Garment Worker
16x12 Oil on Canvas

Garment Workers Union

My painting of a garment worker stems from my grandmother being a seamstress for many years during the 30’s through the 60’s.
She lived in Camden and worked in Philadelphia. Garment work was once one of Philadelphia’s largest industries. Clothing and textiles (a category including hosiery, a Philadelphia specialty) employed more than 40 percent of the city’s paid workforce by 1880. Starting in the first third of the nineteenth century, the garment industry became a center of labor activism, experiencing periodic strikes and union organizing drives until it began to decline in the mid-twentieth century.

The link below is an excellent history of the garment industry.