In the summer of 1993, historian Thomas Dublin began an oral history project in the Panther Valley, interviewing men and women who lived through the closing of area mines and garment factories. George Harvan provided helpful leads as the interviewing proceeded and eventually agreed to photograph interviewees and share historical photographs that helped place area residents' narratives within a broader context. The narratives and photographs appeared in 1998 as When the Mines Closed: Stories of Struggles in Hard Times, published by Cornell University Press.

To first photograph