Price: SOLD
SKU: 101175
PUBLISHER: Published by the Portland Star Match Factory. Geo. H. Walker & Co. Lith. Boston.
MEDIUM: Lithograph
DATE: c.1880.
EDITION SIZE: Image size, 14 x 19 3/4" (35.5 x 40.2 cm)
DESCRIPTION: This view shows the factory at the edge of Portland Harbor. Railroad tracks, a Boston & Maine Rail Road locomotive, and a well-stocked lumber yard.<br><br> Thirty-nine women, including 28 Irish-Americans, in 1888 worked in the packing room, separating finished matches into packets and wrapping them for sale and shipping. They were paid by the piece and averaged $5 a week. The women were subject to phosphorus poisoning, which could not only damage teeth but produce “phossy jaw,” the destruction of the jawbone. Each woman was equipped with a basin holding a wet sponge to put out fires when the matches accidentally ignited. Many women were aged 15 or under in 1907, when 70 women worked in the match factory. Diamond Match Company bought the factory around 1908 and eventually moved its operations out of the city.<br><br> The Walker Co. was formed in 1880 by George Hiram Walker and his brother Oscar. They were very prolific, publishing maps, atlases and bird's eye views of New England locales. The Walkers were the last of Boston's important lithographers.
ADDITIONAL INFO:
CONDITION: Good condition save for the tear in the left edge, 1" into the image.
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