Exhibition Script - Museum on Main Street

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The Way We Worked scriptON THE ASSEMBLY LINESIn the early 1900s Henry Ford realized that it was easier to move parts ratherthan people. He improved the assembly line system by dividing eachmanufacturing process into a series of small tasks and installing conveyor belts.Assembly line work takes skill and endurance for the fast-paced, long hours.Ford Motor Company workers on the first moving assembly line,Highland Park, Michigan, 1913.National Archives, Records of the U.S. Information AgencyAt the GM Assembly Division plant, a car body moves overhead,by Gregory Heisler, Tarrytown, New York, 1981[Video: featuring assembly line work]IT’S A SMALL WORKING WORLD“Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you.”These were the first words spoken over a telephone in 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell.Since then, communication on the job has come a long way. We are connectedinstantaneously almost anywhere around the world by satellites, radios, computers, andhandheld devices. The digital revolution changed how we communicate at work, whetherin the corner store, on the farm, or in the emergency room.THE FIRST COMPUTERThe ENIAC (the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) is considered theworld’s first general-use electric computer. It was over 8 feet tall and 80 feet long.Originally built for the Army in 1946, the ENIAC helped pave the way forcomputers in the workplace.A programmer operates the ENIAC, ca. 1948.National Archives, Records of the U.S. Information AgencyMACHINES IN THE OFFICEAs businesses grew more complex, so did office technology. Invented in the late1800s, dictation machines allowed office workers to compose letters by speakinginto a recording device. Typists then transcribed the recordings onto paper. Mostbusiness offices also had ticker-tape machines that relayed news from the stockmarket across the country.Stock ticker at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York City,by Underwood and Underwood, November 1918.National Archives,Records of the War DepartmentTranscribing records at the Dictaphone Sales Corporation, ca. 1925.National Archives,Records of the Women’s Bureau16
The Way We Worked scriptLOOK HOW FAR WE’VE COMECRITICAL LINKSThe lives of police officers, firefighters, astronauts, and other high-risk workersdepend on enhanced communications. Before the Detroit Police Departmentbecame the first in the country to have telephones in the station, people couldonly send electric signals to police via call boxes.America’s first female astronaut, Sally Ride, communicates withground controllers, June 1983.National Archives, Records of the U.S. Information AgencyHIGH TECH – THEN AND NOWHow does your cell phone compare to this 1920s telephone? Advancementshelped make tools smaller and faster in the 20 th century. Telephones withoutdials or buttons and manual typewriters gave way to wireless smartphones andcomputer data cards.[Object Shelf]Kellogg telephone, ca. 1915; Manual typewriter, ca. 1925; Blackberry, ca.2007; IBM Tabulator computer punch cards, ca. 1960.New York City Police Department, ca. 1908.Library of Congress, George Grantham Bain CollectionINFORMATION FROM EVERYWHERECommunications tools provide us with information and enable us to collaboratewith people all over the world in seconds. Inventions give rise to other inventions;teleprinters, for example, advanced the technology used by stock tickermachines.Worker receives news via teleprinter, December 1979.U.S. Department of AgricultureA farmer and an agronomist review crop data,by Bruce Fritz, ca. 2005.U.S. Department of AgricultureMASSIVE DATA STORAGEBy the late 1960s, corporations and government agencies used mainframecomputers on a large scale. These machines processed data faster than ever,but required a large workforce (usually female) to punch data onto cards andcheck for errors, while technicians (usually male) mounted tapes and processedjobs.Computer complex for handling travel reservations, January 1968.IBM Corporate Archives[Graphic: Envelope]YOU HAVE MAIL, FASTER1860: Pony Express Mail – Missouri to California, 10 days1900: Western Union Telegraph – New York to California, same day2010: Broadband Internet Email – Internationally, in seconds17
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