Subject matter includes the occupations of coal, steel, railroad, agriculture.
Other subjects covered are immigration, ethnicity, race, class, discrimination, religion, organizations and institutions, work, labor, growing up, child rearing, men's and women's and children's roles, sports, games, entertainment, holiday celebrations, food, gardens, deindustrialization, displacement, heritage, and place. Many ethnic groups are mentioned, most often are Irish, German, Scotch Irish, Poles, Slovaks, Italians, Slovenians and African Americans. Fieldworkers included folklorists, anthropologists, sociologists, historians, local scholars, community leaders, students, professional photographers. In general, the strongest collections were made by trained ethnographers. Collected materials consist mainly of written materials, audio tape recordings, photographs, slides, video tape.