Part 13

=57. Lithographers.= The impression for chalk drawings is made by delicate manipulations with crayon pencils; for ink drawings, with steel pens and camel-hair brushes. It requires one skilled in the use of her pencil, for every stroke of the pencil or pen on the stone remains, and cannot be erased. Consequently, any defect on the stone is conveyed to every copy of the paper. In answer to a letter of inquiry, respecting the time necessary for preparation, the writer says: "A person who draws well upon paper would, I should think, with six months' practice on stone, become proficient. The process differs little from crayon drawing on paper; and the progress of pupils depends entirely on their previous attainments in drawing. The different kinds of lithography are black, chromo, and gold illuminated; also, lithography combined, or uncombined, with embossing. In a report of a British school of design, it is stated that the chromo-lithographic class for females "exhibit the commencement of a series of useful labors." An immense number of cheap lithographs are colored by women; such as are hung in taverns, country houses, sailors' homes, servants' rooms, &c. At Mr. C.'s establishment, I was told that in France the females are quite as successful as the male artists in lithography. He says lithographs require to be more highly colored than the colors we see in nature. Mr. C. thinks of sending to France for lithographers, as he cannot get enough in New York well qualified. A correct eye, skilful manipulation, and an appreciation of art are required to make one skilful in lithography. Germans excel, because they have so much patience. An American would become nervous at the slow work that they prosecute with the greatest pleasure. At Mr. C.'s they have a forewoman, who superintends the girls, who are paid by the quantity and kind of work they do. He finds that small girls are usually the best workers. Their fingers are more nimble, and they enter into it with more zeal. He thinks it best for them to commence at ten or twelve years of age. Prospect good for employment in that branch. The coloring of all the finest pictures is done by men. It requires some time to become sufficiently expert to earn much. Their girls earn from $3 to $7 a week. The work requires care, and is wearisome, because of sitting long and steadily. Mrs. P., Brooklyn, an English lady, learned to draw when eight years old, and studied lithography with a distinguished artist of London, who executed entirely with his left hand, having lost three fingers on his right when he was a child. She has spent twenty-two years in lithographing--seventeen of them in this country. She is probably the only lady professionally engaged in this business in the United States. She has earned almost constantly, I was told, from $12 to $30 a week. Lithographing is very lucrative to a skilful artist. The remuneration is better than women often receive for their handiwork. We believe some women could find employment in it, if they were prepared. Mrs. P. excels in architectural drawing. She thinks one must have the talent of an artist, and great practice with the pencil, to succeed. She has given instruction to several youths, but never to one of her own sex. One must be articled, and pass through a regular course of advancement, to follow it advantageously. To an apprentice, after two or three years' practice, a small premium is paid. She had one youth to learn of her, who, after four years' time, received $7 a week from her for his work. She thinks there will be employment to a few well qualified. She has always been kept busy. The employment is not more unhealthy than any other of a sedentary kind. Mr. M. says they have no difficulty in finding enough of crayon lithographers, but that there is more lithographic engraving done than crayon lithographing. It is done on stone with instruments, very much as engraving is done on copper. We have read "that an improved method of transferring copies of delicate copper and steel plate engravings to the surface of lithographic stone has been invented. One copy taken from the steel or copper plate, after being transferred to the stone, is capable of producing 3,000 prints." "Lithography, engraving, and especially engraving on wood, would gain in quality by passing from men's hands to the hands of women." "Lithographic works are produced which rival the finest engravings, and even surpass them, in the expression of certain subjects." The first lithography executed in the United States was in Boston, 1826. W. & S. used to employ girls to color lithographs, but found it did not pay. They paid from $4 to $5 a week to women, who did the common part of the work. Men did the finer parts, and earned from $12 to $25 a week; but only those who are expert, have artistic taste, and understand the business, can earn so much. French lithographs are prepared and the coloring done so much cheaper in Europe, they have ceased to have it done in New York. B., lithographer, Philadelphia, employs many ladies--about twenty--in the house. Some associate in companies, and take their work to the house of one of their number; but the greater part are educated women, who do not wish it known that they earn money by their labor: these carry the plates to their own homes (and even have them sent to the fashionable places of resort in summer), so that many a fair damsel trips along Chestnut street with a roll of something, which seems to be music, but is, in fact, work. The coarse handed take no part in this employment. Very few have ever attained the highest degree of proficiency in it. The most delicate work is done by