Child Mineworker in Pittston, PA in 1911

Child Mineworker in Pittston, PA in 1911

In 1911, photographer Lewis Hine descended into the Pennsylvania Coal Company’s No. 6 Shaft in Pittston, Pennsylvania, where he met a 13-year-old boy named Willie Brieden. Deep beneath the surface of the anthracite coal fields, Willie worked as a nipper – a boy responsible for opening and closing the heavy wooden doors that controlled the flow of air and allowed mine cars to pass through the tunnels within the mine. It was a crucial job in the d…