What was it like to work and live in Bridgeport during the past two centuries? No one could tell us better than the people who worked on the line in the factories, sold goods behind the counter at a department store, taught children in local schools, ran a travel agency, worked as a housewife, drove a truck, or ran one of the many prosperous businesses that helped Bridgeport grow and develop. Bridgeport at Work chronicles the working life of Bridgeport, a center of industry and home to several legendary individuals. P.T. ...
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What was it like to work and live in Bridgeport during the past two centuries? No one could tell us better than the people who worked on the line in the factories, sold goods behind the counter at a department store, taught children in local schools, ran a travel agency, worked as a housewife, drove a truck, or ran one of the many prosperous businesses that helped Bridgeport grow and develop. Bridgeport at Work chronicles the working life of Bridgeport, a center of industry and home to several legendary individuals. P.T. Barnum, who made Bridgeport his adopted home, began an 1851 project that established an industrial center in East Bridgeport, spurring many other companies to set up in this remarkable city. Igor Sikorsky, Simon Lake, Lucien and I. DeVer Warner, Harvey Hubbell, Elias Howe, and for a short time even Buckminster Fuller all produced some of their best work in Bridgeport. World Wars I and II helped to build the munitions and defense industry in the city, and companies such as Remington Arms, the Lake Torpedo Boat Company, and Sikorsky Aircraft thrived. Bridgeport at Work shows the workers and companies, producing everything from Frisbie pies to firearms, that made Bridgeport the "Arsenal of Democracy," and an industrial leader at a crucial time in American history.
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Bridgeport at Work" (2002) is a photographic history of workers and industries in a blue-collar American city, the largest city in Connecticut. Bridgeport is located in Fairfield County at the mouth of the Pequonnock River on Long Island Sound. From the mid-19th to the mid-20th century, Bridgeport was home to an astonishing variety of industry and enterprise which, among many other things, made great contributions to the United States' war effort in both World Wars.
The author of "Bridgeport at Work", Mary Witkowski, worked for many years as archivist in the Bridgeport Public Library's Historical Collections. She co-wr0te another book on Bridgeport, "Bridgeport on the Sound" founded a website which preserves the city's rich working history, and currently serves as the historian of Bridgeport. Her love for and detailed knowledge of her city are ever-present in this book, which is part of Arcadia Publishers "Images of America" series of local histories.
Witkowski emphasizes how people in Bridgeport saw themselves as a community and viewed their diverse efforts as contributing to the common good. She writes of her efforts that led to this book: "collecting and deciphering the photographs of the last two centuries, one could figure out the thing that bound all the former Bridgeport citizens together: working together. Whether it was doing a job in a factory, raising a flag, helping to sell war bonds in World War I, developing public housing, or building a float for a parade, everyone was working together for the common good." All these activities and more are illustrated in Witkowski's pictorial history.
The book begins with Bridgeport after the Civil War with its most famous resident. P.T. Barnum's circus was headquartered and Bridgeport, and Barnum played an active entrepreneurial role in many of the city's new industries. Witkowski makes large use of Barnum's autobiography, "Struggles and Triumphs", a book unfamiliar to me and probably to most readers, in her discussion of early Bridgeport.
The book centers on the Twentieth Century and on Bridgeport's large industrial base. The city was home to military industries, including rifle, ammunition and ship construction plants, to an automobile plant, to manufacturers of business supplies, a sewing machine factory, a corset company, a manufacturer of buttons, a maker of canvas bags, a cigar manufacturer, the Ives Toy Company, an earlier manufacturer of model trains, and much more. There were businesses large and small. A small business, the Frisbee Pie Company became famous not for its pies but for its pie tin, which soon glided into its own independent life. Witkowski shows these businesses and even more she shows the people who worked in them, giving the reader a feel for their lives.
Witkowski emphasizes the role played by immigrants and by women in Bridgeport. The city's economic promise attracted new Americans from throughout Europe. Many of the newcomers ultimately went on to start businesses for themselves. Women worked in Bridgeport industries from the earliest days, particularly in apparel manufacturing. During the World Wars, women were heavily involved in supporting the war effort through work in manufacturing plants for industries supporting the wars, including electrical plants and ammunition plants. In 1945, a young woman working in Bridgeport, Anna Buzon, won recognition as "most typical war worker" for working diligently since the attack on Pearl Harbor in a job producing fuses for the military.
Witkowski's commentary on the images in this book is clear and insightful. The images themselves offer a portrayal of an industrial American city, with photographs of the factories, their equipment, and the workers. The book shows the life of an active, thriving city. Although not the focus of her book, Witkowski also shows unionization and strikes that came to play a large role in Bridgeport life with the rise of industry. In addition, for over 25 years, Bridgeport had a socialist mayor. In this respect, it reminded me of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the industrial city in which I grew up which elected socialist mayors for a number of years, mostly before my time.
Witkowski alludes briefly to the history of Bridgeport following its industrial age. For many reasons, businesses moved out of Bridgeport beginning in the 1970s. The city entered an era of decline and of hard times with unemployment, crime, and corruption at high levels in the city government. The city attempted unsuccessfully to file for bankruptcy. It continues to work at reinventing itself in the 21st Century. Witkowski writes that reflection on the communal efforts of individuals in the city's past will show "how their spirit and their work drove them through the obstacles of war, depression, and financial instability." The study of the history might inspire individuals to efforts to take pride in themselves and to work with others as they strive to regenerate their communities.
I enjoyed learning about Bridgeport in this book and thinking about the days of American industrialization and community effort. The book offers an inspiring story even for readers that have no ties to Bridgeport. Arcadia Publishers kindly sent me a copy of this book to review.