men. Americans have most aptness for coloring, although the Germans excel in drawing on stone. Women seldom attempt the latter art. It requires long practice for girls to excel in coloring. Many grades of skill are required to color lithographs, and there is much difficulty in making all the copies exactly like the first. Some need a treatment so nearly approaching the artistic, that scarcely any one who has the skill can be found to give his labor for the price, which is necessarily limited. We gained no information as to the amount of wages paid to the colorists, but, judging from the price of a very beautiful specimen (29 cents), it must be sadly inadequate. The scientific societies are the main support of this business. The Government, indeed, gives very extensive orders, but there is always so much competition to obtain them, that the profit is small. Audubon was the greatest encourager of this branch of industry. This employment is very desirable in every respect for educated women; and although machinery for printing in colors is fast encroaching on it, yet it will long offer a field for female enterprise. Our informant employs from 100 to 300 hands, according to the prosperity of the times. A commercial crisis affects this as well as all other trades. One of the firm of the best lithographic establishment in New York, told me they pay their men for drawing on stone from $25 to $30 a week. The time required to learn lithography, he thought, would depend much on natural talent. A good knowledge of drawing is necessary. He thought men would soon get over the opposition of women entering the business; but they did not like the restraint of working where women are. They would soon become accustomed to it; and if they were women of the right kind, it might be a very beneficial restraint. But, as to that, women could do the work at home. Many Germans, well acquainted with the art, are engaged in crayoning. When they first come to this country, they work for lower wages than Americans, but after a while learn their value, and ask as much as any one else. On account of the low wages for which foreigners can usually be had, but few Americans have prepared themselves for this occupation. But when work is plenty, and the individual industrious and skilful, he can earn good wages. Seven eighths of the work done for this country is executed in New York. The agent of a lithographic company writes: "Drawing on stone could be done by women as well as men; and would open to them a very genteel and remunerative branch of business. The drawing is now done mostly by Germans and Frenchmen; but ladies who have a taste for drawing could soon learn this art. The usual price for such artists now is from $12 to $35 per week." Prof. P., of New York, gives instruction in lithography, charging $12 per quarter of eleven weeks--two lessons per week. Special arrangements are made with pupils who intend to devote themselves to the profession as artists or teachers. A gentleman remarked to me that Mr. S., a certain distinguished lithographer of this city (New York), would make an excellent teacher in that art. His forte is heads. A few strokes from his pencil always give a beautiful finish to a piece of work.

=58. Map Makers.= Women could not well travel about to obtain information of localities for the making of maps, but nearly all the manual labor connected with the business would be very suitable for them. Lithographing maps is said to be a profitable branch of the art, and opens a field to competent women. Attending the machines for making impressions from the stones might very well be performed by women. "In Philadelphia, map coloring gives employment to about 175 females, some of whom display exquisite taste in this delicate art." There used to be 150 girls in New York painting maps, but there are very few now. Freedley tells of a map-manufacturing establishment in Philadelphia that "turns out 1,200 maps weekly. Connected with it are two lithographic printing offices, having twenty presses, and coloring rooms, in which 35 females are employed." I was told by a lady who had colored maps, that it is trying on the eyes and poorly compensated. A map maker said he was always most busy in the fall, and then employed from 12 to 16 women. In winter he employed about half that number, and they principally married women, who have worked for them several years. Mr. W. pays two of his best and most experienced lady workers a certain sum by the week, and they hire girls and women to work for them. The profits of these forewomen, aside from their own work, amount to $1.50 to $2 a week the year round. Girls receive $1.50 a week while learning. It requires from six months to one year to become proficient. Neatness, a steady hand, knowledge of colors, and fineness of touch, are the principal requisites for a good map colorist. It requires no artistic knowledge. An expeditious and experienced hand can earn $1 a day. There is at present a need of hands in New York, and a surplus in Philadelphia. All seasons are alike in this business, except as monetary affairs are concerned. All Mr. W.'s hands work in the house. They work about nine hours a day all the year, and never take maps home with them, as they are mostly large and heavy maps. Map making is mostly confined to Philadelphia and New York. None are made in the South and West. There is one map publisher reported in Richmond, but he has his maps made in New York. Mr. C. gives his maps to a map mounter, who employs a girl to sew the bindings on with a sewing machine. She is paid at the same rate as any other operator. The paper bindings are of course pasted on. Mr. C. employs