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History of Open Spaces at the Treasury Building graphic

THE "LADY CLERKS" OF THE
TREASURY DEPARTMENT

Images of the Treasury Building from the nineteenth century amply illustrate that the changing face of the Treasury Department's labor force directly influenced the way in which it divided and used space. With the advent of female employees, the Department both opened and partitioned spaces in order to provide the large open spaces in which the women performed their work, and, in addition, separate offices for their male supervisors. This changed the way in which the spaces in the building were organized from a sequence of offices and workrooms lining the corridors of the wings to a series of suites, where smaller offices opened into larger workrooms. The adjustment of these spaces satisfied the needs of the Department, and its Bureaus.

Harper's Bazaar magazine illustration from 1869 showing female employees tending towards idleness.

"The Treasury Department -- The New Secretary Looking Around," from Harper's Bazaar, April 3, 1869. This illustration depicts female employees tending toward idleness.

A second floor office photograph from 1870 showing female employees and a male supervisor.

Women employees and a male supervisor in an 1870 photograph of a second floor office in the South wing.

A workroom in the Treasury Building, c.1890.

A workroom in the Treasury Building, c.1890.

Photograph of the cutting room at Treasury in 1867.

The cutting room in the Treasury Building, 1867. A door, likely to a supervisor's office, is visible in the background.

 

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The History of Open Spaces at the Treasury Building graphic
Office of the Curator
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