“The Ten Hour System”

This piece is inspired by the Allegheny Cotton Mill Strike of 1848. At that time, Pittsburgh had a bustling textile industry located along the Allegheny River. Women and children were working twelve hour shifts and making an average of two dollars and fifty cents a week. They began protesting with beautiful banners and silk flags demanding for better hours, wages, and working conditions. This banner, made of a delicate silk fabric with lace details, is embroidered with a slogan taken from the protest. This piece symbolizes the bravery and beauty of these women and their efforts to organize, strike, and collectively wield their labor power. Though the textile industry no longer exists in the city of Pittsburgh, its influence is threaded into the fibers of artists in the city today.As portrayed in “Weaving the Future,” weavers from Contemporary Crafts in Pittsburgh, come together to create exquisite textiles and celebrate the ever growing community that allows the legacy to live on.