Steve Dunwell’s Textile Worker Portraits Return to New England
A Labor Day Exhibit Honoring Workers’ Stories
The Museum of Work and Culture in Woonsocket, Rhode Island will host an extraordinary photography exhibit this fall: With These Hands: Textile Worker Portraits by Steve Dunwell. The show opens August 15 and runs through October 24, 2025, with a special Labor Day program on Monday, September 1, 2025.
The exhibit features 21 images selected from Dunwell’s larger archive of over 140 photographs, made between 1973 and 1978. These portraits document men and women at work in New England textile mills—an industry once central to the region’s economy, but by then already fading into history.
“Such strength of character in the faces we see…conveying a timeless quality.”
— Mark Feeney, Boston Globe
Steve Dunwell: Photographer and Historian
The project began with a grant from the Rhode Island Council of the Arts and culminated in the 1978 book The Run of the Mill (Godine Press). Dunwell’s camera captured not only the machines and factory interiors, but the human dignity of the workers themselves.
In recent years, the series has been recognized as a vital contribution to labor history and documentary photography. Curators have called it “enormously important” and “relevant, significant, and collectible.” Collections of Dunwell’s original prints are housed at the Boston Public Library and at Cornell University’s Kheel Center Library.
Labor Day Events at the Museum
On Labor Day, September 1, Dunwell himself will be at the Museum from 10AM–2PM. Highlights include:
11:00 AM Slide-show & Talk: Steve Dunwell presents the photographs, their historical context, and their place in documentary photo history.
1:00 PM Film Screening: Slatersville: America’s First Mill Village by Christian deRezendes, an award-winning documentary about the Slater family and their mill village near Woonsocket.
A food truck will be on site for visitors.
The Museum of Work and Culture is located at 42 S. Main St., Woonsocket, RI, near the Blackstone River dam, with free parking nearby.
Preserving the Memory of Work
Textile mill work defined New England’s economy and identity for over a century. Today, as much of labor has shifted away from physical production, Dunwell’s portraits feel especially poignant. They remind us of the skills, sweat, and humanity behind the goods that once powered communities.
“Important work. Relevant, significant and collectible.”
— Denise Froehlich, Director, Maine Museum of Photographic Art
If You Go
Exhibit Dates: August 15 – October 24, 2025
Location: Museum of Work and Culture, Woonsocket, RI
Special Events: Labor Day, September 1, 2025 (talk, film, food truck)
More Info: www.withthesehands.work | rihs.org/museum-of-work-culture