“The Working People of Richmond: Life and Labor in an Industrial City, 1865–1920” at the Valentine Museum, Richmond, Virginia

Abstract

“THE WORKING PEOPLE OF RICHMOND: LIFE AND LABOR IN AN INDUSTRIAL CITY, 1865-1920” AT THE VALENTINE MUSEUM, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA PETER LIEBHOLD In the past ten or fifteen years museums have begun to change their focus. Social and cultural concerns now temper technological won­ derment. History is increasingly seen through the lenses of race, ethnicity, class, and gender. New concerns for multiculturism, diver­ sity, and contextualism have forced museums to broaden their inter­ pretation of history and reassess their collections. In the field of industrial history these changes have resulted in exhibits such as “Perfect in Her Place” (National Museum of American History), “The Workers’ World” (Hagley Museum), and “Homestead” (Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania). The Valentine Museum has been in the forefront of presenting the new social history. Under the directorship of Frank Jewell, the Valentine has been transformed from a sleepy city museum to an exciting institution leading the exploration of new exhibit topics. Recent exhibits include such diverse and controversial subjects as “Jim Crow: Racism and Reaction in the New South,” “Smoke Signals: Cigarettes, Advertising, and the American Way of Life,” “Dressed for Work: Women in the Workforce,” and “In Bondage and Freedom: Antebellum Black Life in Richmond, Virginia.” The Valentine’s latest exhibit, “The Working People of Richmond: Life and Labor in an Industrial City, 1865—1920,” continues this trend. By no means a simple chronology of the industrial develop­ ment of Richmond, this exhibit explores the relationships of immi­ gration, race relations, unionism, technological change, and work. Its two major elements are objects with text and a series of “living history” performances (see fig. 1). While the object portion is a bit text heavy and visually intimidating, the performances are exciting and engaging. The exhibit begins with a section on the transformation of work. It includes material on artisans, agriculture, and republicanism. AlMr . Liebhold is a specialist in the Division of Engineering and Industry at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.© 1992 by the Society for the History of Technology. All rights reserved. 0040-165X/92/3303-0007$01.00 564 “The Working People of Richmond” at the Valentine Museum 565 Fig. 1.—The highlight of “The Working People of Richmond” is the living-history performances. Here Harry Kollatz, Jr., plays the role of a 19th-century iron roller. (Photos courtesy of the Valentine Museum.) though this is interesting, there is too much space dedicated to antebellum activities, and good sections on the rise of factories and the regimentation of time are lost in a mass of pre-1860 background information. The next section explores the urban working class. Different neighborhoods are highlighted and the racial or ethnic makeup of each noted. This is a good topic, but the information is neither cohesive nor conclusive. Why does Richmond remain demographically heterogeneous? What is the relationship between where people work and where they live? The third section chronicles the rise of labor activism in Richmond through a study of the Knights of Labor. The problems of racism are well discussed but little is said of the other complex issues that led to the rise and fall of the Knights of Labor. There is a nice subsection on the development of a new technology, the Brinkop lumper, intro­ duced by manufactures of plug tobacco largely to combat activism by skilled workers. The final section examines the so-called Progressivism of the early 20th century; it is good but somewhat limited, as it does not address the ways in which this reform movement was co-opted by powerful business interests. The differences between scientific management, welfare work, and the personnel movement are often lost, and there 566 Peter Liebhold is no discussion of the rise of the managerial class. The star of this section is a video copy of an interesting Women’s Bureau film, Behind the Scenes in the Machine Age. The best part of “The Working People of Richmond” is the living-history performance. Working with the Studio Theatre of Richmond, curator Gregg Kimball has crafted three vignettes that push the bounds of traditional exhibitry. They tell the story of work in industrial Richmond in a way that objects cannot. The first performance features...