Women At Work
A group of female employees of VITA Foods in Chestertown, Maryland, May 1969. Chesapeake Heartland African American Humanities Project, Collection ID: CH_CA_2020_SC_004_017
Individuals pictured: (front row, left to right) is Lena Clark, Dorothy Wilson, Florence Jones, Mary Smith, and Lena Cotton (back row, left to right) Ethel Boyer, Peggy Goldsboro, an unknown woman, and Florence Freeman
The VITA Foods pickle processing plant was an integral part of life for many African American women in Chestertown during the mid-twentieth century. Every morning on High Street, hundreds of women in blue uniforms with white collars went to work at the plant. From highschoolers to grandmothers, women performed various tasks such as pickling fish, cucumbers, and onions, or running boxes and jars to and from different floors.
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