The Government Photographed Them and Wrote Down What They Said
Between 1933 and 1946 the United States government sent photographers into coal camps, tobacco fields, farmhouses and bus depots with one standing instruction: write down who this is.
Transcript
What the caption knew
R001 Rufus Sergent, married son, who is now coal cutter and general all around miner. Rufus did not like school and quit before finishing grade school. He went to work in the mines ten years ago when he was thirteen years old. P V & K Coal Company, Clover Gap Mine, Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky.
Russell Lee · Harlan County, Ky., Sept. 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
He was thirteen the first time he went underground. A government photographer wrote that down, along with his name.
R002 Rufus Sergent, 23, his wife and son. Rufus is a son of Blaine Sergent, a coal miner for forty-eight years; Rufus has been working in the mines since he was fifteen, quitting school in the fourth grade. He is now a cutter. P V & K Coal Company, Clover Gap Mine, Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky.
Russell Lee · Harlan County, Ky., Sept. 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Rufus Sarjent. Twenty-three years old, a coal cutter, married, with a son. Harlan County, Kentucky, September of nineteen forty-six.
R003 Mexican miner protesting "I don't want to just grow up to rust and die." He's fifty years old. Scotts Run, Bertha Hill, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Eight years earlier and two states north, another photographer wrote down a sentence a man said to her. I don't want to just grow up to rust and die. He was fifty.
R004 [Untitled photo, possibly related to: Mexican miner protesting "I don't want to just grow up to rust and die." He's fifty years old. Scotts Run, Bertha Hill, West Virginia]
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
She did not write down his name. One line he said out loud, and this — that is the whole surviving record of him.
R005 Blaine Sergent, coal loader. P V & K Coal Company, Clover Gap Mine, Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky.
Russell Lee · Harlan County, Ky., 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
One thing before we go on. Every negative in this film was shot in black and white.
D03 Blaine Sergent, coal loader. P V & K Coal Company, Clover Gap Mine, Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky.
Russell Lee · Harlan County, Ky., 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
The color was put on by a computer, this year. It is a good guess, not a record.
The men who loaded the coal
R006 Blaine Sergent, coal loader, putting up his check at end of day's work; he had loaded seventeen tons of coal this day. This mine seldom works over five days weekly. P V & K Coal Company, Clover Gap Mine, Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky.
Russell Lee · Harlan County, Ky., Sept. 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
The man is Blaine Sarjent, a coal loader, putting up his check at the end of a shift. He had loaded seventeen tons that day.
R007 Blaine Sergent, coal loader, rests briefly on his front porch before taking his bath after the day's work; he had loaded seventeen tons of coal that day. P V & K Coal Company, Clover Gap Mine, Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky.
Russell Lee · Harlan County, Ky., Sept. 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
The same afternoon, on his own front porch, before his bath. That mine seldom worked more than five days a week.
R008 Blaine Sergent, left, talks with a fellow miner in the front porch of the company store on Saturday morning. Talking and visiting was not only the major recreaton of Mr. Sergent, but was one in which he took the greatest pleasure. P V & K Coal Company, Clover Gap Mine, Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky.
Russell Lee · Harlan County, Ky., Sept. 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Saturday morning at the company store. Talking and visiting, the caption says, was the major recreation of Mister Sarjent, and the one he took the greatest pleasure in.
R009 Miner. Gilliam Coal and Coke Company, Gilliam Mine, Gilliam, McDowell County, West Virginia.
Russell Lee · McDowell County, W.Va., Aug. 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Gilliam, McDowell County, West Virginia. The caption on this one is a single word. Miner.
R010 Harry Fain, coal loader. Inland Steel Company, Wheelwright #1 & 2 Mines, Wheelwright, Floyd County, Kentucky.
Russell Lee · Wheelwright, Floyd Co., Ky., Sept. 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Harry Fain, coal loader, at Wheelwright, Kentucky. A name and a job, and nothing else.
R011 Harry Fain, coal loader, right, talks to his section foreman upon completion of morning shift. Inland Steel Company, Wheelwright #1 & 2 Mines, Wheelwright, Floyd County, Kentucky.
Russell Lee · Wheelwright, Floyd Co., Ky., Sept. 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Fain talking with his section foreman at the end of the morning shift.
R012 Harry Fain, coal loader assembles auger which he will use in drilling at the face. Inland Steel Company, Wheelwright #1 & 2 Mines, Wheelwright, Floyd County, Kentucky.
Russell Lee · Wheelwright, Floyd Co., Ky., Sept. 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
And Fain assembling the auger he drilled the coal face with.
