Spotlight: Anthracite Art of Harry K. Snyder

It was 1935.

The Great Depression.

Tamaqua’s Harry Snyder was a young boy fascinated by not just color, but texture and design. To go along with his intrigue, he displayed an abundance of raw talent and ambition.

But what he didn’t have was money. It was an era when American families struggled to put food on the table.

“I couldn’t afford classes but I read about art in books,” he said during an interview in 1998, then age 68.

Fortunately, the situation changed in his favor after a gimmick by an emerging food company, the debut of Mr. Peanut.

“When Planters Peanuts first came out they had a promotion where you would send in three peanut bags and a dime. Then they’d send you a watercolor set. Well, my father bought it for me,” said Snyder.

So he took brush to hand and tapped into his imagination.

He sat down and painted. He practiced technique and taught himself how to illustrate what he saw. Snyder went on to create art for not just 10 or 20 years, but an amazing eight decades.

He’s now 88 and a resident of Hometown Nursing Center, where he’s under care for a debilitating illness. Family members and the board of the Tamaqua Historical Society felt it important to celebrate Snyder’s accomplishments. Primary among those is how he created scenes on canvas over his lifetime, tapping into the essence of his surroundings — local people, events and landmarks.

An exhibit of Snyder’s work was unveiled Sept. 22 during “Art of the Anthracite” at the Tamaqua Museum Annex, 114 W. Broad St., part of a yearlong 250th Anniversary of the Hardcoal Region and its people.

Legacy artwork

One of his favorite subjects was the coal industry and coal region culture.

Snyder contributed to the preservation of local heritage. Historians and art connoisseurs are examining his work with a critical eye and positioning his legacy among ranks of many legendary coal region illustrators.

“He’d sometimes spend eight hours straight working on a painting. He stopped doing it about five years ago,” said daughter Kim Kropp of Tamaqua. “Some of the scenes, he repainted.”

Kropp said Snyder at one time reused his canvas rather than purchase costly new material. When he did so, he created a painting over a painting. As a result, nobody is quite sure exactly how many works he produced.

He was particularly productive in the 1960s while recovering from an injury.

“In 1963 he threw his back out,” Kropp said.

In the 1990s he completed a mission to paint scenes of all of the local coal breakers.

Snyder’s grandson David Kotansky admires his granddad for his personality and remembers many smiles around the busy household at 313 E. Broad St.

“He was comical and always cracking jokes,” Kotansky remarked.

Rail enthusiast Bob Malay of West Penn Township admires Snyder’s attention to detail.

“I like the painting of the Rahn Township Breaker,” said Malay, who spoke of the unique way the coal works straddled a public road. “It sat atop the Number 11 Hill and the highway ran beneath the head house.”

And it’s those creations that make the collection noteworthy. Snyder’s work preserves coal castles that no longer exist.

“Among the display are paintings of local scenes along with a collection of coal breakers from Schuylkill, Carbon and Luzerne counties,” said Dale Freudenberger, society president.

Tamaqua and the Panther Valley are highlighted, along with a sampling of Snyder’s fascination with the national culture. He painted a scene of the twin towers in New York City, a portrait of Western icon John Wayne, comedy legends Laurel and Hardy and a Native American camp, to name a few.

Freudenberger said the public is invited to visit the museum and enjoy a rare opportunity to step into the vivid, detailed world as seen through the eyes of Harry K. Snyder.

It’s a special opportunity to see how one man made a significant contribution to local culture through inspiration as simple as a peanut.