200 Years of Photos Reveal History of Mining and Industry in America

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A person sits on a wooden block in an underground mine tunnel, facing a large wooden door. Rails run along the ground, and a coat hangs on the rocky wall. The scene is dimly lit and surrounded by rough stone.

A new exhibition will examine how generations of photographers have captured mining and industry in the United States, from early daguerreotypes depicting the California Gold Rush to images of rapid industrialization in the 20th century.

The upcoming exhibition, titled Beneath the Surface: Mining and American Photography, is being presented by the National Gallery of Art in Washington. According to the museum, it is the first exhibition dedicated exclusively to exploring the relationship between resource extraction and American photography across nearly 200 years of history.

A vintage photograph of a man wearing a wide-brimmed hat and holding a pickaxe and a shovel, framed in an ornate, gold-colored case with decorative patterns.

A man wearing a hard hat and a sleeveless vest stands covered in dirt and oil, looking directly at the camera with a serious expression. The image is in black and white.

The exhibition examines how photographers have documented the often unseen processes and effects of extracting minerals, coal, and fossil fuels, as well as the industries connected to them.

“As a defining visual medium of our modern age, photography is an essential tool to capture and communicate our shared history,” Kaywin Feldman, director of the National Gallery of Art says in a statement. “Beneath the Surface brings together a dynamic range of works to shed light on the medium’s intersections with a shaping force in American history and industry.”

A group of coal miners with headlamps stand together in a dark, industrial setting, their faces and clothes covered in dirt, suggesting they have just finished a shift underground.

A factory worker wearing protective goggles, gloves, and a helmet stands on metal beams, holding industrial equipment in a dimly lit environment.

A sepia-toned photo shows a barren, eroded landscape with exposed rock formations and a long wooden pipeline stretching across the scene, surrounded by sparse trees and forested hills in the background.

The exhibition features around 150 images by 100 photographers and spans 185 years of American society and industry. It includes works by Richard Avedon, Dorothea Lange, and Gordon Parks, among others. The collection shows how photographers have used changing technologies and different visual approaches to document industries that have shaped modern life.

A black-and-white photo shows large industrial pipes leading over water toward a factory complex with smokestacks, cylindrical storage tanks, and steam or smoke rising in the background.

A grassy backyard with a white shed, a picnic table, and lawn chairs. In the background are houses, trees, and large industrial cooling towers partially obscured by mist or fog.

A sepia-toned photo shows multiple railway tracks with trains carrying gravel or coal, large piles of material, and several industrial cranes positioned over the tracks. Trees and a river are visible in the background.

Many of the works come from the National Gallery’s photography collection. The images range from early daguerreotypes created during the California Gold Rush in the mid-1800s to photographs of large-scale industrial growth in the 20th century and contemporary works produced on a massive scale. Together, the photographs trace the history of resource extraction and show how artists have used photography to examine the relationship between industry, society, and the natural environment.

A black-and-white photo of a miner wearing a helmet with a headlamp. His face is dirty, and he looks over his shoulder. Other miners in similar gear are seen in the blurry background.

A group of miners and police stand together; one miner in overalls and a hard hat holds a sign reading "NO BENEFITS NO COAL." Police in helmets and uniforms hold batons. A car and building are in the background.

“Photography itself is dependent on precious metals for its very existence, from the light sensitivity of silver in early processes to the copper of contemporary digital-camera batteries. At the same time, it has been the principal visual medium employed to depict extractive industries, evolving alongside the expansion of mining on an industrial scale since the 19th century,” says Diane Waggoner, co-curator of the exhibition and curator of photographs at the National Gallery of Art. “Beneath the Surface unites photographs made for a variety of purposes, from explicitly promotional and commercial uses to documentation efforts and socially engaged activism, shedding light on both the rewards and costs of resource extraction.”

Beneath the Surface will be on view at the National Gallery of Art from May 23 to August 23, 2026, before traveling to the Milwaukee Art Museum in Wisconsin and the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas.

Image credits: All photos courtesy of the National Gallery of Art.

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