Drudgery of poor women in America c 1914. Photo by William Barnhill via LIFE magazine
. This photograph was taken in Appalachia way back in 1914 by William Barnhill. It shows impoverished women forced to be household drudges and field hands, aging to old hags within a few short years of the heavy labour. To do mundane tasks like converting wool to clothing and linen, they worked with primitive manual machines.
Barnhill did these photographs decades before the FSA undertook the investigation of poverty during the dirty thirties. It appeared in the Gallery (pp8, 9) of the October 16, 1970 edition of LIFE magazine.
My thanks once again to good friend George Dunbar for bringing this photograph to my attention while he continues to investigate various magazine representations pertinent to photographic history.
