Type of Work: Manufacturing, Mills, and Factories

Women sit at work tables in glove factory

Women with sewing machines at Serfis Glove Company in Wells

Women working at the Serfis Glove Company. Workers kept a bag of cut gloves by their side, ready to sew, and were paid by the pair. Most women also had commercial sewing machines in their homes and would do additional work at night or on weekends. March 6, 1956. Wells, NY. Photo courtesy of Bruce Wright.

Man sits next to machine

Man inside J&J Rogers Company acid plant in Au Sable Forks

John Vollmer inside the acid plant of the J&J Rogers Company’s pulp mill. He was the “lead burner” who did all of the lead work during the construction of the plant. Au Sable Forks, NY. Photo by Charles Derby. Courtesy of Elsa Voelcker. Click here to read or listen to our three-part story on the rise and […]

Men on steps of wet room

Workers on steps of pulp mill wet room in Au Sable Forks

Workers on the steps of the J&J Rogers Company pulp mill wet room. 1916. Au Sable Forks, NY. Courtesy of Elsa Voelcker. Click here to read or listen to our three-part story on the rise and fall of the J&J Rogers Company, one of the biggest industrial users of the Adirondack landscape.

Men inside wood room

Men inside J&J Rogers Company wood room in Au Sable Forks

Workers inside the wood room at the J&J Rogers Company’s pulp mill. From left to right: Frank Ashley, Alex Aubin, William Hopkins, and wood room foreman John Miller. Circa 1894. Au Sable Forks, NY. Photo by Charles Derby. Courtesy of Elsa Voelcker. Click here to read or listen to our three-part story on the rise and fall […]

Floating logs into wood room

Floating logs into J&J Rogers Company mill in Au Sable Forks

Worker oversees logs being floated into the wood room at the J&J Rogers Company’s pulp mill. Au Sable Forks, NY. Courtesy of Elsa Voelcker. Click here to read or listen to our three-part story on the rise and fall of the J&J Rogers Company, one of the biggest industrial users of the Adirondack landscape.

Men on floating dock

Men on floating dock during log drive in Au Sable Forks

Two workers stand on a floating dock above the J&J Rogers Company’s pulp and paper mill dam. Log drives sent pulp wood down both branches of the Ausable River from 1894-1923. Au Sable Forks, NY. Courtesy of Elsa Voelcker. Click here to read or listen to our three-part story on the rise and fall of […]

A. S. Rugge shirt factory workers on Park Street in Glens Falls

A. S. Rugge shirt factory workers on Park Street in Glens Falls

Workers of the A. S. Rugge shirt factory stand in front of the large frame factory building on Park Street in Glens Falls, NY. Circa 1893. The factory burned in 1894 and again in 1900. Courtesy of the Crandall Public Library Photograph Collection #1448, The Folklife Center at Crandall Public Library.

The Trombly family in Modern Mechanical Fab in Champlain

The Trombly family in Modern Mechanical Fab in Champlain

The Trombly family posing inside the offices/work space of Modern Mechanical Fab, a metal fabrication company that builds large metal works in Champlain. From left to right: Brandon Trombly and his child, John Trombly, and Heather. August 2019. Photo courtesy of John and Heather Trombly. You can read and listen to the whole story here, […]