Open Doors III — Dec. 1869

The Academies of Design, Professor B---- told me, were not designed to furnish a prompt means of livelihood to needy women. The course of study properly occupied from three to four years.

“But could they not be forced to furnish such prompt means?”

“Possibly, provided the scholar had not only energy and talent, but an aptitude for turning her knowledge to immediate account.”

The tuition was free or not, at the option of the pupil. Nothing more was needed for admission than an application endorsed by some respectable citizen. Many women now in the school supported themselves by outside work. The majority of graduates became teachers, receiving at the rate of one dollar, or a dollar and a half an hour, for lessons. The other most usual ways of making their knowledge available were designing for different kinds of manufactories—engraving on wood, lithography,[1] and etching on steel and copper. For the prices paid for these kinds of work, and the demand for them, I applied to women actually engaged in each business.

“They are too often content,” complained Professor B---, “with poor work and poor wages.”

His principle of action was best, doubtless, for the sake of art. But theirs, after all was that suited to Sarah Johns, and women who had little feeling for art, but a very great craving for bread and butter.

“I graduated at the School of Design,” said one keen, blue eyed Quaker-girl. “The teachers think one is not able to make money in less than four years. But men have such queer notions. Thee knows about thoroughness and all that! A woman with a quick eye and hand who works hard can learn to transfer on wood in eight months well enough to earn ten dollars a week. Coarse work? Oh! very coarse—common circulars, cards, and the like. But somebody must do coarse work. And it’s very comfortable to make ten dollars a week!” Pressing her plump hands together with a contented laugh.

“But you do better work than this now?”

“Oh! yes; I have had regular work—drawing on the wood for the engravers; not original designs—thee understands?—copying objects for a scientific institution. I was employed there for a year and a half: it paid me three to seven dollars a day. I had one piece of work once that paid me well,” her eyes brightening, “A large picture of heads grouped. It took me two months, and they paid me three hundred dollars. They would have paid five, if I had asked it. I’ve always been sorry I did not ask five! But those large jobs go to men, generally. I don’t know why.”

“Perhaps because of their queer notions about thoroughness?”

“Perhaps,” laughing good-humoredly. “I work on stone too. Lithography requires great steadiness of hand. One can’t afford to be nervous. A woman ought, if she is industrious, to make by it twenty dollars a week. Ordinary and regular work pays me ten dollars a week. But men have command of the market. There is a constant demand for diagram work, for medical or other lectures. It is coarse and quickly done, and pays five dollars a day. Any of this work can be done at home: a woman is not necessarily thrown in contact with the workmen.”

I learned from others that my Quaker friend had scarcely done herself justice: she at least was a thorough and painstaking artist.

Another lady employed in copying designs furnished her on the wood received from fifteen to twenty dollars per week.

Another, employed as a wood-engraver, received eighteen or twenty dollars per week for coarse work.

Designs for wood or stone engravings sold readily—the smallest and most common (for ornamenting bills, cards, etc.) bringing from five to ten dollars.

One or two women found constant employment in making draughts of patent-office models, for which they were paid from fifteen to twenty dollars a-piece. There was always demand for this sort of work, and if women were known to be ready and capable for it, it was given to them in preference.

“They are not afraid of our stealing the patents,” said one pretty girl, laughing. “But there are not many women accurate enough to do the work properly.”

New designs are constantly required by the makers of chandeliers and gas-fixtures, and two or three of the large Philadelphia manufactories keep a woman constantly employed in furnishing them on stone, paying a fixed salary, or in other cases at the rate of twelve or fifteen dollars per stone, which may include one or two patterns.

There is a like demand for new designs in oilcloths and druggets,[2] which are paid for (in Philadelphia) at from ten to twenty dollars per pattern (colored of course). Carpet-patterns are not in like request, the French styles being copied to a great extent. Women are employed by calico-printers, as designers, and furnished with steady work, at ten or twelve dollars for each new design.

One woman told me that she almost supported herself while studying at the Academy by coloring architects’ designs.

“It was common drudgery, to be sure,” she said, “but I made six dollars a week by it, and kept the wolf from the door.”

In wall-paper, the designs are copied from French patterns, or furnished by men who are also wood-engravers. At one time, women were employed in this work in Philadelphia and received high pay, but for some reasons, into which I did not inquire too closely, men are now preferred.

Designers are also constantly employed for the finer kinds of cabinet-work, and also in the manufacture of military work, trimmings etc. But women have never obtained these places, because constructive ability is needed as well as skill in drawing. In one case, the designer must be a practical cabinet-maker; in the other, a weaver with the Jacquard loom.[3]These are not difficult obstacles, perhaps, but there is another: the designer is thrown into constant intercourse with the workmen—a fact which (if our Sarah Johns is to be one of the old-fashioned modest women) effectually closes those doors for her.

A young lady employed in a large japanning[4] factory explained her work to me, which appeared to be light and pleasant. She ornamented chamber-sets and large tea-caddies with bunches and sprays of flowers, gilding them also. She is paid by the piece, and receives from seven to fourteen dollars per week. The finer work was given to men at higher prices.

These are the principal ways in which the knowledge acquired at the School of Design can be used as a means of support. The testimony was the same in all cases: there was plenty of work, but the field was already preoccupied by men. It would require marked superiority on the part of women-workers to take their place, instead of which they were content with mediocrity. In all cases that came to my knowledge, women were paid as well as men if the work was equal.

Notes

1. Lithography is a method of printing that involves drawing an image in oil, wax, or fat on a smooth limestone or metal plate and then using these plates to imprint the image onto paper. It was originally invented as an easy and inexpensive method for the mass production of theatrical materials.

2. Coarse woolen fabric often used for rugs or tablecloths.

3. Mechanical looms used to create textiles with complex patterns, like brocades or damasks.

4. Japanning is a decorative process for finishing and ornamenting wood, leather, tin, and papier-mâché in imitation of the celebrated lacquerwork of the Japanese.

Key Words

designer, lithographer, weaver, women's work, wood-engraver

Creator

Emily Dolan