By the late 1930s the once-thriving coal industry of southern Illinois had been in decline for a decade, eliminating the jobs of almost twenty-five thousand miners. A labor survey of the area around Herrin, including Williamson, Franklin and Saline counties, conducted by the Works Progress Administration in 1939 found unemployment in the region approached 50%. Displaced workers who were unable to relocate depended on relief for survival.

This family lived in a ramshackle home they had constructed on the edge of the Herrin city dump. Other photographs in this series by Rothstein showed that despite their desperate situation, this family maintained a remarkably tidy home. The interior is meticulously papered with newsprint, and their meager belongings are carefully organized and maintained.