Needles Gallery

The Pain-Proof Man & Captain Ringman Jack - Ripley's

Arthur Plumhoff The Human Pincushion - The Pain-Proof Man (left) and Captain Ringman Jack, who lifted weights through holes through his breasts! - Both performers at Robert Ripley's "Believe-it-or-not" Odditorium - at A Century of Progress, the International Exposition (World's Fair) held in Chicago from 1933 to 1934. Date: 1933

© Mary Evans / Grenville Collins Postcard Collection

Process at British Needle Mills, Redditch, Worcestershire

Process at the British Needle Mills, Redditch, Worcestershire -- three images showing how the threading hole is stamped into the needles. Date: 1843

© Mary Evans Picture Library

1840s, 1843, British, Depression, Early, English, Equipment, Factory, Hole, Industrial, Industry, Machine, Machinery, Manual, Manufacture, Manufacturing, Metal, Mills, Needle, Needles, Preparation, Process, Production, Redditch, Stamp, Stamping, Threading, Victorian, Worcestershire, Work, Working

WW1 American knitting song cover

While You're Over There in No Man's Land, I'm Over Here in Lonesome Land. Front cover of sheet music for a knitting themed song with words by Jessie Spiess and music by Jack Stanley. Illustration features a scene of gunners on the Western Front while in the foreground, an industrious woman presents a scene of patriotic duty and domesticity as her knitting needles produce comforts for the men fighting over there. Date: c.1917

© The Joyce Meader Collection / Mary Evans Picture Library