North Country At Work

Exterior of the Sheffield Milk Plant, which later became the McCadam Cheese Plant. Depot building is in the distance on the right. 1940s. Chateaugay, NY.

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.

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 […]

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.

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 […]

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.

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 […]

Inside the main machine shop of the Bagley & Sewall Company. Watertown, NY. Circa 1930s or 1940s. Photo submitted by Franz Helin, from the company brochure.

Draftsman Frans Alfred Helin (right) inspects machine at the Bagley & Sewall Company. Watertown, NY. Circa 1930s. Photo submitted by Franz Helin.  

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.