Albert Swanson

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Albert Swanson, a 20-year-old mold caster from Sweden, was killed in a strange accident.  A St. Paul Globe headline summarized, “Passing Wagon Drives Over Rope Used to Hoist Material, and Scaffolding, on Which Men Stood, Falls.”  Swanson and fellow worker Frank Thiery both plunged forty feet.  Swanson collided with timbers and died before hitting the ground.  But Thiery landed in a pile of sand and miraculously got away with only a broken leg and he checked himself out of the hospital and went home that night.

Related content

Image1 scaffolding
Image courtesy of the New York History Society. Used with permission.
Image 1-scaffolding
Place where Albert Swanson fell
Image courtesy of the New York History Society. Used with permission.
Image 2-note on the back of the photograph
Image3 note on the backside of the photograph
Image courtesy of the New York History Society. Used with permission.
Image 3-note on the back of the photograph