North Country At Work

Exterior of a blacksmith shop in Pope Mills. Men and children in front of the building with horses and a wagon. Circa 1880s. Pope Mills in the town of Macomb, NY

The exterior of Harriet Lytle’s Millinery Shop, three women and two children stand in front of the doors. On board at right is a WCTU (Women’s Christian Temperance Union) bulletin. Circa 1910-1915. Canton, NY.

Brasher Iron Works employees outside the building. A horse and buggy with two women poses on the left. Men sit on roller on rights. Circa 1880s. Brasher. Donated by Ada Morse of Winthrop.

English canal investors near Massena, on the site of what would be the Massena power canal. Massena, 1898.

Psychiatric Center Ward in the Ogdensburg Hospital; pictured are empty and occupied beds, the Ward matron, and several nurses. Note the difference in the matron’s uniform (dark and all in one piece) and the other nurses (light and with a pinafore over a dress). The hospital had a nurses’ training school. Circa 1900. Ogdensburg. Check […]

The members of an ALCOA Citizenship Class posing for a photo in patriotic costumes. Many ALCOA workers were immigrants who did not speak English or possess an education, so ALCOA offered a citizenship night class for workers. One black man and several women in group. Circa 1915. Massena.

Postmaster Michael Ingram and his wife Catherine in front of the Hickory Post Office, which served the Hickory Lake area in the town of Macomb. 1900. Macomb, NY.

Men gathered downtown with horses and wagons for Turkey Day, a day just before Thanksgiving during which farmers sold their turkeys to buyers from cities like New York, Boston, and Montreal. Circa 1910. Lisbon, NY. Click here to read a North Country at Work story on a Lisbon girl who hid notes inside of the turkeys her family […]

A crowd of employees and guests stand on the porch of the Commercial House. Circa 1900. Nicholville, NY.

A worker dressed in an apron stands outside the Lawrenceville Butter Mill in Lawrenceville, a hamlet in the town of Lawrence. Circa 1900-1910. Lawrenceville, NY.