Exhibition Script - Museum on Main Street

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The Way We Worked scriptWORKING FROM HOME [on fence section]Do you telecommute? In 2009, an estimated 45.1 million Americans worked fromhome offices at least one day per week thanks to technology. That’s more thanthe combined populations of Texas and Florida!Home office, 2000.The Center for Universal Design, Centers for Disease ControlIN A FACTORY [on fence section]The second Industrial Revolution (1870-1914) expanded American industries andtechnology. World War II (1941- 45) made us a manufacturing powerhouse, withabout one-third of workers employed in factories. Less than one-tenth of today’slabor force are factory workers.Workers leaving after their shift, Columbia, Tennessee, 1958.Columbia, Tennessee, Black StarFAMILIES SHARE THE LOAD [on fence section]Does everyone in your household pitch in to help support your family? Mrs.Battaglia worked in a garment factory in 1908. On Saturdays she brought workhome so that her children, 12-year-old Tessie and 7-year-old Tony, could helpout. At two or three cents per garment, the family could earn $1.50 per day –enough for half of the week’s food bill.The Battaglia family sewing trousers, New York City,by Lewis W. Hine, January 1908.National Archives, Records of the Children’s Bureau[Graphic: Typewriters with percentages]JOIN THE OFFICE PARTYPercentage of Workforce in Managerial, Clerical, and Sales Jobs1940: Under 33%2009: Over 70%Interior view of Lever Brothers office building, New York City, LeverHouse photograph, ca. 1959.National Archives,Records of the U.S. Information Agency“Night Shift” poster by Nydorf, ca. 1944.National Archives,Records of the Office of Government ReportsDANGEROUS WORK, EVEN INDOORSBefore computer automation and safer thermal suits, steel workers had veryclose encounters with molten hot iron and flames. In the 1920s they fought forand won a fair eight-hour workday. Today, steel mills and other factories continueto run every minute of every day, thanks to workers on 8- and 12-hour shifts.Background Image:Tapping a blast furnace at the M. A. Hana Steel Co., near Buffalo,New York,by Thomas W. Parker, ca. 1950.National Archives,Records of the U.S. Information Agency10
The Way We Worked script[Shorthand book]By using symbols instead of words, secretaries could take down dictationfaster.Gregg Shorthand Guide, ca. 1900.Section 3: How We WorkedNothing affected the way we work like technology. Until the early 1800s, most jobs involvedmanual labor and animal power, but new inventions helped ignite an industrial revolution. Howwe worked changed forever.Mills and factories sprang up, towns were born, and innovations helped farmers produce more.Cottage industries gave way to city and factory jobs. Workers banded together in unions toprotect their rights and lives amid the industrial rush.Technology continues to change how we work. How will it change our future?BEFORE THE SMARTPHONETelephone calls used to be switched manually. Skilled operators connected callsin less than 4 seconds and often gave local news and train alerts, too.Switchboard operators direct overseas calls, December 1943.National Archives, Records of the Women’s Bureau“Every great invention takes a livelihood away from 50,000 men &within ten years creates a livelihood for half a million.”--Mark Twain, letter to William Dean Howells, 1888Banner:Technology, Tools, Computers, Plow, Industry, Farms, United, Machines,HandcraftedBackground Image:Riveter at Hog Island Shipyard, Pennsylvania, 1918.National Archives, Records of the War DepartmentFROM AGRICULTURE TO INDUSTRYBeginning about 1830, waves of Americans left the countryside to work in cities, wherenew technology changed lives. In factories, mills, offices, and shops, life now revolvedaround the clock instead of the seasons. Engineers and laborers built modern wonderswith huge machines.MOVING THE EARTHMammoth projects called for mammoth machines. Behemoths like the “five-yarddipper” helped the 12,000-person workforce build the Grand Coulee Dam. MasonCity, Washington—the first completely electric city in America—was built tohouse the workers.Worker on a “five-yard dipper” during construction of Grand CouleeDam, Washington, April 1936.National Archives—Rocky Mountain Region (Denver, Colorado),Records of the Bureau of Reclamation11
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