The Carnival Came to Coal Country Once a Year | West Virginia 1938, in Color
Granville, West Virginia, September 1938. Dodson's World's Fair Shows set up in a wet field between the mine tipples and the river, and every coal camp on Scott's Run turned out — for the crazy boat, the man shot from a cannon, Robert Ripley's Believe It Or Not sideshow, and the penny arcade the miners' sons called a dirty jip.
Transcript
Once a year
R01 Coal miners and their families watching the girls and women's skirts blow up in the "crazy boat" at the outdoor carnival. Granville, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
The ride was called the crazy boat. Its trick was a jet of air that blew the women's skirts up as they came off, and the crowd stood in the dark and watched it happen. Granville, West Virginia. September, nineteen thirty-eight.
R02 An outdoor carnival comes to the coal mining communities once a year. Granville, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
The photographer's caption says the carnival came to the coal mining communities once a year. Once. This is what once a year looked like.
![[Untitled photo, possibly related to: An outdoor carnival comes to the coal mining communities once a year. Granville, West Virginia]](img/R03.jpg)
R03 [Untitled photo, possibly related to: An outdoor carnival comes to the coal mining communities once a year. Granville, West Virginia]
Marion Post Wolcott · [1938 Sept.] · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
Dodson's World's Fair Shows, parked in a wet field outside Morgantown, between the mine tipples and the river.
R04 Coal miner's sons watch aerial trapeze artists at outdoor carnival. Large event and only outdoor amusement during year. Granville, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
The photographer was Marion Post, twenty-eight years old, working for the federal government's Farm Security Administration. She shot black and white film, because that is what there was.
The colors are guesses
R05 Coal miners' sons watch aerial trapeze artists at outdoor carnival. Large event and only amusement during year. Granville, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
So let's be straight about what you're watching. Every color in this film was guessed — this year, by a machine, working from the gray values on her negatives.
R06 Coal miners and their families all turn out for carnival, once a year. Granville, West Virginia. They are watching the aerial trapeze artists
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
The faces, the light, the grain, the composition — those are hers, untouched. The colors are estimates. Good ones, mostly. But estimates. The original negatives are free, one click away, at the Library of Congress, and every one is linked below. That's the deal. Keep it in mind and these pictures won't lie to you.
Believe it or not
R07 "That's what you wanna see and that's what you will see and don't bring bashful with you 'cause he can't take it." An outdoor carnival comes once a year to the mining section. Granville, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
The barker's pitch, as she wrote it down: that's what you wanna see and that's what you will see — and don't bring bashful with you, 'cause he can't take it.
R08 "Double bodied, both sexes." Believe it or not, outdoor carnival, Granville, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
The banner line promised Robert Ripley's Believe It Or Not. Double bodied. Both sexes.
![[Untitled photo, possibly related to: "Double bodied, both sexes." Believe it or not, outdoor carnival, Granville, West Virginia]](img/R12.jpg)
R12 [Untitled photo, possibly related to: "Double bodied, both sexes." Believe it or not, outdoor carnival, Granville, West Virginia]
Marion Post Wolcott · [1938 Sept.] · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
She shot the sideshow front twice more as the light died and the bulbs came on.
R09 Coal miner's daughter, at left, and others at outdoor carnival watch man being shot from cannon, Granville, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
A coal miner's daughter, at left, watching a man being shot from a cannon.
R10 "It's a dirty jip," say the mine workers' sons in the penny arcade at outdoor carnival. Granville, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
In the penny arcade, her caption records the verdict of the mine workers' sons: it's a dirty jip.
R11 People in mining communities all turn out for big carnival, only event of the year. The line up for "skooter." Granville, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
The line for the skooter cars. The only event of the year, her caption says. Then the trucks rolled on, and the year started over.
Saturday
R13 Payday, Osage, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
Payday. Osage, West Virginia, a coal town on Scott's Run, a few miles from that carnival lot.
R14 Payday, coal mining town, Osage, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
The company paid on Saturday, and the whole run came into town.
R15 Payday, coal mining town, Osage, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
Same porch, same afternoon, from the street.
R16 Card gambling in center of town, Osage, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
Card gambling in the center of town. Nobody is hiding from the camera.
R17 Coal miners shooting craps in front of company store, Chaplin, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
Craps in front of the company store at Chaplin.
R18 Miners shooting craps in front of company store. Osage, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
And in front of the company store at Osage. It was the same game up and down the run.
