During the summer of 2016, after researching ten monuments in my hometown of Shamokin, a small anthracite coal region town in central Pennsylvania, I discovered a lack of representation of Shamokin’s coal mining heritage throughout its urban spaces. Although coal was the main production of labor for decades, there are no public monuments dedicated to its most influential contribution to the world.

Thus, I wanted to explore how other anthracite coal regions are displaying their heritage and any commemorations that are uniquely specific to a certain town. I undertook researching ten monuments that depict representations of coal miners and their heritage throughout different PA anthracite regions, discovering how this important heritage is depicted and its impact on the public memory of a town.

After studying the history of the PA anthracite coal region, I began archiving meticulous data on each monument: date erected, location, geo-coordinates, sponsor/benefactor, sculptor, cost, materials & measurements, and the newspaper article of when each monument was erected.  

Then, I began piecing together my research on the digital site, Scalar. I decided to use Scalar in order to create a digital book that would walk the reader through the history of the ten monuments in a plethora of ways. First, I used TimlineJS to create a timeline in order to show the historical arc of the monuments over the deindustrialization period of anthracite coal mining. Next, I created a Google Map: My Maps function that displays the monuments spatially in order to understand the geographical significance.

From my experience visiting each monument, evaluating the distinct urban spaces, and using theories on public/collective memory, I wrote a page describing the impact of the urban spaces and their identity to a town using various examples. I also created separate pages for each monument including descriptions of their urban spaces. On each page, I used the carousel widget of scalar to create a photo gallery of all of the pictures I had taken of each monument. If you click on the image, it will send you to a new tab with a larger photo size and the text becomes easier to read. There are also links to the newspaper articles of when each monument was erected providing I found one.

Finally, I annotated four different monuments showing their representation of the anthracite region, and in some cases, how Shamokin could create something similar.

Overall, I created a digital database curating ten monuments and analyzing their symbology and significance to the anthracite region. Also, by critiquing their urban spaces this illuminated how Shamokin has the potential to represent their coal mining heritage. It is evident that Shamokin has plenty of advantages and opportunities to exemplify its coal region heritage, especially by incorporating the history of the Glen Burn Colliery. This digital database is not an exhaustive list of monuments in the anthracite coal region of PA; however, it is to be a genesis of a much larger digital archive intended to establish a connection with a town's history and heritage through public monuments.