Gallery
David Grant Noble, Roger Horne, a Mohawk ironworker, grasping a cable in each hand and looking upward.1970-1971. Courtesy the artist and the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution (113_pht_003_002). Photo by nmai Photo Services.
Those who hold papers claim to have ownership
of buildings and land.
They do not see the hands which placed each rivet.
They do not hear the feet walking each hidden beam.
They do not hear the whisper of strong clan names.
They do not see the faces of men who remain
unseen as those girders which strengthen and shape.
—Joseph Bruchac, “Steel,” 2011
Yousuf Karsh. Atlas Steel, 1950. Gelatin silver print. (image): 19.5 x 15.625 inches. Courtesy of the Estate of Yousuf Karsh.
Heat treatment of iron in forge for further use. Shutterstock.
Steel on the skyline
Sky made of glass
Made for a real world
All things must pass
—David Bowie, Heathen
(The Rays), 2002
Man cutting tuna with magurokiri knife at Osaka fish market, July 9, 2024. Cavan Images / Alamy.
The Swordsmith by the Japanese artist and printmaker, Katsushika Hokusai (c. 1760-1849), woodblock print (surimono), ink and color on paper, 1802. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Howard Mansfield Collection, Purchase, Rogers Fund, 1936, JP2574.
Men are like steel.
When they lose their temper, they lose their worth.
—Chuck Norris
Eugene de Salignac. Brooklyn Bridge showing painters on suspenders, October 7, 1914, glass plate negative, from the Collection, Departments of Bridges and Plant and Structures photographs. Courtesy Municipal Archives, City of New York.
Adam Avila. Photograph of Maren Hassinger with work of art, 1973. Maren Hassinger papers, 1955-2018. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Detail. Junko Mori, Propagation Project: Textured Leaf Wave, 2023. Courtesty of the artist and Adrian Sassoon Gallery.
Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever
struck out generous fire;
secret, and self-contained and solitary as an oyster.
—Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, 1843
Guglielmo and Mola, Gasparo. The 'Medici' Casket. Casket, 1609-1621. Florence, Italy. Chiseled steel, with applied mounts and blued steel plaque. Metalwork Collection M.95 to B-1960. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Postcard. “A Safe Place”. Safe deposit & securities vault of the First National Bank, Lebanon, pa.
Simon Firth working on a bicycle. Photo Jessica Kourkounis. Philadelphia, pa, 2019.
Russian Imperial Arms Factory. Fireplace, ca. 1800-1820. Tula, Russia. Forged, blued and cut steel with facetted steel and gilt brass ornaments. Given by Thomas Harris, Metalwork Collection, M.49-1953. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Imperial Armory, Tula (south of Moscow), Russia. Center table, ca. 1780–85. Steel, silver, gilt copper, gilt brass, basswood; replaced mirror glass. 27 1/2 × 22 × 15 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Purchase, The Annenberg Foundation Gift, 2002. 2002.115.
Satire 5454 Steel Buttons, published by W Humphrey 29 April 1777. © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CCBY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.
The smitten rock that gushes,
The trampled steel that springs:
A cheek is always redder
Just where the hectic stings!
—Emily Dickinson,
“A wounded deer – leaps highest,” ca. 1860
U.S.S. Arizona, East River, New York, New York, 1916.
Perls Galleries. Alexander Calder standing by stabile The 100 yard dash, not before 1969. Dorothy C. Miller papers, 1853-2013. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
P. Grosjean. Bessemer converter in the Longwy steelworks, France. A process designed for the mass production of steel from molten pig iron, removing impurities by oxidation by blowing air through the molten iron, 1930. Chronicle / Alamy.
