id: 146827 accession number: 1972.247 share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1972.247 updated: 2025-02-09 03:39:37.496000 Blast Furnace Operator with "Mud Gun", Otis Steel Co., Cleveland, 1928. Margaret Bourke-White (American, 1904–1971). Vintage gelatin silver print; image: 32.6 x 25.8 cm (12 13/16 x 10 3/16 in.); matted: 61 x 50.8 cm (24 x 20 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. Albert A. Levin 1972.247 © Estate of Margaret Bourke-White / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY title: Blast Furnace Operator with "Mud Gun", Otis Steel Co., Cleveland title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1928 creation date earliest: 1928 creation date latest: 1928 current location: creditline: Gift of Mrs. Albert A. Levin copyright: © Estate of Margaret Bourke-White / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY --- culture: America technique: Vintage gelatin silver print department: Photography collection: PH - American 1900-1950 type: Photograph find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Margaret Bourke-White (American, 1904–1971) - artist Margaret Bourke-White American, 1904-1971 Margaret Bourke-White was a preeminent photojournalist who gained fame for her striking images published in Fortune and Life magazines in the 1930s-50s. In 1922, while at Columbia University Teachers College in her native New York City, Bourke-White studied photography with Clarence White. She attended several other colleges before graduating from Cornell University (1927), then moved to Cleveland. The city's industrial landscape was influential in the development of Bourke-White's photographic style. One of her images from this period, Romance of Steel, was a first-place winner in the Cleveland Museum of Art's 1928 May Show, a regional juried exhibition. The following year Bourke-White moved back to New York to work for Henry Luce's new business magazine, Fortune. In 1934 she was sent by the magazine to cover the drought in the Midwest, an assignment she credited with awakening her social conscience. Three years later she collaborated with writer Erskine Caldwell on You Have Seen Their Faces, an acclaimed study of the plight of rural Southerners during the Great Depression. Bourke-White's long association with Life began in 1936 when she joined the magazine as one of its first staff photographers. When it premiered on November 23, 1936, her photographs of Fort Peck Dam in Montana were featured on the cover and in the lead story. During her career, Bourke-White covered many major world events: the Great Depression, World War II, the partitioning of India, and the Korean War. She continued to photograph throughout the 1950s, publishing her images in magazines and in a number of books, including Eyes on Russia (1931), North of the Danube, with Erskine Caldwell (1939), Say, Is This the U.S.A.?, with Erskine Caldwell (1941), Shooting the Russian War (1942), Dear Fatherland, Rest Quietly (1946), Halfway to Freedom: A Report on the New India (1949), and Portrait of Myself (her autobiography, 1963). M.M. --- measurements: Image: 32.6 x 25.8 cm (12 13/16 x 10 3/16 in.); Matted: 61 x 50.8 cm (24 x 20 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Written in pencil on recto of mount: "Bourke-White [signed]"; in pencil on verso: "O.P./23"; "#3" translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Year in Review: 1972 opening date: 1973-02-27T05:00:00 Year in Review: 1972. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 27-March 18, 1973). title: Photographs of Margaret Bourke-White opening date: 1976-05-08T04:00:00 Photographs of Margaret Bourke-White. The New Gallery of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 8-June 5, 1976). title: Industrial Photography of the Early 20th Century opening date: 1976-12-04T05:00:00 Industrial Photography of the Early 20th Century. Canton Museum of Art, Canton, OH (organizer) (December 4, 1976-February 13, 1977). title: 130 Years of Ohio Photography opening date: 1978-12-01T05:00:00 130 Years of Ohio Photography. Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH (organizer) (December 1, 1978-January 3, 1979). title: Cleveland Art Comes of Age: 1919-1940 opening date: 1989-06-28T04:00:00 Cleveland Art Comes of Age: 1919-1940. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 28-September 10, 1989). title: Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946 opening date: 1996-05-19T04:00:00 Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 19-July 21, 1996). title: Steel and Real Estate(s): Margaret Bourke-White and Corporate Culture in Cleveland opening date: 2000-03-27T00:00:00 Steel and Real Estate(s): Margaret Bourke-White and Corporate Culture in Cleveland. The College of Wooster Art Museum, Wooster, OH (organizer) (March 27-June 5, 2000). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * {'description': 'Cleveland, The New Gallery of Contemporary Art, May 8 - June 5 1976: "Margaret Bourke-White: The Cleveland Years, 1927-1930," and to Cleveland Restoration Festival, The Restoration Center, 1976.', 'opening_date': '1976-06-05T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'Canton, OH, Canton Art Institute, 1976 - 1977: "Industrial Photograph of the Early 20th Century."', 'opening_date': '1976-01-01T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'Columbus, OH, Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, 1978 - 1979: "130 Years of Ohio Photography," catalogue repr. p. 11.', 'opening_date': '1978-01-01T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'Cleveland, The Kenneth C. Beck Center for the Cultural Arts, 1979: "Selection of Photography from the Cleveland Museum of Art."', 'opening_date': '1979-01-01T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'CMA, March 31 - June 28, 1987: "The Hand of Man: Images of the Industrial Age."', 'opening_date': '1987-03-31T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'CMA, June 28 - September 10, 1989: "Cleveland Art Comes of Age: 1919 - 1940.', 'opening_date': '1989-06-28T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, May 19 - July 21, 1996 "Transformations in Cleveland Art 1796-1946", p.212, fig.220, p.245.', 'opening_date': '1996-05-19T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'Wooster, OH: The College of Wooster Art Museum "Steel and Reasl Estate(s): Margaret Bourke-White and Corporate Culture in Cleveland" 3/27-6/5/00, exh. cat. no. 80.', 'opening_date': '2000-06-05T00:00:00'} --- PROVENANCE --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996. page number: Reproduced: P. 101 url: --- IMAGES