R013 A miner. P V & K Coal Company, Clover Mine, Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky.
Russell Lee · Harlan County, Ky., 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Clover Mine, Lejunior, Kentucky. A miner.
R014 Miners. Dixie Darby Fuel Company, Marne Mine, Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky.
Russell Lee · Harlan County, Ky., 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Marne Mine, one hollow over. Miners.
R015 Furman Currington and his son, miners. Black Mountain Corporation, 30-31 Mines, Kenvir, Harlan County, Kentucky.
Russell Lee · Harlan County, Ky., 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Furman Currington and his son, at Kenvir. Both of them miners.
What it cost
R016 Jack Anderson, miner, who suffered fractured spine in slate fall 28 months ago. Black Mountain Corporation, 30-31 Mines, Kenvir, Harlan County, Kentucky.
Russell Lee · Harlan County, Ky., Sept. 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Jack Anderson, at that same mine. Fractured spine, from a slate fall twenty-eight months before the picture was taken.
R017 Oliver Hinkle, a miner, disabled for fifteen months with a crushed ankle, in the front porch of his house. Kentucky Straight Creek Coal Company, Belva Mine, abandoned after explosion [in] Dec. 1945, Four Mile, Bell County, Kentucky.
Russell Lee · Bell County, Ky., Sept. 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Oliver Hinkle, Bell County, Kentucky. Disabled fifteen months with a crushed ankle.
R018 Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Lawson. He was a miner for sixty years and is now ninety-seven years old. During his years in the mines he had a leg broken, both hips out of place, skull smashed, was ruptured three times. Kentucky Straight Creek Coal Company, Belva Mine, abandoned after explosion [in] Dec. 1945, Four Mile, Bell County, Kentucky.
Russell Lee · Bell County, Ky., Sept. 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Mister and Missus W. H. Lawson. He had been a miner for sixty years, and was ninety-seven years old when this was made.
D04 Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Lawson. He was a miner for sixty years and is now ninety-seven years old. During his years in the mines he had a leg broken, both hips out of place, skull smashed, was ruptured three times. Kentucky Straight Creek Coal Company, Belva Mine, abandoned after explosion [in] Dec. 1945, Four Mile, Bell County, Kentucky.
Russell Lee · Bell County, Ky., Sept. 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
In those years, the caption says, he had a leg broken, both hips put out of place, his skull smashed, and was ruptured three times.
R019 Mrs. Leanore Miller, widow of a miner, with a picture of her husband. She said, "there's more widows and orphens in this holler than men at work". Kentucky Straight Creek Coal Company, Belva Mine, abandoned after explosion [in] Dec. 1945, Four Mile, Bell County, Kentucky.
Russell Lee · Bell County, Ky., Sept. 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Missus Leanore Miller, holding a picture of her husband. She told the photographer: there's more widows and orphans in this holler than men at work.
R020 Charlie Lingar and his son listen to their battery radio. He has worked for the company for fourteen years but was injured in a mine explosion last December and hasn't been able to work since then. His three room house for which he pays $6.75 monthly has no running water, no toilet, no electricity. Kentucky Straight Creek Coal Company, Belva Mine, abandoned after explosion [in] Dec. 1945, Four Mile, Bell County, Kentucky.
Russell Lee · Bell County, Ky., Sept. 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Charlie Lingar and his son, listening to a battery radio. Fourteen years with the company, and injured the previous December in the explosion that closed the mine.
D05 Charlie Lingar and his son listen to their battery radio. He has worked for the company for fourteen years but was injured in a mine explosion last December and hasn't been able to work since then. His three room house for which he pays $6.75 monthly has no running water, no toilet, no electricity. Kentucky Straight Creek Coal Company, Belva Mine, abandoned after explosion [in] Dec. 1945, Four Mile, Bell County, Kentucky.
Russell Lee · Bell County, Ky., Sept. 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
The house was three rooms, at six dollars and seventy-five cents a month. No running water, no toilet, no electricity — which is why the radio ran on a battery.
![Mrs. Edna Lingar whose father, husband and brothers have all worked in the mines. Kentucky Straight Creek Coal Company, Belva, abandoned after explosion [in] Dec. 1945, Four Mile,](img/R021.jpg)
R021 Mrs. Edna Lingar whose father, husband and brothers have all worked in the mines. Kentucky Straight Creek Coal Company, Belva, abandoned after explosion [in] Dec. 1945, Four Mile, Bell County, Kentucky.
Russell Lee · Bell County, Ky., Sept. 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Missus Edna Lingar, whose father, husband and brothers had all worked in the mines.