R19 Coal miners' wives making ice cream to sell on Saturday afternoon after payday, Osage, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
Miners' wives made ice cream on Saturday afternoon and sold it to the payday crowd — under a sign offering beer, and tables for ladies.
R20 Miners at a bar drinking beer. Osage, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
Inside, the bar at Osage.
R21 Osage, on Scott's Run, West Virginia. Drugstore window display in mining town
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
The drugstore window asked the question of the week: will kissing be outlawed?
R22 Gas station and dance hall, Osage, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
The gas station shared a wall with the dance hall.
R23 Storefront, mining town, Osage, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
Max's Family Store, Osage.
R25 Vegetables (at left) and school supplies in drug store window in mining town. Osage, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
And in the same window: vegetables on the left, school supplies on the right.
The company's dollar
R24 Company store, Osage, West Virginia. Sack of flour in A&P. In same town costs sixty-nine cents and in company store costs one dollar and twenty-five cents
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
Here is a caption that is really a ledger. A sack of flour at the A and P in this town: sixty-nine cents. The same sack at the company store: a dollar twenty-five.
R26 Coal miners buying groceries in company store. Pursglove, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
The company store at Pursglove, inside, on a Saturday.
R27 Coal miners buying supplies in company store. Scotts Run, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
Buying supplies on Scott's Run. Much of this was paid in scrip — company money, good at the company's prices.
R28 Company store, coal mining town, Caples, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
The company store at Caples.
R29 Miner and wife taking home provisions bought at company store, Caples, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
A miner and his wife carrying the week home.
R30 Old company store in abandoned coal mining town. Marine, West Virginia. The store is occupied by three families
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
And the old company store at Marine, where the mine had already died. Three families were living inside it.
Up the run
R31 Company houses, coal mining section, Pursglove, Scotts Run, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
The houses came from the company too. Pursglove, on Scott's Run.
R32 Company houses, coal mining section, Pursglove, Scotts Run, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
Rows of them, one hillside after another.
R33 Coal miners' shanties by the river. Scotts Run, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
Down by the river, the shanties.
R34 Coal miner's wife living in shacks by river. Scotts Run, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
A miner's wife who lived in them.
R35 Carrying water, coal miners shacks. Scotts Run, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
Water came by hand, in buckets, past the shacks.
R36 Coalbox in front of miner's house with typical patent medicine advertisement on it. Caples, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
The coalbox by the front door, rented out as a billboard for headache powder.
R37 Miner's wife and children. Pursglove, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
A miner's wife and children at Pursglove, at the window, on wash day.
R38 Coal miner's shack and some of his family, Pursglove, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
A miner's shack and some of his family. That's the whole caption.
Carrying
R39 Coal miner's wife carrying home water from the hill, Bertha Hill, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
At Bertha Hill, the water was up the hill, and the wife carried it home.
R40 Hungarian miner's wife bringing home coal for the stove from slate pile. Coal camp, Chaplin, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
At Chaplin, a Hungarian miner's wife brought home coal for the stove — picked off the slate pile, the mine's own waste.
R41 Miner takes washtub bath as most the families do. Westover, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
A miner washing off the shift in a washtub, as most of the families do. Her words.
R42 Coal miner's wife washing clothes on front porch, Chaplin, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
Washing clothes on the front porch at Chaplin.
R43 Wife of WPA (Works Progress Administration) worker, Charleston, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
And in Charleston, the wife of a W P A worker with a machine to do it — the other end of the same state.
The children
R44 Children's favorite playground, around coal mine tipples. Pursglove, Scotts Run, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
Her caption calls this the children's favorite playground: around the coal mine tipples.
R45 Mexican miner's child in doorway of home, Bertha Hill, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
A Mexican miner's child in the doorway at Bertha Hill.
R46 Child of coal miner, Jere, Scotts Run, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
A miner's child at Jere.
R47 Children in abandoned mining town, Jere, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
Children of Jere, a mining town that was already mostly abandoned.
R48 Going home from school, Osage, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
Going home from school at Osage, along the tracks, because the tracks were the street.
R49 Miners' children on way from school, Omar, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
Coming home from school at Omar, far to the south in Logan County. Same coal, same houses.
R50 Coal miner's children play in front yard, Chaplin, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
A tire in the front yard at Chaplin.
R51 Coal miner's children, Pursglove, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
On the rail of the porch at Pursglove.
R52 Coal miner's children, abandoned mining town, Jere, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
Jere again.
