hard hat
notes: label: Description
content: This well-worn hard hat with an American flag sticker was used by Larry Cunningham, a lifelong resident of Waterloo, Iowa. Born in 1939 to an office manager and a house wife, he graduated high school in 1957 and enlisted in the U.S. Army during the Berlin Crisis in 1961. The army sent him to mechanics school in Maryland, and the bulk of his service was at Fort Riley in Kansas, as well as one year in Korea. After his discharge, Cunningham returned to Waterloo where he worked at John Deere; his wife worked part-time as well. When Cunningham was laid off in 1971, he joined the City of Waterloo as a surveyor, where he was issued this hard hat. He used the hard hat while surveying for many public works jobs: laying out sewers, laying out street grades, working during flood events to relay flood level information and construct sandbag dikes, surveying for parking lots and parking ramp constructions, and more. Cunningham noted that he “really enjoyed the work . . . and learned a lot.” Although the City discouraged workers from decorating their hard hats, many did so nevertheless. Cunningham added this flag to his hat as a symbol of his pride and independence. He donated this hard hat after his retirement in 2000.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanical and Civil Engineering
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Larry M. Cunningham
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2001.0145.01
label: accession number
content: 2001.0145
label: catalog number
content: 2001.0145.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Hard Hat
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 5 3/4 in x 11 1/2 in x 9 1/4 in; 14.605 cm x 29.21 cm x 23.495 cm