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<\/a>Durfee Mills accident insurance claim forms in as-found condition, compressed and fused together.<\/p><\/div>\n
Statistical information gleaned from accident reports in Massachusetts factories was compiled by the state and is readily available to researchers, but this collection of records is particularly significant because it constitutes a dossier of each accident, from the day of the incident, through treatment, recovery and, in a few cases, permanent disability.<\/p>\n
Particularly interesting are the details of the accident as relayed by the employee to the overseer, and the method of treatment \u2013 often refused \u2013 directly recorded by the attending nurse or relayed to her by the physician. Occupational risks were many and accidents frequent; injuries to hands and feet were the most regularly reported \u2013 fairly unpleasant stuff, to be sure.<\/p>\n
The reports are particularly interesting to me because they hit close to home.<\/p>\n
My paternal grandfather \u2013 a weaver at the Sagamore Manufacturing Company \u2013 lost the greater portion of a finger as a result of an industrial accident in the nineteen-teens, in his case, operating a loom. I was only seven years old when he died so my memories of him are sketchy, but by all accounts he was a very nice man and I have never heard a disparaging comment about him. He put up with much from his wife \u2013 she could be tough \u2013 his only child, who was my father, and his five grandchildren, of which I am the youngest.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Employees of the Sagamore Manufacturing Company, Fall River, Massachusetts, c. 1915<\/p><\/div>\n
As a boy, I recall sitting on his lap, spraying an a ample application of Lemon Pledge onto his bald head, and polishing it to a brilliant sheen with a dust rag \u2013 amazing, really, what furniture polish can (or could) do to scalp.<\/p>\n
But the one thing I remember most distinctly about him was the stub on his right hand where a forefinger should have been \u2013 absolutely fascinating to a child. Where was it?<\/p>\n
<\/a>Manuel Luiz Martins Sr. (1890-1972) is standing at the far left of the window.<\/p><\/div>\n
The Durfee Mills accident reports detail similar scenarios; many were the men, women, and children in Fall River permanently scarred as a result of their work. Wheels lost cogs, employees lost fingers, or worse \u2013 both were considered disposable commodities, easily replaced.<\/p>\n
Fall River\u2019s cemeteries are filled with the skeletal remains of its industrial workforce; how many are badged with a missing joint bone, I wonder?<\/p>\n
There was a major issue with the accident reports, specifically with the onionskin copies: Decades of storage under the weight of ledgers and boxes of records, coupled with fluctuating temperature and humidity had tightly compacted the sheets, causing the coated onionskin paper to fuse together.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Application of distilled steam beginning to release the bond.<\/p><\/div>\n
They were compressed very flat, some into fascinatingly irregular shapes with the printed and typewritten text scrambled, by virtue of contraction, into something akin to veining on extremely thin slivers of brittle marble. It was impossible to open them without causing irreparable damage.<\/p>\n
Conservation \u2013 possible to undertake in-house \u2013 would take a considerable amount of time, something at a premium for the FRHS.<\/p>\n
And so, in storage the reports remained \u2013 for thirty-two years.<\/p>\n
Until the COVID-19 pandemic, that is.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the year, when non-essential businesses were closed, the FRHS staff began working remotely; I was the only person in the museum building on a daily basis.<\/p>\n
Amazing, how quiet the place is.<\/p>\n
As such, I was able to accomplish a great deal, with social isolation allowing for long stretches of uninterrupted time to devote to a single, rather involved project.<\/p>\n
The project?<\/p>\n
Onionskin accident reports.<\/p>\n