Kalamazoo shifted from a primarily agricultural economy to an increasingly industrial economy in the latter decades of the 19th century. This transition created a demand for factory workers—men, women, and children. To illustrate this complex story in the history gallery, the Museum used an old telephone operator’s switchboard. Visitors can sit and listen to typical workers tell their stories.

The diverse cast was not simply an effort at political correctness. Jobs were classified by age and gender, and while not necessarily always advertised as such, by ethnicity and race as well. Census records didn’t record how many, if any, Anishnabek or Native Americans lived in the city, but they did indicate that there were few, if any, Mexican workers.

In searching through the help wanted classified ads in the Kalamazoo Gazette during these years, it’s not uncommon to find listings seeking 16-year-old boys or girls. By 1887, Michigan had started placing limits on child labor. However, in 1894, a Michigan Department of Labor inspector still found seven children under the age of 14 working in the 40 factories he visited. Older teenagers were still allowed to work.

These workers were a reflection of the changes that Kalamazoo’s economy was undergoing in the late 1800s. Manufacturers of windmills, carriages and sleighs, agricultural implements, and, of course, paper, were growing and needed workers. By 1920, over 10,000 workers in Kalamazoo County were employed in manufacturing, compared to just 1,300 fifty years earlier. Agriculture was still important, but there were signs that agricultural labor in the County was declining. The population of most of the rural townships in Kalamazoo County declined between 10 to 30 percent from 1874 to 1904, as reflected in the Michigan state census figures of those years. Yet the population of the County as a whole increased during those same years.

New farm machinery reduced the need for workers, while the lure of jobs in Kalamazoo’s factories pulled workers into the city. There they became part of an industrial labor force that also included immigrants from Italy, Holland, Ireland, Germany, and East European countries. It’s the story of these workers that we wanted to address on the gallery switchboard.

The emerging industrial economy created more than manufacturing jobs. In the new industries, there was a need for a variety of white collar jobs like bookkeepers, secretaries, and file clerks. It also created jobs in companies which provided supplies and services to the factories. And as the city grew, stores, restaurants, and other businesses opened to provide for the needs of the new factory workers. Here, too, new jobs were created.

This resulting complex mix of occupations with workers of all ages makes for a fascinating story. The only way to tell it adequately was with a sampling of the real people who lived and worked here during that period of rapid industrial growth. It is their voices and experiences that are captured on the telephone switchboard in the history gallery.