Women in the Maryland Work Force

Introduction

During the mid-nineteenth century, there were few economic opportunities for women outside traditional occupations such as  teaching or finding work as a seamstress. By the turn of the century, women began to move into more diverse occupations. In Maryland, particularly on the Eastern Shore, women found work in the canning factories that processed fruit and oysters and in urban areas, they found work in the numerous sweatshops in the garment and manufacturing industries. 

National History Standards

Materials compiled in this document can be used by educators to fulfill the following National History Standards for Grades 5-12:

Era 6: The Development of the Industrial United States (1870-1900)

Standard 3 The rise of the American labor movement and how political issues reflected social and economic changes 

Standard 3A: The student understands how the "second industrial revolution" changed the nature and conditions of work.

7-12: Explain the change from workshop to factory and how it altered the worker's world. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships] 
9-12: Account for employment in different regions of the country as affected by gender, race, ethnicity, and skill. [Formulate historical questions] 

Primary Resources

Accounting

1. DESCRIPTION: Photograph, women working in Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. payroll office 
   CREATED/PUBLISHED: 1917
   SOURCE: Robert G. Merrick Archives of Maryland Historical Photographs, MSA SC 1477-1-4716
   REPOSITORY: Maryland State Archives

Child Care

1. DESCRIPTION: Photograph, Nannies pose with their charges. Mt. Vernon Place. 
   PHOTOGRAPHER: Unknown
   CREATED/PUBLISHED: n. d.
   SOURCE: Baltimore When She Was What She Used To Be Collection,  MSA SC 2167-1-57
   REPOSITORY: Maryland State Archives

Education

1. DESCRIPTION: Photograph, Classroom at Western Maryland College
   PHOTOGRAPHER: Unknown
   CREATED/PUBLISHED:
   NOTES: Miss Lottie Owings practiced her teaching skills in a classroom at Western Maryland College in 1888. (FROM: Mame and Marion Warren, Maryland Time Exposures, 1840-1940)
   SOURCE: Robert G. Merrick Archives of Maryland Historical Photographs, MSA SC 1477-1-6293
   REPOSITORY: Maryland State Archives

2. DESCRIPTION: Photograph, Franklin High School home economics class
   PHOTOGRAPHER: Unknown
   CREATED/PUBLISHED: 1900 c.
   NOTES: Home ecomomic students at Franklin High School, ca. 1900, appear captivated by a cooking demonstration on eggs. (FROM: Mame and Marion Warren, Maryland Time Exposures, 1840-1940)
   SOURCE: Robert G. Merrick Archives of Maryland Historical Photographs, MSA SC 1477-1-5679
   REPOSITORY: Maryland State Archives

Farming

1. DESCRIPTION: Photograph, Mrs. Mattingly making sausage with her son
   PHOTOGRAPHER: Unknown
   CREATED/PUBLISHED: 1930s
   SOURCE: Robert G. Merrick Archives of Maryland Historical Photographs, MSA SC 1477-1-5203
   REPOSITORY: Maryland State Archives

2. DESCRIPTION: Photograph, Mrs. Mattingly cooking outdoors in iron kettle
   PHOTOGRAPHER: Unknown
   CREATED/PUBLISHED: 1930s
   SOURCE: Robert G. Merrick Archives of Maryland Historical Photographs, MSA SC 1477-1-5204
   REPOSITORY: Maryland State Archives

Fruit/Oyster Packing and Food Processing

1. DESCRIPTION: Photograph, Picking crabs for market
   PHOTOGRAPHER: Unknown
   CREATED/PUBLISHED: before 1906
   SOURCE: Robert G. Merrick Archives of Maryland Historical Photographs, MSA SC 1477-1-4752
   REPOSITORY: Maryland State Archives

2. DESCRIPTION: Photograph, Esskay Meat Processing Company
   PHOTOGRAPHER: Unknown
   CREATED/PUBLISHED: n. d.
   SOURCE: Robert G. Merrick Archives of Maryland Historical Photographs, MSA SC 1477-1-6182
   REPOSITORY: Maryland State Archives

3. DESCRIPTION: Photograph, Strawberry sorters packing crates
   PHOTOGRAPHER: Unknown
   CREATED/PUBLISHED: 1925 c.
   SOURCE: Robert G. Merrick Archives of Maryland Historical Photographs, MSA SC 1477-1-6609
   REPOSITORY: Maryland State Archives

