Scope and Contents

The collection consists of approximately 28,000 photographic negatives, slides, prints and other materials documenting Bethlehem Steel Corporation's iron ore mining operations. The photographs were taken by Richard "Jay" Angelo, a Bethlehem Steel Corporation photographer. The majority of the photographs depict Bethlehem's mining operations at its Cornwall and Morgantown, Pennsylvania mines. A smaller number of negatives document operations in western Pennsylvania, Kentucky, West Virginia, Michigan and Ontario. The negatives depict aerial views, blasting operations, tunneling, equipment and infrastructure, machinery, employees working, company personnel, and company-built community facilities. The collection documents the complete operations of a major, historic mining operation over four decades.

Series 1, Historical Background Materials, 1923-19933, consists of typescript general histories for the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, and specifically, the Cornwall Mine, Grace Mine, and the Marmoratan Mining Company. Included are some copies of maps, newspaper articles, photographs and one letter from Charlie Neil dated 1993 containing history of the Cornwall mining operations. Other miscellaneous items include articles about concrete, a retirement brochure for Sheldon J. Shale, and bound monthly progress reports of operations for the Cornwall Division, 1923-1929. These reports detail production, ore analysis, construction of mine shafts, repairs made, and physical plant conditions.

Series 2, Logbooks, 1949-1980, consists of personal, mileage, and photograph and negative logbooks maintained by Richard R. Angelo during the course of his career as a photographer for Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Cornwall Division. The series is divided into three subseries: Subseries 1, Personal Logbooks, 1949-1981, Subseries 2, Mileage Logbooks, 1957-1980, and Subseries 3, Photograph and Negative Logbooks, 1947-1968. The bound notebooks are arranged chronologically and are approximately 4 1/2" x 7 1/2" or smaller.

Subseries 1, Personal Logbooks, 1949-1980, consists of Angelo's personal logbooks which begin in 1949 and chronicle his daily activities and include the amount of time spent accomplishing each stated activity. For example, from April of 1949, Angelo writes, "making negatives and printing, eight hours." Later logbooks do not contain the number of hours, but many contain the number of vacation days Angelo took.

Subseries 2, Mileage Logbooks, 1957-1980 and undated, consists of logbooks with the date, number of miles, and location where Angelo drove. In some instances, toll expenses are noted as well as total mileage calculated for a month.

Subseries 3, Negative Logbooks, 1947-1980, consists of logbooks detailing the date, negative number and a brief description for black-and-white and color negatives. For example, the March 3, 1951, entry is listed as "#1840-0, waste rock tunnel, mine number 3." In some instances Angelo notes if a photograph or negative was rejected. Later logbooks follow an alpha-numeric identification system. These logbooks should be consulted when using Series 4, Black-and-White negatives. The subseries is arranged chronologically.

Series 3, Indices, 1943-1960, consists of typescript lists detailing the negative number, date, and a brief description for the Bethlehem Report (BR), the early Pilot Plant and raw materials (CN), microphotographs (MP), and Pilot Plant (PP,) and raw materials and office plant (RM). The person who assembled these lists or applied the alpha-numeric system is unknown. These indices should be consulted when using boxes 36 to 38 in Series 4, Black-and-White Negatives.

Series 4, Black-and-White Negatives, 1941-1963, is divided into six subseries: Subseries 1, #1-#4108, 1947-1961; Subseries 2, A1 to A400, 1941-1949; Subseries 3, B1 to B9995, 1953-1963; Subseries 4, C1 to C6999, 1963 [1969?]; Subseries 5, Chronological, 1950-1955; and Subseries 6, Topical, 1941-1961. The negatives are approximately 4" x 5" and are housed in glassine envelopes. In some instances, 4" x 5" prints are filed behind the corresponding negative.

