A List of Bygone Era Careers and Occupations

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? (This post is a companion piece to Melina Druga’s WWI Trilogy, Angel of Mercy, Those Left Behind and Adjustment Year, available wherever eBooks are sold.)

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

A governess reading to her charges

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

The WWI Trilogy by Melina Druga: Angel of Mercy, Those Left Behind and Adjustment Year

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Updated:  20 October 2020

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Melina Druga

Melina Druga is a multi-genre author with a lifelong love of history, books and the English language.She pens historical fiction, chick lit and nonfiction.