4. DESCRIPTION: Photograph, Anne Arundel County farmers with strawberry harvest
   PHOTOGRAPHER: Unknown
   CREATED/PUBLISHED: 1928
   SOURCE: Robert G. Merrick Archives of Maryland Historical Photographs, MSA SC 1477-1-6734
   REPOSITORY: Maryland State Archives

5. DESCRIPTION: Photograph, Women picking crabmeat
   PHOTOGRAPHER: Unknown
   CREATED/PUBLISHED: c. 1940
   SOURCE: Robert G. Merrick Archives of Maryland Historical Photographs, MSA SC 1477-1-6720
   REPOSITORY: Maryland State Archives

Garment Industry

1. DESCRIPTION: Photograph, Knitting shop
   PHOTOGRAPHER: Henry Rinn, Jr.
   CREATED/PUBLISHED: 1905 c.
   SOURCE: Robert G. Merrick Archives of Maryland Historical Photographs, MSA SC 1477-1-5313
   REPOSITORY: Maryland State Archives

Manufacturing

1. DESCRIPTION: Photograph, Tipping department of Polan, Katz and Company (umbrellas)
   PHOTOGRAPHER: Unknown
   CREATED/PUBLISHED: 1925 c.
   SOURCE: Robert G. Merrick Archives of Maryland Historical Photographs, MSA SC 1477-1-6179
   REPOSITORY: Maryland State Archives

Communications

1. DESCRIPTION: Photograph, Telephone subscription teams
   PHOTOGRAPHER: Unknown
   CREATED/PUBLISHED: before 1931
   NOTES: By 1931 many homes and most businesses had telephone service. The Depression forced many subscribers to give up the convenience, but the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company responded by hiring teams of solicitors to call existing customers to convince them of the benefits of maintaining service. An average of 3,623 calls were made daily by each team. (FROM: Mame and Marion Warren, Maryland Time Exposures, 1840-1940)
   SOURCE: Robert G. Merrick Archives of Maryland Historical Photographs, MSA SC 1477-1-4717
   REPOSITORY: Maryland State Archives

2. DESCRIPTION: Photograph, Applicants for telephone school
   CREATED/PUBLISHED: before 1913
   SOURCE: Robert G. Merrick Archives of Maryland Historical Photographs, MSA SC 1477-1-4712
   REPOSITORY: Maryland State Archives

3. DESCRIPTION: Photograph, Calvert Street Station
   CREATED/PUBLISHED: before 1919
   SOURCE: Robert G. Merrick Archives of Maryland Historical Photographs, MSA SC 1477-1-4713
   REPOSITORY: Maryland State Archives

4. DESCRIPTION: Photograph, Telephone business office
   CREATED/PUBLISHED: n. d.
   SOURCE: Robert G. Merrick Archives of Maryland Historical Photographs, MSA SC 1477-1-4714
   REPOSITORY: Maryland State Archives

5. DESCRIPTION: Photograph, Baltimore & Ohio Railroad PBX switchboard
   CREATED/PUBLISHED: before 1929
   SOURCE: Robert G. Merrick Archives of Maryland Historical Photographs, MSA SC 1477-1-4715
   REPOSITORY: Maryland State Archives

Additional Media Resources

The Telephone -- Study of the telephone involves discussion of monopolies, patents, and women in the workforce.

Secondary Resources

Argersinger, Jo Ann E.  Making the Amalgamated: Gender, Ethnicity, and Class in the Baltimore Clothing Industry, 1899 - 1939.  (Studies in Industry and Society).  Baltimore:  John Hopkins University Press, 1999.

Bronstein, Jamie, "Caught in the Machinery: The Cultural Meanings of Workplace Accidents in Victorian Britain and the United States" Maryland Historical Magazine 2001, vol. 96, no. 2, pp. 163

Associated Heritage and Preservation Organizations

Baltimore Museum of Industry 1415 Key Highway Baltimore, MD 21230 Phone: (410) 727-4808

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Credits

Teaching American History in Maryland is a collaborative partnership of the Maryland State Archives and the Center for History Education (CHE), University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), and the following sponsoring school systems: Anne Arundel County Public Schools, Baltimore City Public School System, Baltimore County Public Schools, and Howard County Public Schools.

Other program partners include the Martha Ross Center for Oral History, Maryland Historical Society, State Library Resource Center/Enoch Pratt Free Library, with assistance from the National Archives and Records Administration and the Library of Congress. The program is funded through grants from the U.S. Department of Education.

This document packet was researched and developed by Nancy Bramucci.

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