Finding Aids

Anthracite is a metamorphosed type of coal that contains a high carbon content and is extremely hard, it burns slowly producing little smoke. This item is a viewbook or fold-out packet of twenty-seven black and white halftone photograph reproductions of various activities at a coal mine, images are connected by accordion folds published by Jones & Evans; Scranton News Company, distributors.

This collection consists of photographs documenting many of the processes used to make bricks in Centre County, Pennsylvania, and some coal mining images. Brick works existed in Coleville, Wingate, Milesburg, Howard, Port Matilda, Snow Shoe, Orviston and Monument. By the 1960s, all the brick works have shut down for mostly economic reasons.

Coal Lands Securities Co. was one of several mining companies owned in large portion by Thomas J. Foster (1843-1936), a publisher. Lackawanna Coal and Lumber Company and Highland Lumber Company were also part of Foster's holdings. The album contains photographs taken during an inspection trip made by a party from the Coal Lands Securities Company to properties in West Virginia owned by the Lackawanna Coal and Lumber Company and the Highland Lumber Company.

The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western (DL&W) Railroad was one of the largest and most prosperous anthracite transporting and mining companies in Pennsylvania. This collection consists of dated and undated views of a boiler, breakers, collieries, fan houses, hoist, mule barns, pumps, shafts, steam plant, tunnels and an electric power plant in the anthracite mining areas in Lackawanna and Luzerne Counties of eastern Pennsylvania.

E.B. (Edward Barnes) “Ted” Leisenring Jr. (1926-2011) was the CEO of a fourth-generation family coal-mining business. He was president of Westmoreland Coal from 1961 to 1988, and remained as chairman of the board until 1992. This small collection of photographs is from Leisenring’s personal office files, which date between 1954 and 1994. The photographs consist of group and individual portraits, snapshots. The bulk of the material centers around two events: the 1964 Westmoreland Coal Company expansion and the 1970 delegation to the USSR.

George A. Richardson (1886-1976) was an engineer with an expertise in metallurgy, he spent his career primarily involved in technical publicity and sales for major steel manufacturers such as the Midvale Steel & Ordnance Company and the Bethlehem Steel Corporation. This collection of photographs and negatives was primarily taken by George Atwell Richardson throughout the course of his career while working for Midvale Steel and Ordnance Company and the Bethlehem Steel Corporation. The images document views of steel plants and operations, as well as steel products mostly taken between 1913 and 1929. The collection has been organized into five series: Midvale Steel and Ordnance Company; Cambrian Steel Company; Bethlehem Steel Corporation; Exhibits, and Other steel and coal companies.

The Link-Belt Company was founded by William Dana Ewart (1851-1908), who had invented the detachable link-belt in 1874. The flexible metal belt provided a superior system of power transmission and was first used widely in farm machinery. This item is a booklet of cyanotype photographs of locomotive coaling stations designed, erected, and equipped by the Link-Belt Engineering Company.

The Merchants Coal Company mined semi-bituminous coal in the early twentieth century. These are images of early construction at the Merchants Coal Company in Boswell, Pennsylvania.

The St. Clair Coal Company was a medium-sized independent anthracite producer located near Saint Clair, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. Photographs from St. Clair Coal Company show miners at work, collieries, storage banks, an aerial view of the operation, strip mining, a yard locomotive (probably built by Vulcan Locomotive), and the office.

This photograph is of a coal camp in Stonega, Virginia built and operated by the Stonega Coke and Coal Company. The Stonega Coke & Coal Company was a typical large southern Appalachian bituminous coal producer with mines in Virginia and West Virginia. Coal operations and their associated towns, or coal camps, consisted of company-built houses, churches, schools, theatres, dance halls, and even graveyards. The company provided each camp with a doctor, nurse, and hospital.