Journeymen Housecarpenters of Philadelphia

An extraordinarily detailed and colorful banner created in 1835 for the Journeyman House Carpenters’ Association of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, important not only to the Carpenter’s union but also to the entire American labor movement.

This side of the banner depicts journeymen and apprentice carpenters at work sawing, using a plane, and sweeping up, their tools hanging on the wall. An apprentice is tapping a mechanic on the shoulder and pointing to a neighboring steeple clock that shows the time to be six o’clock.

In the foreground is inscribed: “Six to Six.” Just as the carpenters of later decades fought for the eight-hour day, the generation of the 1830s had battled for the ten-hour workday with two hours allowed for meals. 

See more banners in the exhibit “We Love a Parade: Union Banners Then and Now.”