American Workers in Color | PICRYL collections

291 Media in collection ∙ page 1 of 3

Carefully trained women inspectors check and inspect cargo transport innerwings before they are assembled on the fuselage, Douglas Aircraft Company, Long Beach, Calif.

Woman working on an airplane motor at North American Aviation, Inc., plant in Calif.

C & NW RR; locomotives in the roundhouse at Proviso yard, Chicago, Ill.

American mothers and sisters, like these women at the Douglas Aircraft Company, give important help in producing dependable planes for their men at the front, Long Beach, Calif. Most important of the many types of aircraft made at this plant are the B-17F ("Flying Fortress") heavy bomber, the A-20 ("Havoc") assault bomber and the C-47 heavy transport plane for the carrying of troops and cargo

Santa Fe R.R. locomotive shops, Topeka, Kansas

Gus Worke, a farmer who came from Germany 40 years ago, Southington, Conn.

C. & N.W. R.R., Mrs. Dorothy Lucke, employed as a wiper at the roundhouse, Clinton, Iowa

An A-20 bomber being riveted by a woman worker at the Douglas Aircraft Company plant at Long Beach, Calif.

Women at work on bomber, Douglas Aircraft Company, Long Beach, Calif.

A rivet is her fighting weapon. Oyida Peaks, daughter of a Navy lieutenant, one of many women taking NYA training to become mechanics at the Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas. After eight weeks apprenticeship she will be qualified as a civil service worker in the Assembly and Repair Department

Riveting team working on the cockpit shell of a B-25 [i.e. C-47] bomber at the plant of North American Aviation, Inc., Inglewood [i.e. Douglas Aircraft Company, Long Beach], Calif.

Photo shows a woman and man working on a Douglas Aircraft Company cockpit shell identified as a C-47 based on the window outline. Although sometimes called a 'biscuit bomber,' the plane was for transport. (Sour... more

Lowering an engine in place in assembling a C-87 transport plane at the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation plant, Fort Worth, Texas

John Sabados washing up after a day's work at the rip tracks at Proviso yard of C & NW RR., Chicago, Ill.

Electronics technician, Goodyear Aircraft Corp., Akron, Ohio

Mike Evans, a welder, at the rip tracks at Proviso yard of the C & NW RR, Chicago, Ill.

Answering the nation's need for womanpower, Mrs. Virginia Davis made arrangement for the care of her two children during the day and joined her husband at work in the Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas. Both are employed under Civil Service in the Assembly and repair department. Mrs. Davis' training will enable her to take the place of her husband should he be called by the armed service

[Car in front of Shulman's Market on N at Union St. S.W., Washington, D.C.

Drilling on a Liberator Bomber, Consolidated Aircraft Corp., Fort Worth, Texas

Working with a small steam drop hammer at the blacksmith shop in the Santa Fe R.R. shops, Topeka, Kansas

P-51 ("Mustang") fighter planes being prepared for test flight at the field of the North American Aviation, Inc., plant in Inglewood, Calif.

Welder making boilers for a ship, Combustion Engineering Co., Chattanooga, Tenn.

Working on wing of Consolidated Liberator Bomber, Consolidated Aircraft Corp. plant, Fort Worth, Texas

Mechanical operator on boiler parts, Combustion Engineering Co., Chattanooga, Tenn.

Two Navy wives, Eva Herzberg and Elve Burnham, entered war work after their husbands joined the service, Glenview, Ill. They assemble bands for blood transfusion bottles at Baxter Laboratories. Mrs. Burnham is the mother of two children

Colored mechanic, motor maintenance section, Ft. Knox, Ky.

John L. Walter, conductor at Proviso yard of the C&NWRR. Mr. Walter has been employed on the railroad for 45 years, 32 of them as conductor. The red nose and cheeks are due to the below zero weather outside. Chicago, Ill.

Santa Fe R.R. streamliner, the "Super Chief," being serviced at the depot, Albuquerque, N[ew] Mex[ico]. Servicing these diesel streamliners takes five minutes

Section of a locomotive frame, which will be welded to replace a broken locomotive frame, Chicago, Ill. Workman is indicating what place must be cut. At the 40th Street shop of C&NWRR

"Big Pete" Ramagos, rigger at work on dam (TVA) Douglas Dam, Tenn.

Flexible performance of C-47 transport planes is due in part to their two 1,200 horsepower radial engines and to their three-blade variable-pitch propellers, Long Beach, Calif. Picture taken at the Douglas Aircraft Company. The versatile C-47 performs many important tasks for the army. It ferries men and cargo across oceans and mountains, tows gliders and brings paratroopers and their equipment to scenes of action

Working on a locomotive at the 40th Street shop of the C & NW RR, Chicago, Ill.

Chicago and North Western R.R., Mrs. Thelma Cuvage, working in the sand house at the roundhouse, Clinton, Iowa. Her job is to see that sand is sifted and cleaned for use in the locomotives. Mrs. Cuvage's husband works as a guard at the Savannah (Ill.) Ordnance plant

Crane operator at TVA's Douglas Dam, Tennessee

Helen Ryan, age 41 (with cap), widow and used to work in a show factory, Heil and Co., Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Agnes Cliemka, age 23, married and husband may be going into the service any day, brother in the army. [She] used to be a clerk in a dep[artmen]t store. Unmasking and checking parts of the gasoline trailers that will be turned over to the Air Force

Thomas Madrigal greasing a locomotive in the roundhouse, Rock Island R.R., Blue Island, Ill.

