Machinists

Renowned for his eighteen covers for The Saturday Evening Post published from 1933 to 1943, Douglass Crockwell also created illustrations for Life, Look and Esquire magazines and advertisements for iconic American brands. During the Depression, Crockwell executed several paintings for the Works Progress Administration, such as Post Office murals in White River Junction, Vermont; Macon, Mississippi; and Endicott, New York. The present work is similar in theme to his 1934 painting Paper Workers (Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; Transfer from the U.S. Department of Labor), which celebrates the industrial workers at the newspaper plant in the town of Glens Falls, New York.