R022 Widow of miner. She lives on state old age pension. Gilliam Coal and Coke Company, Gilliam Mine, Gilliam, McDowell County, West Virginia.
Russell Lee · McDowell County, W.Va., Aug. 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
McDowell County again. Widow of a miner, living on the state old age pension.
R023 Tudor Circo, a miner, at home. Raven Red Ash Coal Company, No. 2 Mine, Raven, Tazewell County, Virginia.
Russell Lee · Tazewell County, Va., Aug. 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Tudor Circo, at home in Raven, Virginia, in Tazwell County.
R024 Mr. and Mrs.Tudor Circo on their front porch. Raven Red Ash Coal Company, No. 2 Mine, Raven, Tazewell County, Virginia.
Russell Lee · Tazewell County, Va., Aug. 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Mister and Missus Circo, on their own front porch, the same afternoon.
R025 Group of miners waiting to go underground on morning shift. Inland Steel Company, Wheelwright #1 & 2 Mines, Wheelwright, Floyd County, Kentucky.
Russell Lee · Wheelwright, Floyd Co., Ky., Sept. 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Before daylight at Wheelwright. A group of miners waiting to go underground on the morning shift.
Scotts Run
R027 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 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Now go back eight years, to a string of coal camps above the Monongahela River in West Virginia, called Scotts Run.
R026 Coal miner: the "lady's man" and "smart guy." Bertha Hill, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
That caption reads, in full: coal miner, the lady's man and smart guy. Somebody in the camp said that about him, and the photographer wrote it down.
![[Untitled photo, possibly related to: Mexican miners looking at "funny papers." Bertha Hill, Scotts Run, West Virginia]](img/R028.jpg)
R028 [Untitled photo, possibly related to: Mexican miners looking at "funny papers." Bertha Hill, Scotts Run, West Virginia]
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Two miners on a hillside with the funny papers.
![[Untitled photo, possibly related to: Coal miner looks out of window in his home, Bertha Hill, Scotts Run, West Virginia]](img/R029.jpg)
R029 [Untitled photo, possibly related to: Coal miner looks out of window in his home, Bertha Hill, Scotts Run, West Virginia]
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
A miner looking out the window of his house.
R031 Mexican miner, Bertha Hill, Scotts Run, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
On another frame that week she wrote down how these men came to be here. Many Mexican and Black miners, she wrote, were brought into Scotts Run around nineteen twenty-six, to break a strike.
R032 Mexican miner, Bertha Hill, Scotts Run, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
By nineteen thirty-eight the strike was long over and the work was not steady. Her caption sheet keeps returning to that one fact.
R030 Mexican coal miner and child. Bertha Hill, Scotts Run, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
A miner and his child, on the same hillside. The photographer was Marion Post Wolcott, twenty-eight years old, sent into the coalfields by the Farm Security Administration with a camera and a caption sheet.
R033 Miner (Russian), Caples, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Her caption on this one: miner, Russian. The camp is Kayples, West Virginia.
The women
R034 Mexican miner's wife making stew. Scotts Run, Bertha Hill, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
She photographed the houses too, and the women who ran them. This one, her caption says, is making stew.
R035 Coal miner's daughter doing the family wash. All the water must be carried from up the hill. Bertha Hill, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
A miner's daughter doing the family wash. All the water, the caption says, has to be carried from up the hill.
R036 Coal miner's wife and child while discussing conditions of house, lack of steady work for husband. Bertha Hill, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
A miner's wife and child. The caption records what they were talking about: the condition of the house, and the lack of steady work for her husband.
![[Untitled photo, possibly related to: Coal miner's wife and two of their children. Bertha Hill, West Virginia]](img/R037.jpg)
R037 [Untitled photo, possibly related to: Coal miner's wife and two of their children. Bertha Hill, West Virginia]
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Another miner's wife, with two of her children.
R038 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 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Chaplin, West Virginia. A miner's wife carrying coal home from the slate pile for her stove.
R039 Mrs. Virgil Price, wife of miner, draws a bucket of water. Notice drainage system for this water. Black Mountain Corporation, 30-31 Mines, Kenvir, Harlan County, Kentucky.
Russell Lee · Harlan County, Ky., Sept. 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Eight years later, in Kentucky, Missus Virgil Price draws a bucket of water. The caption points out the drainage arrangement underneath it.
R040 Miner's wife gets water from flowing well. She must cross the stream and carry water about a quarter of a mile to her home. Raven Red Ash Coal Company, No. 2 Mine, Raven, Tazewell County, Virginia.
Russell Lee · Tazewell County, Va., Aug. 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
In Virginia, a miner's wife at the flowing well. She crosses the stream and carries the water about a quarter of a mile.
