Women’s Work: On Munitions - Dangerous Work (Packing T.N.T.) c. 1917

Editor: This is "Women’s Work: On Munitions - Dangerous Work (Packing T.N.T.)" by Archibald Standish Hartrick. It looks like a print. The woman's mask and cap, and the scale, make the scene feel so immediate and industrial. How do you interpret this work within its historical context? Curator: It’s a potent image. Hartrick captures the often-unseen labor of women during wartime. Consider the propaganda of the era – glorifying soldiers, but rarely showing the dangerous factory work that fueled the war machine. Editor: So, the image is a kind of counter-narrative? Curator: Precisely. It highlights the public role of women and asks us to question whose stories are deemed worthy of representation. What do you think about the scale? Editor: It definitely amplifies the emotional impact and draws attention to the individual within a larger, impersonal system. I learned a lot. Curator: Me too. It reinforces how art can reveal overlooked social realities.