What is it like working in a Maine industry?

These leather bib overalls, gloves, and safety glasses were worn by a female welder at Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine.

Lucienne Doyon was around 19 years old when she started working at Bath Iron Works. She wore these clothes to protect herself from the hot metals she worked with. 

The thick leather helped resist burns. The glasses are tinted green and protect her eyesight from bright sparks. 

Lucienne was a Franco-American woman from Augusta, Maine. She was born on October 8, 1925. 

During World War II, many women filled jobs that were once only open to men. They took on new responsibilities and challenges and made it possible for life and industry to continue in America during the war. 

Lucienne in her welding outfit.

The woman on the left of this photo is Gwendolyn Kidder. She worked as a welder at Bath Iron Works during World War II. A welder uses a torch to heat two pieces of metal and join them together.

Maine has a long history of shipbuilding, both of wood and of steel. Bath Iron Works started in 1884 and built all kinds of ships, tug boats, barges, ferries, passenger ships, yachts, and freighters. They also built ships called destroyers for the United States Navy, which they still do today. 

During World War II, the United States Navy needed a lot more ships as fast as they could get them. BIW needed as many workers as they could get to keep up with the demand for new ships. On average, they were building a ship every 17 days. They started hiring women to work in the shipyard for the first time.

During World War II, many women started working in jobs like welding, which before had been done only by men. This is because many of the men had joined the military and were away fighting.

  A BIW ship built in 1945.

This is a lunch box and thermos made between 1915-1945.

Depending on their job, Maine industrial workers may have different breaks throughout the day. Lunch breaks usually weren’t long enough for workers to go home, so people started to bring food with them to work. 

This aluminum lunch box has clasps to keep it shut. Its top section can hold the thermos, which keeps drinks warm. A cork in the top keeps the liquid from spilling.

This photograph shows river drivers standing on floating logs.  Lumbermen harvested logs in the woods, removed their branches, and then stacked them at the edge of rivers like the Penobscot or the Kennebec.  

“River drivers” were people who worked to transport the logs down the rivers to the mills.  Their job was to keep the logs moving down the river.  

It was very dangerous, slippery work.  The river drivers had to be very athletic and careful to keep their balance on the rolling, floating logs.  If they fell off, they could quickly drown or be crushed by the surrounding logs.

The men in this picture are holding peavey hooks, which are tools with sharp points and a hook at the end.  The hooks were used to roll the logs off the stacks into the river and to break up log jams, which is when logs get tangled up in the water.  The men are riding the logs down the river all the way to the mills to keep them from getting jammed.

Log jams left sunken logs and other debris in the water, which clogged the waterways and hurt the environment.  Today, logs are harvested mechanically and transported by trucks to the mills, so log drives are no longer used. 

This is a photographic portrait of a river driver, but not much information about him exists. He may be a Wabanaki man. 

The person who donated the photo said it was a portrait of a Penobscot man, but his name is unknown. He may have also worked as a logger.

Native Americans worked as river drivers and were famous for their skill and athleticism. River drivers walked on logs bobbing in the river, using poles to move the logs in the right direction. It was incredibly difficult and dangerous.

River drivers’ boots have spikes so that they can dig into the bark on logs and help the workers stay upright.