I have just finished an excellent book (well I think so)
Wales in America: Scranton and the Welsh 1860-1920 by William D. Jones.
Between the years 1860 and 1920, around 80,000 Welsh immigrants settled in the United States. A striking feature of Welsh settlement during this period is the concentration of the Welsh in one state:Pennsylvania, and within it, the north-east Pennsylvania anthracite coalfield. In 1900, over 17 per cent of Welsh immigrants were living in and around the cities of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre in an area about twice the size of the Rhondda Valley in the south Wales most of them had left.
This book focuses on Scranton, the epicentre of Welsh America during its golden era. The author examines cultural life, the literary and musical societies, eisteddfodau and religious groups as well as other aspects of popular culture such as insobriety and sports that the leaders of the Welsh community frowned upon. He also analyses the self-image of Welsh America as reflected in its own newspapers and periodicals; the relationship of the Welsh with other ethnic groups; and, of course, the anthracite industry which in its boom years drew thousands of skilled Welsh miners across the Atlantic.
As a matter of interest has anyone read another book by the same author (with Beth Thomas)
Coal's Domain/ Teyrnas y Glo?
Scranton in 1916. Had to cut the photo in half as panoramic views tend to upset the page.
đŸ”—Personal-Album-272-Image-43257[linkphoto]Personal-Album-272-Image-43257[/linkphoto][/link]
đŸ”—Personal-Album-272-Image-43258[linkphoto]Personal-Album-272-Image-43258[/linkphoto][/link]
The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.