Working in Paterson Project collection
By: collected by the American Folklife Center in cooperation with the National Park Service
Contributors: Lautenberg, Frank R., interviewee; Pascrell, Bill, interviewee; Taylor, David Alan, 1951- interviewer; Archive of Folk Culture (Library of Congress); American Folklife Center; Library of Congress. National Digital Library Program; United States. National Park Service. Mid-Atlantic Regional Office
Published: 1993
Language: eng
Number of pages: 6500
Subjects: Irish Americans; Ethnic restaurants; Industrial Architecture; Polish Americans; Arab Americans; Labor unions; Pageants; Processions; Labor; Religious life and customs; Arab American business enterprises; Italian Americans; Watson Machine International; Customs and practices; Machine shops; Social life and customs; Hispanic American business enterprises; Textile workers; Community life; Occupations; Field recordings; Catholic Church; African American business enterprises; Hispanic Americans; Family-owned business enterprises; Employment; Women dressmakers; Colombian American business enterprises; Beauty contestants; African Americans; Ethnic groups; Textile industry
Other titles: Working in Paterson Project,; Working in Paterson, occupational heritage in an urban setting; Working in Paterson : a survey of occupational culture in Paterson, New Jersey, with recommendations for public programming.
Description: The collection consists of manuscripts, sound recordings, photographs, artifacts, publications, and ephemera from an ethnographic field project conducted by the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, which documented occupational culture in Paterson, New Jersey in 1994. Subjects include the textile industry, industrial architecture, machine shops, labor unions, family owned businesses, dressmaking, and ethnic restaurants. A single manufacturing firm, Watson Machine International, was the focus of an in-depth study. The project focused on the ways in which community life and values are shaped by work and how the theme of work intersects with other themes, namely family, ethnicity, gender, neighborhood, religion, and change over time.
Notes: Sound recordings include interviews with U.S. Senator Frank R. Lautenberg and U.S. Congressman Bill Pascrell (former mayor of Paterson) conducted by project director David A. Taylor.

Access restrictions apply; some or all content stored offsite. Please contact the Folklife Reading Room before requesting materials:  folklife@loc.gov ; 202-707-5510.

Working in Paterson Project Collection (AFC 1995/028), Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

A substantial portion of the collection, with interpretive essays, is available as "Working in Paterson: Occupational Heritage in an Urban Setting," an American Memory online resource compiled by the National Digital Library Program of the Library of Congress.

American Memory online resource, "Working in Paterson," is also on CD-ROM discs in the collection.

Duplication of the collection materials may be governed by copyright and other restrictions. Information about ordering audio and photographic reproductions is available on the Library of Congress American Memory website.

This four-month field project, June to September 1994, was part of the federal Urban History Initiative (UHI) sponsored by Sen. Frank Lautenberg and administered by the National Park Service's Mid-Atlantic Regional Office. A research team of five folklorists from the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress and a documentary photographer interviewed and photographed workers from local industries and documented other aspects of the occupational heritage of Paterson, New Jersey.

In English, Italian, and Spanish.

Finding aid is available in the Folklife Reading Room, Library of Congress, and online via the American Folklife Center web pages.