Workers (Three Men Working) 

Vivian E. Carr created this etching, "Workers (Three Men Working)," sometime in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. It depicts three laborers engaged in some kind of industrial task, perhaps on a construction site or in a factory. Carr's image participates in a larger cultural discourse about labor and the changing social landscape during the Industrial Revolution, in both Europe and the United States. We can ask if she intended to idealize the nobility of labor, or whether she was making a darker comment on the dehumanizing conditions of the modern workplace. The figures are stooped and strained. Does the artist see them as heroes of industry, or victims? The lack of individual features suggests that their humanity is not being recognised by society. To better understand Carr's perspective, we might research the social and political context of her time, looking at publications, union records, and government reports that document the lives and working conditions of laborers during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.