Labor

When the Erie Canal opened in 1825, it connected Albany and the Hudson River with Buffalo, thereby creating one of the country’s most significant trade routes for transporting grain and goods from the Northeast to the Midwest and beyond. For over a century Buffalo was one of the most important shipping hubs in the United States, so grain and steel industries, among others, flourished here and the waterfront and factories supported thousands of laborers. These industries also attracted artists who portrayed various aspects of the working person’s experience, from individual portraits to the team work of production line assembly or the massive scale of steel plant manufacturing.

Works from the Burchfield Penney’s collection illustrated a range of twentieth-century works that explore romantic, empathetic, and critical notions about the post-Industrial era’s effect on the people and environment in Western New York. In addition, other kinds of labor were represented, such as farming and domestic service, including the unpaid labor of women who work at home. There was even a 1933 portrait of Diego Rivera, the Mexican painter known for his politically charged murals about workers hoping for a better future.