Attachment Image
1910s

Unsafe working conditions at the Wire and Cable Company in Brooklyn, New York, 1914.  According to the report of the New York State Factory Investigation Committee, the photo shows wire-drawing machines unprotected.  On the machine to the left, the operator was recently caught and wound around the drums, sustaining frightful injuries.  Reports like this, coupled with events such as the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire in 1911, helped to stimulate the movement for workplace safety legislation.

Image from the New York State Archives and Records Administration, photograph taken for the New York State Factory Investigating Commission, 1911-1914.

See this image in the Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives exhibit.