WWI Trilogy

Navigating the Heartache WWI Brings

Chimney sweep, a bygone occupations

A List of Bygone Era Careers and Occupations

December 9, 2015 By Melina Druga Off

Technology has been changing the face of the working world since the Industrial Revolution. Technology creates new employment opportunities while making other occupations obsolete. Think back on your own lifetime. How many switchboard operators do you know? How about gas station attendants who pump gas?

The only constant for the past two centuries has been change.

This is a short list of occupations that were once quite common and now either no longer exist or are very rare:

Men’s Occupations

  • Watchman: The precursor to the security guard.
  • Carter: A person who drives a cart. Similar jobs include coachman, drayman, hackman and teamster.
  • Streetcar conductor
  • Railroad jobs including hostler and lineman
  • Livery workers: Liveries were places horses were lodged and fed in exchange for compensation.
  • Porter: The precursor of the doorman and hotel valet.
  • Stationer: Someone who sells stationary.
  • Blacksmith
  • Chimney sweep
  • Whitewasher: Someone employed to whitewash objects.
  • Cooper: Someone who makes barrels.
  • Currier: Someone who dresses leather after it has been tanned.
  • Mason: A constructor worker who builds using stone or brick.
  • Miller: Someone who works at a flour or grist mill.
  • Plasterer: Someone who works with plaster.
  • Puddler: Someone who makes wrought iron.
  • Tailor
  • Tinner: Someone who works with tin.
  • Wheelwright: Someone who manufactures and repairs wheels for wagons.
  • Cesspool and sewerman
  • Rat catchers
  • Street sweepers

Women’s Occupations

  • Copyist: Someone who makes copies of documents.
  • Bleacher: Someone who bleaches fabric.
  • Dressmaker
  • Dyer: Someone who dies cloth.
  • Milliner: Someone who makes and decorates women’s hats.
  • Seamstress
  • Tallowmaker: Someone who makes soap or candles from tallow.
  • Warper: Someone who forms yarn for looms into warps.
  • Washerwoman
  • Governess

Where to Purchase the WWI Trilogy

This post is a companion piece to Melina Druga’s WWI Trilogy: Angel of Mercy, Those Left Behind and Adjustment Year.  The trilogy focuses on Hettie and her family as they navigate the challenges and heartbreak World War I brings.

Angel of Mercy:  A nurse reluctantly sacrifices her career for marriage. An impending war will change her, and her husband’s, life forever.  Available in eBook, paperback and hardcover.  Click here for a full list of retailers.

Those Left Behind:  The brewing winds of war will soon rip the family apart. Available in eBook, paperback and hardcover.  Click here for a full list of retailers.

Adjustment Year:  A war nurse returns home. Society expects her to carry on as if the Great War never happened. But how can she?  Available in eBook, paperback and hardcover.  Click here for a full list of retailers.

CategoryDaily Life - Victorian and Edwardian Eras
Tagscareers and the workplace

About The Author

Melina Druga writes about the past because although school history classes may have been boring, the past was not.  Her era of expertise, and obsession, is 1890-1920 with a particular focus on the Great War and how it affected the lives of ordinary people.  Druga is the author of the WWI Trilogy.