That Dam Newsletter: Print Media’s Influence on Safety Habits at the Grand Coulee Dam
Document Type
Oral Presentation
Campus where you would like to present
Ellensburg
Event Website
https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/source
Start Date
15-5-2019
End Date
15-5-2019
Abstract
The Great Depression of the 1930s caused massive unemployment and many U.S. businesses to shut their doors . To combat this economic disaster, the Roosevelt Administration created public works projects like the Grand Coulee Dam. Construction conditions at the dam site were dangerous, so many workers were injured and some even died. To date, no research has been done on how employers encouraged safety at New Deal Era construction sites. This study finds that during construction of the Grand Coulee Dam, the Mason-Walsh-Atkinson-Kier Company implemented a number of strategies to promote safety at the work site. The main strategy to promote safety was the “Columbian,” a newsletter sent to employees of the dam. The goal of the “Columbian” was to influence the habits of employees, to ensure that employees followed safe practices while at work. This paper argues that the newsletter influenced readers by appealing to their masculinity, playing on their fear and guilt, and demonizing all unsafe work practices. These tactics provide an insight into how companies running New Deal projects attempted to prevent workplace accidents. Just as commercial advertisers were playing on fears and guilt generated by the Great Depression, so too did companies involved in non-commercial activities exploit these sentiments in their employees to get the message of safety across.
Winner: Outstanding Oral Presentation: College of Arts & Humanities.
Recommended Citation
Hughes, Jordan, "That Dam Newsletter: Print Media’s Influence on Safety Habits at the Grand Coulee Dam" (2019). Symposium Of University Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE). 64.
https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/source/2019/Oralpres/64
Department/Program
History
Slides for SOURCE 2019 presentation Hughes
Additional Files
Jordan Hughes SOURCE Presentation copy.pptx (35469 kB)Slides for SOURCE 2019 presentation Hughes
That Dam Newsletter: Print Media’s Influence on Safety Habits at the Grand Coulee Dam
Ellensburg
The Great Depression of the 1930s caused massive unemployment and many U.S. businesses to shut their doors . To combat this economic disaster, the Roosevelt Administration created public works projects like the Grand Coulee Dam. Construction conditions at the dam site were dangerous, so many workers were injured and some even died. To date, no research has been done on how employers encouraged safety at New Deal Era construction sites. This study finds that during construction of the Grand Coulee Dam, the Mason-Walsh-Atkinson-Kier Company implemented a number of strategies to promote safety at the work site. The main strategy to promote safety was the “Columbian,” a newsletter sent to employees of the dam. The goal of the “Columbian” was to influence the habits of employees, to ensure that employees followed safe practices while at work. This paper argues that the newsletter influenced readers by appealing to their masculinity, playing on their fear and guilt, and demonizing all unsafe work practices. These tactics provide an insight into how companies running New Deal projects attempted to prevent workplace accidents. Just as commercial advertisers were playing on fears and guilt generated by the Great Depression, so too did companies involved in non-commercial activities exploit these sentiments in their employees to get the message of safety across.
Winner: Outstanding Oral Presentation: College of Arts & Humanities.
https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/source/2019/Oralpres/64
Faculty Mentor(s)
Marji Morgan