“Lansford is a small town located near a number of old anthracite coal mines, in a Pennsylvanian borough very appropriately named Carbon County. We still don't know if this image is directly related to it but, in fact, the world's oldest continously operated anthracite coal mine was the No. 9 Coal Mine which operated in Lansford between 1855 and 1972, and was re-opened as a heritage tourism attraction in 2002. We have here an image of the so called "breaker boys" which removed from the coal the chunks of material which could not be burned, typically slate, depositing them into a "culm dump" or "slag heap." This seems to be the same gruelling work that many women "trieuses" ("sorters") can be seen doing in a number of similarly old french postcards.”
Enjoy your Labor Day.
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