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Work and Transformation: Documenting Working Americans

Symposium Co-Sponsored by the American Folklife Center and the
Institute for Museum and Library Services

December 6-7, 2010
Thomas Jefferson Building, Room 119
Library of Congress
Washington, DC 20540

Images Documenting Work
Selected from American Folklife Center Fieldwork Project Collections

Easter Benson, owner of E&A Soul Food Restaurant, prepares biscuit dough. Paterson, New Jersey. Photo by Susan Levitas, 1994. Working in Paterson, AFC 1995/028: WIP-SL-C001-20

Textile Designer Gaetano "Guy" Pepe with a textile pattern at Joseph Teshon, Inc. Photo by David Taylor, 1994. Working in Paterson, AFC 1995/028: WIP-DT-C005-11.

Louis McDowell gives Michael Young a haircut in his barber shop in Paterson, New Jersey. Photo by Martha Cooper. Working in Paterson, AFC 1995/028: WIP-MC-C072-05.

Woman purchasing vegetables at a produce stand in the farmers market, Paterson, New Jersey. Photo by Martha Cooper, 1994. Working in Paterson, AFC 1995/028: WIP-MC-C004-19.

Judith Thomas, L.P.N. (left) and Cindy Gross (right) beside a medicine cart at St. Joseph's Hospital, Paterson, New Jersey. Photo by Martha Cooper, 1994. Working in Paterson, AFC 1995/028: WIP-MC-C078-14.

Myron Smart stacking hay on a truck bed in preparation for feeding cattle. Smart is one of several Paiute Indians among the ethnically diverse employees on the Ninety-Six Ranch in Paradise Valley, Nevada. Photo by William H. Smock, 1979. Buckaroos in Paradise, NV80-WS1-2.

Vivian Jarrell canning string beans which she grew in her garden in the Coal River Valley. Photo by Lyntha Scott Eiler, 1996. Tending the Commons: Folklife and Landscape in Southern West Virginia, CRF-LE-C144-05.

A worker spoons sweet potato pie batter into a pie shell at Sweet Potato Pie, Inc. Paterson, New Jersey. Photo by Martha Cooper, 1994. Working in Paterson, AFC 1995/028: WIP-MC-C050-05.

Litha Lowe piecing a quilt top. Often an artistic pursuit today, quilting retains its traditional function of reusing scraps of fabric to keep the family warm. Photo by Lyntha Scott Eiler, 1978. Quilts and Quiltmaking in America, AFC 1982/009: BR8-LE39-3.

Andria Santos working in accounts payable at Watson Machine International in Paterson, New Jersey. Photo by Robert McCarl, 1994. Working in Paterson, AFC 1995/028: WIP-RM-C017-07

Woman with spools of thread in the warping department at Kalkstein Silk Mills, Inc., Paterson, New Jersey. Photo by Martha Cooper, 1994. Working in Paterson, AFC 1995/028: WIP-MC-C022-12.

Ranch owner Les Stewart making a "buckaroo breakfast" in camp on the Ninety-Six Ranch in Paradise Valley, Nevada. Photo by Linda Gastañaga. Buckaroos in Paradise, NV8-LG63-9.

Bert Reales adjusts the cutting tool on the traveler on the flywheel in his lathe at Watson Machine International, Paterson, New Jersey. Photo by Robert McCarl, 1994. Working in Paterson, AFC 1995/028: WIP-RM-C011-16

Engineers Mohamad Chamaa and Guosheng Lu measuring conduit on the rotary take-up at Watson Machine International in Paterson, New Jersey. Photo by Robert McCarl, 1994. Working in Paterson, AFC 1995/028: WIP-RM-C012-04

Jaime Diaz making a sample of silk threads so that customers can see how various colors look. Kalkstein Silk Mills, Inc., Paterson, New Jersey. Photo by Martha Cooper, 1994. Working in Paterson, AFC 1995/028: WIP-MC-C022-05