The hatmakers of Danbury, Connecticut -- the United States' leading center for felt hat manufacture -- led one of the major battles for workplace health and safety of the industrial age. As artisan workshops gave way to factories, uncontrolled exposure to nitrate of mercury took an increasing toll on the health and lives of the workers. Hatters worked in a steam of toxic fumes often with their hands in the poisonous chemicals which were used to turn rabbit fur into felt. Up to 20 - 40% of the workers suffered from the "hatters' shakes," nerve damage, rashes, headaches, emotional instability, and impaired ability to walk, talk, and eat. Their condition gave rise to the phrase "mad as a hatter." Workers who complained were fired and "blacklisted". United Hat Makers of North American Local 10, in coalition with progressive reformers in the Workers' Health Bureau, led a protracted campaign in the 1920s and 30s to clean up the workplace. Despite intense resistance from the manufacturers they finally forced a government ban on non-military workplace mercury in May of 1941.

This poster commemorates one of the earliest struggles for workplace health during the Industrial Age.