American Steel & Wire Company, Worcester, Mass.

After completing his photography training in New York during the 1880s, Herman Schervee maintained a studio in Worcester, MA, primarily making portraits and exhibiting with the Photographers' Club of New England. At the turn of the century, wire-making was the largest industry in the town of Worcester, and the American Steel & Wire Company the largest company. Schervee made this photograph at one of their factories, apparently fascinated by the pattern of repeating coils seen from a high vantage point. This picture hints at the machine aesthetic that would become a central interest for modernist photographers after World War I.