"An Iron Automaton": Sewing Machines, Ready-made Clothes and Labor Experiences in the City of Buenos Aires in the Second half of the 19th Century

Abstract

Objective/context: This article explores different dimensions of the incorporation of sewing machines into the world of garment production in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. First, it situates their appearance within the framework of a set of novelties that marked urban life at that time. Secondly, it shows the modifications in the work experiences of men and women who were engaged in garment sewing jobs. Thirdly, it observes the initiative carried out by the Sociedad de Beneficencia, a state welfare institution led by women of the Buenos Aires elite, in the purchase and delivery of sewing machines to working women in the city at the end of the 1860s. Methodology: Applying the tools of social history from a gender perspective, an extensive corpus of documents is analyzed: comercial ads and yearbooks, statistical records, files from the documentary collection of the Sociedad de Beneficencia and population censuses. Originality: In addition to presenting the first historical reconstruction of the introduction of the sewing machine in the country, this article is a contribution to reflecting on how gender hierarchies influenced the division of labor in the industrialization of clothing manufacturing and the way in which technology reinforced this differential distribution of tasks in the city of Buenos Aires. In turn, inquiring into this process illuminates the peculiarities of the local experience; in particular, the innovative modalities of acquiring sewing machines on credit in the late 1860s and early 1870s. Conclusions: The presence of the sewing machine inaugurated new skills, remunerations, and labor arrangements. Following the journeys of some of the seamstresses who acquired them illuminates experiences of life, work and family in Buenos Aires during the second half of the nineteenth century.