Employers and employees at Hjula Væveri

Description (English)

This photomontage is made up of different pictures from Hjula. The work force, the owners, the waterfall and the factory buildings are the themes of the montage. The origin of the montage is unknown, but the copy is dated 1882. The workers fill the main part of the picture. There are about five hundred people sitting in rows, the women in front and men behind. Only a few children are represented, although child labour was common at that time. A photo of one of the factory buildings is in the centre: the clothing factory built in the 1870s. Twenty-three portraits of men surround the photo of the mill. They are not identified, but are probably the leaders of the mill, and maybe the members of the owner’s family. On each side there are photos that we know exist today. The photographer was Marie Rustad, daughter of the founder Halvor Schou and sister of Christian Schou who was director at Hjula from 1879 until he died in 1909. These two pictures show the waterfalls that were the mill’s main energy source and two men, one unidentified and the other the owner Christian Schou.