R041 Mrs. Elige Hicks and her daughter in the kitchen of the four room house which rents for $10.50 monthly. Mrs. Hicks' husband and son are now working in a coal mine in Virginia and are looking for a home to buy. Southern Coal Corporation, Bradshaw Mine, Bradshaw, McDowell County, West Virginia.
Russell Lee · McDowell County, W.Va., Aug. 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Missus Hicks and her daughter, in the kitchen of a four-room house that rented for ten dollars and fifty cents a month.
R042 Big Sandy Housing Camp. Mines at Big Sandy closed and housing now occupied by Exeter Miners. Mrs. Beulah Wady, wife of miner, with her youngest child in bedroom of their five room house. All electrical wiring is old and unsafe. Kingston Pocahontas Coal Company, Exeter Mine, '''[[:Category:Welch, West Virginia|Welch]]''', McDowell County, West Virginia.
Russell Lee · McDowell County, W.Va., Aug. 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
A miner's wife and her youngest, in a five-room house at the Big Sandy camp. All the wiring, the caption notes, is old and unsafe.
R043 Mrs. Bill Daniels, wife of a miner, canning pears. Panther Red Ash Coal Corporation, Douglas Mine, Panther, McDowell County, West Virginia.
Russell Lee · W.Va., 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Missus Bill Daniels, canning pears at Panther, West Virginia.
R044 Mrs. Carl Ruth and her baby. Black Mountain Corporation, 30-31 Mines, Kenvir, Harlan County, Kentucky.
Russell Lee · Harlan County, Ky., 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Missus Carl Ruth and her baby, at Kenvir.
R045 Mrs. Harry Fain, coal loader's wife, relaxes after work in the grocery store at Wheelwright Junction. Inland Steel Company, Wheelwright #1 & 2 Mines, Wheelwright, Floyd County, Kentucky.
Russell Lee · Wheelwright, Floyd Co., Ky., Sept. 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Missus Harry Fain, the coal loader's wife, resting after work in the grocery at Wheelwright Junction.
R046 Mr. and Mrs. Blaine Sergent shop for children's socks in Harlan, Kentucky., on Saturday afternoon. Harlan, Harlan...
Russell Lee · Harlan County, Ky., 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
And Saturday afternoon in the town of Harlan. Mister and Missus Sarjent, shopping for children's socks.
The children
R047 Child of coal miner, Jere, Scotts Run, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
The children in these files usually do not get names. They belong to somebody, and that is all the caption says.
R048 Coal miner's children, Pursglove, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Coal miner's children, Pursglove, West Virginia.
R049 Miner's daughter on front porch, abandoned mining town, Jere, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
A miner's daughter on a front porch. The caption adds two words about her town: abandoned mining.
R050 Child of Mexican coal miner. Bertha Hill, Scotts Run, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Child of a coal miner, Bertha Hill.
![[Untitled photo, possibly related to: Mexican miner and child, Bertha Hill, Scotts Run, West Virginia]](img/R051.jpg)
R051 [Untitled photo, possibly related to: Mexican miner and child, Bertha Hill, Scotts Run, West Virginia]
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
A miner and his child, in the same camp, in the same week.
R052 Mexican miner's son. Bertha Hill, Scotts Run, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
A miner's son.
R053 Mexican miner's child in doorway of home, Bertha Hill, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott · September 1938 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
A miner's child in the doorway of her home.
R054 Children of miners. Kingston Pocahontas Coal Company, Exeter Mine, Big Sandy Housing Camp, Welch, McDowell County, West Virginia.
Russell Lee · McDowell County, W.Va., Aug. 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Welch, West Virginia, nineteen forty-six. Children of miners, at a camp whose own mine had already closed.
R055 Children of miners playing in abandoned shack. Gilliam Coal and Coke Company, Gilliam Mine, Gilliam, McDowell County, West Virginia.
Russell Lee · McDowell County, W.Va., Aug. 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
At Gilliam, children of miners playing in an abandoned shack.
R056 Child of a miner. NOTICE, NOTICE - this is probably not the child's mother. Panther Red Ash Coal Corporation, Douglas Mine, Panther, McDowell County, West Virginia.
Russell Lee · McDowell County, W.Va., Aug. 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
And this one carries a warning to whoever would file it. Child of a miner. Notice, notice — this is probably not the child's mother.
R057 Children waiting to be vaccinated for smallpox and their pre-school examination in outer room of doctor's office. Jewell Ridge Coal Company, Jewell Ridge Mine, Jewell Ridge, Tazewell County, Virginia.
