In 1881, Peter J. McGuire and Gustav Luebkert co-founded the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America.   The mid to late 1800s were heady and sometimes bloody years for laborers.  McGuire fought and led a successful strike for the eight hour work day while involved in the Greenback Labor Party, in St. Louis, Missouri.  In 2025, as we are nearly smothered by mattress and furniture commercials during the Labor Day weekend, I make myself ponder the reason for the weekend.  The weekend, eight hour work days, time off from work, and holidays are some of the pleasures we enjoy and take for granted today for which organized labor fought long and hard.  Not to mention the increase in workplace safety, the diminished use of child labor, and decent wages.  It was a war of sorts between the rich and the working men, women, and children who labored in factories and on farms.  It is a time many seem to have forgotten.

Despite the fact that more Americans are now employed in the computer and technology sectors, and the health care and insurance industries, there is a lively and most welcome resurgence in industrial/trades/vocational education.  There is a joy human beings get from working with their hands, regardless of the tool - from wrench to computer, or paintbrush and camera to plow mechanized or not - the world as we know it would be markedly different without you.

All tool boxes or kits - large or small - help us do our work.

Labor Day blog - tools

Steve's workshop has got to be one of the largest private shops I have seen, and every single item in it is used.

Tools of the trade 1
 

Working in television and film as a makeup and hair artist, Genica Lee also does hair and makeup for weddings and other occasions.  Here she uses one of her picks to place curls and hair precisely where she wants them to be.  I wish that one of the wedding photographs I had taken was of her makeup suitcase.  It was a rolling bag similar to the kind many people use for travel, packed with her tools of the trade - brushes, picks, combs, pins, and fasteners, as well as multiple types and shades of makeup.   

And Fred's basic wooden loom is part of his larger tool box, also containing multiple layers of wool, and occasionally requiring a wrench, screw driver, or hand drill to keep it working properly.  

Rug 335 in process (5 of 12)

Thanks to all of you for the work you do, and for those who commented on last week's blog, including Barbara F. R., Steve, Jean & Sam, Terry T. Cahterine, TTT, and Marilyn G.

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image©