Exhibition Script - Museum on Main Street

The Way We Worked scriptphotographic records in the Archives’ Presidential libraries and thousands more inregional facilities.Section 2: WHERE WE WORKEDImagine the darkness of a coal mine, fierce winds atop a skyscraper, waves of heat from afoundry against your skin, or the beeping of monitors in modern hospitals. Where we workaffects us deeply. No two farms, ships, or offices are ever the same. A workplace changes overtime, creating new experiences and challenges. Either we mold it to fit our needs, or we adjustas best as we can.Where we work may seem obvious, but look around. Americans work just about everywhere!Background Image:ROW BY ROWAlthough technology helps, cultivating and harvesting crops is still laborintensive.A new term, “stoop labor,” was popularized by the 1940s to describethe physically demanding bending, pulling, and heavy lifting done by field handsevery day.Weeding sugar beets for $2.00 an hour near Fort Collins, Colorado,by Bill Gillette, June 1972.National Archives,Records of the Environmental Protection Agency“Put another season’s promise in the ground”--Field Behind the Plow, song by Stan Rogers, 1980Banner:Factories, Mines, Rivers, Offices, Stores, Oceans, Sky, Land,Communities, HomeBackground Image:Driving a steel piling, October 1935.National Archives,Records of the Bureau of Reclamation,Engineering and Research Center2