MINERS IN THE STOPE

Sample, Paul (1896-1974)

Oil on canvas

1936

Gift of Francis Kelley Wood, Mary Kelley Doubleday and George Hepburn

X1966.21.10

At the turn of the century, Butte was the largest producer of copper in North America, employing over 10,000 miners and boasting a population of 60,000, making it Montana's largest city. While mining made Butte the "Richest Hill on Earth," it was also very dangerous work. Accidents, cave-ins, and fires were common in mine shafts, and respiratory illness from inhaled dust presented long-term health problems. Butte's miners unionized a union in the late 1870s hoping to gain higher wages, better benefits, and safer working conditions. The city was embroiled in many high-profile strikes during the early 1900s and became nationally known as the "Gibraltar of Unionism." Fortune Magazine commissioned this oil on canvas from Paul Sample (1896-1974) for a 1937 feature article on the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. Sample's artistic style followed the tenets of the then-popular American Scene movement. Titled Miners in the Stope, the painting unflinchingly depicts the physical demands of working miners.