The Mines Today By Cables (Electric Driven). This Is The Power Room Of A Pennsylvania Coal Mine

Art Historical Context

Lewis Wickes Hine’s 1930 gelatin silver print captures the electrified heart of a Pennsylvania coal mine at a moment of industrial transformation. Known for his pioneering social documentary photography, Hine used the camera as an instrument of reform, first exposing child labor and later celebrating the skill and dignity of adult workers who powered America’s factories, mills, and mines. The image’s long original title underscores Hine’s interest in technological progress: cables and electric motors now drove operations once dependent on steam or muscle. Printed on developing-out paper, the gelatin silver process yielded the rich blacks, luminous highlights, and fine detail that Hine favored, allowing viewers to study both the imposing machinery and the human scale of the power room. Made at the onset of the Great Depression, the photograph records both modernization and the persistent physical demands of coal extraction. Hine’s straightforward yet empathetic style invites us to look beyond the machinery and consider the unseen labor that kept the nation’s lights on. This modest-sized print remains a quiet testament to photography’s power to honor ordinary work and to preserve a vanishing industrial landscape.

About the Artist

Lewis Wickes Hine · 1874–1940

Lewis Wickes Hine (1874–1940) was born on September 26 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, to Douglas and Sarah Hine, who ran a coffeehouse and restaurant on Main Street. After his father's accidental death from a self-inflicted gunshot wound around 1892, the teenage Hine supported his widowed mother and sisters through various jobs while pursuing education. He attended Oshkosh Normal School, where he met ment...