Working Lives

Discover and uncover fascinating industrial and labour-related heritage material

Workers Rights

Exhibition

A contemporary exhibition on Europeans' working lives and the European Pillar of Social Rights.

Blog post

Take a look at conditions and protests at the Bor Mine in Serbia, one of the first environmental protests in Europe.

Gallery

Throughout the world, men and women are not paid equally for doing the same jobs

Industrial heritage isn't just the story of firms, but the stories of workers and their experiences. This gallery shows images from across Europe of when workers have gone on strike and fought for their rights and freedoms.

Women in the Workforce

Blog post

Long before the home office was invented, working at home was already commonplace for one group within society: women.

Gallery

Women's work has long been overlooked, raising questions of equality, rights and work-life balance.

This learning scenario is about the problem of gender inequality and workplace diversity in Serbia and possibly in other European countries.

In this learning scenario learn how the position of women in the labour market has changed significantly over the centuries. Discover how women transcended traditional roles associated with household work and domestic tasks.

Blog post

135 years of history of the Dutch baking company Verkade

Child Labour

How industrial age photographers documented the harsh lives of children at work.

For centuries, children across Europe and beyond have been made to work in domestic and industrial settings, often exploited, mistreated and ignored. This gallery shows photographs and paintings of children working.

Pioneering photographer Lewis Hine‘s images of industry and labour led to reform and changing laws.

Workspaces

Offices, familiar workplaces for many of us, have changed greatly, from our ways of working to technology. This gallery presents offices, as workplaces in progress.

This exhibition explores fascinating industrial photography from the machine age. We travel back in time to the factories, cities and workshops of the early 20th century, and discover beautiful images in unexpected places.

Gallery

Factories, workshops, power plants and more - where European industrial heritage was created

This blog introduces the photography of Eduards Kraucs whose collection of photographs documenting the construction reflects a unique industrial heritage and Latvian engineering achievements.

Gallery

Mining has employed millions of people, though with concerns about working conditions, safety and environmental effects

Gallery

Connecting water and land, towns and cities, and countries across seas, as well as providing livelihoods to communities.

Factories

Gallery

Brings together photographs of factories and workers from across Europe, where workers became cogs in a machine

Like many large companies, the story of Van Nelle business started with a small shop.

Blog post

The Fàbrica Gròber textile factory is a landmark of Girona history even today, 40 years after its closure.

This blog, illustrated with newly digitised material from Dublin City Library and Archive, tells the history of the Jacob’s Biscuit Factory, home of the cream cracker.

Services

Blog post

A short history of working as a waiter in restaurants

When you last visited the supermarket, did you notice who was working there and what they did?

Gallery

Hotels are not simply places to stay and relax, but places of work for many people

In this exhibition, photography shows the fruits of labour of farmers, inventors, craftsmen and factory workers, capturing places where fresh produce is laid out lavishly and new creations are shown proudly.

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines celebrates its 100th anniversary on 7 October 2019. Come fly with us to discover stories and pictures from aviation history.

Drawbacks of Industrialisation

Blog post

Exposure to asbestos - once valued for its qualities - has caused illnesses and death among thousands of workers.

Gallery

Gallery exploring pollution as a negative industrial legacy on our planet and landscapes across Europe.

Join us on a photographic journey through Europe and learn of about society fears in 1950's in this chapter of our online exhbition "Blue Skies, Red Panic".