Detroit Industry, North Wall / by Environmental Humanities Hub

Diego Rivera, Mexican, 1886–1957

Detroit Industry, North Wall, 1932

Detroit Industry, North Wall illustrates the increasing pace of technology sustained by African-American laborers even amidst the Great Depression. The furnace blasts above the main production line indicate the extreme temperatures workers are facing, and the figures on the upper panels hold the materials fueling the work below. The human hands grabbing stones from the mountain funnel down into the factory as humans use more and more natural resources. Label by Katie Lee