Unemployed Coal Miner's Daughter Carrying Home Can of Kerosene; Company Housing, Pursglove, Scott's Run, West Virginia
Marion Post Wolcott
American, 1910–1990
1938
A selenium-toned gelatin silver photograph of a small girl carrying a kerosene can beside a line of coal cars, made to document and evoke the daily hardship of Appalachian mining families during the Depression.
What first hits you is the tiny, solitary child walking away down a muddy lane, dwarfed by the dark, hulking coal cars and the weathered company houses that make the scene feel austere and deserted.
Made for the New Deal–era documentary project, this photograph exemplifies how Depression-era photographers used intimate, empathetic images to expose economic injustice and shape public awareness and policy.
Medium
Gelatin silver print (selenium-toned), printed 1978
Dimensions
8 5/16 × 11 3/16" (21.2 × 28.5 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Arthur Rothstein, 1981
Accession
556.1981
Palette
Exhibitions
