"Right after the war I went to work at Hawthorne Paper Company. I've been one of their beatermen for a year now. It's a tough job. If I don't make sure the paper fibers are the right consistency, the paper will turn out too thin or too thick. It takes time to learn if you're making it right. I make 3 dollars a day and work 6 days a week. Sunday is my day with family--I have a wife and 5 kids at home."
- Silas Findley, white male, age 36
Captions: Interior Kalamazoo paper mill, 1920 (KVM collection); John Bushhouse, Monarch Paper Comapny, Kalamazoo, 1927 (KVM collection); stirring paper pulp in a large vat (Library of Congress collection).
To find more historic photographs and artifacts related to paper making in Kalamazoo, visit KVM's searchable collections database.