According to an early twentieth-century British clerk, dust and other "matter out of place" on the walls and ceilings of an office had once suggested "solidity, respectability, and age." However, where dust had previously been seen as evidence of a firm's long-term existence, such that clients "breathed an air of financial stability," in the modern office, the concern was that through dust and dirt people breathed in something much less desirable; this was especially problematic for those people who were expected to work efficiently in an office.
Craig Robertson, The Filing Cabinet: A Vertical History of Information (St. Paul, MN: Univ. of Minnesota Press, 2021), p.82
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