Traveling salesman?

And absolutely wouldn't be wearing a tie. Those look very much like salesmans boxes to me.
 
I remember seeing a picture of an apprentice instructor at Brown & Sharpe who was dressed similarly, but with jacket off and white shirt sleeves rolled up; nothing wrong with a bow tie so far as safety is concerned, just long loose ties; back in the day some guys would wear a long tie, and tuck it in between shirt buttons. I can't imagine that many production machinists dressed like that, but perhaps toolmakers and perhaps high status patternmakers; things were different back then. When I worked at Kaiser Steel, there was a black man, Ralph Ruff, who came to work in a white shirt and tie, but changed into work clothes in the shop; we thought perhaps he'd had a better job and could not find anything else but out dirty hole, but still had to impress his neighbors when leaving for work on swing shift; coming home after midnight would have not been a problem ---
 
That guy is not a machinist......look at the tools, he's an inspector. I would expect to find a hat like that on an "inspector" in those days.
 
The photograph is on the reverse side of a card sold on e-bay. The front of the card was a salesman's card for George W. Snyder an "introducer and dealer" of "mechanics fine tools" from Athol MA. According to his passport application in 1893, he was a traveling salesman by profession.
 
Tarnation,,,, you got good detective(Google?) skills there RJ:eagerness:
 
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