The major destinations for the Long Trips between 1937 and 1941 were coal and steel areas of Pennsylvania. Students observed a working mill during the 1939 and 1940 trips.
Visit the 1939 image gallery to see pictures from the trip.
Dr. Salvatore Vascellaro's dissertation includes interviews with participants from the 1939 Long Trip. He writes: "Florence Krahn (1939 I) recalled that everyone there had known that miners worked under ground, yet experiencing the reality of it was 'a surprise,' and became 'something you really thought about' and wondered 'whether you'd like to do this or not.' By meeting the miners themselves, students moved beyond one-dimensional images of the oppressed worker. Elizabeth Helfman (1939 I) remembered the miners as friendly, 'appreciating [the students'] interest.' Florence Krahn...incorporated this understanding into the story she wrote for children, For Tens and Up, as a reflection of her experience of the trip. Esther Smith (1939) came to a similar conclusion when she visited a miner's family--which remained for the the most important experience of the trip...It was jarring for her to reconcile the 'hard life,' the 'grim' surroundings with those two boys playing so happily the entire time she was there. And she wondered 'why she [had] expected them not to be happy''' (p. 165-166).