Work - Overview
The tools, rules, and relationships of the workplace illustrate some of the enduring collaborations and conflicts in the everyday life of the nation. The Museum has more than 5,000 traditional American tools, chests, and simple machines for working wood, stone, metal, and leather. Materials on welding, riveting, and iron and steel construction tell a more industrial version of the story. Computers, industrial robots, and other artifacts represent work in the Information Age.
But work is more than just tools. The collections include a factory gate, the motion-study photographs of Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, and more than 3,000 work incentive posters. The rise of the factory system is measured, in part, by time clocks in the collections. More than 9,000 items bring in the story of labor unions, strikes, and demonstrations over trade and economic issues.
"Work - Overview" showing 1736 items.
Page 1 of 174
Mexican Kitchen
- Description
- The French-born artist Jean Charlot spent his early career during the 1920s in Mexico City. His 1948 lithograph depicts a scene from the domestic life of a Mexican indigenous woman, a favorite theme of the artist. Household work—without the aid of most, if any, electrical appliances—was a full-time job for many working-class and poor Mexican women, north and south of the border, well into the 20th century. Food preparation was especially labor-intensive. Corn had to be processed, wood gathered, and water fetched, in the midst of child rearing and other household duties. This was the daily fare of most women, who rarely worked outside the home after marriage. Mexican American women who found work in cities like El Paso in the early 20th century were either single or widowed. Many worked as domestic servants, others in industrial laundries or textile mills. Like today, some women turned to their kitchens to earn a living, making meager profits selling prepared food on the street to Mexican American workers and Mexican migrants.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1948
- graphic artist
- Charlot, Jean
- ID Number
- GA*23377
- catalog number
- 23377
- accession number
- 299563
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Barnet Rudin's Tailor's Sign
- Description
- These shears, pressing board, buttonhole cutter, buttonhole scissors, thread holders, and measuring sticks were owned by a Russian Jew named Barnet Rudin. An apprentice tailor from Minsk, Rudin immigrated to New York City in 1899 and finally settled in Rochester, NY, in 1908. There he opened a tailor's shop, which he continued to run up until his death in 1959.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- ca 1890
- user
- Rudin, Bainet
- ID Number
- TE*T17138
- catalog number
- T17138
- accession number
- 310752
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Braceros Waiting at Processing Center
- Description
- Photograph: Beyond railroad tracks, braceros wait in a large group for processing at the Monterrey Processing Center, Mexico.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date photographed
- 1956
- photographer
- Nadel, Leonard
- ID Number
- 2004.0138.01.01
- accession number
- 2004.0138
- catalog number
- 2004.0138.01.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Braceros on Railroad Tracks
- Description
- Photograph: Braceros stand beside railroad tracks while waiting to enter the Monterrey Processing Center, Mexico.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date photographed
- 1956
- photographer
- Nadel, Leonard
- ID Number
- 2004.0138.01.02
- accession number
- 2004.0138
- catalog number
- 2004.0138.01.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Braceros on Railroad Tracks
- Description
- Photograph: Braceros stand beside railroad tracks while waiting to enter the Monterrey Processing Center, Mexico.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date photographed
- 1956
- photographer
- Nadel, Leonard
- ID Number
- 2004.0138.01.03
- accession number
- 2004.0138
- catalog number
- 2004.0138.01.03
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Braceros at Processing Center
- Description
- Photograph: Beyond barbed wire, an official armed with a rubber truncheon directs braceros while others wait in line at the Monterrey Processing Center, Mexico.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date photographed
- 1956
- photographer
- Nadel, Leonard
- ID Number
- 2004.0138.01.04
- accession number
- 2004.0138
- catalog number
- 2004.0138.01.04
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Braceros Waiting at Processing Center
- Description
- Photograph: Braceros, holding their belongings, wait in lines organized by state of origin at the Monterrey Processing Center, Mexico.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date photographed
- 1956
- photographer
- Nadel, Leonard
- ID Number
- 2004.0138.01.05
- accession number
- 2004.0138
- catalog number
- 2004.0138.01.05
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Reviewing Braceros' Documents
- Description
- Photograph: An official standing in a wooden shed reviews one bracero's documents while more wait in line at the Monterrey Processing Center, Mexico.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date photographed
- 1956
- photographer
- Nadel, Leonard
- ID Number
- 2004.0138.01.06
- accession number
- 2004.0138
- catalog number
- 2004.0138.01.06
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Reviewing Braceros' Documents
- Description
- Photograph: An official standing in a wooden shed reviews one bracero's documents while more wait in line at the Monterrey Processing Center, Mexico.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date photographed
- 1956
- photographer
- Nadel, Leonard
- ID Number
- 2004.0138.01.07
- accession number
- 2004.0138
- catalog number
- 2004.0138.01.07
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Reviewing Braceros' Documents
- Description
- Photograph: An official standing in a wooden shed reviews one bracero's documents while more wait in line at the Monterrey Processing Center, Mexico.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date photographed
- 1956
- photographer
- Nadel, Leonard
- ID Number
- 2004.0138.01.08
- accession number
- 2004.0138
- catalog number
- 2004.0138.01.08
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center