Women riveters pose for the camera at the Navy Yard in Puget Sound, Washington. Taken a generation before the more famous World War II image of “Rosie the Riveter,” this photograph shows women working in industrial jobs traditionally filled by men, just as women did during World War II.
March is Women’s History Month! Women have shaped this country’s history in more ways than we can count. Long before Rosie the Riveter joined the war effort in the 1940s, women earned wages to support themselves and their families. This series of posts celebrates the diversity of women’s labor, ranging from industry to agriculture to folklore and beyond.
Here, women fit keys into pianos at the Cable Piano Company, headquartered in Chicago, IL. Out of economic necessity, working-class women, especially immigrant women and women of color, earned wages through a variety of jobs and tasks throughout the 19th century and beyond.
Today marks the 225th anniversary of Alexander Hamilton’s Report on Manufactures to the House of Representatives.
This special exhibit of Alexander Hamilton’s Report on the Subject of Manufactures is on display until January 31, 2017.
This was his last of his foundational reports on the economy, national debt, and financial condition of the early republic. The report called for “special and positive encouragement” from the government to help American manufacturers compete with more fully developed foreign industries.
Hamilton believed government aid to industry would help farmers by increasing demand for products of the soil and providing cheaper manufactured goods. Congress passed a modestly protective tariff in 1792 to encourage some lines of economic activity, but members opposed Hamilton’s request to provide direct government aid to manufactures as an unconstitutional assertion of power.
Hamilton’s vision foretold the future role of industry in America and laid the foundation for the American economic system.
Document: Report of the Secretary of the Treasury on the Subject of Manufactures, December 5, 1791, Records of the U.S. House of Representatives
Defense workers
turn out nose cones for bombers at Douglas Aircraft’s Long Beach, California
factory, October 1942.
Today is National Manufacturing
Day!
Leading on the Home Front
To fight a global war, America needed to
mobilize its entire population on the “Home Front.” This enormous
effort touched almost every aspect of life and unleashed economic forces that
reverberated for generations.
Under FDR’s direction, government assumed
unprecedented economic powers. Defense spending skyrocketed. Millions of
Americans paid Federal income taxes for the first time. To control inflation,
the government put limits on wages, prices, and rents. And to conserve scarce
goods, it rationed products ranging from gasoline to sugar.
As the war effort heated up, FDR signaled that
further New Deal reforms would be postponed. “Dr. New Deal,” he
explained, was now “Dr. Win-the-War.” Eleanor Roosevelt objected to
this decision, but the war itself soon brought new possibilities for reform.
Booming war industries generated millions of jobs. This created unprecedented
opportunities for women, African Americans and other minorities - and fostered
demands for greater social and economic opportunity.
“Landaff, Grafton County, New Hampshire. The Lisbon Company was founded in 1897 and increased its holdings from that time to this. In late years the business has been in a precarious condition; but now it appears to be working full time and shareholders are more optimistic. Although outside Landaff, the mill has had some effect on the community for about half a century.”
These vintage industrial photos are from a series taken by investigative photographer Lewis Hine for the Works Progress Administration’s (WPA) National Research Project, highlighting changes in industry and their effect on employment.
More background on the Project, from the Series’ scope & content note:
The National Research Project on Reemployment Opportunities and Recent Changes in Industrial Techniques was organized in December 1935 as part of the National Research Program of the Works Progress Administration. Its purpose was to investigate recent changes in industrial techniques and evaluate their effects on employment. Between 1937 and 1941 the NRP published more than 700 reports on a broad variety of agricultural, manufacturing and mining activities. In late 1936 the distinguished documentary photographer, Lewis Hine, was hired as chief photographer for the Project. This series consists of photo studies made by Hine in 14 industrial communities from December 1936 to July 1937. General views of the community, working conditions in factories, machinery, and workers, are pictured for each photo study. Among the industries represented are textiles, railroads, mining, cabinet making, construction, and watch making. The following areas are represented- Holyoke and Easthampton, Massachusetts; Manchester, New Hampshire; Camden, Clifton, Millville, and Paterson, New Jersey; New York, New York; High Point, North Carolina; Bath, Eddystone, Lancaster, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Scott’s Run, West Virginia.
