Oct 20, 2008

Seed Ladies

to locate this image on the American Memory website use search terms WOMEN, TYPICAL and DISPLAY
I love this shot, of women employed by the W. Atlee Burpee Company, purveyors of seeds and bulbs. More than a hundred photos of the company's internal Philadelphia operations were taken in April 1943.

Photographer Arthur S. Siegel's caption for this image reads: "Women with a typical display rack of Burpee seeds."

Other photos in the series show women such as these eating lunch, testing seeds, filling orders, and keeping accounts. One photo illustrates the point that, "Due to the war, the janitor is a girl..."