Photographs from the National Archives, Gallery
Photo Gallery
The exhibit includes 86 exceptional black and white and color photographs from the National Archives’ holdings spanning the years 1857 – 1987. Large photomurals, a video showing a variety of workplaces, and audio segments in which workers talk about their experiences on the job make "The Way We Worked" an environmental experience.
Below are selected images listed under the following five themes explored in the exhibit:
How We Worked - Photographs show workers posing heroically with their tools and as the symbolic "heart of the turbine." These pictures also reveal the effect of technology and automation as operatives sit along assembly lines, labor in typing pools, or work amid the sounds of machinery around them.
What We Wore to Work- Work clothes have many functions. They serve as badges of authority and status, make occupations immediately identifiable, and sometimes distinguish male and female roles.
Where We Worked- Americans have worked just about everywhere: on farms, boats, and skyscrapers; in mines, offices, and factories; and at home, restaurants, and hospitals.
Dangerous and Unhealthy Work - Photography has traditionally documented "the dangerous trades" in the United States. Social reformers have used photographs as evidence to ban child labor, reduce the hours that women could work, expose unsanitary workplaces. Engineers have photographed the details of machinery and processes to improve operations and practices.
Conflict at Work- Workers and managers have clashed over wages, hours of work, working conditions, work rules, and union recognition. Strikes, lockouts, protests, and boycotts as well as bargaining and settlements have played a large part in shaping American history.
How We Worked
Photographs show workers posing heroically with their tools and as the symbolic "heart of the turbine." These pictures also reveal the effect of technology and automation as operatives sit along assembly lines, labor in typing pools, or work amid the sounds of machinery around them.
Jean Schnelle pulls weeds out of a planter while balancing her six-month-old son, Dwight, on her hip By Michelle Bogre, Lockwood Missouri, ca. 1978
National Archives, Records of the U.S. Information Agency
Banana Inspection By an unknown photographer, location unknown, ca 1910
National Archives, Records of the Food and Drug Administration
Mechanic in his Shrine. The heart of the Turbine Power House, Penn. R.R. By Lewis Hine, New York City, New York, 1924
National Archives, Records of the Works Progress Administration
Food--Hawaii-Canning. Native girls packing pineapple into cans By Edgeworth, taken for the Katakura & Company, November 20, 1928
National Archives, Records of the Women s Bureau
Weeding sugar beets for $2.00 an hour By Bill Gillette, near Fort Collins, Colorado, June 1972
National Archives, Records of the Environmental Protection Agency
What We Wore to Work
Work clothes have many functions. They serve as badges of authority and status, make occupations immediately identifiable, and sometimes distinguish male and female roles.
Pilot Wm. C. Hopson, U.S. Mail Service Winter Flying Clothing. By an unknown photographer, Omaha, Nebraska, ca. 1926
National Archives, Records of the Post Office Department
Instructing nurses on the use of respirator for a polio patient By an unknown photographer, location unknown, May 23, 1958
National Archives, General Records of the Department of Labor
A Navajo construction worker at the Navajo Generating Plant. When completed, this will be the largest such plant in Arizona By Lyntha Scott Eiler, Page, Arizona, May 1972
National Archives, Records of the Environmental Protection Agency
Where We Worked
Americans have worked just about everywhere: on farms, boats, and skyscrapers; in mines, offices, and factories; and at home, restaurants, and hospitals.
Cotton Field By an unknown photographer, location unknwown, ca. 1919
National Archives, Records of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics
Tulip Town Market, Grove Center By James Edward Westcott, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, July 4, 1945
National Archives, General Records of the Department of Energy
Man working on hull of U.S. Submarine at Electric Boat Co., Groton, Conn. By Fenno Jacobs, August 1943
National Archives, General Records of the U.S. Navy, 1789-1947
Dangerous and Unhealthy Work
Photography has traditionally documented "the dangerous trades" in the United States. Social reformers have used photographs as evidence to ban child labor, reduce the hours that women could work, expose unsanitary workplaces. Engineers have photographed the details of machinery and processes to improve operations and practices.
Small newsie down-town. Saturday afternoon. St. Louis, Missouri. By Lewis Hine, May 7, 1910
National Archives, Records of the Children s Bureau
Vietnam…A Marine walking point for his unit during Operation Macon, a marine moves slowly, cautious of enemy pitfalls… By an unknown photographer, 1966
National Archives, Records of the United States Marine Corps
Conflict at Work
Workers and managers have clashed over wages, hours of work, working conditions, work rules, and union recognition. Strikes, lockouts, protests, and boycotts as well as bargaining and settlements have played a large part in shaping American history.
Demonstration of protest and mourning for Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of March 25, 1911 By an unknown photographer, New York City, New York, April 5, 1911
National Archives, General Records of the Department of Labor
Confrontation between a policeman wielding a night stick and a striker during the San Francisco General Strike By an unknown photographer, 1934
National Archives, Records of the U.S. Information Agency