Photograph on board.
This photograph was possibly taken near Corbett, Potter County, Pennsylvania. It provides a rare glimpse into the diversity of Pennsylvania lumber camps (or the lack thereof). The photograph features two important, yet underrepresented demographics of lumbering history; women and African-Americans. It is the only known image in the Lumber Museum’s collection that shows an African-American wood-hick at a lumber camp of this time period.
This photograph was donated by the Newell family, decedents of Fred Newell, a farmer who also worked as a carpenter at lumber camps in the Corbett, Potter County area. Fred Newell died tragically in 1900 after being struck by a falling limb from a tree while working in the woods near Corbett.