Photo Gallery - Images of Vanished American Workers 1900-1980

LOST LABOR: Images of Vanished American Workers 1900-1980 is a selection of 155 photographs excerpted from a collection of more than 1100 company histories, pamphlets, and technical brochures documenting America's business and corporate industrial history This collection has been assembled over the last 20 years and many of the titles are rare and difficult to find. Since the images document factories, machinery, and jobs that no longer exist, LOST LABOR provides an unusual visual and historical record of work in 20th century America. The term "lost labor" can derive from the effects of mechanization, computer automation, technological advances, or through the consequences of corporate takeovers, downsizing and globalization. In many cases, these meanings can and do overlap.

Many of the images document factories and jobs that no longer exist. Whether it is a photograph of a laborer hauling a three foot block of ice at the York Ice Machinery Corporation, or one of a man carving a half hull model for the New York Shipbuilders Corporation, or others jiggering ceramic plates for the Mayer China Company, hand spraying a wicker baby carriage for the E.A. Whitney Carriage Company, or blocking a rim for the Knox Hat Company, all are examples of lost skill and crafts. These images are not intended to evoke feelings of nostalgia, or the desire to return to a simpler era when "real work" was done with sweat and muscle but rather to honor the role of labor, a reminder of the individuals who helped to build industrial America.

You can read more and see more picture by visiting this site: Click Here!

York Ice Machinery Corporation Cold Magic 1932	Native Laces Legacy in lace
Cox Broadcasting Corporation Welcome South, brother: Fifty years of broadcasting at WSB, Atlanta Georgia 1973	Lynden Incorporated Everyday heroes: The story of Lynden and its people Ramon Heller + Shirley Ashenbrenner 1993
Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal Company The first one hundred years Eileen Mountjoy Cooper 1982	Ford Motor Company How automobiles are made David C. Cooke 1965
Abbott Laboratories The Abbott Tree 1955	Rockwell International The first 50 years: A history of Collins Radio Company
National Biscuit Company Out of the cracker barrel: From Animal crackers to Zuzu's William Cahn 1969	Caterpillar Tractor Co. Fifty years on tracks 1954
Johnson Controls Right for the times 100th Anniversary 1985	Kingsport Press Half a century of craftsmanship: A way of life- Our home in the southern Appalachians 1973
Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corporation A special difference: A history of Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corporation Mimi Stein 1980