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Untitled
Jack Corn
February 1961
Jack Corn Collection
Vanderbilt University Special Collections

Albert “Ab” Newberry was a coal miner in the community of Davidson, Tennessee, whose grandfather had come to America from Wales to work in the coal mines. Corn and reporter Nat Caldwell met Ab in what Corn describes “a cavernous country store,” where this picture was taken. Ab had just finished his full day’s shift and was stopping in the store to pick up a few items before returning home to his wife and children. The image shows Ab’s face still black from the day’s work, an observation that indicates he was a non-unionized miner, since unionized miners had access to showers at the end of their shifts. Despite the exhaustion he must have felt from a long day’s work, Ab’s facial expression conveys pride and joy as he looks candidly into the camera. Corn writes, “Ab was one of the lucky ones. He still had a job and was working a full shift.” After this photograph was taken, Ab invited Corn and reporter Nat Caldwell to come with him to his home to meet his family.