The Anthracite Heritage Museum’s 2024 Arts on Fire Festival

The Anthracite Heritage Museum is pleased to announce the 13th Arts on Fire festival at the historic Scranton Iron Furnaces.  Arts on Fire, the museum’s annual festival will feature an iron pour, scratch blocks, music, food, crafts, and educational tents from our partners. The event is free and will run from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm Scranton Iron Furnaces just off downtown Scranton. 

Visit www.anthracitemuseum.org or @AnthraciteHeritageMuseum on Facebook.  Metal artist Brian Glaze will run the cupola furnace and start pouring molten iron in the afternoon.  Come by and etch your own design in one of our special scratch blocks.  The Scranton crew will cast each design in molten iron, and you will have a special commemorative of the event.  We will also host a wide array of food trucks and arts vendors throughout the event.   

Site administrator, Bode Morin said, “We are thrilled to be able to celebrate the significant industrial history that came out of Northeast Pennsylvania and impacted the world. Our event will showcase the intersection of Art and Industry and will allow visitors an immersive, educational, and thrilling experience for all ages.” 

The Anthracite Museum Holiday Hours

Anthracite Heritage Museum Holiday Hours:

Friday, December 22, 10am – 4pm
Saturday, December 23, 10am – 1pm
Sunday, December 24, closed
Friday, December 29, 10am – 4pm
Saturday, December 30, 10am – 1pm
Sunday, December 31, closed

1. The museum will be closed to general visitation January and February 
2.  We will be open for the Knox Mine Program, January 20, at 2:00 pm
3.  We will host an presentation on the Museum’s second sponsored trip to the UK, January 28, at 2:00 pm.
4.  We are thrilled to announce that starting in March, the museum will open for general visitation Thursday to Sunday each week!

Eckley Holiday Hours:

Thursday, December 21, 10am – 4pm
Friday, December 22, 10am – 4pm
Saturday, December 23, 10am – 1pm
Sunday, December 24, closed
Thursday, December 28, 10am – 4pm
Friday, December 29, 10am – 4pm
Saturday, December 30, 10am – 1pm
Sunday, December 31, closed

1. On January 17, in partnership with the Luzerne County Historical Society, we will host Justin Emershaw discussing modern mining as part of Mining History Month.  7 pm  
2. The museum will be open on weekends during January and February.  Sat-Sun, 10 am to 4 pm.  
Have a wonderful Holiday Season!
3.Starting in March, the museum will be open Wed-Sunday, 10 am to 4 pm each week!

Anthracite Heritage Museum Accepting Keystone Internship Applications

The Pennsylvania Historical Museum Commission’s Keystone Internship Program provides opportunities to pursue your professional growth and contribute to sharing Pennsylvania’s rich heritage with the public. The Keystone Internship will be between 225-300 hours and last 10 weeks between May 13, 2024 and August 23, 2024.

This is a curatorial immersion and engagement internship at Anthracite Heritage Museum, which tells the story of Pennsylvania’s hard coal and related industries, the historic immigrant culture of northeastern Pennsylvania, and the evolution of the region’s culture. The candidate will work closely with museum staff to implement curatorial activities related to new collections and exhibits. These include researching and identifying prospective new collection items that relate to and enhance the AHM mission; learning the decision process and obligations related to acquisitions; processing collections items to professional museum standards using Argus collections management software; experiencing collections care, handling, and storage; learning the principles of museum exhibition; and developing, curating, and installing a small community exhibit. The internship experience will also include public engagement and the principles of museum management.

Additional Requirements:   You must be at least 18 years of age at time of hire. You must currently be enrolled, or will be enrolled at a college or university undergraduate or graduate program for the Summer 2024 or Fall 2024 academic term by the start of the internship. You must be able to work in or commute to Scranton, Pennsylvania. You must be able to perform essential job functions. You must be currently enrolled, or will be enrolled in a college or university full-time in an undergraduate or graduate program by the start of the internship. You must be in good academic standing (2.5 GPA or higher).

The Anthracite Heritage Museum Movie Screening of NEPADOC

The Anthracite Heritage Museum is excited to announce the screening of the new documentary film, NEPADOC, by David Heineman at the museum in McDade Park, Scranton on November 11 at 2 pm. $2 suggested donation or free with museum admission. The address is 22 Bald Mountain Road, Scranton, PA 18504. Call (570) 963-4804 or visit www.anthracitemuseum.org  www.facebook.com/anthraciteheritagemuseum for more information.


