| Exhibition Review | The Journal of American History, 93.1

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to JAH online. About 592 words from this article are provided below; about 1069 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the Organization of American Historians, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a member of the Organization of American Historians, you can:: • Join the OAH and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the Journal of American History.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two-hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Journal of American History (86.1-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the Journal of American History.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Exhibition Review | The Journal of American History, 93.1 | The History Cooperative

Exhibition Reviews

"The Way We Worked." Lawrence F. O'Brien Gallery, National Archives and Records Administration. Constitution Ave. between 7th and 9th Streets, NW, Washington, DC 20408.

Temporary exhibition, Dec. 16, 2005–May 29, 2006. Day after Labor Day–March 31, 10–5:30, April-Friday before Memorial Day, 10–7; Memorial Day weekend-Labor Day, 10–9. Free. 3,000 sq. ft. Bruce I. Bustard, curator; Raymond Ruskin, exhibit designer; Thomas Nastick, audiovisual enhancements; Rania Hassan, catalog design.

The Way We Worked. By Bruce I. Bustard. (Washington: Foundation for the National Archives, 2005. iv, 92 pp. Paper, $22.50, ISBN 0-9758601-2-7).

Internet: exhibition description, text, photographs, news and events, and membership information <http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/visit/special_ exhibitions.html> (March 6, 2006).

A labor history exhibition in the National Archives Building should be reason enough for social historians to celebrate, but the clever design scheme and the superb selection of photographs make "The Way We Worked" a landmark event. The exhibition is composed of eighty-six photographs from the archives collections, taken 1857–1987, and is broken into five thematic sections: "WHERE We Worked," "What We WORE to Work," "HOW We Worked," "CONFLICT at Work," and "DANGEROUS or UNHEALTHY Work." That topical scheme succeeds much more than an artificial periodization of work ever could, and the text accompanying the photographs consistently uses those five themes to explain how technological and economic changes occurred amid shifts in cultural and social norms. The exhibition has a central video display that cycles through footage of various workplaces, and the atmosphere is completed with a soundtrack audible through the entire gallery that combines the oral histories of workers with labor songs. Those supplements to the photographs and written text succeed in making the exhibition feel dynamic and personally involving.

The first section, "WHERE We Worked," begins with text that describes the rise and fall of the industrial economy, but the breadth of workplaces displayed demonstrates that a systematic understanding of changes in work is more elusive. In one of the first photos, taken in 1915, a young boy looks out at us from behind a fruit and vegetable stand, and in one of the last photos, a 1970s office worker in the Manpower Division of the County of Los Angeles smiles at us from behind his desk. Fewer than half the photos portray industrial environments, an excellent decision that allows the importance and diversity of agricultural and service workplaces to clearly emerge and ensures that women do not play a secondary role in this tone-setting section of the exhibition.

"What We WORE to Work" is a stroke of real brilliance and best integrates workplace photography with broad cultural and social historic trends. The opening section's text makes it clear that clothing on the job is not just a matter of comfort and safety, rather, "work clothes have other functions. They serve as badges of authority and status, make occupations immediately identifiable, and sometimes distinguish male and female roles." The explanations that accompany the photographs in this section continue to emphasize status and gender. The text that appears with a photograph of nurses in training from 1958 reads: "Nursing uniforms initially resembled maids' uniforms and emphasized the subservient nature of their position. By the early 20th century, however, nursing schools adopted distinctive uniforms to foster professional identity." The exhibition's approach to problems of worker autonomy is at its best in this section. A 1983 image of a fast-food restaurant employee, the last in this section, explains that these workers "wear company uniforms as one way to create a consistent and replicable brand."

. . .

There are about 1069 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.