In January 2006 the Appalachian Institute of Wheeling Jesuit University inaugurated a photographic exhibit documenting coal community health issues over the last 60 years. Recent multiple mine tragedies in West Virginia have dramatically highlighted the life-threatening mine conditions. But there is a long history of concern for health in coal communities. In the immediate post-World War II year of 1946, the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) under President John L. Lewis struck the bituminous coal mines. A significant factor in the breakdown of negotiations was the miners’ determination to obtain better safety and health conditions. The coal operators resisted. A prolonged strike threatened to destabilize the economy and to bring hardship in the winter months, so President Harry S. Truman ordered the seizure of the coal mines to insure continued production. He then assigned a naval medical survey team, headed by Rear Admiral Joel T. Boone, to collect data and to document health conditions in coal mining areas. A online version of the Appalachian Institute exhibit allows people all over the world to compare life in coal communities in 1946, recorded in the Boone report, with today's conditions, captured by photojournalist Earl Dotter.

• See the exhibit on line