Other Collections Illustrating Aspects of Occupational Heritage in an Urban Setting
- Washington As It Was: Photographs by Theodor Horydczak, 1923-1959
- Spanning from the mid-1920s through the 1950s, the Theodor Horydczak collection in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress (about 14,350 photographs online) documents the architecture and social life of the Washington metropolitan area in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, including exteriors and interiors of commercial, residential, and government buildings, as well as street scenes and views of neighborhoods. This collection features photographs of various industrial facilities, including many of the kinds of workplaces documented during the Working in Paterson project, such as machine shops,
grocery stores, clothing stores, and funeral homes; and the machinery, fishing, and food industries.
- America at Work, America at Leisure: Motion Pictures from 1894-1915
- This collection from the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division features 150 motion pictures depicting work, school, and leisure activities in the United States from 1894 to 1915. Highlights include films of the United States Postal Service from 1903, cattle breeding, fire fighters, ice manufacturing, logging, calisthenic and gymnastic exercises in schools, amusement parks, boxing, expositions, football, parades, swimming, and other sporting events.
- The Nineteenth Century
in Print: Periodicals
- This collection, a Distributed Digital Library Collaboration, presents 23 popular periodicals digitized by Cornell University Library and the Preservation Reformatting Division of the Library of Congress. They include literary and political magazines, as well as Scientific American, Manufacturer and Builder, and Garden and Forest: A Journal of Horticulture, Landscape Art, and Forestry.
Manufacturer and Builder (1869-94) is of particular interest for documenting late-nineteenth-century developments in the textile industry. Articles such as "On the Hardening of Mill-Picks and Cast-Steel in General,"
"Revolution in Looms," and "Textile Fabrics from Glass" kept professionals up to date about the latest
technological advances, while "The Principle of the Loom" provided an introduction to the basic process of weaving on a loom, designed for teaching children. Likewise,
Harper's New Monthly Magazine provided an illustrated glimpse of the silk-producing areas of Italy, with a detailed accounts of the history of the silk trade and the proper rearing of silk worms. This site provides uncorrected textual transcription of the articles, generated from the page images by optical character recognition (OCR), as well as links to the full page images mounted at Cornell University Library.
- American Life Histories: Manuscripts
from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940
- This collection from the Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, presents life histories written by the staff of the Folklore Project of the Federal Writers' Project for the U.S. Works Progress (later Work Projects) Administration (WPA) from 1936 to 1940. The Library of Congress collection includes 2,900 documents representing the work of over 300 writers from 24 states. The Folklore Project filed its material under the general headings "traditional"
and "life histories." The Writers' Project staff variously described the life histories as life sketches, living lore, industrial lore, and occupational lore. The entire body of material provides the raw content for a broad documentary of both rural and urban life interspersed with accounts of traditions and customs from different ethnic groups regarding planting, cooking, marriage, death, celebrations, and recreation. Users may search the full
text of the life histories; they include narratives about working in the textile industry, mills, and
machine shops; reminiscences of labor- union members; descriptions of various food traditions; and interviews with Italian Americans.
- Emergence of Advertising in America, 1850-1920: Selections from the Collections of Duke University
- Emergence of Advertising in America presents over 9,000 images relating to the early history of advertising in the United States. The materials, drawn from the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library at Duke University, include cookbooks, photographs of billboards, print advertisements, trade cards, calendars, almanacs, and leaflets for a multitude of products. Together, they illuminate the early evolution of this most ubiquitous feature of modern American business and culture. The collection also contains advertisements for sewing equipment and supplies, cigarette cards describing "50 Scenes of Perilous Occupations," and pamphlets promoting "War Gardening and Home Storage of Vegetables." The advertisements for
machinery and instruments and machinery and tools highlight the innovations of American industry, while the series 50 Scenes of Perilous Occupations, insert cards for tobacco advertising, provide a more lighthearted glimpse of some unusual occupational opportunities.
- By the People, For the People: Posters from the WPA, 1936-1943
- The collection By the People, For the People: Posters from the WPA, 1936-1943 consists of 907 boldly colored and graphically diverse original posters produced from 1936 to 1943 as part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. Of the 2,000 WPA posters known to exist, the Library of Congress's collection of more than 900 is the largest. These striking silkscreen, lithograph, and woodcut posters were designed to publicize health and safety
programs; cultural programs including art exhibitions, theatrical, and musical performances; travel and tourism; educational programs; and community activities in seventeen states and the District of Columbia. The posters were made possible by one of the first U.S. Government programs to support the arts and were added to the Library's holdings in the 1940s. Many of the
educational posters announce training opportunities for the workforce. Searching on "occupations," "industry," or "employment" will result in posters promoting specific industries, from tailoring to industrial arts.
- Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929
- This presentation, drawn from several divisions of the Library of Congress, documents widespread prosperity during the Coolidge years, the nation's transition to a mass consumer economy, and the role of government in this transition. The collection includes photographs, films, audio selections, personal papers, institutional papers, books, pamphlets, and legislative documents, along with selections from consumer and trade journals. The collection is particularly strong in advertising and mass-marketing materials and highlights economic and political forces at work in the 1920s. Topics related to occupational culture include explorations of various industries and documentation of different types of employment.
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