Certificate of Merit
Revisiting some old images…
Certificate of Merit, Pacific Mill
If you are familiar with my work, you know of my passion for photographing the textile mills of Lawrence, MA. It started in the late 2000s when I learned that some of the iconic smokestacks and an adjacent building were slated for demolition to make way for a parking lot. I reached out to the owners of the property and asked for access so I could photograph the space. That access started a decade-long obsession with photographing as much of the remaining original mill space in Lawrence as possible.
Certificate of Merit was found in a little corner of some of that original space.
The ‘pipe shop’ is a small machine shop that served the Pacific Mill complex. Its primary function was (I believe) bending and fitting pipe. After photographing the broader space, I noticed this shelf with the Liberty of Mutual ‘Certificate of Merit.’ I was intrigued by the organic presentation: the way the certificate hangs crooked on the wall, peeling paint, the little boxes, the jars — especially the ink jar leaning against its neighbor.
The certificate had been hanging there for over half a century.
It reads:
AWARDED TO: Pipe Shop, Pacific Mills – Worsted Division
FOR CONSPICUOUS ACHIEVEMENT IN ACCIDENT PREVENTION
REPRESENTED BY THEIR OPERATION OF
their shop 200,000 Man Hours”
from February 3, 1946 to May 16, 1945
Without a Lost Time Accident
LIBERTY OF MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY
By [signed] M. A. Seymour
VICE PRESIDENT