About this Item
Marathon Paper Mills and later American Can Company industrial safety archive documenting workplace medicine, accident prevention campaigns, first-aid training, and factory safety administration in Menasha, Wisconsin, from the 1940s-60s. The album records how Midwestern paper and graphic arts manufacturers attempted to reduce industrial injuries during a period when paper mills and printing plants remained physically hazardous workplaces filled with heavy rollers, cutting machinery, chemical exposure, steam systems, and high-speed industrial presses. During the postwar decades, American manufacturers increasingly institutionalized safety committees, plant nursing departments, and employee first-aid instruction in response to rising workers' compensation costs, union pressure, and national workplace safety campaigns promoted by organizations such as the National Safety Council. Marathon Paper Mills was acquired by American Can Company in 1957, placing the Menasha Graphic Arts plant within one of the nation's largest packaging and industrial printing corporations. Photo and scrapbook archive of over 100 pieces, with approximately 75 black-and-white photographs, including twelve 8 x 10 inch prints, with typed programs, corporate memoranda, newspaper clippings, conference photographs, official correspondence, and safety-related ephemera, Menasha, Wisconsin, 1940-1969. Group portraits identify attendees at the Fox River Valley and Lakeshore Safety Conferences of 1940, 1941, and 1942. Numerous mounted photographs depict factory nurses treating workers, administering oxygen equipment, conducting examinations, teaching first-aid procedures, inspecting washrooms and sanitary facilities, and leading emergency-response instruction for plant employees. Workers stand beside industrial presses and mechanical equipment while captions stress housekeeping, sanitation, accident reporting, and machine safety. Several pages preserve newspaper coverage celebrating "one million safe man hours" and "three consecutive years of safe working without a disabling injury," alongside a 1969 letter signed by Wisconsin Governor Warren P. Knowles congratulating the American Can Graphic Arts Plant on its safety record. A 1953 letter from the National Safety Council thanks Marathon Corporation for photographs displayed at the Industrial Nursing Section exhibit during the National Safety Congress in Chicago, directly tying the album to nationally circulated industrial safety programming. The album preserves a narrower glimpse into ground level industrial plants with the emergence of workplace medicine and safety management as formal corporate systems. The main photographs focus on the Marathon First Aid Department, where nurses, supervisors, and workers collaborated in organized training programs intended to reduce accidents and standardize emergency response inside hazardous production environments. Captions repeatedly emphasize sanitation inspections, accident prevention, emergency transport, and employee instruction, demonstrating how industrial safety became both a managerial program and a public relations tool during the postwar era. Photographs mounted with corner tabs throughout; scrapbook pages retain mounted newspaper clippings, letters, and typed documentation; light toning, occasional adhesive discoloration, and minor edge wear present. Overall in very good condition.
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