Past Exhibits October 2003 to Present
Brooklyn Works:
400 Years of Making a Living in Brooklyn
October 2003 to December 2006

If you worked on Brooklyn's waterfront in 1897, you might have lived at 422 Van Brunt Street in Red Hook and boarded with the Struck family and their employees pictured here. Thirteen boarders from Germany, Russia, Ireland, England, Scotland and New York slept and ate at the boarding house, conveniently located just a short walk from work.

Fish smokers, farmers, nurses, brewers, pretzel bakers, novelists, web-site designers, artists and artisans, truck drivers and bankers, which is most typical of Brooklyn's working people?... All are! "Brooklyn Works" celebrates four centuries of astonishing enterprise and ingenuity, of change and continuity. Come with us to explore the dynamic relationship linking this unique place and people.

This family-centered, interactive exhibition was about the working people of Brooklyn -- their occupations, the many challenges they faced, their resilience -- and how Brooklyn's workforce contributed to shaping the nation.

When you visited the Brooklyn Works exhibit, you and your family became a part of history as you were transported back to neighborhoods that reflect different periods of Brooklyn's growth. You experienced what it was like to work on the farms, docks, factories or shops in Brooklyn.

The stories of working in Brooklyn were told in the actual words of individuals from the past including: Walt Whitman, an early farmer, an enslaved laborer of the 1790s, an Irish ropemaker on strike in the 1830s, a Jewish garment worker, a 19th century real estate developer and warehouse owner, an early 20th century assembly line worker, an African American firefighter. You heard their stories, in their own words! It was a surprise to hear from today's workers and discover the challenges and rewards of working in contemporary Brooklyn.

This little girl is helping out her father, a sheet metal mechanic, on the picket line when he and his co-workers at the Federal Manufacturing and Engineering Corp. in Williamsburg went on strike in 1949. Brooklyn has a long history of workers organizing for better working conditions and wages.

Brooklyn Works traced Brooklyn's transformation from agricultural to industrial to post-industrial, from blue collar to a rainbow of collars. You were introduced to real people who have created this distinctive heritage, and discoved how we are writing tomorrow's history. The visitor explored America's biggest small town, a vibrant tapestry of neighborhoods where high culture mixes with a roll-up-the-sleeves spirit that continues to draw immigrants, industry, and opportunity.

Hospital workers? No. Factory workers today at the Virginia Dare Company in Bush Terminal. These workers mix exotic flavorings for a variety of foods sold throughout the world.

Media-rich environments immersed visitors first in Brooklyn's agricultural past, introducing them to the native Lenape Indians and continuing with a light and sound show in a recreated 18th century farmhouse. The exhibit then moved toward the East River to reflect Brooklyn's evolution into an international seaport and manufacturing town in the mid 19th century. Immigrants and newly emancipated enslaved Africans told their work stories in their own voices. In a waterfront warehouse, visitors investigated Brooklyn's central role in global trade. As visitors entered the 20th century, they stroll onto a neighborhood streetscape. In a recreated industrial environment, visitors were amazed at the number of products born and developed in Brooklyn.

Women were essential to the industrial workforce in the early 1900s, (as they are today). Located in Greenpoint, these women worked in the boxing and labeling department of the Eberhard Faber pencil factory.

Visitors learned more about the challenges longshoremen faced. In a garment factory, a sixteen-year-old worker, shared her daily work as well as the role of women in the industrial age. Inside a sugar refinery, historic video footage highlighted the experience of working in this important heavy industry in Brooklyn. In a neighborhood barbershop, oral histories revealed the challenges for people of color to earn their livelihood in the early 20th century. Ten contemporary Brooklynites shared their astonishing productivity and perspectives on living and working in Brooklyn today.

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