Walker Evans, one of the most influential photographers of the 20th Century, came to Detroit in 1946 on assignment for Fortune Magazine, which asked him to capture images of "the American worker."
So Evans set up on a downtown street and started shooting.
The results, which are housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, show a wide cross section of working people -- "the most resourceful and versatile body of labor in the world," Fortune said.
The magazine seemed intent on examining the humans behind the massive industrial effort during the recently completed war, which had forced Detroit to transform itself into the fabled Arsenal of Democracy.
Fortune said: "If the war proved anything, it demonstrated that American labor can learn new operations with extraordinary rapidity and speedily carry them to the highest pitch of productive efficiency."
The photos are little known in Detroit and are not currently on display at the museum.
Click here to view Evans' images from a 1947 visit to the Ford Rouge plant, also from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
