You cannot escape the fate

The tool -themed memorials as the symbols of the life and death of the industry worker of 19-th Century

Authors

• Noora Hemminki University of Oulu https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2740-3825

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33355/tw.103322

Keywords:

19th century, ironworks, fatalism, tools

Abstract

This paper studies the material culture of death that was created by and for the people that lived and died in industrial context. The study concentrates on the memorials of the 19-th century ironworkers from two Finnish mills. The artefacts have parallels in Sweden, where such iron crosses are linked to the industrial metallurgy. The studied memorials are made to resemble tools that are put in the shape of the cross, but they lack christianity. They tell about fatalism, skill and identity instead. With analyzing the symbolic meanings of the tools that are described in the memorials, this paper argues that at these mill communities, the material culture of death was different from the general memorial style of the era.