Russell Lee · Tazewell County, Va., Aug. 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Jewell Ridge, Virginia. Children waiting in the outer room of a doctor's office to be vaccinated for smallpox.
R058 Daughter of miner with pet ground hog. Dixie Darby Fuel Company, Marne Mine, Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky.
Russell Lee · Harlan County, Ky., 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Daughter of a miner, with a pet groundhog.
![Child of miner eating lunch on schoolhouse grounds. Kentucky Straight Creek Coal Company, Belva Mine, abandoned after explosion [in] Dec. 1945, Four Mile, Bell County, Kentucky.](img/R059.jpg)
R059 Child of miner eating lunch on schoolhouse grounds. Kentucky Straight Creek Coal Company, Belva Mine, abandoned after explosion [in] Dec. 1945, Four Mile, Bell County, Kentucky.
Russell Lee · Ky., 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
A miner's child eating lunch on the schoolhouse grounds, at the camp where the mine had exploded the winter before.
R060 Ella Jane Fain (right) daughter of Harry Fain, miner, and her cousin have a coke in soda fountain prior to movie showing. Inland Steel Company, Wheelwright #1 & 2 Mines. Wheelwright, Floyd County, Kentucky.
Russell Lee · Wheelwright, Floyd Co., Ky., Sept. 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Ella Jane Fain, Harry Fain's daughter, and her cousin, having a coke before the picture show.
R061 Geraldine Fain, daughter of Harry Fain, coal loader, browses in free library supported by the company. Librarian chooses books to become part of library. Inland Steel Company, Wheelwright #1 & 2 Mines, Wheelwright, Floyd County, Kentucky.
Russell Lee · Wheelwright, Floyd Co., Ky., Sept. 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Geraldine Fain, her sister, in the free library the company paid for.
R062 Rozella Armour, daughter of Henry Armour, coal loader, is taking correspondence course. She wants to be a beauty technician. Inland Steel Company, Wheelwright #1 & 2 Mines, Wheelwright, Floyd County, Kentucky.
Russell Lee · Wheelwright, Floyd Co., Ky., Sept. 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
And Rozella Armour, another coal loader's daughter, taking a correspondence course. She wanted to be a beauty technician.
The farms
R063 "Curtis Stiner, an example of the mountain farmer of East Tennessee. `I love my mountains, and I want to stay right here the rest of my life if I can.' The flooding of the reservoir area will take his home."
Lewis W. Hine · Tennessee Valley Authority, Oct.-Nov. 1933 · National Archives, RG 142 · colorized 2026. View the original.
The same government sent photographers everywhere else, with the same instruction. In the autumn of nineteen thirty-three it sent Lewis Hine into East Tennessee. Curtis Stiner, mountain farmer.
D01 "Curtis Stiner, an example of the mountain farmer of East Tennessee. `I love my mountains, and I want to stay right here the rest of my life if I can.' The flooding of the reservoir area will take his home."
Lewis W. Hine · Tennessee Valley Authority, Oct.-Nov. 1933 · National Archives, RG 142 · colorized 2026. View the original.
The caption is mostly Stiner's own words. I love my mountains, and I want to stay right here the rest of my life if I can. Hine added one line of his own. The flooding of the reservoir area will take his home.
R064 "Edgar Coffman, a renter farmer in Anderson County, Tennessee, near Clinton. He is also a preacher for the Holiness sect."
Lewis W. Hine · Tennessee Valley Authority, Oct.-Nov. 1933 · National Archives, RG 142 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Edgar Coffman, a renter farmer near Clinton, and a preacher for the Holiness sect.
R065 "Esco Glandon, a renter at Bridges Chapel near Loyston, Tennessee. He rebuilt the cabin in which his family lives. Glandon has lived all his life in this region except for 3 years in a glass works in Kokomo, Indiana."
Lewis W. Hine · Tennessee Valley Authority, Oct.-Nov. 1933 · National Archives, RG 142 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Esco Glandon, a renter at Bridges Chapel. He rebuilt the cabin his family lives in, and had spent his whole life in that region except for three years in a glass works in Kokomo, Indiana.
R066 "Mr. J. W. Melton and his wife by the fireplace getting ready for supper. Melton has used up the better part of his life in the mines. His boys run the farm. The Melton homestead is on the Andersonville, Tennessee, road."
Lewis W. Hine · Tennessee Valley Authority, Oct.-Nov. 1933 · National Archives, RG 142 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Mister and Missus J. W. Melton, by the fireplace, getting ready for supper. Melton, the caption says, has used up the better part of his life in the mines. His boys run the farm.
