Steve Dunwell’s Photographs Now A Part of History

The Boston Public Library recently acquired one of the limited edition portfolios Steve Dunwell recently published, “With These Hands.”   Each set contains nine archival silver prints showing New England textile mill workers 1973-1977. There are 12 sets in the Edition.

This purchase is an excellent start on Steve’s goal of getting all the important archival repositories in New England, plus some key national institutions, to purchase and preserve these silver-process prints of a bygone era that he was able to document shortly after we graduated.

This project began in early 1973 when Steve was invited to visit a textile mill in Fall River, MA. Inside, he found a completely different world: Old textile machines from a bygone era, operated by the workers who had survived the closings and the downsizings as New England firms moved South or abroad. 

Supported by a grant from the Rhode Island Arts Council, Steve began to photograph mill workers around New England.  He discovered a network of these industrial sites, usually adjacent to small rivers for hydropower.  Each year, the scope of work increased, to include more sites and views of mill town environs and home interiors. 

It culminated in 1978, with the publication of “The Run of the Mill,” a profusely illustrated, high-quality print run with 300 pages, 200 historical illustrations and 103 contemporary photographs.

In 2020, Steve decided that some of those images should be preserved as a part of the history of New England and mid-century America. He selected nine of the best images, found a photography reproduction and printing company with the requisite “digital silver gelatin” processing technology, and designed and created 12 sets in a limited edition.  See With These Hands to learn more about the extraordinary materials and processing used to create these $2,500 sets.

Steve’s Vision of the Project

Woven fabric made New England a success. Textile workers made that fabric. Dominating the New England landscape for over a century, textile manufacturing jobs peaked at 440,000 in 1920. Half a century later, when these photographs were made, six out of seven of those jobs were gone. Companies failed and this once-thriving industry contracted.

Yet thousands of mill workers remained in the 1970s, keeping the machines running in factories throughout New England. The workers shown here – spinners and weavers, millwrights and loom fixers, carders and menders – brought their skills and tenacity to the mill every day. Their jobs were sometimes difficult, often dangerous, and always noisy. Each had an immigration story to tell. Most of them started young and continued for decades.

“With These Hands” captures a special time in a unique environment. The portraits shown are selected from dozens of mills, spread over five states, usually alongside modest rivers with waterfalls. Eight of the nine mills shown here have closed, and several have disappeared.

First Public Archive

Having the Boston Public Library acquire a set of these photographs for its permanent collections is a big deal.  BPL will preserve and make these prints available for future researchers and other interested parties. 

All details about the Edition, with a vision statement and short bio, are found at http://www.withthesehands.work

Not only has Boston Public Library acquired one set, but a larger group of these portraits will be shown at the Museum of Work and Culture in Woonsocket, RI, from April 3, 2025 to June 6, 2025.

Several other institutions are in the process of acquiring these photographs and showcasing them to museumgoers, library patrons, and the public. If the Library of Congress agrees to buy a set, do you think Sterling will, too?