All in a Day's Work: Industrial Lore
Chris Thorsten,
Iron Worker
Surrogate image: New York, New York. May 1943. A dock stevedore at the Fulton fish market. Gordon Parks. Photograph, 1943. (LC-USW3-28738-D).
- Name:
- Chris Thorsten
- Birth:
- 51 years ago, on board a fishing boat moored to a dock in New Orleans
- Ethnicity:
- Scandinavian
- Education:
- No formal education
- Occupation:
- Iron Worker
- Location:
- Union Hall, 84th Street, New York City
- Date:
- January 31, 1938, 1 PM to 3 PM
- Interviewer:
- Arnold Manoff
Interview Excerpt: "Is your job dangerous?"
Listen to Chris's response
"You ain't an Iron worker unless you get killed...Men hurt on all jobs. Take the Washington Bridge, the Triboro Bridge. Plenty of men hurt on those jobs. Two men killed on the Hotel New Yorker. I drove rivets all the way on that job. When I got hurt I was squeezed between a crane and a collar bone broke and all the ribs in my body and three vertebrae. I was laid up for four years."
Transcript #22032106
Choose a different excerpt from this topic:
Chris Thorsten, Iron Worker | Mr. Garavelli, Stonecutter | Alice Caudle, Mill Worker
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All in a Day's Work: Industrial Lore | Rank and File | Hard Times in the City: Testifying | Making Do: Women and Work
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