People and communities
Retreat: the women making boxes for the blueberries
Documented history · Sources compared
A family photograph preserves a task that disappears when agricultural history stops at planting and picking.
Packaging had to be made
The Todd Horner collection photograph shows two women beside a workbench and a shallow wooden container. One holds a hatchet upright; the other works over the frame. The society identifies them as Edna Mingin Bozarth and her sister Mary Mingin Wickward making blueberry flats at Retreat’s packing house. The activity and identities come from the caption, not facial recognition. Packing-house photograph; THS family photograph identifications.
Family photographs cross the workday
Another photograph, identified as Edna with daughters in a Burrs Mill Road blueberry field, shows people among rows holding picking containers. A portrait of Gordon Bozarth places him behind equipment in the field. Taken together, these are glimpses of different farm tasks rather than a complete division of labor. Family in the blueberry field; Gordon Bozarth field photograph; THS family photograph identifications.
What a picture cannot count
The photographs do not provide wages, hours, output or exact dates. A person posing with a tool is not proof of a particular employment contract. The images nevertheless preserve packaging work and family participation that business-owner lists alone miss.
Sources and research limits
Three image scans were inspected. Names, relationships and places follow the society’s collection captions; the photographer and original dates remain unidentified. No claim of unpaid or coerced work is made.