The Steerage

The Steerage captures in a single image both one of the first works of artistic modernism and a formative document of its time. In the early 20th-century, many highly skilled workers came to America to work in the booming construction trade of the time. After their jobs were completed they returned to their homelands to share the newly earned riches of the New World. Often assumed to be an image of immigrants traveling to America, the scene actually depicts a variety of men and women traveling in the lower-class section of a steamer going from America back to Europe. Yet, it bears a striking similarity to any number of images of migrant workers who leave their homelands in search of work. Whether traveling to work in a foreign household or to labor in a factory half way around the world, they are willing to travel and live abroad where they can earn better wages for their families at home.