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Russell Cutlery Company Birds-Eye View

(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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The John Russell Cutlery moved to Turners Falls, Massachusetts in 1870. The largest manufacturer of cutlery in the world, the building provided two hundred thousand square feet of floor space on four acres. Since the intent of this print was to attract workers, the artist sanitized and idealized the landscape. Other mill buildings and the adjacent town of Turners Falls therefore were omitted to create a spacious effect. An agrarian culture had structured people's lives around the seasons and the daylight hours available to complete various tasks. Factory owners introduced a new concept of time and schedules. Workers now answered to the time clock and their days were divided by hours rather than by tasks.

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