In the summer of 2018, Sarah Sporko received a fellowship through Misericordia’s SURF program to assist Dr. Black with a photography exhibit she was preparing for the Anthracite Heritage Museum in Scranton, PA, a PHMC-sponsored institution.  Below are some excerpts from Sarah’s final presentation to the Misericordia community in August, 2018.

Photographers of the Anthracite Coal Region
By: Sarah Sporko

I worked in collaboration with Dr. Black and a team at Anthracite Heritage Museum to produce an exhibit on labor photography, currently titled “Anthracite Photographers and Photographers of Anthracite.” This will be replacing an exhibit that was installed in 2002.  The exhibit will feature photographers from the Anthracite Coal Regions as well as several photographers that were not from the Region. It will also feature personal photographs.  The work is still continuing and will be completed towards the end of November / early December when the exhibit opens.

Here are some of the responsibilities I had during the project:

• Research information on Lewis Hine and Labor Photography
• Research Rights and Reproduction permissions from Library of Congress and other organizations
• Research and compose biographies for photographers
• Take Down existing exhibit and prepare area for new exhibit
• Create layouts for photographs along with labels according to PHMC guidelines

Throughout the project, I learned many things, including:

• More historical information about the Anthracite Coal Region
• Research Skills
• How to collaborate with other people on projects
• How to work with a government-run nonprofit
• Curatorial Work
• How to produce an exhibit (i.e. what is involved)
• More about myself (How this affects my future)