Entrance to a Coal Mine in the Valley of Wyoming, Pennsylvania (Entrance to a Coal Mine, Susquehanna)

Thomas Addison Richards

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This is one of two drawings (see also 1974.197.4) Richards executed as designs for wood-engraved illustrations to accompany an article he wrote for “Harper’s New Monthly Magazine,” published in October 1853. Like John Hazelhurst Latrobe, who had visited the area earlier, Richards made scenic views of the Susquehanna River region, but here he depicted mining activity in the coal-rich Wyoming Valley of the Susquehanna. The glowing lights in the two drawings are probably candles affixed to the miners’ headgear, which sometimes induced explosions.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art