Object Details
Description
Workers in the El Monte sweatshop used hangers like this during the 1990s to hang garments being worked on. The hanger was seized during a well-publicized 1995 sweatshop raid and 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.
Location
Currently not on view
Credit Line
State of California. Department of Industrial Relations. Division of Labor Standards Enforcement
date made
1990 - 1995
ID Number
1996.0292.11b
catalog number
1996.0292.11b
accession number
1996.0292
Object Name
shorts
hanger
Physical Description
plastic (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 7 in x 10 7/8 in x 1/4 in; 17.78 cm x 27.6225 cm x .635 cm
place made
United States
See more items in
Work and Industry: Mechanical and Civil Engineering
Data Source
National Museum of American History
Link to Original Record
Record ID
nmah_1441568