People Knitting: A Century of Photographs

People Knitting is a charming tribute in vintage photographs and printed ephemera to the ever-popular, often all-consuming, craft of knitting. When women posed with their knitting in the earliest nineteenth-century photographs, it demonstrated their virtue and skill as homemakers. Later, knitting became fashionable among the wealthy as a sign of culture and artistic ability. During the two world wars, images of nurses, soldiers, prisoners, and even knitting clubs composed of very serious small boys--all with heads bent down, intent on knitting items (especially socks) for the troops--abounded. In the 1950s and 1960s, as snapshots became ubiquitous, knitters took on a jauntier air, posing with handiwork held proudly aloft. People Knitting is a quirky and fascinating gift for the knitter in your life.

Barbara Levine is a collector, artist and curator specializing in vernacular photography and unusual collections. She runs Project B, an archive and collaborative curatorial venture and is the author of Camera Era, Finding Frida Kahlo, Around The World: The Grand Tour in Photo Albums and Snapshot Chronicles: Inventing the American Photo Album. Her website is www.projectB.com.