This undated photograph shows a man standing on a brick cart in front of an impressive pile of bricks. The worker puffs a cigarette while laboring in the Dennis Brickyard. On his hands, you can see large white gloves. Without these special gloves, the skin on a brickmaker’s hand would rub off in no time and make it impossible to produce 10,000 bricks a day, as the Bates brickmakers did. The backbreaking work that was brickmaking produced an invaluable product, with Bates bricks being used to create buildings at Bates and Colby Colleges, and even Boston’s North Station and Old City Hall.

Stop by Museum L-A to learn more about brickmaking, and read testimonies from the brickmakers themselves.