R067 Knox County, Tennessee (Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)). Elmer Butter, farmer
Arthur Rothstein · June 1942 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Nine years on, the same valley and a different photographer. Knox County, Tennessee. Elmer Butter, farmer.
R068 Knox County, Tennessee (Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)). Haywood Aycock, farmer
Arthur Rothstein · June 1942 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Haywood Aycock, farmer. The next negative in the file.
R069 Douglas Dam, Tennessee. Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). Foreman
Arthur Rothstein · June 1942 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
And at Douglas Dam, where the Authority was making another reservoir. Foreman.
R070 Douglas Dam, Tennessee. Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). Welder
Arthur Rothstein · June 1942 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Welder.
Tobacco
R071 Tobacco sharecropper tells about his prospects. Person County, North Carolina
Dorothea Lange · July 1939 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Person County, North Carolina, July of nineteen thirty-nine. A tobacco sharecropper, the caption says, telling about his prospects.
R072 Father of sharecropper family. He is sixty-nine years old, has six acres of tobacco, has a large family. Heard in conversation on his porch, "Land is like folks. It gets tired and needs a rest." Person County, North Carolina
Dorothea Lange · July 1939 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
The father of a sharecropping family. Sixty-nine years old, six acres of tobacco, a large family.
D06 Father of sharecropper family. He is sixty-nine years old, has six acres of tobacco, has a large family. Heard in conversation on his porch, "Land is like folks. It gets tired and needs a rest." Person County, North Carolina
Dorothea Lange · July 1939 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
And a sentence the photographer overheard on his porch. Land is like folks. It gets tired and needs a rest.
R073 North Carolina tobacco farmer. Near Farrington, Chatham County
Jack Delano · May 1940 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Chatham County. North Carolina tobacco farmer.
R074 Mrs. Jones, wife of Mr. Jones, tenant farmer, with armful of tobacco plants. Near Farrington, Orange County, North Carolina
Jack Delano · May 1940 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Missus Jones, a tenant farmer's wife, with an armful of tobacco plants.
R075 Caroline Atwater, wife of Negro owner, tells where she was born
Dorothea Lange · July 1939 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Caroline Atwater, the wife of a Black landowner. The caption says she is telling the photographer where she was born.
R076 The father of Mr. Hubbard, a Negro tenant farmer planting tobacco. The elder Mr. Hubbard is too old to work. Near Farrington, North Carolina
Jack Delano · May 1940 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
The elder Mister Hubbard, whose son is a Black tenant farmer near Farrington. Too old to work, the caption says, and photographed anyway.
R077 North Carolina farm boy in doorway of tobacco barn. Person County, North Carolina
Dorothea Lange · July 1939 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
A farm boy in the doorway of a tobacco barn.
Greene County
R078 Ex-slave and wife who live in a decaying plantation house. Greene County, Georgia
Dorothea Lange · July 1937 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Greene County, Georgia, in the summer of nineteen thirty-seven. The caption identifies them as a formerly enslaved man and his wife, living in a decaying plantation house.
R079 Ex-slave mulatto woman in northern Greene County, Georgia
Jack Delano · June 1941 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Four years later another photographer went back to that county and found more of them. In nineteen forty-one there were still people in Georgia who had been born the property of somebody else.
R080 Negro tenant farm woman. A widow. She runs the farm with the help of two children. FSA (Farm Security Administration) client. Greene County, Georgia
Jack Delano · June 1941 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
A tenant farm woman, a widow. She runs the farm, the caption says, with the help of two children.
R081 [Untitled photo, possibly related to: FSA (Farm Security Administration) family with the 1000 cans of fruit, vegetables, etc. they have canned for the winter. Near White Plains, Greene County, Georgia]
Jack Delano · November 1941 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
A family with the thousand cans of fruit and vegetables they had put up for the winter. Somebody counted them.
R082 Greene County, Georgia. Old couple who receive old-age pension assistance
Jack Delano · 1941 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
An old couple who receive old-age pension assistance.
The cities
R083 Atlanta, Georgia. Joe Crow, truck driver for the Associated Transport Company
John Vachon · Atlanta, 1943 · Library of Congress · colorized 2026. View the original.
Atlanta, nineteen forty-three. Joe Crow, truck driver for the Associated Transport Company.
R084 Atlanta University, Atlanta, Georgia. Zoology professor and student
Arthur Rothstein · Atlanta, 1942 · Library of Congress · colorized 2026. View the original.
Atlanta University. Zoology professor and student.
