthracite mine after a blast to determine if it was safe to continue digging the tunnel. As you can see, some of the images portrayed in the postcard collection look more deeply into the day-to-day jobs of the miners.
After seeing the day-to-day jobs of the coal miners with the provious image, this postcard depicts the dangerous side of the profession. In this postcard, a coal miner is injured and trapped under debris while another miner appears to be calling for help. Why do you think this particular image was chosen for a postcard?