The alpha-numeric subseries of negatives is not inclusive. There are indices (see Series 3) for the negatives in boxes 36 to 38 and the logbooks (see Series 2) maintained by Richard R. Angelo. The indices provide the alpha-numeric identification number, date, and brief description for the negative. For example, negative B-528 documents the #4 mine machine shop looking west, March 12, 1954. Researchers should use the logbooks in conjunction with the negatives.

There are some negatives that document diagrams, drawings, plans, sectional views, schematics for ore pockets, mine shafts, and flow sheets for the Lebanon Concentrator and the crushing plant at the Grace Mine. Some of the negatives were used in the creation of the Bethlehem Mines Corporation, Cornwall Division, photograph album which documents progress as of December 31, 1964.

Series 5, Color Negatives, 1964-1979, consists of approximately 940 color negatives, presumably documenting a wide variety of mining activities as well as employees. There is no index to these negatives. The negatives are arranged numerically.

Series 6, Photographic Prints, 1880s-1972 and undated, consists primarily of black-and-white prints of mining equipment, views of mine interiors (including the mine vein), aerial views, buildings, and employees. The bulk of photographs document Bethlehem mines in Pennsylvania, specifically Cornwall and Grace, but there is documentation for the Marmora Mine in Ontario, Canada. Some of the prints have captions and dates. Some oversize photographs (11" x 14") documenting the Matamora Mine in Ontario, Canada, 1958, were taken by H.R. Oakman of Peterboro, Ontario. The materials are arranged alphabetically.

Series 7, Photograph Albums, 1951-1971, consists of five bound albums and some loose materials documenting the Marmora Mine in Ontario, Canada. Many of the albums were photographed by H.R. Oakman of Peterboro, Ontario. The albums contain mounted black-and-white prints that are 4" x 5" or 11" x 17." The albums are arranged chronologically.

Series 8, Slides, 1950-1980, contains 35 mm slides in both black and white and color. The slides document a range of activities and are arranged alphabetically by mine location.

Series 9, Moving Images, 1961 and undated, consists of two color 16 mm films documenting the Grace Mine in Pennsylvania.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged into nine series.

Subseries 1, Personal Logbooks, 1949-1980

Subseries 2, Mileage Logbooks, 1957-1980 and undated

Subseries 3, Negative Logbooks, 1947-1980

Subseries 1, #1-#4108, 1947-1961

Subseries 2, A1 to A400, 1941-1949

Subseries 3, B1 to B9995, 1953-1963

Subseries 4, C1 to C6999, 1963 [1969?]

Subseries 5, Chronological, 1950-1955

Subseries 6, Topical, 1941-1961

Biographical / Historical

Richard "Jay" Angelo (1922-1997) was the official photographer for Bethlehem Cornwall Corporation (a subsidiary of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation) mining operations in Cornwall, Pennsylvania. The Cornwall Division operated three underground mines with concentrating and agglomerating facilities. Using a Speed Graphic camera (a portable professional camera), which used 4" x 5" film, Angelo captured between 20,000 and 30,000 negatives, mostly black-and-white, from January 1947 to January 1980. The negatives depict aerial views; each new blast in the open pit; tunneling in the underground works; installation of infrastructure such as underground bracing, head frames, railway track and agglomeration machinery; employees at work, receiving awards, or retiring; tours for corporate executives, local school teachers, and other mining executives; road and land improvements; company-built community facilities; safety program activities; installation and operation of the concentrating and agglomeration plants.

Angelo graduated from high school in 1940 and immediately began working in the mines, following in the foot steps of his father, an Italian immigrant. He joined the United States Navy in 1942 working as a radio operator aboard a communications ship. Angelo served in both the European and Pacific theaters of World War II. Angelo returned home in 1946 and worked in the mines, first in a tool room, then in the enginneering department. In 1947, he began taking photographs for the company, specializing in mining. Other photographers processed color and black-and-white negatives in the company lab and photographed the company's many plants. Angelo retired in 1980.

