"
The Strike in the Coal Mines — Meeting of Molly M'Guire Men", an 1874 illustration from
Harper's Weekly depicting
Molly Maguires — members of an
Irish 19th-century secret society — meeting to discuss strikes in the Pennsylvania coal mines. After a series of often violent conflicts, twenty suspected members of the Molly Maguires were convicted of
murder and other crimes and were
executed by hanging in 1877–78. This history remains part of local Pennsylvania lore and the actual facts are much debated among historians.
Image: Paul Frenzeny and Jules Tavernier, restored by Adam Cuerden