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Coal Mine Administration, 1946-47...
A year after leaving the Air Transport Command at the end of World War II, Lee came out of semi-retirement to accept an assignment from the Department of the Interior: to document health and safety conditions in bituminous coal mines around the United States.
This assignment came about as a result of worsening conditions in many mines and mining camps during the War and shortly thereafter. In 1946 the Department of the Interior and the United Mine Workers conducted a joint survey of medical, health and housing conditions to be later compiled into a report written by the Coal Mines Administration.
Under the direction of Rear Admiral Joel T. Boone, the survey teams journeyed to mining areas to collect data and photograph the conditions of mines and camps. Lee took the majority of the photographs in the survey, which document the many facets of each community: company stores and housing, mine interiors and exteriors, medical dispensaries, and everyday activities of residents. He made over 4000 images from August 1946 to February 1947 for the Coal Mines Administration; these negatives are now in the National Archives.
The Department of the Interior used many of Lee’s photographs when, in 1947, it published the final report entitled "A Medical Survey of the Bituminous Coal Industry" and a smaller supplement entitled "The Coal Miner and His Family".
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