Exhibition Script - Museum on Main Street

The Way We Worked scriptFarm woman using her electric mangle, Montgomery County, Indiana,--by J.M. Butzko, August 12, 1930.National Archives, Records of the Extension ServiceEastman interview (2000) from Remembering the 20 th Century: AnOral History of Monmouth County.--Courtesy Monmouth County Library, New JerseyUSE CAUTION“We [tested for radioactive residues] desks, drawer handles, any placewhere people were and the things [workers] touched.“I remember one time we had to rope off the entire lab wing because ananalyst . . . contaminated a hallway by spilling something on the floor andthen walked around with it on his shoe.”– Henry Peterson, former technician at the Idaho National LaboratoryTechnology made some jobs safer, but it also created dangerous jobsthat were unimaginable 100 years ago. Human experience is still crucialto read data and maintain safety.Operating a nuclear power plant turbine in Fort St. Vrain, Colorado,--by Bruce McAllister, May 1972.National Archives, Records of the Environmental Protection AgencyPeterson interview (1999) from Proving the Principle: A History of theIdaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, 1949–1999,--by Susan M. StacyHANDCRAFTED“One day, one of the young boys came up to me and he said, ‘The piece Iwant is this shape, but we cannot do it. . . . Is there any other place whereI can send the job out?’ . . .“I said I would rough it out on the milling machine, and on the lathe,and on the grinder, to get as close as possible, and then after Iwould freehand it. . . . I finished it completely by hand, with a file.”– Michel Bilger, was a toolmaker apprentice when he was 15 yearsoldThe skill of working by hand is increasingly rare. Yet surgeons,carpenters, and jewelers are among the many craftsmen whoknow, the most precise tools are their hands.Worker at Hamilton Watch Company, Lancaster, Pennsylvania,--by Lewis W. Hine, ca. 1936–37.National Archives, Records of the Work Projects Administration13