NEPADOC is a new feature-length documentary about intersections of environment, industry, and identity in Northeastern Pennsylvania over the past 300 years. The idea for NEPADOC was born out of more than a decade of research into the history and culture of the Northeastern region of Pennsylvania (often abbreviated as “NEPA”). Filmed over a period of eight months across more than a dozen Pennsylvania counties, NEPADOC is the first feature film by director David Heineman.

NEPADOC highlights the resilience of a people who, surrounded by the insular beauty of Appalachia, maintain a well-earned mistrust of authority, a fierce sense of independence, and an often-tenuous relationship with their own past. Drawing inspiration from nonverbal documentary landmarks such as Godfrey Reggio’s Koyaanisqatsi (1982) and Ron Fricke’s Baraka (1992), the filmmakers focused the camera’s attention on the many beautiful natural landscapes found throughout the region, on ruins of the bygone lumber and coal industries that defined the region’s history, on the hustle and bustle of contemporary life, and on the many faces of those who continue to define NEPA’s character and community.

NEPADOC combines these gorgeous new 4K images, remastered and rarely seen archival footage of the region, and a sweeping synth-driven score into a dizzying and contemplative meditation on culture, on place, and on how we choose to remember the past. In this way, the film showcases the cyclical nature of life, death, and rebirth in the region, revealing that the story of this place is a story one shared by many places across the globe. Contact: David Heineman; Dweebland Productions dsheinem@gmail.com | 570-389-4188

The Anthracite Heritage Museum opens Digital Exhibit.

Memories and identities of generations of industrial communities drive heritage in remembrances of families, loved ones, and regional pride. This is especially true of more recent industries that existed through the mid-20th century and concentrated in areas with long histories and deep family roots.  To fully understand our deep and rich history, it is sometimes necessary to examine the stories we haven’t collected and developed exhibits around. To get a full picture of our history, we must ask how other people, not well represented in our museums fit into our history and to understand how our anthracite culture continues to evolve and grow. 


Our region has undergone significant change over the last 250 years as mining increased, fueled American industry and heated homes, then declined as other fuels dominated the market.  In the last forty years we have seen even more radical change as global movements of people, technology, energy, and economic focus have altered the landscape of Northeast Pennsylvania. For the Anthracite Museum, it is important to understand these changes in the context of the coal culture that once dominated and still influences our area.


The Anthracite Heritage Museum
in partnership with the University of Maryland recently completed phase one of a new digital exhibit titled “We are Anthracite” to collect and share the stories of people not represented in the museum.  To share the stories of new immigrants in real time and to understand these cyclical patterns of behavior.  To share the stories of people who have been in our region for centuries but whose stories weren’t presented.  Site Administrator Dr. Bode Morin says, “the anthracite region hosts a unique and complex mining culture.  It is one of the oldest industrial communities in the country composed and enriched by cultures from all over the world.  However, it is important that we realize that global shifts continue to affect our area and as a museum that we explore those shifts to understand how our region is changing.  We also need to examine some of the people whose impact on our culture is not formally recognized but who played an important role in who and what we are today.”


With the support of the University of Maryland Anthropology Department the first community has been completed. Exhibit co-director, Anthropology Professor Paul Shackel says, “What our team developed is a collection of stories of a new, underserved community. This work is our commitment to socially conscious storytelling, which connects many of the historic narratives with the experiences of new immigrants. This virtual exhibition examines important social beliefs on class and race, and how that affects heritage building in the region.”  Co-curator Aryn G.N. Schriner says, “This exhibit, available in both English and Spanish, links the region’s past and present, connecting the experiences of Northeastern Pennsylvania’s historic residents to those of today, as their experiences are not so dissimilar.”  Co-curator Aubrey Edwards states, “The Anthracite region has a layered history of immigration and cultural contribution. This exhibit celebrates and centers newer residents who have created communities, invested in this area, and lovingly call Anthracite home.”
Over the next few years, we will partner with other community groups, not formally represented in the museum’s current exhibitions, to share their stories and understand the historic patterns of immigration, assimilation, and peripheral existence in the context of a 250-year-old American coal mining community.  Let us know if you belong to a group who would like to participate in our exhibit.  Visit http://www.anthracitemuseum.org/we-are-anthracite/