Pitcairn, Pennsylvania, May 1943. Before the "Rust Belt" became the Rust Belt, it looked like this. Photos by Marjorie Collins.
Lunch hour in the women's locker at the yards of the Pennsylvania Railroad
Miss Helen Gusmerotti, twenty-nine, employed at the Pennsylvania Railroad
as a car repairmen's helper, earning seventy-two cents per hour
Miss Mary DaVanzo, twenty-two, employed at the Pennsylvania Railroad steel car
shop boiler room as a stationary firemen's helper, earning seventy-two cents an hour
Mrs. Agnes Glunt, mother of a child four years old, employed as a
rivet heater in the Pitcairn, Pennsylvania Railroad steel car shop
Mrs. Bernice Stevens of Braddock, Pennsylvania, mother of one child, employed
in the engine house of the Pennsylvania Railroad, earns fifty-eight cents an hour
[notice the difference?]
Twins Amy and Mary Rose Lindich, twenty-one, employed at the Pennsylvania
Railroad as car repairmen helpers, earning seventy-two cents per hour
Mrs. Julia Sabo, thirty-five, mother of three children, employed as a machinist's helper
in the Pennsylvania Railroad yards, earning seventy-two cents an hour