This photograph was done in 1946 and is stamped with the photographer's 2982 Clay St., San Francisco studio stamp on the verso, which would date the printing after 1953 when she moved from Carmel to San Francisco.
An illustration of this image is shown on page 106 of Margaretta Mitchell's book "Ruth Bernhard - Between Art & Life", Chronicle Books, 2000, in a photomontage of six images titled "Hands 1937-1946". Bernhard commented "...The hand is creation - reproduction to continue life...It is all as simple as that."