Resources for Further Exploration
Library of Congress and National Archives
 Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers'
Project, 1936—1938—Library of Congress (LoC): American
Memory online exhibit of more than 2,000 personal accounts
and 500 black-and-white photographs documenting the
institution of slavery.
 Portfolio: Lewis Hine Picturing the century: 100 Years of
Photography from the National Archives Thousands of
photographs Lewis Hine took on assignment for the National
Child Labor Committee (1908-1918).
Historical Sources
Sojourner Truth, “Ain’t I a Woman” (1851)
Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address (1865)
The Populist Party Platform (1892)
John L. Lewis, “Labor and the Nation” (1937)
Law: National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act) (1935)
Supreme Court: Muller v. Oregon (1908)
General Fiction and Non-Fiction
Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the Mast (1840)
Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie (1900)
Chester Himes, If He Hollers, Let Him Go (2002)
Tillie Olson, “I Stand Here Ironing” (1961)
Ann Petry, The Street (1946)
Upton Sinclair, The Jungle (1906)
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852)
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, A Midwife’s Tale (1990)
Poetry: William Carlos Williams, Paterson (1963)
Children’s Literature
Donald Hall, The Ox-Cart Man (1977)
mass HUMANITIES
Mass Moments
Picturing America
An online compendium of stories from Massachusetts
history, including the following ones that touch on the
topic of Work.
Bread and Roses strike: On January 12, 1912, the labor
protest later known as the "Bread and Roses" strike
began in Lawrence, in protest to the lowering of wages
with the shortening of the work day.
“Mill Girl” Writer Lucy Larcom Dies: April 17, 1893 In
her autobiography, A New England Girlhood (1889),
Larcom tells the story of her move to the mill town of
Lowell, where she lived and worked for more than a
decade.
First Slaves Arrive in Massachusetts: On February 26,
1638, a ship arrived in Salem after a seven-month voyage
from the West Indies, with a cargo of cotton, tobacco
and, as far as we know, the first African slaves to be
imported into Massachusetts.
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Young Adult Literature
Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1875)
Web Resources
 The Triangle Factory Fire —Cornell ILR School. 146 young
immigrant workers died in the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory
sweatshop fire.
 The 1930s on Display — University of Virginia, American
Studies Program Depression-age culture through art,
architecture, cinema, advertising, and commerce.
 Mary Cassatt: Celebrating Everyday Life — National Gallery of
Art. Focuses on the works of this important American painter
and printmaker with links to images and activities for
elementary, middle, and secondary students.
III. WORK IN AMERICA
For Web use download this brochure as a linked .pdf at
www.masshumanities.org
Written by Elizabeth Duclos-Orsello.
Clockwise from top:
Pottery and Baskets: c 1100 to c. 1960 (1-A)
John Singleton Copley, Paul Revere, 1768 (2-A)
Gilbert Stuart, George Washington, 1796 (3-B)
Albert Beirstadt, Looking Down Yosemite Valley, California,
1865 (8-A)
Winslow Homer, The Veteran in a New Field, 1865 (9-A)
Walker Evans, Brooklyn Bridge, New York, 1929 (13-A)
Mary Cassatt, The Boating Party, 1893/1894 (14-A)
Jacob Lawrence, The Migration of the Negro Panel no. 57,
1940–1941 (17-A)
James Karales, Selma-to-Montgomery March for Voting Rights
in 1965, 1965 (19-B)
Picturing America, a program of the National Endowment for the
Humanities and the American Library Association, brings high quality
reproductions of masterpieces of American art into classrooms and
libraries nationwide. This brochure was produced by
mass H U M A N IT IE S
.
III. WORK IN AMERICA
To a great extent Americans derive their sense of identity, status, and relatedness to others, from work. What do we each see as “our” work? Or that of a nation or a
government? The United States’ economic system—capitalism—presupposes that, as individuals work to build their own lives and dreams, the nation will prosper. But how is
work viewed, valued and represented in American culture? Is all work recognized and remembered in the same way? To what extent does hard work indeed lead to success?
These images allow us to explore some of the connections between and among these questions. Each exposes something about the nature of work in America, often about its
relationship with the work of making art—with works of art.
Taking
Inventory
Look at each image.
 Which ones show someone “working”?
 Which ones do not?
At first glance, many of these images may NOT appear
to show work or workers. However, if you look a little
more closely you may be surprised. For example…
 Boating Party: Who is working in this image? What is
the work?
 Brooklyn Bridge: You might initially notice only the
bold structure Evans has highlighted. But who created
or welded the steel? Who designed the structure? Do
you feel those questions are pertinent to looking at the
work of art?
 Pottery and Baskets: Where is the evidence of work?
Are the decorations and symbols also work? If so, what
do they DO to deserve that label?
 Which activities qualify as “work” and which do not?
What work is evident in these images? Hidden?
What type of work is necessary to build and sustain a
nation?
 In Copley’s portrait of Paul Revere, (painted before
Revere was a Revolutionary hero) we see a link between
certain types of work and potential nation-building
skills. Name the props surrounding Revere. What is his
occupation? Is Revere a working man or a gentleman?
Does his association with tools tell us anything about his
role in society?
 Comparing this portrait to Revere’s, how does Stuart
suggest in his portrait that George Washington is at
work?
 Does the title Veteran in a New Field shape your
interpretation of the subject’s field work? What is a
veteran’s “field”?
 What is the woman doing in The Migration of the
Negro Panel no. 57? What does that have to do with
“Migration”? How can we think of this woman’s work
as “nation-building” work? Does the painting tell you
whether or not Lawrence believes it is?
 Are the people in the Selma-to-Montgomery March
similarly working on America?
 Think about the effort, goal, and cost of their march.
Consider the composition: where are the storm clouds
and in what direction are the figures moving?
 How do artists do “nation-building” work?
A Closer
Look
Creating art is work in and of itself.
Certainly each of the artists represented
here knew that.
 Can you see evidence of human effort in any of these
images? (Think about Bierstadt’s labor to create images
of the far west that would inspire and convince
Easterners to move there in the 19th century.)
 How do different forms or styles of art make their
creators’ work or time investment visible? For example,
one might be able to see Lawrence’s brushstrokes in
Migration, but it may be harder to recognize the
evidence of Evans’ efforts in creating Brooklyn Bridge.
Children’s Activity
Step 1: Draw a picture of a person
working or draw an object
that someone might use
for work. (Think about
people you know and
what they do for work.)
Step 2: Now try to draw that same picture
again, but this time draw it in the style
of Jacob Lawrence, the artist who
created The Migration of the Negro,
Panel no. 57. Notice Lawrence uses:
a) only a few colors;
b) big, simple shapes; and
c) very little detail.
Step 3: Think about (or talk
about) how easy or
hard was it to make
your drawing look
like Lawrence’s. It
looks simple—how
hard is it?