53,000

Appalachian coal miner, 1946. He's carrying a lunch pail.

That's the number of people employed in the coal industry and miners today.

There were 694,000 in 1919.  1919 was the peak year for coal mine employment in the United States.

In 1929 it was already down, to 602,000.

454,000 in 1939.  But of course that was in the Great Depression.

170,000 in 1959.

Put that way, the 53,000, in 2019, which is up slightly over the past year, is a pretty resilient figure. After all, in just the 20 years from 1939 to 1959 the industry suffered the loss of 280,000 jobs.

Still, that trajectory is remarkable.  And it's related to what we've noted previously.

In very human terms.

Poster Saturday: Indian Court Federal Building

This is a Depression Era poster for an art display, apparently focusing on Indian art, which was held at the Indian Court Federal Building in San Francisco as part of the Golden Gate International Exposition.

I'm not familiar with this building and don't know if it even still exists.  My presumption is that it did serve a Bureau of Indian Affairs Court function. At that time, most tribes had BIA Courts, which is no longer the case as most tribes have taken jurisdiction of their own court systems.  It must have been located on Treasure Island, as that's where this event took place.  The Golden Gate Intentional Exposition was an effort at a World's Fair that was held to commemorate the two recently opened bridges spanning the San Francisco Harbor.  It ran from February 1939 to October 1939, and then was briefly and unsuccessfully reopened in 1940.