Abstract
The article “Workers’ Fight for Justice: A retrospective exposure profile study of the GE factory in Peterborough, Ontario,” by Robert DeMatteo and Dale DeMatteo in this issue of New Solutions discusses the illness legacy among workers engaged in various production processes at the factory. We have the privilege of presenting a set of historical photographs of the factory. These images illustrate the intersection of the industrial and chemical revolutions that took place in twentieth century industrial production. The images track CGE’s development over the years—from building trolleys in the last years of the nineteenth century, to war production for two world wars, to building giant hydroelectric turbines, and the first peace time refrigerator to come off CGE productions lines in the mid-1940s. What we don’t see in these images are the tragic consequences of the toxic legacy CGE has left for the communities of its former employees as it closes its doors.
The Electric Car Shop at Canadian General Electric, Peterborough, c. 1894. (Credit: Trent Valley Archives, F50, 2.009)
Men and women workers at CGE producing shell primers, World War I. (Credit: Trent Valley Archives, Electric City Collection, F50, 2.256)
Vertical hydroelectric generators, CGE Test Section in Buildings 6 and 8 at Peterborough in 1921. The photo below is from July 1921, a completely assembled generator at the Great Lakes Hydro Electric plant in Smoky Falls, close to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Photos from Dr. Hubert R. Sills. From Trent Valley Archives, Fonds 724. Trent Valley Archives, H. R. Sills fonds.
Gene Hurtibise with his CGE crane crew, 1940s. (Credit: Trent Valley Archives, F50 3.243)
Artillery guns were being produced at the Genelco plant in Peterborough and were featured on a “Voices of Victory” radio broadcast, 29 May 1942. (Credit: Trent Valley Archives, McRae Fonds, F327, 21)
Workers and the community celebrated, October 1945, the start of peace-time-production with the first refrigerator made in Peterborough. (Credit: Trent Valley Archives, McRae fonds, F327, 4)