2-832-440 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Charles Edgar Patience (1906-1972), was an African American anthracite coal sculptor who raised the form to high art, exhibiting works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Even though he had never been a miner, the coal dust he had been inhaling throughout his sixty-five years living and working in Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, northeastern Pennsylvania, damaged his lungs, and he died from the curse of miners, black lung disease. This pair of needlenose pliers were found in Patience's workshop. The metal pliers have grated sections on the outside edge of each handle for gripping. Text is engraved on one side of the pin that reads "REUMSHUSSELL / GERMANY".