General view of the Press Room at the Althouse Chemical Company manufacturing plant in Reading, Pennsylvania. Employees are seen removing press cake from the filter presses to transfer them to the buggies at the center of the room. In the manufacture of dyestuffs, filter presses are typically used to separate solids and liquids; following the separation process, air is blown through the filter to discharge the cake before the next batch is inserted. Bags of sodium sulfate, commonly applied to fibers so that dyes can penetrate evenly, are visible in the bottom, left-hand corner of the photograph.

Based in Reading, Pennsylvania, the Althouse Chemical Company was founded in 1915 by C. Scott Althouse (1880-1970) as a small, family-owned firm specializing in fabric dyes of a superior quality and class. In 1954, the Crompton & Knowles Corporation of Worcester, Massachusetts acquired Althouse, which continued to operate as a division of Crompton & Knowles and a leader in the specialty dyes industry.