Object Details
- Description
- This unfinished Airtime brand boys shirt was in production when authorities raided the the infamous El Monte, California sweatshop in 1995. It is part of a larger Smithsonian collection of artifacts documenting apparel industry sweatshops, focusing on the El Monte operation.
- On August 2, 1995, police officers raided a fenced seven-unit apartment complex in El Monte, California. They arrested eight operators of a clandestine garment sweatshop and freed 72 workers who were being forced to sew garments in virtual captivity. Smuggled from Thailand into the United States, the laborers’ plight brought a national spotlight to domestic sweatshop production and resulted in increased enforcement by federal and state labor agencies. The publicity of the El Monte raid also put added pressure on the apparel industry to reform its labor and business practices domestically and internationally.
- Credit Line
- State of California. Department of Industrial Relations. Division of Labor Standards Enforcement
- 1990 - 1995
- ID Number
- 1996.0292.08
- catalog number
- 1996.0292.08
- accession number
- 1996.0292
- Object Name
- shirt
- Airtime brand shirt
- Physical Description
- fabric (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 30 1/2 in x 18 1/2 in; 77.47 cm x 46.99 cm
- overall: 30 1/2 in x 18 1/2 in; 77.47 cm x 46.99 cm
- place made
- United States
- See more items in
- Work and Industry: Mechanical and Civil Engineering
- El Monte
- Work
- Sweatshops
- Many Voices, One Nation
- Exhibition
- Many Voices, One Nation
- Exhibition Location
- National Museum of American History
- National Museum of American History
- Record ID
- nmah_1431901
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746b4-ac24-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
