AURORA | Leave it to one of the most celebrated poets of the 20th century to sum things up best.
“Who made America, whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain, whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain must bring back our mighty dream again.”
That’s what Langston Hughes wrote in his 1936 work “Let America Be America Again,” and it’s the basis of a new photo exhibit, on loan from the Smithsonian Institution, that will be displayed at the Aurora History Museum on April 3 through May 10.
Hughes’ words are scrawled across the introductory panel of the museum’s “The Way We Worked” exhibit, which features several dozen photographs taken over the past 150 years that depict American workers of every breed and brand. From brawny steel workers perched atop beams of the semi-completed Empire State Building in the early 1930s to leathery migrant workers in California plucking lettuce in 1972, the exhibit offers a comprehensive cross section of 19th- and 20th-century Americana.
Colorado Humanities, a nonprofit that helps bolster art education and displays across Colorado, is sponsoring the exhibit for several museums around the state this spring.
“It’s a great way for us to have an exhibit with some great photos, without having to spend a lot of money or put it together ourselves,” said Jennifer Kuehner, executive director of the Aurora History Museum.
A traveling exhibition adapted for the road from the original National Archives exhibition in Washington D.C., the photo series is split into five parts aimed at answering the questions of where the work depicted took place, how the job was done, what the motivation of the workers was, and with whom they were laboring alongside every day.
“These photos were taken primarily by photographers employed as federal government workers as many National Archives photos were taken by photographers hired through the government for specific projects,” Kuehner said. “The photos cover just a huge gamut of projects, with not only people at work, but also people in society being served by the workers in those jobs.”
Dozens of small artifacts, such as old typewriters and telephones, will also accompany the displays.
Kuehner explained that many of the photo panels feature written blurbs that explain how the work being depicted in the photos had societal influences, such as amending labor laws or impacting working conditions.
“(The photos) look at how their job conditions were, and then what changes those may have caused over the last 150 years and how those experiences have impacted society over the same time period,” she said.
On a local level, several of the photos on the exhibit’s approximately 20 panels were shot in Colorado, according to Kuehner. She said a handful of photos depict scenes from the rich agricultural history of the Eastern Plains, with a particular focus being paid to the booming sugar beet harvests of the mid-20th century.
“The sugar beet industry evolved at the very end of the 19th century and was a very important one through much of the 20th century, particularly in Colorado,” said James Fell, an American history professor at the University of Colorado Denver. “This exhibit is very effective in presenting and interpreting the way we were so to speak and a time when there was much more of a manual orientation in the American work world as opposed to today.”
As depicted in the theater production of “Beets” at the Aurora Fox Arts Center in January, a handful of beet harvests were commanded by German and Italian POWs during the throes of WWII, though Kuehner said she doesn’t believe any of the photos displayed in the exhibit feature any POWs.
“The federal government for sure had photographers out at Japanese internment camps, but if they were taken by the government they were taken to memorialize positive aspects and just focused on the positives,” she said. “Because they were trying to keep many aspects such a secret, I don’t believe they have many photographs from that era.”
She added that in collaboration with Read and Rant Productions (the company that helped produce “Beets” at the Aurora Fox earlier this year) the History Museum is aiming to bring the production back for a short run at the DeLaney Community Farm in Aurora later this summer.
“The Way We Worked” has already made stops in Denver and Grand Junction before coming to Aurora. After showing at the Aurora History Museum the exhibit will travel to museums in Florida, Michigan and Tennessee later this year.
“The Way We Work” runs at the Aurora History Museum, 15051 E. Alameda Parkway, April 3 – May 10. The museum is free to the public and open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday – Friday, and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
A panel of local historians and employers is slated to discuss the photos and the history of employment in Aurora at the Aurora History Museum on the afternoon of May 3.
“The Way We Work” runs at the Aurora History Museum, 15051 E. Alameda Parkway, April 3 – May 10. The museum is free to the public and open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday – Friday, and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
A panel of local historians and employers is slated to discuss the photos and the history of employment in Aurora at the Aurora History Museum on the afternoon of May 3.