Textile Industry, 18 Scenes of Tool Rooms, Labor, and Mid-Century Machinery in Reading, Pennsylvania Photo Archive c. 1945

1945. Reading, Pennsylvania factory photo archive documenting textile machinery production and hosiery manufacturing work, circa late 1940s to early 1950s, at or near the Wyomissing industrial complex associated with Textile Machine Works and Berkshire Knitting Mills. Reading became one of the major American centers for full fashioned knitting machinery after Ferdinand Thun and Henry Janssen founded Textile Machine Works in 1892, and the equipment seen here belongs to the world of stocking manufacture before seamless nylon hosiery reshaped the industry in the 1950s.

Photo archive of 17 large silver gelatin photographs,each 8 x 10 inches, Reading or Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, circa 1940s to early 1950s. Rows of large knitting machines fill long factory rooms under fluorescent lighting; workers stand beside circular or braiding machinery marked with chalked Greek words; an engineering office includes men studying large technical drawings; machine tools, metal stock, exterior factory buildings, tanks, and utility structures place the scenes within a large industrial plant. Several versos are stamped "Paul Bauer, Photographer, 608 Franklin St., Reading, Pa." and "Photo by Paul Bauer." Several shop-floor views include a chalked Greek vocabulary list beside the machinery, a striking detail in a Reading industrial region that had an established Greek immigrant community by the early twentieth century.

The archive records the machinery, workers, drafting practices, and plant environment behind Pennsylvania's textile machinery economy at the point when American hosiery manufacturing still depended on large, specialized mechanical systems and skilled shop labor. Documenting the production floors, machine details, engineering rooms, workers, and exterior plant views. Minor edge and curling; images remain clear and well preserved. Overall in very good condition.