Known today as PSF Industries, Inc., and PSF Mechanical, Inc., Puget Sound Sheet Metal Works Company was founded in 1900 by Edward Hite, Robert S. Raven, and Joseph W. Callahan and incorporated in 1902 as Puget Sound Sheet Metal Works, Inc. (PSSMW) by Raven, Hite, and David Bowen. PSSMW began as a sheet metal and roofing company, but over the course of its history the company was involved a wide variety of projects, including the manufacture of stainless steel brewing equipment beginning in the 1930s and special train cars to transport 747 parts.

This image of women working was taken at the company's Plant No. 2, located at Airport Way and Hardy Street. During World War II, this plant produced aircraft assemblies for the Boeing Aircraft Company's B-17 and B-29 4-engine bombers. While women worked in a variety of positions previously closed to them during World War II, the aviation industry saw the greatest increase in female workers. More than 310,000 women worked in the U.S. aircraft industry in 1943, making up 65 percent of the industry’s total workforce (compared to just 1 percent in the pre-war years).

This image is part of an album containing 71 photographs concerning PSSMW’s history.

Caption information source: The First One Hundred Years: History of PSF Industries, Inc. and PSF Mechanical, Inc., by Nile Thompson