New England Factory Life – “Bell-Time”, from Harper’s Weekly, July 25,1868

Winslow Homer, New England Factory Life--"Bell-Time", from Harper's Weekly, July 25,1868, 1868, wood engraving on paper, image: 9 ¹⁄₄ x 14 in. (23.5 x 35.6 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Ray Austrian Collection, gift of Beatrice L. Austrian, Caryl A. Austrian and James A. Austrian, 1996.63.69

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Artwork Details

Title: New England Factory Life – “Bell-Time”, from Harper’s Weekly, July 25,1868
Artist: Winslow Homer
Date: 1868
Location: Not on view
Dimensions: image: 9 ¹⁄₄ x 14 in. (23.5 x 35.6 cm)
Credit Line: The Ray Austrian Collection, gift of Beatrice L. Austrian, Caryl A. Austrian and James A. Austrian
Mediums Description: wood engraving on paper
Classifications: Graphic Arts
Print
Subjects: Figure group
Occupation — industry — manufacturing
Architecture Exterior — industry — factory
Landscape — New England
Object Number: 1996.63.69
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1996.63.69

Artwork Description

In 1868, Winslow Homer took up the subject of people who worked in textile mills. Mill operatives’ activities were organized by bells that rang throughout the day. Before mid-century, Americans viewed factories as places where respectable folk—mostly women—could earn a decent income and make a contribution to the nation’s industrial transformation. By the time Homer created his picture, native-born farmwives and their daughters had long been absent from the mills. Recent immigrants and the desperately poor replaced them at the looms, the only takers for work that offered the barest sustenance.

The Great American Hall of Wonders, 2011