Coal Culture: People, Lives, and Stories

  • The pages below present essays, histories, and anecdotes about people whose lives revolved around Pennsylvania's Coal Culture.
  • Lucius Waterman Robinson: A Dominating Figure
    Lucius Waterman Robinson was the chief executive of the Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal & Iron Company from 1899 to 1919.
    A Woman's Day: Work and Anxiety
    Read about the life of a coal miner's wife in the early 20th Century.
    Mary Harris Jones
    Mary Harris Jones, known as Mother Jones (1837 1930) was born in Ireland, and came to the United States where she became an American labor union and community organizer. Mother Jones helped the UMWA organize the country's miners.
    Fiddlin' Joe Yesolivich
    Read about Joe Yesolivich, a coal miner-turned-fiddler in Indiana County.
    Ernest: Life in a Mining Town
    Find out what life was like in a company-owned mining town.
  • Special Collections and University Archives
  • Stapleton Library, Room 302
    431 South Eleventh Street
    Indiana, PA 15705
  • Phone: 724-357-3039
  • Fax: 724-357-4891
  • Office Hours
  • Monday–Friday: By Appointment
  • Saturday: Closed
  • Sunday: Closed