Mrs. Virginia Davis, a riveter in the assembly and repair department of the Naval air base, supervises Chas. Potter, a NYA trainee from Michigan, Corpus Christi, Texas. After eight weeks of training he will go into civil service. Should he be inducted or enlist in the armed service, he will be valuable to mechanized units of the Army or Navy

As an NYA trainee working inside the nose of a PBY, Elmer J. Pace is learning the construction of Navy planes, Corpus Christi, Naval Air Base, Texas

Drill press operator, Allegheny Ludlum Steel[e] Corp., Brackenridge, Pa.

P-51 ("Mustang") fighter planes being prepared for test flight at the field of North American Aviation, Inc., plant in Inglewood, Calif.

An experimental scale model of the B-25 plane is prepared for wind tunnel tests in the plant of North American Aviation, Inc., Inglewood, Calif. This plant produced the B-25 bomber

Mounting motor [on a] Fairfax B-25 bomber, at North American Aviation, Inc., plant in [Inglewood], Calif.

Making wiring assemblies at a junction box on the fire wall for the right engine of a B-25 bomber, North American Aviation, Inc., [Inglewood], Calif. Forward of this wall will be mounted one of the two 1,700-horsepower Wright Whirlwind engines which carry the B-25 through performances up to Altitudes of 25,000 feet

Grading oranges at a co-op orange packing plant, Redlands, Calif. Santa Fe trip

Transfusion donor bottles, Baxter Lab., Glenview, Ill. Formerly a sculptress and designer of tiles, Dorothy Cole converted her basement into a workshop to tin plate needles for valves for blood transfusion bottles prepared by Baxter Laboratories where she lives. She turns in her profits to war bonds to provide a college education for her young nephew

A good job in the air cleaner of an army truck, Fort Knox, Ky. This Negro soldier, who serves as truckdriver and mechanic, plays an important part in keeping army transport fleets in operation

C&NWRR, towerman R.W. Mayberry of Elmhurst, Ill., at the Proviso yard. He operates a set of retarders and switches at the hump, Melrose Park (near Chicago), Ill.

Inspecting of landing wheel of the transport planes at Willow Run

Photo shows the Willow Run manufacturing plant, run by the Ford Motor Company near Ypsilanti, Michigan, which made the B-24 Liberator bombers during World War II. (Source: Flickr Commons project, 2009)

Farm owned by James Pompey, who 20 years ago came from Italy on the advice of a brother, Southington, Connecticut. People of Finnish, Slav, German, and Polish extraction help him to farm it

Annette del Sur public[iz]ing salvage campaign in yard of Douglas Aircraft Company, Long Beach, Calif.

Electric phosphate smelting furnace used to make elemental phosphorus in a TVA chemical plant in the vicinity of Muscle Shoals, Alabama

Agnes Cliemka, age 23, married and husband may be going into the service any day, Heil and Co., Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Agnes used to work in a dep[artmen]t store. Checking of gasoline hose of gasoline trailers before being turned over the Air Force

An employee in the drill-press section of North American's huge machine shop runs mounting holes in a large dural casting, Inglewood, Calif. This plant produces the battle-tested B-25 ("Billy Mitchell") bomber, used in General Doolittle's raid on Tokyo, and the P-51 ("Mustang") fighter plane which was first brought into prominence by the British raid on Dieppe

Girl inspector confers with a worker as she makes a a careful check of center wings for C-47 transport planes, Douglas Aircraft Company, Long Beach, Calif.

Construction work at the TVA's Douglas Dam, Tenn.

Two women workers are shown capping and inspecting tubing which goes into the manufacture of the "Vengeance" (A-31) dive bomber made at Vultee's Nashville division, Tennessee. The "Vengeance" (A-31) was originally designed for the French. It was later adopted by the R.A.F. and still later by the U.S. Army Air Forces. It is a single-engine, low-wing plane, carrying a crew of two men and having six machine guns of varying calibers

Working on the cylinder of a locomotive at the C & NW RR 40th Street shops, Chicago, Ill.

On North American's outdoor assembly line, a painter cleans the tail section of a P-51 fighter prior to spraying the olive-drab camouflage of the U.S. Army, N[orth] A[merican] Aviation, Inc., Inglewood, Calif.

With careful Douglas training, women do accurate electrical assembly and installation work, Douglas Aircraft Company, Long Beach, Calif.

Inspecting of landing wheel of the transport planes at Willow Run

[Children on row house steps, Washington, D.C.]

Jack Whinery, homesteader, and his family, Pie Town, New Mexico

Photograph shows Jack Whinery (1907-1994) with his wife Edith and their five children, Wanda, Edith, Velva, Jack and Lawrence in his father's lap. (Source: Flickr Commons project, 2015)