North Country At Work

Workers and machinery in the interior of the Potsdam Specialty Paper Company. Photographer is Sophie McKibben. 2015. Potsdam, NY.

Workers in the interior of the Potsdam Specialty Paper Company. Photographer is Sophie McKibben. 2015. Potsdam, NY.

Preparing to lift paper by forklift in the interior of the Potsdam Specialty Paper Company. Photographer is Sophie McKibben. 2015. Potsdam, NY.

Preparing to lift paper in the interior of the Potsdam Specialty Paper Company. Photographer is Sophie McKibben. 2015. Potsdam, NY.

Kyle Henderson, Senior groundskeeper at Clarkson University. Kyle has worked at Clarkson for five years. Photographer is Sophie McKibben. 2015. Potsdam, NY.

Making rolls of paper in the interior of the Potsdam Specialty Paper Company. Photographer is Sophie McKibben. 2015. Potsdam, NY.

Pictured is a young worker at a “super calendar” machine in the St. Regis Paper Company Champion Mill in Deferiet. 1950s. Deferiet, NY. Courtesy of the Jefferson County Historical Society. For more information, check out our story on what life was like in Deferiet in the mid-1900s.

Machines inside the St. Regis Paper Company mill in Deferiet. Workers can be seen sitting on the machines to the left. Early 1900s. Deferiet, NY. Courtesy of the Town of Champion Historian’s office. Check out this related story on Deferiet’s paper mill strike.

Workers pose with machines at the St. Regis Paper Company mill. Workers routinely went barefoot as safety standards were nonexistent in the 1800s and early 1900s. Poor pay and working conditions led to a 450-person strike in 1915. Circa 1910. Deferiet, NY. Courtesy of the Town of Champion Historian’s office. For more information, check out […]

The last hot-type press run at the Adirondack Daily Enterprise in the spring of 1973. Man on the right is Don Renadette, he has his finger on the off button in case of a web break. 1973. Saranac Lake, NY. Photo by Phil Gallos. Courtesy of Phil Gallos. Check out our story on lead printing […]