one girl to paint the outlines, but all the other painting is done by stencil plates. Map coloring formerly gave employment to many females, but now it is very rare that a map is colored by hand. The stencilling process introduced by the Germans has superseded it, as they are thereby rendered cheaper. Girls used to earn 75 cents to $1 a day for painting maps. If girls would learn stencilling and work on their own responsibility, they might compete with the Germans. The process is very simple and soon learned. At Mr. H.'s, I saw a large room full of Germans stencilling. Men earn $8 or $9 a week, and do it faster and better than girls, as they have more strength. I saw one girl shading, who earned $1 a day. A map manufacturer writes me: "In map coloring I am compelled to employ men to a large extent. A curious fact is, that respectable middle-aged women, who have been coloring for years on piecework, make from $4 to $5 per week; while young men, comparatively unpractised, earn at the same prices, say from $9 to $10." A manufacturer who employs about 80 females, writes: "I employ women in pasting and putting down maps, who receive from $3 to $4 a week, being paid by the week, and working ten hours a day. The difference in prices of male and female labor is about one half. One can learn the business in a few weeks; the only qualifications requisite are sobriety and strength. The prospect for work in this branch is good. There is no difference in the seasons. Some parts of the work can be done more cheaply by women. A supply of hands can always be had. The women do their work less carefully than men." A map publisher in New Hampshire writes: "I employ 28 women and girls in binding, mounting, stitching, and coloring maps, and pay from $3 to $6 per week, working eight hours a day. The engraving is done by men, who receive from $6 to $20 per week. Women's labor can be learned in a few weeks, and is not so hard or difficult as men's. Engravers spend three years learning. I employ women to color, because they have better taste than men. Draughting surveys, engraving, and lithographing have never been attempted by women. New York is preferable as a locality." A gentleman in Boston writes: "We employ from four to eight women in our map-mounting department. They could not be employed in any other branch, which is varnishing and polishing all kinds of hard wood. There are a large number employed in New York, Philadelphia, and Buffalo. Pay varies from $3 to $5 per week--ten hours a day. We employ no men in this branch. There is something new to learn every day. Business is the same all the year. We pay our girls nothing while learning." A lithographer in Boston writes: "I employ women to color maps and pictures, paying by the piece, the workers earning from $3 to $6 per week. The employment is not unhealthy."

=59. Medallists.= "Beatrice Hamerani worked at medallions, and in 1700 elaborated a large medallion of Pope Innocent XII., highly praised by Goethe." "Toward the end of the seventeenth century we hear of Madame Ravemann, who executed a beautiful medal, an exquisite specimen of cutting." In the school of design in New York, we saw two very creditable medallions, executed by one of the members of the school.

=60. Modellers.= An ornamental designer and modeller writes me: "In England I attended my lady pupils at their own residences, except one to whom I gave instruction at my residence. One was the daughter of the Lord Mayor of the city, another the daughter-in-law of the Earl of H. Very few ladies learn any of the higher branches of art, except those that do so for recreation. A person that has some skill in drawing would, without the slightest doubt, soon acquire a knowledge of this beautiful art. Some persons have a natural gift for modelling, while others would not learn it with all the cultivation arising from education and good society. Probably the best source of employment in New York would be to design and model for the silversmiths--such as Ball & Black, Tiffany, &c. One of the most fertile departments in Europe to lady modellers is not carried on to any extent in this country--the making of fine pottery. The fingers, of course, must be soiled in modelling; but such an inconvenience is trifling compared with the pleasure of forming fruit, flowers, and foliage, or modelling the medallions of friends." The modelling of gas fixtures might afford employment to a small number of qualified women. We know of one establishment in Philadelphia where part of the designing for fixtures, lamps, and chandeliers, is done by a lady, and all the copying done for illustrated catalogues of those which are finished. She receives $6 a week, and goes about 9 o'clock A. M. and remains until 4 P. M. Mr P., at his school of art in New York, has a very large collection of casts. He gives instruction to boys and young men in modelling and drawing, charging 25 cents a lesson of 3 hours in the day or 2 in the evening. They are instructed in classes. Some of his casts are gigantic. In one of his rooms is a beautiful, but small model, in wax, for $300, representing a hunting scene. We have been told that some ladies in Germany model wax patterns for the ornamental work on china. Few tools are used by a modeller--the only ones are for the sharp and delicate parts that cannot be formed by the fingers. As clay does not shrink uniformly in drying it is moulded before drying in plaster of Paris, and a cast of the same material taken from that, which serves as a model for the workman. Some artists model in wax. Women might be employed in modelling ornamental and scroll work for brass founderies, &c., and get good wages.