R085 Washington, D.C. This U.S. Office of Price Administration clerk, speaking of her boardinghouse room says: "The light looks like an angel when I leave the shade off, so I do so"
Esther Bubley · Jan. 1943 · Library of Congress, FSA/OWI (LC-USW3-038307) · colorized 2026. View the original.
Washington, January of nineteen forty-three. A clerk at the Office of Price Administration, quoted on her boardinghouse room. The light looks like an angel when I leave the shade off, so I do so.
R086 Washington, D.C. Girl who has picked up two soldiers since coming into the Sea Grill alone. They are drinking beer and exchanging life histories
Esther Bubley · Apr. 1943 · Library of Congress, FSA/OWI (LC-DIG-ppmsca-05112) · colorized 2026. View the original.
A girl who has picked up two soldiers since coming into the Sea Grill alone. They are drinking beer, the caption says, and exchanging life histories.
R087 Washington, D.C. Sailor kissing his mother goodbye at the Greyhound bus depot
Esther Bubley · Apr. 1943 · Library of Congress, FSA/OWI (LC-USW3-021006) · colorized 2026. View the original.
A sailor kissing his mother goodbye at the Greyhound depot.
R088 Washington, D.C. Little boy riding on a streetcar
Esther Bubley · Apr. 1943 · Library of Congress, FSA/OWI (LC-USW3-021027) · colorized 2026. View the original.
A little boy riding on a streetcar.
R089 A girl, who is a cook in a roadside restaurant who plans to leave her job and become a nurse, on a Greyhound bus between Cincinnati, Ohio and Chicago, Illinois. She rides for several miles to her home each night
Esther Bubley · September 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
On a bus out of Cincinnati, a girl who cooks in a roadside restaurant and plans to leave the job and become a nurse. She rides a few miles home every night.
R090 Bernard Cochran, Greyhound bus driver. He has a perfect record of fourteen years, never having had an accident while driving a bus
Esther Bubley · September 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Her driver. Bernard Cochran, fourteen years without an accident.
R091 Conversion. Watch cases to war production. Another skilled worker "enlists" for the duration. When the Kentucky watch case factory for whom she has worked twenty years converted to war production, this lady was ready to join the procession of war workers. Wadsworth Watch Company, Louisville [i.e. Dayton], Kentucky
Alfred T. Palmer · February 1942 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
And in Dayton, Kentucky, across the river from Cincinnati, a woman who had made watch cases for twenty years and was now making parts for the war.
No caption
R092 Mr. Henry Brooks, ex-slave. Parks Ferry Road, Greene County, Georgia
Jack Delano · May 1941 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Which leaves Greene County, Georgia, and the deepest caption in any of these files. Mister Henry Brooks, ex-slave, Parks Ferry Road.
R093 Hands of Mr. Henry Brooks, ex-slave. Parks Ferry Road, Greene County, Georgia
Jack Delano · May 1941 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
The photographer made a second exposure that day and captioned it in four words. Hands of Mister Brooks.
R094 No Caption. Portrait of a man.
Lewis W. Hine · Tennessee Valley Authority, Oct.-Nov. 1933 · National Archives, RG 142 · colorized 2026. View the original.
And then there is this one, from the Tennessee file, nineteen thirty-three. The caption reads, in its entirety: no caption. Portrait of a man.
D02 No Caption. Portrait of a man.
Lewis W. Hine · Tennessee Valley Authority, Oct.-Nov. 1933 · National Archives, RG 142 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Nobody knows who he is. Somebody stopped, set up a camera, asked him to hold still — and then the paper that would have told us was lost, or never written.
R001 Rufus Sergent, married son, who is now coal cutter and general all around miner. Rufus did not like school and quit before finishing grade school. He went to work in the mines ten years ago when he was thirteen years old. P V & K Coal Company, Clover Gap Mine, Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky.
Russell Lee · Harlan County, Ky., Sept. 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Every negative in this film is federal property, which means it already belongs to you.
D07 Rufus Sergent, married son, who is now coal cutter and general all around miner. Rufus did not like school and quit before finishing grade school. He went to work in the mines ten years ago when he was thirteen years old. P V & K Coal Company, Clover Gap Mine, Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky.
Russell Lee · Harlan County, Ky., Sept. 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
The originals are black and white, they are free to look at, and the captions are there in the government's own words.
R002 Rufus Sergent, 23, his wife and son. Rufus is a son of Blaine Sergent, a coal miner for forty-eight years; Rufus has been working in the mines since he was fifteen, quitting school in the fourth grade. He is now a cutter. P V & K Coal Company, Clover Gap Mine, Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky.
Russell Lee · Harlan County, Ky., Sept. 1946 · National Archives, RG 245 · colorized 2026. View the original.
