The Way We Worked...Exhibit and Events!

In partnership with CT Humanities and the Smithsonian Institute, we are pleased to be a part of this exciting year-long event.  Connecticut is hosting the Smithsonian Institute’s traveling exhibit, The Way We Worked, at various locations throughout the state. January through March 2014 the exhibit will be at the Warner Theatre.  The exhibit looks at the history of work in America.

In collaboration with our partners, the library is hosting events to enhance the exhibit.  Our events include:

Women’s Work in WWII By John Cilio
Thurs., Feb. 13th at 6:30 / Registration begins February 1st

The Lewis Hine Project: Tracking down the Lives of Child Laborers with Joe Manning
Thurs., March 6th at 6:30 / Registration begins Feb. 15th
Sponsored by the Jeffrey and Susan Lalonde Community Betterment Fund

For additional information about our programs and the exhibit at the Warner Theatre, please click "read more"!

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Women’s Work in WWII By John Cilio
Thurs., Feb. 13th at 6:30 / Registration begins February 1st

The author adeptly transports the reader back to the era when men went off to war and the majority of women remained behind to care for families and fill the enormous gaps left vacant by the soldiers. From the very start you will hear stories of amazing everyday working and service women of WWII that changed America forever. They started with the mission to help their country and their friends and relatives in the war. They ended up proving their competence in thousands of roles previously performed by men only.

Women enlisted in every branch of service available to them and served around the globe bravely and proudly. The text and photos document the chain of circumstances that propelled the nation to realize that women can be an overtly sustaining force within our society.

The Lewis Hine Project: Tracking down the Lives of Child Laborers with Joe Manning
Thurs., March 6th at 6:30 / Registration begins Feb. 15th
Sponsored by the Jeffrey and Susan Lalonde Community Betterment Fund

For more than seven years, Joe Manning has been identifying some of the more than 5,000 child laborers that were photographed in the early 1900s by Lewis Hine, and then tracking down and interviewing their descendants. So far, he has been successful at telling the stories of more than 300 children, thus answering many times over the proverbial question, “Whatever happened to that child?” Hine was on a mission. He wanted to eradicate child labor in the United States, a practice that had existed since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, and was rampant in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The National Child Labor Committee hired him in 1908 to take photographs of the children in or near their workplaces, in order to expose their plight to as many influential people as possible. Hine did that for the next 10 years. Manning will show some of these historic photographs, tell the stories of the children in them, and talk about the exciting process of searching for descendants, most of whom were not aware of the pictures of their parents or grandparents. Some of the stories at this presentation will be about children who were photographed in New England. Information about Manning’s Lewis Hine Project can be seen at this link on his website www.MorningsOnMapleStreet.com/LewisHine.html

The Way We Worked draws on the National Archives’ rich photographic collections to document 130 years of changing work life in America. Using images, video, audio and interactive components, the exhibition reveals the effects of industrialization, urbanization, immigration, labor unrest, wars and economic depression on ordinary working Americans, whether they toiled in a coal mine, on a tractor, at a typewriter or on an assembly line.

Spanning the years 1857-1987, the exhibition’s 86 black-and-white and color photographs document, in rich visual detail, American workplaces, work clothing, working conditions and workplace conflicts. They also reflect a workforce shaped by immigration and ethnicity, slavery and racial segregation, wage labor and technology, gender roles and class, as well as by the American ideals of freedom and equality.

The exhibit will be located in the Warner’s Nancy Marine Studio Theatre lobby and will be opened Thursdays & Fridays from 1-7pm and Saturdays and Sundays from 1-5pm. Admission is free and open to the public.

Dates: January 25 through March 9, 2014

Hours: Exhibition hours will be Thurs & Fri from 1-7pm; Saturday & Sundays from 1-5pm

Admission Cost: free admission to the public

Warner Theatre
68 Main Street
Torrington, CT 06790
(860) 489-7180

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