Documenting the Scranton Lace Company

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  • When people hear “The Scranton Lace Company”, they typically think of the largest producer of Nottingham lace in America; a company that operated for over a century in Scranton, Pennsylvania. What many people do not realize is that the Scranton Lace Company was more than just a workplace for its employees. They had many sports teams that competed across the state of Pennsylvania in the early 1900s. The Company provided a way for its many employees to escape the mundane life of manufacturing. The Scranton Lace Company offered sports such as baseball and basketball, and even had bowling lanes built within the factory. At the height of industry, these activities allowed workers to relieve stress, have fun and build a community. One of these teams from the company was the 1906 to 1907 Scranton Lace Works soccer/football team, as shown in the picture. The picture shows all eleven of the players with their managers around them, while two championship trophies stand proudly in front of them. Before explaining the photo further, it is important to look back at the year that the Scranton Lace team had, leading up to the forgotten photograph.
    The soccer team started in 1906 by winning the Lehigh Valley League, as reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer on January 1, 1906. The league consisted of fourteen total teams ranging from cities like Wilkes-Barre and Forrest City. As stated in “The Scranton Truth” on February 5, 1906, Mr. Dimmick, the president of the Lace Company at the time, presented The Silver Cup for the champions at a banquet for the team and stated that a team must win the cup three times in order for the cup to be the teams property.
    Fast forward to 1907, the Scranton Lace Works Football Team led the Anthracite Association league and looked to win The Silver Cup that was presented to them a year prior. The league consisted of teams from both Lackawanna and Luzerne Counties with the teams belonging to Throop, Old Forge, Wilkes-Barre, Forty-Fort, and Nanticoke. At the last stretch of the season, the Scranton Lace Works team was undefeated and was closing in on The Silver Cup. On April 29, they were matched up against Wilkes-Barre and needed to defeat them to become champions. The Scranton Lace Works breezed past Wilkes-Barre with a score of 3-0 and won the championship and The Silver Cup. The team finished the season undefeated with no team ahead of them.
    After they won the cup, Lace Company President Mr. Dimmick held a dinner at The Hotel Terrace to celebrate the team’s championship win. Although Mr. Dimmick was battling illness and was not able to attend, forty-two people were present while multiple people in the organization gave speeches praising the team’s success. During the dinner, the team and managers gathered and took a picture to preserve the memory of the successful season that the Scranton Lace Works had. The picture that was taken is the same picture that is shown here today and is one of the only artifacts that acknowledges the history of the successful but forgotten 1906 to 1907 Scranton Lace Works soccer team.
    The soccer team was well-known and popular at the time, traveling around the state of Pennsylvania to face the best talent and were even mentioned in newspapers such as The Philadelphia Inquirer multiple times. Although they were a popular and widely successful soccer team in Pennsylvania, The Scranton Lace Works soccer team has been forgotten with time. Today, little is known about the team or their accomplishments. While many people are familiar with the history of the Lace Factory and their mass production of Nottingham Lace, most are unaware of the historic background the company has with sports. One hundred years ago, the team was known all around Pennsylvania and was featured in the newspaper every time they played. The team’s history has nearly vanished with almost no trace, as people tend to forget about things that were once important to them and move on.
    Although the team has been largely forgotten, their success in soccer was still important for the company at that time. They were well known and very successful and gave the Scranton Lace Company a good reputation and standing in the community. They were pioneers of soccer in Pennsylvania and helped shape sports in the state. Although people may have forgotten about them, the Scranton Lace Works soccer team’s story still lives on today in the picture taken after their historical season.

  • Newspaper article about the reason behind a dining trip. In 1907 the mayor of Scranton took the laceworks football club to dinner.

  • A photograph of a group of men taken in front of the laceworks in 1899. There is a mixture in types of attire, most likely representing the different roles that each man played in the company.

  • The Scranton Lace Company pushed for a community type environment for their company. One of these many community like activities was a men’s soccer team. This image was taken in 1905, and there are more images such as this taken in later dates.

  • 12 men surrounding a fine dining table, all dressed well. These were most likely higher members of the factory and we could assume that meetings such as this were common for many types of events.