If you know one of these hollows, or one of these names, the comments are open. Some of these people have grandchildren who are still alive.
Sources
- All colour in this film is a machine estimate. The negatives are black-and-white. The colour was produced in 2026 by the DDColor image-colorization model (`tools/colorize.py`), with a per-region audit and spot repair pass (`tools/spotfix.py`) run on the source episodes. Faces, light, gesture and composition are the photographers'; the colours are a good guess and are stated as such on screen, in scene 5, and in the description.
- The originals are free to view and download in black and white at the links below. Corrections from people who knew these places, and these colours, are welcome in the comments.
- FSA/OWI black-and-white negatives, Library of Congress: Marion Post Wolcott (Scotts Run, W.Va., Sept. 1938), Dorothea Lange and Jack Delano (North Carolina tobacco, 1939–40, and Greene County, Ga., 1937 and 1941), Esther Bubley (Washington and the Greyhound lines, 1943), Arthur Rothstein, John Vachon and Alfred T. Palmer. Federal works, public domain. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/fsa/
- NARA Record Group 245, the Medical Survey of the Bituminous Coal Industry: Russell Lee in the Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia coal camps, Aug.–Sept. 1946, under the survey ordered by the Krug-Lewis Agreement. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/541285
- NARA Record Group 142, Tennessee Valley Authority: Lewis W. Hine photographing farmers in East Tennessee in Oct.–Nov. 1933, ahead of the Norris reservoir. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/532660
- OWI, Library of Congress: Bubley's Greyhound series and the Cincinnati and northern Kentucky war-production frames — including Alfred T. Palmer's Wadsworth Watch Company frame, whose caption places the plant as "Louisville [i.e. Dayton], Kentucky." https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017691344/
- Every frame's own record page is linked from its exhibit credit on screen.
- Rufus Sergent went into the mines at thirteen — and the archive's own two captions of him disagree about it. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/541354 - 541354: "He went to work in the mines ten years ago when he was thirteen years old." - 541307: "Rufus Sergent, 23 … has been working in the mines since he was fifteen, quitting school in the fourth grade." The narration follows the first and does not resolve the conflict.
- "I don't want to just grow up to rust and die" — Wolcott's caption, Bertha Hill, September 1938; the subject is unnamed in the record. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017799604/
- Blaine Sergent had loaded seventeen tons that day, and the mine seldom worked over five days weekly. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/541285
- W. H. Lawson: ninety-seven years old, sixty years a miner. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/541223 - "During his years in the mines he had a leg broken, both hips out of place, skull smashed, was ruptured three times."
- "There's more widows and orphens in this holler than men at work" — Missus Leanore Miller, quoted in Lee's caption. The spelling is the caption's. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/541245
- The Lingar house: three rooms, $6.75 a month, no water, no toilet, no electricity — and fourteen years' service ended by the explosion that closed the Belva Mine in December 1945. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/541193
- Mexican and Black miners were brought into Scotts Run around 1926 to break a strike — Wolcott's own caption. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017752782/ - "Many Mexicans and Negroes were brought into Scotts Run around 1926 to break the strike." Period language is the caption's, quoted as written; the narration uses current terms.
- Marion Post Wolcott was 28 in September 1938 — born 7 June 1910, and in her first year with the FSA photographic section. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/fsa/
- "NOTICE, NOTICE - this is probably not the child's mother" — Lee's caption, Panther Red Ash Coal Corporation, McDowell County. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/540997
- "Land is like folks. It gets tired and needs a rest" — heard on the subject's porch and written into Lange's caption. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017772340/
- Curtis Stiner's quotation and the reservoir note are both Hine's caption. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/532660 - "'I love my mountains, and I want to stay right here the rest of my life if I can.' The flooding of the reservoir area will take his home."
- Douglas Dam and Norris Dam are different projects — Hine's 1933 frames concern the Norris reservoir on the Clinch; Rothstein's 1942 Douglas Dam frames are a separate TVA project on the French Broad. The narration does not connect the two.
- "No Caption. Portrait of a man." is the full catalogue caption for NARA 532626. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/532626
- Mister Henry Brooks, Parks Ferry Road, Greene County, Ga. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017794664/
- No claim is made about *why* any individual is smiling, standing, or dressed as they are, beyond what that frame's own caption records. Where a caption gives only a job or a relationship — "Miner", "A miner's son" — the narration says only that.
- Where a caption uses period racial terminology, the narration uses current terms and does not read the period word aloud. The captions themselves are quoted verbatim in this file so the record is not altered.
- The identity of the man in NARA 532626 is unknown, and this film does not speculate.