The selection of works by Harry Sternberg owned by the California Center for the Arts, Escondido Museum are an excellent representation of many of the series completed by Sternberg over the course of his impressive artistic career. "Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania" represents Sternberg's powerful early drawings down in situ at the coal and steel towns he visited in Pennsylvania as a result of a 1936 Guggenheim Fellowship.

After serving many years as an important instructor at New York's Art Students League (1933-1966), Sternberg settled in Escondido, CA. While the themes and styles of his prints and paintings have evolved over the years, his commitment to hard and continuous work remained constant over the course of his career. Sternberg worked very closely with the CCAE Museum staff, particularly Ellen Fleurov, during the planning of the exhibition "No Sun Without Shadow: The Art of Harry Sternberg." It is due to this close and lasting relationship that the artist gifted five works to the Museum.