707 results for: Labor and Labor Unions
Photograph
Elevator worker with flu mask, 1918
In the fall of 1918, the worldwide influenza epidemic hit Seattle. The flu was sudden and deadly. The city's health commissioner banned dances and closed theaters, churches, and schools. At the height of the epidemic, anyone going out in public was required by law to wear a mask made of six layers of gauze. This was supposed to keep the…
ID Number:1983.10.10779
Date:1918
Photograph
A prospector, Nome, Alaska, circa 1905
The mining in the Alaska gold rush was mainly surface mining. The gold had been washed away from its original location and had collected in river gravel and beach sand. Miners took a sample of sand or gravel, washed it in a pan to separate out any gold, and staked a claim if it looked like there might be more…
ID Number:1983.10.13102
Date:Circa 1905
Photograph
Prospector operating a rocker, Nome, 1904
In 1898, gold was found near Nome, Alaska, setting off a new stampede of fortune hunters. For the next decade or more, crowds of men, women, and children washed gravel and sand through rockers and other equipment, trying to find gold. Rockers were easily built and simple to operate. About $50 million in gold was removed from the Nome area…
ID Number:1983.10.13104
Date:1904
Photograph
Assembling buses at Pacific Car and Foundry, Renton, Washington, July 13, 1939
Pacific Car and Foundry Company (later called PACCAR) originally made its name building railroad cars for the logging industry. In 1936, during the Great Depression, the Renton, Washington, firm diversified into buses and trucks. Seattle and many other cities began to replace their trolleys and streetcars with buses powered by electricity or gasoline in the late 1930s, and Pacific Car…
ID Number:1983.10.13326.2
Date:1939
Photograph
Frederick & Nelson window titled, "Women at Work for Victory," 1942
During World War II, Seattle's Frederick & Nelson department store regularly supported the Allied war effort in its display windows.The window in this 1944 photo celebrated the women who built planes at Boeing and worked in other war industries. The mannequins wear the kind of clothing which women wore in the factories. On the back wall, posters push for higher…
ID Number:1983.10.14449.7
Date:1942
Photograph
Kenworth employees at lunch break, Seattle, June 15, 1944
The Kenworth Motor Truck Company got its start building heavy-duty trucks for the timber industry. During World War II, the Seattle plant manufactured parts for the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and B-29 Super Fortress. The factory at Yale and Mercer streets was divided by a fence down the middle of the facility to separate the work being done for Boeing…
ID Number:1983.10.14851.10
Date:1944
Photograph
Worker inside Kenworth plant, Seattle, June 15, 1944
The Kenworth Motor Truck Company got its start building heavy-duty trucks for the timber industry. During World War II, the company participated in many war-related production contracts. Beginning in 1943, Kenworth began making components for the Boeing B-17 "Flying Fortress" bomber and the B-29 "Super Fortress" at its Seattle plant. Three shifts of workers carried out subassembly work on the…
ID Number:1983.10.14851.14
Date:1944
Photograph
Kenworth employees playing table tennis, Seattle, June 15, 1944
The Kenworth Motor Truck Company got its start building heavy-duty trucks for the timber industry. During World War II, the Seattle plant manufactured parts for Boeing planes.This 1944 photo shows Kenworth employees playing table tennis, or ping-pong, outside the Seattle factory at Yale and Mercer streets. Note that the employees are predominantly women; during World War II, many industries employed…
ID Number:1983.10.14851.15
Date:1944
Photograph
Berger Engineering Works employee with machinery, Seattle, circa 1944
In 1932, Knute Berger started Berger Engineering Works, Inc. to build rugged equipment for shipyards, loggers, and the U.S. Navy. In 1962, Bergen Engineering merged with the company started by Edmund Smith, inventor of the salmon-butchering machine, becoming Smith Berger Manufacturing Corporation. In June, 1983 the company reorganized as Smith Berger Marine, Inc.In this image an unidentified Bergen Engineering Works…
ID Number:1983.10.14958.3
Date:Circa 1944
Photograph
Women working on machines, Seattle, 1945
Women were employed in many jobs for wartime manufacturing throughout the Puget Sound area. These women are working with drill presses and a floor-mounted drill in the making of small machinery parts, possibly for airplane manufacture. Many small shops such as this became sub-contractors for Boeing during the World War II years. Webster & Stevens number: 45-94
ID Number:1983.10.15254.1
Date:1945