R53 Child of Mexican coal miner. Bertha Hill, Scotts Run, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
And the son of a Mexican coal miner at Bertha Hill, holding still for her longer than he wanted to.
The men
R54 Coal miners waiting for next shift, Caples, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
The men. Waiting for the next shift at Caples.
R55 Miners turning in lamps and starting home. Caples, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
Turning in their lamps at the end of it.
R56 Miners going home from work, Caples, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
And walking home along the tracks.
R57 Mexican miner, Bertha Hill, Scotts Run, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
Scott's Run was not one kind of people. The coal companies had recruited across half the world. A Mexican miner at Bertha Hill.
R58 Mexican miner, Bertha Hill, Scotts Run, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
His neighbor, with the corn from his garden patch.
R59 Mexican miner and child, Bertha Hill, Scotts Run, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
A miner and his child, by the tomatoes.
R64 Mexican miner (father of children in 50315-E, 50318-E) and friend, Bertha Hill, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
Two friends at Bertha Hill. Her caption cross-references their children's portraits by negative number.
R60 Miner (Russian), Caples, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
A Russian miner at Caples.
R61 Coal miner and wife and children. He has been injured in mines four times. Since last year, has been refused work, now is on relief. Pursglove, Scotts Run, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
This man had been injured in the mines four times. Since the last time, the company refused him work. The family was on relief. Her caption states all of it, flat, like a court record.
R62 Former coal miner, worked twelve years for Chaplin Coal Company as hand loader. He and several others complained to company about conditions not being up to NRA (National Recovery Administration) standards. All lost jobs, he is now on WPA (Works Progress Administration) at thirty-eight dollars and t
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
This one loaded coal by hand for the Chaplin Coal Company for twelve years, complained about conditions, and was let go.
R63 Miner looking at daily reports (company work sheets) checking number of tons of slate he loaded during shift. Also to find out whether or not they work the next day. Caples, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
And here, a miner checks the company's work sheets to see how many tons of slate he moved — and whether the company agrees.
Sunday
R65 Prayer, or grace, at Sunday school picnic in abandoned mining town of Jere, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
Sunday. Jere was nearly a ghost town by then, so the church picnic was brought in from outside, by neighboring parishioners. This is grace being said.
R66 Women at Sunday school picnic, Jere, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
The women at the tables.
R67 Sunday school picnic brought into abandoned mining town of Jere, West Virginia, by neighboring parishioners
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
Dinner laid out between the empty houses.
R68 Sunday school picnic brought to abandoned mining town of Jere, West Virginia by neighboring parishoners
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
And the men and boys on the bank, waiting on the food.
Down the line
R69 Train pulling coal through center of town morning and evenings, Osage, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
Twice a day, morning and evening, a coal train ran straight down the middle of Osage.
R70 Train pulling coal through center of town morning and evening, Osage, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
Not behind the town. Through it.
R71 Coal train going through center of mining town. Davey, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
Davey, in McDowell County, on the southern coalfield. Same arrangement.
R72 Old miner on donkey, still quite a common means of transportation, in county road near Mohegan, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
Near Mohegan, an old miner on a donkey — still, her caption says, quite a common means of transportation.
R73 Even the cow goes home along the tracks, the main thoroughfare. Scotts Run, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
Even the cow goes home along the tracks. Her words again.
R74 Garage, mining town, Davey, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
The garage at Davey.
R75 "Settin' around." Mining town, Davey, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
Settin' around, at Davey. She spelled it with an E.
R76 "Sittin' around" mining town. Osage, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
Sittin' around, at Osage. With an I. She wrote down what she heard.
R77 Old company store, mining town. Davey, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
The old company store at Davey.
R78 Main county road in coal mining section near Mohegan, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
The county road near Mohegan, at the end of the day.
R79 Closeup of miners' boardinghouse, Mohegan, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
The miners' boardinghouse at Mohegan.
R80 Miners' wives coming home from town with groceries on payday near Mohegan, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
And wives walking the groceries home from town on payday, single file on the road edge.
What was left
R81 Abandoned mining community. At present almost everyone on relief. Marine, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
Where the coal gave out, the towns emptied. Marine, West Virginia. Almost everyone left was on relief.
R82 Coal miner's children (see 50110). Marine, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
The children who stayed.
R83 Old clubhouse (boardinghouse) Caples, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
The old clubhouse at Caples, going down slowly.
R84 Houses in abandoned mining town with remains of coal tipple at right, Mohegan, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
Company houses at Mohegan, the tipple's remains at the right edge of the frame.
