Original Caption: “Harry Fain, coal loader, removes “bug dust” from undercut made by cutting machine. “Bug dust” is mixture of slate and ground coal. Inland Steel Company, Wheelwright #1 & 2 Mines, Wheelwright, Floyd County, Kentucky.”
In 1946, noted photographer Russell Lee was hired by the Solid Fuels Administration for War, a Federal agency, to take photographs for a survey of medical, health and housing conditions in coal communities around the country.
Located in remote areas and patrolled by mine company guards during times of labor unrest, coal communities were normally inaccessible to outsiders. But government seizure of the mines from private operators gave Lee an unprecedented view into coal fields from Pennsylvania to Wyoming.
Russell Lee took more than 2,000 photographs of the miners in their homes, workplaces, and communities.
