22 Laborers of the Past Who Faced Far Greater Struggles

This collection sheds light on the incredible resilience and suffering of those who toiled through history’s toughest jobs. Get ready to gain a whole new appreciation for the challenges they faced and the comforts we enjoy today.

Coal miners coming up in a coal mine elevator after a day of work in 1920’s Belgium.

Cotton mill workers, Georgia, 1909.

A diamond mine worker is x-rayed at the end of each shift before leaving the mines. South Africa, 1954.

A Chinese-American war worker in Los Angeles wore a handwritten sign on his back to avoid being mistaken for Japanese in 1942.

Miners using an “aerial tram” to descend into the Kimberly Diamond Mine in South Africa, 1885.

A utility worker giving mouth-to-mouth to a co-worker after he contacted a low voltage wire, Jacksonville, Florida. 1967. He survived, and lived until 2002.

Pit pony and miner in a mine in New Aberdeen, Nova Scotia. 1946.

Coal miner waiting to get into the communal shower at the end of his shift, taken in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, 1958.

10-year-old worker at a textile mill in Lincolnton, North Carolina. November 1908.

A Chinese tin worker carrying ingots at a British smelting plant in Malaya, 1941.

A female worker cleans the rifling of a 15-inch naval gun after being lifted inside the barrel at the Coventry Ordnance Works during the first world war.

Workers at the American Woolen Company, Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1935.

Serra Pelada gold mine, Brazil, 1986.

Workers clearing snow from a railroad, Alaska, 1904.

Residents of a invalid home for disabled railway employees, modern day Belarus, 1901.

Child coal miner, West Virginia, 1908.

A construction worker carries a sack across a beam working on a 71-story skyscraper on 40 Wall Street, New York City, 1930.

Coal miner and a canary used to warn of dangerous gasses underground, England, 1970s.

Shorpy Higginbotham, a “greaser” on the tipple at Bessie Mine, IN the Sloss-Sheffield Steel and Iron Co in Alabama.

Workers at the Sloss-Sheffield Steel and Iron Co., Jefferson County Alabama, 1910.

An Empire State builder hanging on a crane above New York City, 1930.

Medical workers of a psychiatric clinic practice the technique of catching “violent lunatics,” 1903.

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