womenatworkwwius

Some boxes here appear to be labeled "International Arms and Fuse Co., Bloomfield, NJ." Women worked at that plant in 1918, according to "The World of Ruth Draper: A Portrait of an Actress" by Dorothy Warren. books.google.com/books?id=7gy0bsbQ0JkC&pg=PA33&dq...

Other possible locations/companies are: * American Ammunition Company, 25 Broad Street, New York, which built a factory in Paulsboro, NJ in 1917. * American Ordnance Company, Bridgeport, CT * Derby, CT, home of the Driggs-Seabury Gun and Ammunition Company * Driggs-Seabury Ordnance Corporation, with a plant in Sharon, PA, and which also owned the Savage Arms Co. which had a plant in Utica, NY * Linderman Steel and Machine, Co, with plants in Muskegon, Michigan and Woodstock, Ontario. Apparently both plants were involved in the manufacture of naval ordnance in 1918 (according to Moody's Manual, linked below) See, for example, Poor's Manual of Industrials, Volume 7, 1916 books.google.com/books?id=LzxJAQAAMAAJ and Moody's Manual of Railroads and Corporation Securities, 1918 books.google.com/books?id=hmk3AQAAMAAJ

FWIW, boxes at left have printing: *** Jones Speedometer, New Rochelle, NY books.google.com/books?id=u9FMAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA43&lp... has an article from Machinery, Volume 20, Sept. 1913, with pictures of equipment used to manufacture the speedometers. Some of this equipment looks similar to equipment in this series of pictures. *** British Munitions Co., Ltd, Kings Park, Verdun, Que [Canada] American Machinist, Volume 49, August 29, 1918 books.google.com/books?id=i-49AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA410-IA11&... confirms the existence of the company and indicates it had a "shell factory." But these probably don't help identify the plant photographed here.

The dungarees/overalls are surprisingly close-fitting for the era. But then, they probably weren't preshrunk! See "War puts overalls in style" in The Chicago Day Book., February 28, 1917, LAST EDITION, Image 13 chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045487/1917-02-28/ed-...

Could be a date at the bottom 12/26/17. Note their hair is tied up to prevent it catching in the machinery, and protective cover over the foot control.

More on overalls for women in 1917: As Seen in Vogue: A Century of American Fashion in Advertising, page 32. books.google.com/books?id=MvilOZhaRkAC&pg=PR43&lp... One ad is from Finck's which was a Detroit company. See www.sweetjuniperinspiration.com/2010/02/fincks-overalls.html for a piece by someone who chased down the history of the company and deduced that it was taken over by Carhartt.

Thank you swanq and Retired at last for noting the date on the negative and for tracking down the interesting history of how World War I influenced women's clothing. We will add more details when we update.