“The Press Feeder.” R. Major. Engraving from Life in New York, In Doors and Out of Doors, page 73 (New York: Bunce & Brother, 1851; HD6096.N6 B8). Rare Book and Special Collections Division.
A glimpse of the variety of work available to women is offered in Life in New York, In Doors and Out of Doors (New York: Bunce & Brother, 1851; HD6096.N6 B8) [full item] through forty engravings accompanied by profile stories. The tedious suffering of the needlewoman is contrasted with the
pleasant surroundings of the shop woman. Most descriptions discuss actual tasks, working conditions, and wages. Teaching and
nursing are praised and jobs related to printing are encouraged, whereas corset makers are chided for bringing misery to other
women. Tasks performed by poor girls, including fruit vending and ash picking, are described by Emma Brown and illustrated
by Katherine Peirson in The Child Toilers of Boston Streets (Boston: D. Lothrop & Co, 1879; HD2350.U5 B72) .
Lucy Stone's copy of Caroline Dall's Woman's Right to Labor (Boston: Walker, Wise, and Co., 1860; JK1881.N357 sec. 9: 9 NAWSA) and the memorial edition of her The College, the Market, and the Court; or Woman's Relation to Education, Labor, and Law (Boston: Rumford Press, 1914; JK1881.N357 sec. 9: 22 NAWSA) are among the labor works gathered in the NAWSA Collection. Here also are several works by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, including
Women and Economics (Boston: Small, Maynard & Company, 1898; JK188 .N357 sec. 6: 20 NAWSA)
, as well as Alice Henry's Trade
Union Woman (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1915; sec. 3:9 NAWSA) [full item] and a complete set of the Bulletin of the Women's Bureau of the Labor Department (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1919-37; sec. 3: 27-34 NAWSA) .
