A coal miner’s wife and three of their children inside a “company house” owned by the Pursglove Coal Mining Company in Scotts Run, West Virginia; September 1938

Pursglove is remembered for the no. 2 mine explosion that killed 20 men in July 1942, which was preceded by the no. 3 mine explosion that claimed 56 lives just two months earlier.

Coal mining has always been risky business, especially in the first half of the 20th century. Over 4,200 West Virginia miners were killed in accidents just between 1910 and 1920.