R85 Miner's daughter on front porch, abandoned mining town, Jere, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
A miner's daughter on a porch at Jere.
R86 Old coal trucks and tipple in background in abandoned mining town, Jere, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
The coal trucks they stopped using, and the tipple they stopped feeding.
R87 Front yard, company houses, coal mining section, Pursglove, Scotts Run, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
And a front yard at Pursglove, which was not abandoned. People lived here. That is the point of the picture.
Inside
R88 Wife and two children of coal miner. She is sick, has five other children. Marine, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
She went inside, too, when she was asked in. A miner's wife at Marine — sick, her caption says, with five other children.
R89 Home in Charleston, West Virginia. Mother has TB, father works on WPA (Work Progress Administration). See 50119-D
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
A home in Charleston. The mother has tuberculosis. The father works on the W P A. The caption ends with a file number, because there is another picture of this family somewhere in the drawer.
R90 Wife of unemployed miner with her mother and two children. Marine, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
The wife of an unemployed miner, her mother, and two of the children. Nobody in this room is posing.
The road out
R91 Kewpie doll bathing girl on main highway near Charleston, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
On the main highway near Charleston, somebody was selling kewpie dolls — painted plaster bathing girls, lined up on barrels along the shoulder.
R92 Kewpie dolls bathing girls for sale along main highway near Charleston, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
She stopped for them twice. Whatever else September was, it was also this.
R93 Church also used for union hall in coal mining town, Caples, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
The church at Caples doubled as the union hall.
R94 Miners' club, beer and dance hall, Scotts Run, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
The Mine Workers' Club on Scott's Run held the beer and the dancing.
R95 Negro school. Scotts Run, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
The school for the run's Black children stood on its own hill. West Virginia law required separate schools, until the Supreme Court struck such laws down in nineteen fifty-four.
R96 "Sittin' on the tracks." Mining town, Osage, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · AI-colorized. View the original.
She spent one September here, and the file went to Washington, and it has waited there in black and white for most of a century. The negatives are yours — they always were. Every frame in this film is linked below, in the original black and white, at the Library of Congress.
Sources
- [LOC] Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Farm Security Administration / Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives. All 96 photographs are Marion Post Wolcott's West Virginia negatives from September 1938 (call number series LC-USF33 and LC-USF34), reproduced from the Library's master scans of the original film and then colorized — see below. https://www.loc.gov/collections/fsa-owi-black-and-white-negatives/ Rights, in the Library's words: the contents of the collection "are in the public domain and are free to use and reuse." These are US government works.
- The color is not original. Every frame was colorized in 2026 with DDColor (open-source, Apache-2.0), run locally over the Library's scans. The colors are the model's estimates from gray values; nothing else in the frame was altered. The narration discloses this on screen (scenes 5–6), the description repeats it, and the upload sets YouTube's altered-content disclosure. The uncolorized originals are one click away via the item links above.
- The crazy boat (R01): the ride's name and what it did are from the caption: "Coal miners and their families watching the girls and women's skirts blow up in the 'crazy boat' at the outdoor carnival. Granville, West Virginia."
- The barker's pitch (R07) — "that's what you wanna see... don't bring bashful with you 'cause he can't take it" — is the caption verbatim.
- "Double bodied, both sexes" (R08) and Robert Ripley's Believe It Or Not: the phrase is the caption; the Ripley name is read off the banner in the frame.
- "It's a dirty jip" (R10) and the skooter line (R11): captions verbatim.
- The flour prices (R24): entirely from the caption — "Sack of flour in A&P. In same town costs sixty-nine cents and in company store costs one dollar and twenty-five cents."
- The injured miner (R61): caption verbatim — injured four times, refused work since last year, now on relief.
- The hand loader (R62): caption — worked twelve years for Chaplin Coal Company as hand loader, complained about conditions, let go.
- Scrip (scene 27): general statement about company-store scrip in WV coal camps, not from this frame's caption. It is standard, well-documented practice for the period and is stated without figures.
- "Settin'" vs "sittin'" (R75/R76/R96): both spellings are hers, in the captions.
- The Black school (R95): the frame's catalogue title is "Negro school. Scotts Run, West Virginia." The narration's statement that state law required separate schools until the Supreme Court struck such laws down in 1954 refers to West Virginia's constitutional school-segregation provision, void after Brown v. Board of Education (1954).
- Wolcott's age (scene 4): born June 7, 1910 — she was 28 in September 1938.
- No other historical claims are made. Where a caption is silent, the narration describes only what is visible.