Figure 1 – Photograph by Michelle Bogre for the U.S. Information Agency, ca. 1978

I believe that there is an inherent dignity to labor.  And today, labor is underappreciated and under attack.  This afternoon, I came upon a simply amazing online exhibition about American labor from the U.S. National Archives.  Unfortunately, the original exhibition was in 2005, unfortunately because I wish that I could have seen it.  But in these online images there is something truly wonderful and really it is worth a visit to the site  – The Way We Worked: Photographs from the National Archives.  I’ve included a couple of images here.

Figure 1 is a photograph by Michelle Bogre for the U.S. Information Agency showing “Jean Schnelle pulls weeds out of a planter while balancing her six-month-old son, Dwight, on her hip.”  It was taken in Lockwood Missouri, ca. 1978.  When I first saw this it gave me the shudders.  Farming is one of the most dangerous professions.  But really?

And then there are the truly dangerous professions.  Figure 2 comes from the General Records of the U.S. Department of Labor, and was taken by an unknown photographer in an unknown location on May 23, 1958.  It shows nurses being instructed on the use of a respirator for polio victims.  A couple of weeks ago, I was speaking with an intensive care nurse at our local hospital about the hospital’s preparedness for ebola patients and about the degree of her training to deal with such cases.  This photograph reminded me of that conversation.  Some years ago, I saw a documentary about polio, and they interviewed a woman about her experiences with the disease as a young child.  She talked about the terror and about everyone being in white coats and trying not to touch her.  She asked if someone would hold her hand, there was a pause and then a nurse took her hand.  That is the dignity of human labor.

Figure 2 – Nurses being trained in the use of a respirator to treat polio victims, May 23, 1958, photographer unknown. From the archives of the U.S. Department of Labor.