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Swing Shift

1937
(American, 1911–2012)
America, 20th century
etching
Plate: 24.8 x 27 cm (9 3/4 x 10 5/8 in.); Sheet: 31.9 x 35 cm (12 9/16 x 13 3/4 in.)
Carole W. and Charles B. Rosenblatt Endowment Fund 2020.286
© Will Barnet
Location: not on view
This artwork is known to be under copyright.

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Did You Know?

While the thriving garment industry in early 20th-century New York City had once been staffed by immigrants from European countries, after World War I, Blacks migrating from the American South began to take what was often the lowest paid work in the city.

Description

The furnishings in this room suggest that this man works in a domestic space, likely one of the thousands of tenements where recent migrants to the city worked in contract garment shops that doubled as living quarters. The garment industry in New York City had once been staffed primarily by immigrants from European countries, but after World War I, Black people from the American South began to take what was often the lowest-paid work in the city.
Swing Shift

Swing Shift

1937

Will Barnet

(American, 1911–2012)
America, 20th century

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