=61. Modellers of Wax Figures.= Catharine Questier, who lived in Amsterdam about 200 years ago, besides possessing many other accomplishments, was a modeller in wax. Joanna Sabina Preu, who lived in Germany not long after, was noted in the same way. A daughter of a Danish king also modelled in wax. "Professor Anna Manzalius, an Italian lady, modelled excellent portraits in the beginning of the eighteenth century." In England, in the early part of the eighteenth century, Mrs. Samore modelled figures and historical groups in wax. Mrs. Patience Wright, born in Bordentown, New Jersey, 1725, made a great many likenesses in wax. Some were full length and some were busts. They were mostly of the statesmen that were conspicuous in the American colonies at that time--yet some were of Englishmen, as she resided in London, after she became a widow, and supported her family by her handiwork. Her daughter, Mrs. Platt, modelled in wax in New York in 1787. I saw a maker of wax figures who said he had supported his family by his work, and thought a few others might make a living at it. One must be able to draw a model before undertaking wax figures. It requires good perceptive powers, ability to distinguish colors, and a peculiar taste. One must be able to work from life, and it is well to know how to do so from pictures. Mr. G., interested in Barnum's museum, told me that it was impossible to get such wax figures made in this country as they want. He spoke of the miserable imitations that are made, and thought a person well qualified would be patronized. Most of the groups in Barnum's museum were made by Mrs. Pelby, of Boston. Mr. Barnum wrote to Mr. Tussaud, whose mother made those so famous in London (and who is living now), to know if he would instruct some one to send to America; but he is not willing to give any one instruction. He employs persons to make the different parts; one set of workers make the bodies, another the heads, another the feet, &c. The world-famed group of his mother, Madame Tussaud, was first opened in Paris about 1770. After being exhibited in the large towns of Great Britain, it was taken to London, where it still remains. The figures are so life-like that now and then one is mistaken for a living person, while a person is as often mistaken in the group for one of the figures. More than forty persons are kept in charge of the exhibition.

=62. Mineral Labellers and Arrangers.= A lady could not easily make collections of minerals, but she might find it an absorbing occupation to arrange and label them. Few ladies in our country have given any study to mineralogy, and very few would be competent to form cabinets. Yet, for those that are, we doubt not employment of that kind could be found. The individual wealth of our country has not been sufficient to enable many to make extensive collections. The most that exist are connected with universities and other institutions of learning. They have been collected at different times--in fact, mostly formed by single specimens, added now and then. Individual collections have been formed in the same way. Individuals add to the cabinets of their friends, as they have it in their power. The most extensive collections in the United States are at the Patent Office, Washington, and in the National Academy of Science, Philadelphia. Mr. H., a mineralogist from Berlin, says: "In Berne, Switzerland, a man and his wife are mineralogists. On the husband's death the wife will continue the business." It must require many years' study and an extensive knowledge of chemistry to become a superior mineralogist. I would think considerable time and capital were requisite for a mineralogist to establish himself. Mr. H. makes exchanges of minerals for others, receiving, I suppose, a commission for doing so. A geologist writes me: "No women are employed in my business. It requires one half of a lifetime to become fitted for the duties of a geologist. A knowledge of engineering, and most of the natural sciences, is needed. Draughting in the office is the only part suitable for women."