The Wagon Builder

Gustave Baumann

The Wagon Builder was originally published by the artist in 1910 for his portfolio of twelve color woodcuts, In the Hills o’ Brown. This image is also known with the titles The Wagon Shop and The Wagon Maker. Impressions were printed over several years and color variations occurred. Wagon making would have been an essential industry in the rural and isolated Brown County, Indiana at the turn of the twentieth century. The modern world was quickly encroaching upon Brown County and Baumann wrote: When adventurous car owners decided to make Nashville their destination, horseshoe nails and broken wagon gear on the road made extra tires a must. When they did get through it was the event of the day. All work and conversation stopped within a radius of the Courthouse Yard. Horse and wagon lingo had not yet been replaced by automobile terminology. [Then] some bright boy would point over the radiator to tell us “it’s a Marmon” and describe it in Brown County vernacular.