  • This is a photograph of approximately fifty workers for the Scranton Lace Company, taken in 1899. This image highlights the separation between male and female workers, and the large amount of child labor that took place prior to child labor laws. As you look deeper into the photo, more and more faces will pop out as seeming young, with many pictured individuals looking as if they are under the age of fifteen. It is important to note that a large majority of workers during this time were immigrants or other people struggling to make ends meet, hence the large number of children working in the factory. This was not uncommon for the time, in 1870 approximately one out of eight children were working, and this number rose to one in five around 1910. Unfortunately, this practice of child labor continued for many years after this photograph was taken.
    In the late 19th century, the factories created with the rise of the Industrial Revolution were at some of their most successful points, the Scranton Lace Company was no exception. Child labor has been a common practice throughout history, as many children were apprentices or servants. This practice, however, reached its peak during the Industrial Revolution. During this time, many families were desperate for work, and many factory workers were either immigrants or were forced to move to industrial areas to make a living. While having small children work factories may not seem appealing, many large factory owners looked to hire children. This is mostly because children would be hired for smaller wages and companies knew that children were not likely to form unions- a practice that allowed workers to band together for better conditions and pay (Shuman, 2017). As you can imagine, this in the end would lead to a cycle of children unable to go to school, and then in most cases, unable to climb the social ladder.
    Working conditions for children were just as demanding and dangerous as that of their adult counterparts. It was not abnormal to hear of a child working twelve hour days five to six days a week, working around the same heavy machinery as adults and being tasked with jobs that were ideal for their ‘small hands’ (Schuman, 2017). Children were also subjected to work in sometimes fatal conditions. Factories often consisted of heavy equipment that workers could easily be hurt while operating, not to mention the long term effects of the smoke and fumes created by factories. While there is not much information circulating about the working conditions for workers in the Scranton Lace Company, it can be assumed that it shared the many dangers of its competitors. It can also be assumed that the company did not stop the practices of child labor until forced to, when laws were created defining the legal age of employment.
    It was not until 1900, one year after this photo was taken, that a movement to end child labor was in the center of social reformations. In 1904 the National Child Labor Committee was formed, with a goal of emphasizing reform. In the years of 1902 to 1915, images of children working were used to bring awareness and spark outrage among the public. In the 1920s there was a push for a constitutional amendment that was eventually passed in 1924, the problem with this was that not many states wished to ratify it. In fact it was not until 1938 that the Fair Labor Standards Act set a minimum wage, maximum number of work hours per week and set limitations for child labor (History.com Editors, 2009). This means that by the time these laws were implemented the children in this photograph were well into adulthood, and their children most likely also ended up in the vicious cycle of child labor before reform came about.
    Ultimately, this image is a stark reminder of how common child labor was in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Many factories at this time hired multiple young workers and the Scranton Lace Company was no exception. Looking at the photograph, it is easy to spot multiple children under the current legal working age, and there is a chance that there were many more young workers that were not included in this specific picture. At the end of the day, child labor was one of the lows in the history of the United States, and thankfully today there are laws to protect the rights of children. Today, laws preventing child labor lead to an increase in childhood education, which allows children to be given to tools to succeed.




















    References
    History.com Editors (2009, October 27). Child Labor. History.com.
    https://www.history.com/topics/industrial-revolution/child-labor
    Michael Schuman, "History of child labor in the United States—part 1: little children working,"
    Monthly Labor Review, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, January 2017, https://doi.org/10.21916/mlr.2017.1

  • This is a report from 1946 on the operations of the company from that year. It includes all the expenses that the company had and explained how the company operated. It spanned about 19 pages with illustrations on each page.

  • Above is pictured four women working in The Scranton Lace Company. All four are working to making lace with a sewing machine in front of them, pictured from left to right are: Eleanor Rudd, Dorothy Mangan, Eleanor Williams, and Mildred Hobbs. “Picot and Overlock” is a description of the techniques and stitches that each woman is using to produce the lace. The first two women on the left are Eleanor Rudd and Dorothy Mangan who are working on the picot stitch and the next two women are Eleanor Williams and Mildred Hobbs working on the overlock stitch. Both the picot and the overlock stitch are stiches that are used at the edge of pieces, the picot stitch was more decorative with loops, and it was often seen on collars and clothing to upscale fashion. The overlock stitch simply encloses the edges keeping them secure to prevent any fraying. The overlock stitch requires its own sewing machine, as shown in the picture, two of the women have machines that look different than the others. The Overlocker sewing machine allows you to sew at a faster pace and get as close to the edge of the fabric to reduce waste and extra seam.
    This piece highlights some of the many women who worked at The Scranton Lace Company, women began working in factories in the early 1800’s following the opportunities the industrial revolution brought for them. Working for women historically has always been very limited and simply having a job came with opportunities for financial independence and growth for women. The fact that women were working at this factory was incredible, majority of the workers were men, but women also had a place in the factory as well.
    The Scranton Lace Company has been around since the late 1890’s so this company had women working throughout its history. They typically had easier jobs that did not require much labor, such as the women in this picture. Their work did not require intense labor, and they were even able to sit down while they sew; their attire even suggests so, as they are each wearing dresses. These women were still responsible for much of the product made, as seen in the picture, there are three to four barrels for them to put their finished lace pieces, two out of the roughly four barrels are overflowing. Other tasks that women were responsible for were inspecting and folding the lace. Much of the fashion from The Scranton Lace Company was brought by women, again apparent by their clothing. Although the job of these women was not too demanding, their work was very intricate and detailed. They were responsible for the crafting of the lace and adding decorative details found in the lace pieces that made them so beautiful. The historical context of lace originates from centuries ago, lace was a symbol in the 1800-1900’s, it symbolized wealth and status and was also driven by fashion. The women in this picture did not only contribute to this growing fashion, but also the history and increasing demand of lace.
    Lace was a very popular fabric during this time, it was used for a range of different things from clothing to accessories to houseware to decorations. Lace was a very popular detail found in clothing and dresses, specifically wedding dresses, and always added a sophisticated look. Lace was used for houseware, it could be found in table runners, curtains, and tablecloths. Lace was also a perfect decoration and accessory to add to anything, it could add detail to trims of cloths and collars. All in all, the demand for lace was on an upscale growth and the production of it also evolved, before the 1800’s lace was only handmade and it was not until 1809 that lace machinery was made, this increased production immensely. Because of this, profit and production from The Scranton Lace Company also grew, they produced high-quality lace purchased from around the world, they were able to produce intricate pieces with unique designs appealing the eyes of any. The work The Scranton Lace Company did and the women in the pictures did, stretched out to a range of different items and the demand was them was unbelievable.

  • Two women, Dolores Hopkins and Francis Bell, pull floral lace over a heat sealing machine.

  • Pictured from left to right are Delores Hopkins and Francis Bell. These women are working on a heat-sealing table, which helps to preserve the structural integrity of the delicate lace.
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