For over sixty years (1916-1980), Bethlehem Steel Company obtained most of its iron ore from three mines it owned and operated in eastern Pennsylvania. Two mines were located in Cornwall, about fifteen miles east of Harrisburg, and one was located in Morgantown, about twenty-five miles south of Reading. Until its closure in 1980, the Cornwall mine was the longest continuously operated mine in North America. The Cornwall Mine began in 1732 when John, Thomas, and Richard Penn deeded over 9,000 acres to Joseph Turne, who assigned it to William Allen. In 1734, Peter Grubb, a prospector for iron, paid Allen for the acreage and in 1742 built the Cornwall Furnance near the ore deposit. Other parties gained access and partnership to the ore banks through purchase or inheritance, and in 1854, Grubb and the others combined to form the Cornwall Ore Banks Company. Bethlehem Steel Company acquired ownership of the Cornwall Mines in 1916 and had complete ownership by 1921. The only exception was the Robesonia Iron Company, a small indepednent section that remained free of Bethlehem ownership until 1926, when Bethlehem acquired it and thus gained sole control of the ore desposits. The Cornwall iron ore deposit became one of the most valuable in the United States.

There were two major ore bodies in Cornwall, Pennsylvania, south of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, called Cornwall mines number 3 and number 4. Extracting the ore was done through open pit mining when deposits of useful minerals or rock were found near the surface. Open pit mining was used at Cornwall until 1953 when the open pits became too deep and economically not viable. It is estimated that over fifty-six million tons of ore were removed from mine number 3 between 1734 and 1953. By 1953, all of the available exposed ore was removed, and it was necessary for the company to begin underground mining activities. Other forms of mining included extractive methods that required tunneling into the earth, such as long wall mining. The number 4 mine was begun in 1926 as an underground operation; by 1965, twenty-two million tons of ore had been mined. In 1948, new iron ore deposits were discovered using an airborne magnetometer (an instrument used to measure the magnetic field) during an aerial survey in southeastern Pennsylvania. Bethlehem Steel acquired the land. Construction for the mine began in 1951 and ore stripping began in 1958. The new mine was called Grace Mine after Bethlehem Chairman and CEO Eugene Grace. Mining at lasted until 1977.

The Marmoratan Mine located in Hastings County, Ontario (east of Toronto) also became part of the vast Bethlehem Steel Corporation holdings. Iron mining was an important industry in the area during the nineteenth century. The village of Marmora was originally named Marmora Iron Works. Magnetic iron ore was mined as early as 1820, but a series of failures resulted in the abandonment of the mine. In 1949, the Ontario Department of Mines, in conjunction with the Geological Survey of Canada, conducted an aerial survey of the region. Bethlehem Steel geologists became interested in the area and in May, 1950, the company obtained options to purchase a 290 acre tract of property. Bethlehem would eventually acquire 1900 acres of property at Marmora. Drilling began in 1951, and the mine closed in 1979.

The scale of operations at the three mines was prodigious. Together, these mines were second only to Minnesota's famous Mesabi Range in terms of volume and quality of iron ore extracted. In addition to ore extraction, the mines were equipped with large-scale concentrating and agglomeration facilities, where the raw ore was separated into disparate minerals through the use of magnetic separators. The iron was then further concentrated into high density pellets that were easier to ship and more economical in making steel. Bethlehem erected its first concentrating facilities at Cornwall in 1916. When Bethlehem Steel acquired the Cornwall mines its long-term plan was to expand and modernize its program by adding mill equipment and providing sintering plants. Bethlehem purchased the Pennsylvania Steel Company in 1916, which included a wet mill equipped with a Grondal magnetic separator. From 1934 to 1962, the mines produced over twenty-seven million tons of iron concentrate, 450,000 tons of copper concentrate, and 1,650 tons of pyrite concentrate. The agglomeration plant at the Grace Mine alone produced three million tons of iron concentrate between 1958 and 1965.

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