Source 17.3: Another View of Factory Life
As Engels admitted, early working and living conditions in industrial England had improved by the later nineteenth century, though the debate about factory life had hardly ended. Source 17.3, an 1874 painting by English artist Eyre Crowe, provides a more benevolent view of an industrial factory as it portrays a number of young women workers during their dinner hour outside the cotton textile mill in the industrial town of Wigan.
Questions to consider as you examine the source:
- How does this depiction of factory life compare with that of Source 17.1? How might you account for the differences?
- How do you respond to Crowe’s painting? Do you think it was an honest portrayal of factory life for women? What might be missing?
- Notice the details of the painting — the young women’s relationship to one another, the hairnets on their heads, their clothing, their activities during this break from work. What marks them as working-
class women? What impression of factory life did Crowe seek to convey? Was he trying to highlight or minimize the class differences of industrial Britain?
Outside the Factory
Outside the FactoryManchester Art Gallery, UK/Bridgeman Images