The photograph on our Wired display shows two women hard at work at the Aldrich Bros. brush factory. They don't look up for the camera and their expressions are serious, deep in concentration, possibly annoyed at this interruption.

 

They are both wearing protective ‘drawing mittens’ as they pull out a wire which is attaching bristles to a brush head. 

 

The mitten is made of thick leather and held together with metal clips. It protects the palm of the hand, but not the fingers which will be constantly bending the coarse bristles into shape. 

 

Women, with their smaller hands, were considered to be more dextrous. The room where the wire pulling took place was known as the 'drawing room' or ‘girls room’.