Posts Tagged ‘labor’
Gender, Work, and Virtue: Women Foundry Workers and the Politics of Labor Reform
By Beth Folsom, 2026 This week, as Cambridge joins the rest of the country in marking the Labor Day holiday, we also mark the anniversary of an industrial raid that challenged the city’s notions of “suitable” work for women and the role of government in regulating working conditions, hours, and wages. At the beginning of…
Read MoreForgotten Souls of Tory Row: Remembering the Enslaved People of Brattle Street
All are welcome to view the striking art installation on the front lawn of the Hooper-Lee-Nichols House from dawn to dusk. Only a few days left to see the exhibit before it comes down on April 7.
Read MoreChanging Tides in Cambridge Industry
By the early 20th century, Cambridge was an industrial center with a broad array of factories. People from all over the country and the world came to work here. Why?
Read MoreUpcoming History Cafe will pose the question: Washington slept here, but who made his bed?
A talk on women, Black Cantabrigians and the work of revolution
Read MoreHistory Hive: Mrs. McCartney
#HCHistoryHive, you did it! We asked you to help us find the identity of a well known female mechanic who may have run a Gulf gas station in Brattle Square. This mechanical whiz was able to fix a car by hammering and/or kicking the motor. When asked if her fee was too much for simply…
Read MoreDr. Ann Bookman: Advocate of Gender Equality and Social Change in the Workplace
“Working women need wives! A woman must be all things to all people.”
Read MoreThe Blake & Knowles Steam Pump Works in East Cambridge: The Female Foundry
“Our women are strong, and fully capable of doing the work which is required of them.”
Read MoreMinimum Wages for Women in Early 20th Century Cambridge
By Sarah Huggins, Intern, Lesley UniversityMarch 2020 What image enters your mind when thinking about Cambridge? For many, it’s the Corinthian columns of our prestigious institutions of higher education. But less than a hundred years ago the city was a major industrial center:- a manufacturing mecca of brick buildings and smokestacks. The Boston Daily Globe…
Read MoreYWCA of Cambridge: Labor Activism in the 1890s-1930s
By Sarah Huggins, Intern, Lesley UniversityMarch 2020 The YWCA of Cambridge established itself as self-governing in 1891 with a simple mission, “To improve the temporal, moral and religious welfare of those who come under its care, by personal influence and by industrial and educational classes.” The organization operated with liberal policies for their era in…
Read MoreSome Aspects of the East Cambridge Story
By John W. Wood, 1956 “This paper gives a totally inadequate account of an appealingly picturesque and colorful neighborhood, the area that might have been a slum and isn’t, the step-child of the University City. “ – J. W. W. For some reason, the local history of East Cambridge has been almost completely neglected. It…
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