In or around Cleveland Ohio late 1940s

Spectators and trees can be seen through the windows. The letters "T R O" are reflected there. Are the ladies weighing gold or something?

 

I really don't know what they are weighting, but doubt very much it is gold. Whatever the woman is holding up doesn't look like a bar of gold. A bar of gold would be too heavy for her to hold up like that. Looking as closely as I can to it, it almost looks like a pack of bacon. Those white uniforms they all have on look like a food preparation room of a meat/food processing plant?? I tried to ID the emblem on there hats with no luck.

That isn't a window at the top left. It is an expanded picture insert of these same women showing more of the same room. I edited the pic by brightening it. Also I cropped off and zoom in on the smaller inserted pic. There is an outdoor line of windows above these women with people looking in/down on them.

--- Susan

 

the place looks to industrial for food.....maybe ...pharmacy products ?

 

You're right, Komo, too industrial. Also if food, the women would be wearing white gloves. If pharmacy stuff and such, I think they would be wearing gloves also?? At the moment I haven't a good idea what they are doing.

--- Susan

 

Hm. If the letters are a reflection from an opposite wall (which would be on our right) the word(s) would have included OST - I think that middle letter could be an S.

Perhaps a close up of the second woman up the right side (and the space around her) might help. It looks like there is something sitting on her work surface next to the scale which has been cropped out of Susan's lightened version) that might give us a clue.

My first thought was candy, but can't think of why that might be.

 

Here's a close-up of the equipment or whatever in front of the woman holding up something. Could they be stacking, weighing and wrapping $bills? I would think this activity would be done at a mint. Then again they have had machine stacking & wrapping bills since the turn of the century and probably since the mid 1800s.

--- Susan

 

Actually I should have said the third up - the one behind the one with the thing in her hand.

 

Hi, Bake! Just now saw your reply.

>If the letters are a reflection from an opposite wall (which would be on our right) the word(s) would have included OST - I think that middle letter could be an S.<

What letters where? That small insert at the top left isn't a reflection. It is a bigger view of the room, but in a small pic. I didn't crop anything out of the 1st edited pic I posted. The 2nd pic is a crop of the inserted pic.

--- Susan

 

Whatever is in front of the 3rd woman does show in the original pic. It only shows in the small inserted pic. I'll have to work on that. That pic is so small that when zoomed in on becomes really distorted. The close-up posted in reply #6 is from the big pic and not the insert. GIve me a few minutes to see if I can do anything on that insert.

--- Susan

 

Welll, no luck on zooming in on that small inserted pic. DH just said it looks like a sanitized money counting room at the local casino where the public can view the process through windows. All kidding aside, he also thinks it looks like bills/paper money they are working with.

--- Susan

 

Hi, Susan. Sorry for my confusion about who posted and or manipulated which picture. The OP needs to post a larger version of the whole photo so we can see the details better. He's the one who mentioned the "letters." I can see them in the second of the 2 pictures you posted in your original response to him (post #2 where you had tried to enlarge the small version of the whole picture he had collaged into his post.) They appear to be a reflection of some kind on the wall above the windows where people have gathered to look down into the area where the women are working.

One thing that I just noticed is that the women's "hats" have an 8 in the circle on the front. The fact that they all have it must mean something.

 

They appear to be a reflection of some kind
& that's all they are....just reflected light.....not letters.

 

Welcome!

 

So much thanks! Here is the original negative scan: http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~wrt/images/work1948.jpg Thoughts - the "T R O" is not mirror-reversed and is doubled; where is the photographer standing and is she taking the shot through another pane of glass (the workers could be in a pit with the observers on all sides); the other pictures on the strip were family shots in Oberlin Ohio - Oberlin College scene maybe? What would attract a crowd like this?

 

Book is quicker on editing than I. I came up with 3 edits of the original scan. At least 1 is similar to Book's. I still cann't say what the good ladies of the Cleveland area were doing; however, do believe they were wearing dark gloves. Whatever the woman is holding up, has writing on it. Of course I can't make it out. The equipment in front of at least 3 of them except for the scales is different. Still can't make out, ID, the insignia on their caps, but the insignias on the cap of the woman holding up something and the woman next to her are reversed in color.

As to the lettering, I agree with the OP (Original Poster) that the lettering is "not mirror-reversed and is doubled." I think the doubling effect is caused by the picture being taken through glass. I think the gallery of windows wraps around to the front of the room and the photographer is outside like those other spectators taking the pic through the window. Don't know about the rest of you, but I see "TRO" followed by a possible "L." Can't see past the "L." I was glad to see the "L" for feared it might be a "J."

Am including 3 of my edits.

--- Susan

 

TROLLEY?
The people outside are waiting for one???

 

I am in error, & they are indeed letters.
Thanks Lady...good pic filtering !!

 

Maybe employees at Stouffers.

 

This won't be very helpful but I keep wondering about the things that look like trees above the women in the wider version of the photo. There are trees through the window behind the people looking from above, but within where the women are sitting there is something above them that could be tree, to the right. And a shadow to the upper left that could have been made by a tree [Correction: looking at it again, the shadow at upper left is a reflected shadow of some of the people looking through the window]. And looking at the top right there might be bright sky up there. The people looking through the window might be in some sort of covered walkway, since they are all in heavy shadow. (It was also mentioned that they might be waiting for a trolley, and that might also be the case.)

I've got no useful ideas about what is happening in the photo.